Thoughts on Independence Day

Its February already!!! And to top it off its (In)dependence Day!

Just some random thoughts that were speeding past my brain, chasing each other's tails all day. I shall try to put some order in this chaos that's in my mind. Writing, or blogging usually helps.

Do pharmacists follow a special course in understanding doctors' handwriting prior to becoming pharmacists? Are they given a special test of ancient Greek letters, caveman scrawlings or toddler scribbles prior to being accepted as a pharmacist? I was trying so hard to understand a prescription that a doctor wrote for me, screwing up my face, frowning at the paper, wiping sweat off my brow and etc, when the pharmacist took it from me and assembled everything without batting an eyelid. I have immense respect for these buggers. They are bloody geniuses!

People in this country should be taught how to cross the road. When the lights turn red for vehicles is when they should cross, not when they turn green for vehicles. When these people casually stroll across the road, hand in hand, munching on kadala/murukku and God knows what not, JUST when the lights turn green for you after waiting SO long at the traffic lights, blissfully unaware of the bulshit of the police that one has to endure, three whellers, mosquitoe-like bikes and the sheer NUMBER of traffic lights that one has to pass when you are hurrying to a certain destination,  makes you want to tear your hair out and bash your own head on the windshield repeatedly while howling like a deranged baboon. Driving aint a cake walk in this country and the people walking about the place make it even more difficult. So annoying.

I think we would be in a completely different place if we were still under colonial rule. I think we all need one person, a single entity, a common enemy to hate and when we've got that, the rest of the country just flock together like a bunch of sweet smelling daisies. Without a common entity to hate, we just turn on one another. I guess people just need something/someone to turn all their anger & frustration towards. I guess hate brings people together. As twisted as it sounds, it totally works.

People are so selfish these days, conniving and cruel that going out of the house is like, in my head, loading my gun and stepping out into a zombie apocalypse. To top it off, people have grown so shallow! Having a descent, meaningful conversation with a fellow human being has become such a rarity that I find myself clinging to such people for dear life! Whether I've become more impatient and judgemental, or people have grown stupid I dunno. 

So I put on my armour of indifference, arm myself with sarcasm, diplomacy(which I'm short of) and plenty of caution and walk on tiptoe as if walking on egg shells. But most of the time, I just don't give a bat's stinking ass. People may think me proud, haughty, arrogant and all the other words in that syntax but hey, works for me.

Maybe life is too fast paced that people have no time for anyone else other than themselves. Maybe times have become so hard that they just skip the surface of life and never bother trying to look beneath the surface. I hope they know that a smile, a kind word, a gentle gesture does indeed go a long, long way. I hope that they are aware that intelligence and thoughtfulness are still very much valued.

Went out to get a shampoo but could not find one since all the shops were closed today. I lost my independence of bathing because of the Independece Day. I was dependent. On the shops, rather the commercial entities of the country. Hmm....interesting. Rather, ironic.

There should be a system where monk behaviour is monitored and certain standards are maintained in order for one to be called a "monk". Situation is such that any crook can put on a robe, get into politics, harass citizens, become the village thugs and etc. Such a noble philosophy as Buddhism cannot be allowed to deteriorate like this because of these morons! I wish somebody would look into these things before things get out of hand.

Still on the look out for that one extremely prodigeous horror movie. However, watched a Korean thriller today and I should say that Koreans sure do know their gore. Respect brothas!

Black is an addictive colour. I love black. Its so comforting. 

I miss dancing, I miss travelling I miss life, that throbbing vivacious thing that I used to call as life that is. Think I'm begining to get a little too comfortable but I'm not the settling type, oh no!  

I'm sleepy. All this structuring of thoughts I am not very used to, hence the tiredness. I should probably catch a wink before dinner. Tata!

Good bye 2013. Well Hellooooo 2014 ;)

2013 is almost at an end. Fire crackers are going off on all directions startling Frankie boy witless. There is festivity in the air nevertheles, Mother Dearest is all set with the little clay pot of milk to be boiled at midnight today. Tradition.

Took the day off today, spent half the day on the balcony and half the day in Mother Dearest's beautiful garden reading, Frankie boy nuzzling by my side. Felt good. Felt peaceful. There is no other way that I would have liked to spend the last day of 2013.   

Looking back, it was a good year. It was a neutral year, it was a bad year, all in all, a balanced year. An year of awakenings, disappointments, accomplishments. An year of new beginings, hope and new revelations. And here's to hoping that those beginings would bear copious fruit and other  new beginings would form in the coming year.

But who's to say that you need a new year for new beginings?

2014 dawns just like another year. The only thing that is of significance to me about it is that my leave cycle gets reset and I shall have more leave to take! :P  

2013 has also been an year of letting go. That is letting go in a positive sense, being carefree, letting go of worries and burdens that no longer serve me. I am determined to leave my baggage in 2013 and step onto 2014 as a light traveller.

Here's to travelling light, taking each day as it comes and standing up to new challenges. Here's to expanding horizons and grabbing a bit of knowledge whereever and whenever possible. Here's to being the best that I can be, for myself and for others.

Here's to a simple and grounded life. Here's to a life that will serve a purpose to the world and people living in it.

Here's to 2014. Whether it is just hanging up a new calendar on the wall or welcoming the New Year with fireworks, wild partying and getting wasted till dawn, it is still 2014.

Note to self - Get used to the digits. Else I'l be marking the date as 2013 till mid next year. Its funny isn't it? When finally you get used to the digits, its already the next year!

Happy New Year you beautiful people. May it be the best year of your lives yet! :)   

December

The sun is extra golden and the winds are crisp, cool and colourful. Is it Christmas or is it just December doing its thing?

What feels absolutely right at the moment is whipping up one of my weird combo cakes, pushing it into the oven & cuddling up on a couch to watch A Christmas Carol while it bakes, letting the smell of happiness and festivity waft right through the house. Such a beautiful feeling.

What I've realized of late is that I often associate happiness with food. Maybe its because a steaming stove and brightly lit windows of a house, for me, is the sign of a warm and happy, homely homestead. Or maybe, food just makes me happy. Oh I dunno. 

Tomorrow being a holday (yeey!) there is no feeling of lingering doom and gloom that is usually related to Sunday mornings. The plan for today is simple; eat, drink and chillax. Oh and do some grocery shopping. Just in case I'm hit with a bout of baking.

I'm writing at a rate. Certain things have become clearer to me since of late. Its frightening and refreshing when these things hit you, like the unexpected December rain. I suppose you go through life in a daze and suddenly, lo and behold, one beautiful sunny day you wake up. And you are startled by the reality that stares at your face. And you are not satisfied until you've done something about it.

Speaking of rain, the sky has suddenly clouded up. I suppose it'l rain soon. Bummer.

Does life consist of anything else rather than just fighting for survival? All that I hear these days is people running around looking for jobs that bring in the most amount of cash. What about an occupation that makes you happy? Does happiness count ANYWHERE in this weird equation that people have made out to be their life?

Maybe I have way too many ideals than are good for me. 

I have a dream. I don't know if its possible and most probably, its way too far fetched, but I'm glad I have a dream. And there's this certain restlessness associated with it. If this is madness, I'm glad that I'm mad. Its good to be able to wake up sometime, rather than being asleep your entire life.

And now that I'm awake, its time to get busy. With life.

Resolutions

New resolution. I will try to get at least 7 1/2hrs sleep every day.

Not that I have any trouble falling asleep, oh no. In fact quite the contrary. I can sweetly sleep standing, anytime, anywhere. Its just that bed times are a wee bit sketchy for me and me being the night creature that I am, fond of the night as bats are of ripe jackfruit, end up not getting much of sleep.

And yes, its reflecting on me methinks. I am having occasional memory lapses. Maybe its my selective memory (yes, I'm blessed with the ability to completely delete unnecessary memories) but Darling thinks that I should get more sleep. Hence the resolution.

Besides, it'l be good for me, who knows. Maybe I'l be less eratic & random. Well, there's always wishful thinking.

Been thinking quite a lot lately.

I would like to take an entire week off and just read. Just get lost within words, relax, put my feet up and just be so blissfully lost. No obligations, no commitments, no duties nor responsibilities. I'd just like to, be.

To read, to write, to cook & bake, spend time with the loved ones, listen to good music. Life is wasted on zilch these days. And life is just too precious to be wasted on nothing.

There's just so much of things that I want to do and I'm worried that I may not have enough time to do all that. Then I figured, I could just be a vampire. I'l have all the time in the world!

I'l bite all the people I love and turn them into vampires too. Then we will live happily everafter.

Oh and I also decided to take my baking to the next level. Figured as baking is something that I'l always love doing, why not put the stuff that I bake out there and get some feedback. What's more, if I happen to make any cash out of it at all, I can invest all of that in ingredients (ingredients are bloody expensive these days and was the major driving force for this project) and experiment more. MORE quality time burning my fingers! Having grown up with a health freak mother, I too hav grown used to a certain way of eating - No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, just go natural and healthy. I guess with the amount of toxins in the environment these days, the best we can do is not consciously consume toxins, eh?

Time to get off my butt and do something worthwhile. It's now or never.

Grumble, grumble..........grumble

So what exactly is bothering me these days?

I've got a pain in my neck, quite literally. I have no idea what happened but it hurts so horribly that I find it hard to walk sometimes. So no sudden movements for me these days.

CHOGM. Traffic. Its well past 7.30 when I get home these days and well past 8 when I get to work each day.

George R.R Martin hasn't still finished the 6th book of A Song of Ice and Fire. 

Alright, I'l confess to my incurable addiction to the Game of Thrones series. I'm so unashamedly obsessed! So much so, that after finishing a Dance with Dragons, I actually miss the characters quite badly. When I read something else, (I started on a Neil Gaieman book immediately afterwards), it feels quite empty. I think I'm having a book hangover. Or that period of utter devastation, doom and gloom after a book breakup. If ever there was such a thing.

The obsession started way before anyone had ever heard of Game of Thrones when the first book was only just out. I happened to stumble on it through a friend, (way back around 2000), was quite carried away with it and went about upturning bookshops for other books of the series like a woman deranged but to no avail. After a while the craze died down and then came the TV series after which it got too mainstream and I lost interest altogether. It was at the Colombo bookfair this time that I saw all 5 books together that I thought to myself, hmmm....might as well try reading it this time since it all there. And then, I was hooked with no escape, no way of turning back. And now, I can't believe that I'm waiting for the author to finish his next book!

Haiyo :( 

I also want to start on food again. Cooking and baking being an ardent passion, I want to spend more time on it, trying out, creating and experimenting. Cooking always makes me feel like a mad scientist going berserk in his crazy lab. Its a good feeling :)

In the meantime, I started a food blog. Here's the link.
http://foodsterous.blogspot.com/

Also, the Darling wants to do a short film. Well, two actually and we are short of one actress. So finding one is on the cards as well. 

Anyways, right now I want

1. My neck to stop hurting.
2. George R.R to finish his book.
3. My neck to stop hurting.
4. Traffic to cease existing.
5. An actress for one of our shorts.
6. CHOGM week to be declared public holidays.
7. My neck to stop hurting.
8. Jerome de Silva to do Phantom of the Opera here (Omg! *swoon*)
9. To start something based on cooking.
10. My neck to stop hurting.

Yeah well, its not fun when the simple task of angling your head a few degrees makes you cringe with dread. 

Anyways, I'm off to bed. Hoping against hope that my neck would be alright tomorrow. I'd like to turn my head without looking like a joint-locked robot low on battery life thank you! So annoying :/

Aiyoo CHOGM!

Hours and hours and HOURS stuck in traffic with dust, grime & pollution flying at your face after a hard day at work. Not fun.

Hours and hours and HOURS in the sweltering heat. We have no air conditioned pajeros nor defenders full of white clad bodyguards to shoo other vehicles out of the way so that we can get home quickly.

The government is on a rather violent mission of beautifying Colombo which at the moment consists of ripping up and tearing down pretty much everything in sight. Roads dug up, pavements drilled open, Colombo beautified and us, mystified. We might just be the miracle of Asia after all, for being a city that was built over the period of mere two months.

Oh well, once in a while they have to show the world where all the tax money, loans taken & donations received are going I guess.  

The point being all the drilling, tearing and ripping has made life uncomfortable for all of us, making the already congested traffic of the city even more unbearable. Just the other day, we were stuck in one spot for 40mins without the vehicles moving one inch and it has been the case for the past two weeks or so. I wouldn't want to be dying during this period of time. By the time the ambulence reaches the hospital, my corpse would be crawling with maggots!

What's more, any sort of protests, rallies and the likes are banned in the country during this period as well. Ah well..... 

The Katunayake Expressway would soon be open though. However, the end of the expressway being extremely narrow, traffic from all sides will be flocking at one spot making it near impossible to move. This is the case even now without the expressway being open, the entrance to Colombo from Peliyagoda on to the bridge which used to be somewhat wide is narrowed down to make way for the expressway. Going to work in the morning is a nightmare as it is. Just thinking about how it will be when the expressway opens makes me shudder with fear.

Talk is that the whole of Colombo will be in a sort of a lock down during the entirety of the event. The place will be crawling with delegates and their entourage, not to mention the batallions of security guards on tow. There is even talk of the delegates' own Rolls Royces being brought down. Now Sri Lanka is a small place and Colombo is even smaller with everything congested in a tiny space. Hell, I'm not sure if the Colombo streets are wide enough for a Rolls Royce to reverse!

Now wouldn't it be fun if we gave the delegates their very own official tuk tuk to ride around? The best way to explore Colombo is by tuk, everybody knows that. So why not give the delegates an authentic Sri Lankan experience? We could vamp em up with deco of course. We could stick the national flag of each delegate's country at the front of the Tuk. And Prince Charle's tuk tuk could have a fluffy crown on top of that with frilly fur lined curtains and all that. Fun!

All jokes aside, getting around Colombo during that period is not going to be fun. Lots of roads are going to be closed and almost all of Colombo's leading hotels and their environs are going to be quarantined, making me wonder how in the world are us common folk going to get to work. Whatever roads that are left will be congested with traffic and Colombo will be groaning like a man with constipation in the loo in the morning. Its going to be as painful as well. Colombo is a small place and makes me wonder, do we really have room to occupy all this?

Meanwhile the authorities are doing their best to distract the people from their painful lives, made even painful by the absurd measures taken to "beautify" Colombo by painting these rather glittery and grandiose pictures of CHOGM through media. Well, some people may be appeased and even excited but I sure as hell don't give a flea's tiny behind about CHOGM when I'm stuck in traffic for a good 3 and 1/2 hours, sweating like a grissly bear in a sauna, falling asleep and waking up every 5 mins in fits and starters only to find my legs badly cramped and whole body numb in the stuffy old staff vehicle.

And it'l only get worse from there. I sure hope that the authorities will do something about this since getting to work during that particular week is going to be practically impossible what with the roads being closed, certain areas completely closed off, security, traffic and etc. The only possible solution to me seems like a week of holidays for people who work in the Colombo area. People have already gone through a lot. I don't think anyone would appreciate spending further time on the road and getting harassed by security personnel on top of all this "beautifying" inconvenience.

Anyways, the Lady is rather disgruntled. Tired and fed up of the traffic, the dust, the grime and the traffic. Hopefully they will find a solution soon. 

No country for locals

The long weekend is coming up and there we were running around looking for a good place to wile away our time. But what d'ya know, it does seem like most hotels in Sri Lanka are not available to locals!

A certain "villa" in the Bentota area being one and several properties in Galle area, most being within the fort and named after words in the same lexicon as "fort" being the culprits of this gross discrimination. Speechless is the sentiment and comment-unworthy being the word of the day. These hotels are not even worth the mention.  

And when did the official currency of Sri Lanka become US Dollars? Every hotel that was inquired after would give their rates in US Dollars. Even when you've convinced them that you are a local and that you would like the local rates please, thank you. Rupees seem the forbidden word. It is a word that one is ashamed of even to speak!

Anyways, what is it with white skin and Sri Lankans? Walk into a restaurant and you would see everyone from the waiters to the management bending over backwards to serenade the white skins with their pitiable smiles and pathetically entreating words. Its almost painful to watch sometimes, the local staff embarassing themselves thus. The locals are attended to last, after all the foreigners had been preened and pampered. Some even dare to give airs and intimidating looks if a local dares ask a question or makes a comment while feigning utter indifference. I don't think anyone would notice if a local choked on his food and died in such a place!

I've never quite grasped the concept of "no locals please" in hotels and restaurants. True, certain locals do have very disgusting and destructive habits but so do a good part of foreigners. Certain foreigners have been known to make roti on their irons, boil vegetables in their electric kettles, burn room carpets doing one bizarre thing or the other and even cook chicken curries to eat with bread in their rooms for Gods sake! And somebody was saying that locals were bad? Please enlighten me if anyone has any idea why this should be so.

There is no place for Sri Lankans abroad and now, there is no place for Sri Lankans in their own country. While foreigners are entitled to our land, our beaches, our shores and our forests, us tax paying citizens must content ourselves stuck at home on our hard earned holidays. The best part is, it is the locals themselves who thus discriminate their own kind. Born and raised on this land, having become who they are, having earned what they have earned from its people, whoring away to the foreign while shunning their own kind is just beyond low. Disgusting really.

Well, Hitler himself was a Jew they say.

If anyone wants to be a true patriot and speak up against such hypocritical local businessmen, this is the time and the opportunity. I'd like to see the Facebook patriots of the country speaking up against this kind of discrimination and unfairness rather than going around posting valiant, tear-wrenchingly patriotic statements on social media, smashing No Limits, banning halal and hurling rotten eggs at whoever frequents shops that belong to individuals of certain ethnicities.

Meantime, if I ever happen to raise any children in this country, I plan to bleach their skins white and dye their hair blonde, just to get the waiters to notice them at restaurants and be allowed access to a nice local resort for their holidays. After all, a mother would want her children to be recognized and to be treated with respect.