Grumble, Grumble.............

Its just abominable how incredibly lazy I've become, but I suppose the laziness is just a part of my reluctance to pick up the wad of notes and attempt to beat in some international law and comparative political systems into this kicking and screaming brain of mine. And its amazing how so very important the frivolous task of cleaning out your bureau drawers (they've survived throughout the years with all the crap inside them just fine) or how very inspired you become to write that never ending novel of yours, all very much out of the blue of course.

The fact of the matter is that I am not a quitter. I feel guilty quitting, no matter how hard it is and no matter how impossible something may seem, I still keep at it, even if it is excruciatingly painful and even though I grumble all the way. That in fact, is my vice. As a result, I am studying away, cursing the very inventors of this wretched subject, cursing the institution  and in fact, cursing every Tom, Dick and Siripala responsible for this immaculate mess that I am in and still sitting down and trying to knock in some extraterrestrial knowledge into this brain of mine which seemed to have shrunk radically during the utter waste-of-time excursions of the past 4-5 months. I haven't been to a SINGLE class for the past 5 months (as a result of the said good-for-nothing occupation) and now I am expected to sit for an exam with the help of a few scribbled notes photocopied from a friend! The past 4-5 months had passed in a daze, a sort of a daydream and here I am suddenly startled with the knowledge that I have to face an exam on things that I am completely alien to. How could it POSSIBLY any more perfect!

However, the past two weeks had been God's gift to me. I read voraciously,  I wrote, rather typed like a woman possessed, I cooked and baked and reveled in the delicious baking aromas that send golden beams of homeliness radiating through a house and felt the soft gooey textures of dough as I mixed, folded and kneaded various breads which were things that I have never had had time to do (and missed doing) in a very long time. My doggies were overjoyed to pounce on me, bite and lick me all over while yelping happily as they used to and my dear, dear parents, The Darling, well, the time spent with them is definitely priced above everything else. Life is indeed beautiful if you did not have exams breathing down your neck.

Two students involved in FUTA died in a motorbike accident. Some say they were killed and there seems to be enough evidence to support that while the son of a certain minister has been declared to be qualified to hold the post of the Minister of Education post once he comes back from a one month (one week?) course in the USA. That is actually very true because any flea brained, uneducated moron is qualified to become the Education Minister of our country at the rate of which it is going. I feel lucky to have gotten out of the uni when I did. We seem to be the last batch ever to get out of a local uni, unperturbed. I am completely, utterly and blissfully politically ignorant but even those of us like me to whom this filthy game of politics is as elusive as that ephemeral rainbow at the other end of the world, the atrocities that go on in the country has become all too evident.

Thinking back on the death of the two students, its heartbreaking. Being a battered victim of that repulsive joke they call as university politics myself, we are well aware how certain political parties take advantage of the naivete of the students, specially those of who come from rural areas. They influence these poor students to rebel, picket and to harass innocent students in that abominable practice referred to as the rag who will in turn brainwash the coming generations the same way that they have been treated. Not that university administration is in anyway helpful. Over the years, we came to realize that walled up within those air conditioned offices of the university were the hell's very best in flesh, screeching banshees who will willingly tear out your intestines and bloodthirsty demons who will rip out your throat if a poor meek student dare ask a question. Its a vicious circle nevertheless. However, those who don't convert to the ridiculous system carried out within the majority student circle (which usually consists of terrifying newcomers to death, picking fights with other student groups, etc) will be harassed for the rest of their miserable university lives and be forced to live amongst various insults and torture,  burning a pint or two of blood daily, exchanging burning words and twisting frowns with the fooled and delusional on a daily basis. Young minds are infinitely malleable and these filthy rotten scoundrels of politics know it very well. While these innocent creatures trapped within a colourful illusion lead in the front trenches of a bloody battle, taking every single blow, ruining their future and their education, the real leaders of this chaos seated amongst plush cushions behind the scenes in comfortable rooms, claim for themselves prestigious positions and other mercenary benefits. All the students will get are sleepless nights, bruises and wounds, fatal cuts, complete and utter ruin of their education on which their parents had spent the money they never had, sorrow to their loved ones and in this case, even death.

While all this is true and right, a human life is worth much much more than all the riches that a politician can horde in his entire life time. So if anyone really is responsible for these deaths, they deserve an extremely slow, prolonged maggot infested death with their eyes searing in a cauldron of hot oil. The country is rapidly going to the dogs with its authorities sucking out its very bone marrow like soulless parasites. Its citizens are now showing their true evil and selfish inherent nature me thinks, induced by the extreme conditions that they are put through each day in their lives. Sri Lanka is a beautiful country which does not deserve this abuse. It is a land with whole shiploads of potential which once upon a time was chockful of helpful, genuine people, a species that seem to be extinct these days. Smiles are rare in this country now while frowns and painful grimaces are in plenty, muddying the streets and sullying the souls of those who pass by. And thus the tragedy ensues .......