A Beautiful Mind

Couple of our mates went for an assignment at a company near Central bank. There was a girl who joined recently to our group. She was a Tamil & her origination was at Jafna. We’ll call her Kalpana, though it was not her real name. In the outbreak of the war, she came to a refugee camp. Then moved from one camp to another & them managed to come to Colombo with the help of some rich relatives in Colombo. During some snacks, we were singing & enjoying our selves. Then it was Kalpana’s tern to sing a song. Obviously she sang a Tamil song. It was a beautiful song. We have heard many Tamil songs, but not this one. So we asked her from which film she picked that song & who sings it? Then she told us it’s the National anthem of the LTTE. We felt sad that she sang an anthem belongs to a killer organization. But since we didn’t want to hurt her, we remained silent. She complained that army guys out side checked her ID. I told her, they checked my ID too. It was the road next to Central bank & presidents’ house. So it’s obvious they check. But she hated when they check. It was just a matter of showing the ID. I did it with pleasure. But her attitude her ego was different. It was a shame to her. That’s how LTTE has taught her. I tried to explain it’s not discrimination. They her the same way they checked me. But it’s difficult to change what’s in their head. It’s how they were taught from childhood. Have to die for Tamil Elam.

The next day morning we completely forgot the national anthem part & it was normal day today work. While we were working, I got a phone call from a friend of mine. It was for the arms giving for her father who died from the Central bank bomb. I was telling my friends how sad that innocent people die from the bomb attacks. Then suddenly Kalpana speaks up. She said

“No we should kill Sinhalese. Then only the government will feel the pressure”

I couldn’t believe she said that. All of us were Sinhalese. We worked together. We played together. We eat together. Studied together & lived together basically. How come a person is so rude like that? We were really frustrated. But still we didn’t say anything. Because we knew it’s not her fault. Its how they have made her up. She was from a LTTE controlled area & they were brain washed. They were not building up in an open environment like we do. Her imagination is very little & she was always in her little frame. She was not a bad person. She was very good with us. She helped people a lot. I think with the time we managed to change her attitude & anger towards Sinhalese. But we could never be sure of that. They didn’t have a childhood. What more can you expect from them?

But that doesn’t mean that every Tamil is like that. There were very nice people. The good families bought them up under good conditions. I had so many friends like this. But there was a difference. They were not suffered with LTTE. They were not from war areas. They lived happily & peacefully at the other government controlled areas. Some of these people have so good qualities, which I never ever saw with other nationals.

Same as this problem is vice versa. There are many Sinhalese people with lot of bad qualities. They are not affected by war. But they had to live with lot of difficulties. It is not about belonging to a particular nation. It is about how people brought up. What was their environment? What was their family background? & Education also affected little bit.

Some time back I worked for an audit firm. We had to go to a NGO. This belongs to the key NGO activitist in SL (Sinhalese). Auditors get access to all the documents & basically they can sense the atmosphere when they work with a client. Since I have to respect my professional ethics I cannot disclose most of the things we revealed there. But every time when he & his team comes & sell the “Peace” in television I feel so sad for the people who believe in their nasty peace. I saw how they got money & how they spend money. I am not surprised. When a person gets such a large piece of chunk, you have to be more than human to say NO. It’s not about being a Tamil or sinhala. It’s about personalities. There would be favorable affects. There would be more weighting to some sides by some nationalities. But in my opinion, it’s all about how people think. How their mind set up are.

For a fact Tamils set up all the bombs in the metropolitan areas with the help of sinhaleese. That’s the tragic truth of it. That’s why building a person’s mind is very important after all. Even though people think its non of their business to change the way people think, there would be a day it will be their business.

There were many Tamils in Sri Lanka who tried to do this. Lakshman Kadiragamar is one example. But LTTE killed all of them starting from the Mayor of Jafna Dore Appa. Let this be a tribute to those who really tried for real Pease, unlike the NGO agents who support terrorists in the name of Pease. Let this be a tribute to real Heros of the process of brining peace to my motherland.

Kalu suddo (Traitors of a kind)

These days we always hear the classic blunder of the UK Channel 4’s Big brother celebrity show. They showed the colors of the western majority whites. It shows how the beautiful & intelligent Shilpa Shetty is insulted brutally by 3 UK women. Jade Godwoody who has an awful ugly look, who has always being nasty, got kicked out of the show already. (I know it’s not polite & nice to say somebody is ugly. But we must mention it to say how pathetic & how sad her situation here is). Daniel & Jo who can’t even come closer to Shilpa even in their dreams are still there displaying how poor they are with qualities. It’s not unfair to say these 3 idiotic, uneducated & big headed women portray how racist the British’s are. I have some friends there who are very nice & down to earth, but I have met many whites who talk nicely & let down to the back. When I watch all these, what came to my mind was something else. I do not care what the British’s do. Shilpa is anyway sacred in India & we don’t have to worry about what British’s do in their way. My problem is about the Sri Lankans who worship Brits. Some of the Sri Lankans who are still in the colonial mindset still worship UK & all its rubbish.

When I was working at office, suddenly I heard couples of girls have got really mad & upset. They were laughing at someone. So I also went there thinking it was some gossip. As a journalist, I normally keep an eye on what’s happening around. Then they explained the problem to me. Their complain was simple. They wanted to change the music of that office. As a trend they played English music 4 days & Sinhala music 1 day. These girls hated Sinhala music. (Please don’t misunderstand. They are neither Tamils nor Burgers). They were Singhalese. On this single day of the week they played not “choka baila”, but really good music. It was a good mixture of songs with Classics of Amaradewa maestro, Nanda Malini & same as good songs of new comers. They screamed saying when they hear Sinhala songs they can’t do work, they feel sleepy. I thought may be they listen to Rock music or very fast music. But it wasn’t. If it’s English, they listen to any kind of song. It’s only the language matters, not the music. I don’t have words to explain how I felt. I felt very sad. I felt they were disgusting. Not only music, they hate everything about Sri Lanka. What ever bad thing happens, they usually say “Sri Lankans” na? They must have forgotten they also are Sri Lankans. They lived here, they eat its food, they studied from its free education, and they obtained all the benefits from the land & its innocent nice people. But then they worship English. They hate Sirasa super star. They know nothing about it. Though they have never listened to it, they believe all super star singers can’t sing. They think Amaradewa maestro can’t sing. So no need to talk about Super Star. But they know in & out about American idol. They are madly in love with Mega star singers such as John Denver. I have nothing against him or the Mega star. But my point is Amila & Shihan & them also have the same or rather more capabilities. These people know nothing about Sri Lanka. But know all other gossip around the world. Once in a discussion when someone says Anton Balasingham, one fellow asked whether it’s somebody came to the super star. I know it’s unbelievable. But please don’t think they are frogs in the well. They know everything happens outside from Sri Lanka. They know about Sadam, George Bush & how much money Shakira earns per day & how many shoe pairs Britney has.

I have no much sadness towards these people also. They are never Sri Lankans. They will never be respected within the majority of real Sri Lankans who love the country. Same as they will never ever be respected within the western cultures they worship. They belong no where. But my real worry is something else. These people talk in English. Due to only this simple factor they dominate in everywhere they go in Sri Lanka. Some of the innocent girls & boys who come to work with them think it’s the correct way to the success. They think if they need to be recognized internationally they need to do all these nonsense. They never think why Channa & Upuli dance troop always travel around world. I don’t think any of the Sri Lankan western dance troops has such a demand around the world. Why Bathiya & Santhush always use Sri Lankan rural backgrounds to their clips? Why paddy fields? Because if they need to promote anything out side Sri Lanka, it has to be with a Sri Lankan scent. There need to be a Sri Lankan ideology. When we listen to African fold music we know it’s African. The innocent ordinary lads who join with them rarely understand this. They are not strong enough to stand by them. They do not have strong backbones to have their own policies. So they just follow the popular crowd. They do all wired things they do to be westernize. They go (night) clubbing. Most of their innocent parents wait until they come home. But they say some lie & goes. They get addicted to drinks & sexual life. Their life is gone. Then they become part of that society forever. Never escape. These wicked crowd encourage lot of unethical behavior. They make it a fashion. I feel very sorry for the people who follow. But can we do anything? Can we?

Curse of unfaith

I just read an article on the newspaper on the investigations of what could be the worst spy scandal ever in Sri Lanka. He was an army officer holding the rank of Major. The man I shall be troubled with reminds me of many of his class whom I have met.

When we were small we had a teacher who sold the application forms to a “School”. But these forms were produces free of charge from office. But when a parent goes to office, he said “Forms are finished”. Then it was an underhand deal. I saw how he obtained money. This was my first experience as a kid about the Bribe, which later I met the kings of it.

When I was schooling I had many friends who were very rich & posh. Some times I tend to think their parents are doing the same job which my parents are doing. How come they have so much of money than we do? Their income never matches with their life styles. They spent lavishly with their credit cards. They took us to expensive restaurants & paid for all of us. Obviously they were very popular as very nice friends & everybody loved them. I was provided everything from home, so my parents didn’t see any reason why I need money. It was about self respect. If you don’t have money you won’t be anyone compared to them. No one will like you. I was mad at my parents thinking why they can’t afford to spend like that. When I told my father I have a problem about respect, he said its them who have the problem about respect. Not me.

But that time, I was not matured enough to understand what he said. I my self saw how they earned respect with money. They gave teachers sarees & expensive gifts. Teachers rewarded them back. At my school, just like many schools the procedures to take students to sports teams were not known by most of the ordinary students. It was simple. Rich parents go & make the teacher in charge happy. Then they take their kids in. Simple. But when we were in school we tried our best to change this strategy. We went to all the classes , explain students what the sport is & we took a list of names of everyone who like to join & we established a procedure to select players based on performance after having matches. You won’t believe how difficult it was & what these teachers told us. It was dangerous to challenge a safe kingdom. & May be it’s a sin to reveal too much of the plot.

When we were grown up I realize how they have more money. Their parents were Principles, Doctors, Police officers, army officers, government officers etc. They were never respected by anyone. But still they had luxurious lives. They went to foreign countries, got good education. Got the best of life. Does respect counts after a person is fulfilled with all its needs? Question is what really “Respect” means?

One day I met one of the “Bribery kings” of Sri Lanka. He was only second to politicians. He was a key man who had access to most of the peoples’ funds. He has stolen money in an exceedingly clever way. He was a lawyer by profession. He used his knowledge to go through the holes of the agreements & earned billions of money. I don’t think he will ever be challenged in front of a court. You can’t challenge smart people. Everyone in his office knows in & out of him. He helps both the political parties, temples & churches. Who the hell would want to given up on him? Who? He was introduced to me by one his office mates saying “You know this is that famous person who has his name in the papers for corruption”. I was shocked & I thought my friend was very indecent to tell that. By our Thief was not surprised. May be he used to listen to those. He smiled pleasantly & asked me “How do you do”?

Does it really mean anything?

Another day one of my friends faced an incident while he was driving in the 138 bus route. Cops stopped him quoting their favorite road rule. “Line crossed”. My friend was about to charge a fine. But the cop had a better deal for both parties. He said

“I won’t charge you the fine. But you will have to reload my mobile phone with half of the fine”. Fair deal. My friend agreed. But since it was not his regular routine & he will not meet that cop again, he never bothered to reload his phone. But many people have paid the cops on the spot. One day when one of our friends returning home after shopping a cop has asked for a bribe. She had no money to give. Then our police guy has asked her “If you have money for shopping, how come you don’t have money to give me”. That’s the state. There are lots of cop stories with the City police who look after traffic.

They are also the part of the whole system. They did not have the spirit to stand against the general practice. Or there was no need to go against it. It why should they say no for a much better life? Why? If they ask me why they should not take Bribe, other than ethics, do I have an answer? How would you prove them it will build the chain of corrupters in longer term? & their own kids they them selves will be victims of that system? Will people suffer for the benefit of the others? Will people want to live with only their salary in a country where everything is measured in monetary terms? These are what my corrupted friends asked from me for real.

I have being closely with many of the politicians. They are the worst ever. So I won’t write about them. Because …….. NO POINT! You’ll know what they do.

I mostly realize the other side of it when I travel around the country with my father. After he retired also when I met people on the way has worked with him, even now telling me “He was an excellent man who never took bribe. He was deeply respected by people around. Then I realize what respect is. & I was ashamed of my self about thinking other way around. People used to laugh at the men who took bribe when they are not around. Even when they earned something by hard working, people used to tell it’s by money. But you got to be very strong to beat the trend. To be happy about being honest. When turn back & see iam very proud of my self & my family. One day when I go to Municipal council to get some job done, a person requested some money. I said “I have never taken bribe from anybody. My family has never done such crimes. So why would I give bribe when I need to get something done when I have a legal right to get the service”? He never did my work. I never gave him money. I don’t care. But if it something I really need what choice is left for me? Please tell me.

Chain of dark continues. Same way chain of light also follows. This is only about part of the bad people in this country. Among them, there are of course very good people are there. I have met many of them. Many. In every field. Police, army, Government, Private sector, Schools everywhere there are good people as well. There are people who loved their country & who are examples. They may be poor. They may not posh. They may not be able to help neighbors with money. They may not be able to give regular parties to friends & relatives. They may not be able to see in night clubs or casinos or Grand stands. But for all of you, let me salute. You are the real heroes of this world. You make the world beautiful. Thanks!!