Some old great friendships must end

People change. I have changed. My old friends have changed. The relationship (friendship that is) after been mothballed for a while seem to have lost its colour. The silence has grown quite a lot, and the attitudinal change and mutual respect seems to have withered quite a lot. Its just life and how things are. So the relationship moves from an old – very strong one – to a rather weak one, only perhaps to be reactivated if someone is in deep shit and shouts for help.

Dialog Reduces Tariffs?

Checked the Dialog website and it says about giving a discount for calls with a longer duration.

I sincerely hope LKR 477 is only a one time charge. Its a pleasure to see them quote the LKR 477 all inclusive, wish they did the same for the call charges too!

The beauty of competition. Communication tariffs seem to be the only commodity under the influence of gravity in Sri Lanka – everything else just keeps on going up.

By the way, should this price reduction have an impact on the share price?

Ambivalent about this weekend

I want the weekend just to relax after a rather tiring (and interesting) week at work, a weeding, dinners and a bachelors party (which had only alcohol and food).

Sad because one of my closest friends have already left the city, and the other will leave the country within a few weeks. Time, fortunately or unfortunately waits for no one. So it goes both ways. We will all meet again “soon” after about 1-1.5 years. So far, neither of us have any plans to migrate…

Its really funny how the three of us (and my other close friend who will leave in about one year) met. It was all a coincidence. If samsara is true, I am pretty sure we would have been one big clique of robbers / Generals in our previous lives. Non of us are childhood friends – we met well in to our late teens, early twenties, and got quite attached to each other during a short period.

Crash – movie

Watched Crash the other day. It was a pretty good movie – didn’t know where it was going as there were a lot of plots built in to one movie. And the twists and turns were… well, engaging.

There was one scene, which got me thinking quite a bit: perhaps because there is at least a small possibility that I might unfortunately face a similar situation. In that scene, a police officer molests a women in front of her husband.

You can watch that particular scene by clicking here. That particular incident tears the couple apart…

I don’t know about you, but if I were with a female friend, and a group of guys come and does something like that, there won’t me much I can do. And that bloody scares me…I would be helpless to a large extent. The only thing that I can think of, is to plan ahead and avoid such situations and places where things can go wrong.

How much tax do you pay?

I am used to people asking me (and I asking them) “when did you do your A/Ls?” (in other words, what is your age)?

The other day, a colleague asked me (accidentally I believe) how much tax I pay? (now wouldn’t that give away my salary?) I didn’t answer; despite he accidentally disclosing his salary…

By the way, do you know your friends’ salaries? I am not speaking about colleagues, real loveable friends’ salaries? Do they know yours?

Intelligent Design

Two ladies visited me today in the morning. I answered the door, all sweaty etc from cleaning up my room, shorts and a sweat soaked somewhat not very presentable T-shirt. Obviously, I wasn’t expecting any visitors, Poya.

They introduce themselves, and after that “do you think the world would get better or not”. I answer “perhaps it will, I don’t know”.

Next “are you a Buddhist?”.
So I say “lets say I am…” (politely.. but I don’t like people asking me this question)
Next “So you must believe that the world would come to an end, Kalpa-vinasaya (Translation: end of the “system”)”.
I say “I don’t think that will happen during the next 90 years, so not really too worried about it”
(I really want to get back to my cleaning… I really want to ask them to go….)

Next “You know the Buddha knew everything, but he didn’t preach everything. You would know what he said about the leaves in the forest…” and continued “well, so he didn’t say whether or not a God exists. But he knew that there is a God. An intelligent creator, who designed this beautiful planet. He is coming… “
(I have a creative mind; so at the coming, I am pretty sure my face twisted a bit… to a grin.. )

I was wondering how to politely ask them to leave, and so I lied: “I really must go, there is a Dhamma programme about to start… so, please excuse me, now is really not a good time”. At that, I received a book and they went on to the other house.

I don’t mind them coming and trying to convert – but they should really ask whether or not this is a good time (basic courtesy), and whether or not we are interested in it.

Uhm, I cannot take the credit for the following statement, but I love it “intelligent design, my foot: why on earth did he / she / it put a bloody sewer disposal unit through the pleasure park?” go figure..

Probably only partially related to this, but Jack Point has a very nice piece on Atheism, which actually goes in to many areas.

Reducing the liquid diet

Messed up somewhat big time a few weeks ago, after going on a generous liquid diet. Got verbal diarrhoea, and my speech was peppered with the most colourful words I could think of – assuming that I actually could think at that time.

Didn’t have a hangover – which was a surprise – but a sense that I did wrong by my friends and I. They have never seen me like that, and honestly, neither have I: this was the first time that I was caught on camera.

So, I was telling my self over and over again that the nauseating feeling that I had (guilt?) will eventually go away, because I know that time is a healer. Plus, if I keep telling myself something over and over again, its bound to be one of those self-fulfilling prophecies. Anyhow, it took about a week and I have almost recovered. Cannot change the past. Can change the future. (kept saying that too – reality). I made a promise to myself that I will never do it again. My word is all I have, and something that I will stick by. Highly controlled intake from now on.

One solution to the terrorist problem

We need a solution. Both military and political.

Military
Surgically kill the LTTE leaders. Its the leaders that we should target and not the foot-soldiers. When I say surgical, that means things like sniper fire or a targeted attack only at the leaders. Also, we need to get rid of the leader’s immediate family. Sins of a father.

Political
Don’t treat Singhalese / Tamils / Muslimes / Burgers etc differently. For starters, how about removing the “race” field in the birth certificate?

Race

Sometime ago, the Sri Lankan government threw Tamils out of Colombo. Now according to yesterday’s Sunday Times, Sri Lankan’s from the North who want to travel to Colombo must get a report from the Police saying why they want to go to Colombo, where they plan to stay, duration etc. Gosh, I thought that this was one entire country – can a democratically elected government stoop to this level? (Lets not speak about Zimbabwe).

Our new maid wanted to open an account at a private bank sometime last week. The bank officer refused to open an account because the government has issued a directive asking them not to open accounts for those not permanently living in Colombo – despite we registering her with the police. Though race was not mentioned, I assume that was the thinking behind this government directive.

Why put an economist embargo, and why make Tamils have to prove that they are not LTTE?

Spoke to a friend yesterday. And the following are some sad facts:
a) Police urged Three Wheel owners to give information (for a reward) on suspicious Tamils living in Kotahena. Now, I hope the Three Wheel drivers won’t abuse it. I mean, how about planting a gun and tipping the police and collecting the money?

b) Racist remarks are on the rise. Also, some think we should carpet bomb Jaffna. “They” are “us” for starters. And remarks apparently centered at hinting that every Tamil is a terrorist.

c) Extensive checks by the police when they know they are checking a Tamil. Yea right, the LTTE female bomber would definitely wear the Pottu and walk about. And the LTTE male will carry a genuine identity card.

10 Things that make me happy..

I have been tagged by Angel. Lets see… in no particular order

1) Hanging around with my closest friends
2) Food – any type, I will always try something at least once
3) Alco – After a bad mishap, I will limit it to one glass
4) Weddings – where almost all women look beautiful!
5) Reading blogs
6) Reading books / magazines (almost anything)
7) Going for the occasional walk / jog
8) Listening to music – Any kind
9) Learning new things – mentally challenging that is
10) Just thinking – about stuff, life…

All my favourites have either been already tagged or stopped posting :(