1:18 to Lilydale

I got on to a train to come back to Uni, after some small business in the city. It wasn't rush hour so I easily found an empty seat at the front of the compartment. Just a few feet away from me were two middle aged men engaged in conversation, apparently friends who bumped into each other on this very train.

With one of these men were a young lad of about 20 years of age. Despite his healthy appearance one could easily see that something wasn't quite right with him. He had a very distant look in his brown eyes, which betrayed his good looks. He was holding a bottle of Coke and standing near his companion despite the numerous empty seats around him. "Why don't you take a seat?" asked the man to which the boy replied "I'm alright here" in a loud voice, but did sit down next to him even before finishing the sentence.

Then his companion's friend addressed the boy and asked him how he was, to which he replied "alright" and straightaway inquired back

Boy: When's your birthday?

Man: August Xth (didn't quite catch the date)

Boy: Which year??

Man: 1951

Boy: You were born on a Saturday

Man: That's right

The man probably knew about this boy's speciality that he didn't show any surprise..

Boy: Your next birthday is going to be a Thursday

By now, he had gained the attention of the whole compartment. Apart from those who had their ipods stuck in their ears (too bad!!)

The people who were bent over books were peeping over their books, the ones who were just staring out the window were glancing in this direction.....all the while pretending that they are not really looking at him..

Boy: The year after next, it'll be a Tuesday

And with that his distant eyes wandered off to something on the compartment wall....

There was a few seconds of total silence, with only the continous rumble of the train. The man got up to get down at the next station.

Man: You are doing very well boy

Boy: Yeah, I'm going to graduate next year

Man: That's excellent!!

With that, he said his good byes and got off...

The boy kept on staring at something else on the wall which attracted his attention....

Oh!! I'm also supposed to get down here!!!

I grabbed my stuff and got off before the doors could close.

The Adventure of English

Ever wondered why English is so complicated?

This is the fascinating story about how a tribal language in a remote corner of Europe came to be spread throughout the world; across Asia, Europe, Africa and America.

The story begins in the far north of what is now known as Netherland, and travels to England around 500 AD. From there on the language of English slowly takes form, but the journey is far from being smooth.


The constant invasions from foreign armies pushes the use of the language to its limits. Sometimes wiping out English speaking communities and sometimes supressing the use of the English language by the order of the foreign king.

Despite the hindrances the language of English survives, adapting to different conditions, borrowing words and expressions from the foreign invaders and thereby making it stronger and more flexible.

During the early Viking attacks, words like "ill" entered the English vocabulary creating a synonym for the existing "sick". During the Norman conquest thousands of French words took to English, but were mostly confined to the high society. Therefore the "cows" the farmers worked with became "Beef" at the rich man's table (Boef in French).

Throughout the ages English which has its roots in German had borrowed words in their thousands from Latin, French, Spanish, Gaelic and many more. Adding to its versatility as well as complexity.

After the renaissance (which is also a French word) and the developments during the industrial revolution Britian begins to form its empire across the world.......... and so does the language.

But the journey is far from over; not only does English travel to new countries and continents like Australia and America, where they take on a unique dialect of its own, but in the unsuspecting depths of India, one of the earliest relatives of the English language is discovered.......Sanskrit.


Some interesting words borrowed from the Dutch


This story is most fascinating, entertaining and sometimes astounding. Tracking the evolution of the English language through some of the most prominent times in history, and discovering the impacts it had on the language, from the Anglo Saxon tribes to Sheakspear, Wordsworth and Burns.

This work of magic was created and presented by Melvyn Bragg from the BBC. And is one of the most incredible documentries I've ever encountered. There is also a book in the same name also written by Bragg.

In loving memory

After being a part of our family for more than 11 years, Bingo passed away yesterday.




Bindu looking sad over Bingo's grave...



Photos courtesy of my bro

Life goes on......

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
- Mahatma Gandhi



Woke up to the disheartening news that some innocent people were the victims of a cruel war in which they played no part in…one they didn’t want in the first place….which only exists because of a few greedy individuals who want to hang on to every inch of land they could get. It’s not fair…...for those who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and had to pay the ultimate price…..it’s not fair for their loved ones to have to go through the rest of their lives trying to get over it……

And at the same time, here in another part of the world, a person on morning TV was winging about having to pay an extra dollar for a coffee at the airport ………….!!!&^##!*!

It’s a funny place…this world……..some people are worried about which restaurant they are going to tonight and what they are going to wear…when some others are wondering whether they will be able to find a couple of bucks to feed their children …at least this one meal for the day…………………..
Some people are worried about the new furniture they are hoping to buy and whether it will blend in with the existing interior………..whereas some others are very grateful to have found a canvas shelter in the refugee camp along with hundreds of others………..on the gravel bed…….

But I guess that the world has been like that since the beginning of time…….even in ancient times there were wars, where innocent people were killed for no fault of theirs….…. Empires have risen and empires have fallen….. from the Roman empire to the British.
There will always be wars even in the far future…….people fighting over things that sometimes doesn’t even mean anything! …. like the Jammu-Kashmir border struggle. Both countries have massive land masses but after more than half a century, are still fighting for a small piece of land in the cold mountain tops… that is neither arable nor habitable.

It’s a funny place …this world…..one has to put an effort into keeping oneself sane……. Accepting that getting all worked up with issues that one has to face on a personal level isn’t really the end of the world.

Making a difference: The Horizon Lanka Foundation

I used to visit the popular Sri Lankan blog forum Kottu on an ad-hoc basis up until recently. But some very inspiring blogs that started appearing on the blog roll some months ago, made me visit it more regularly. These blogs are not from well trained authors or prolific writers, but from a group of determined youth, who someday just might come to be known as such.

The Horizon Lanka Foundation founded by Mr. Nandasiri Wanninayaka, has been around for a few years now. It started in Mahavilachchiya and have now expanded to several other areas of the country which we regard as 'rural'. But there's nothing rural about the young minds of these villages, who exhibit the courage and the spirit that could help them go all the way to achieve their dreams.

The work done by the Academy is very impressive, and not to be outdone the effort put in by the students is heart warming. You can find some blogs of these inspiring young minds in the Kottu blog roll.

Great work!

Good Advice

The photo looks a bit blurry, because it had just cleared after a heavy downpour.

Mooo.......

A dairy farm in country side Victoria.

Captured during our trip down the Great Ocean Road.

Just my luck!!!!!!!

After waiting for a whole week, just to get my turn at the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), I arrived at the Research lab with my precious little samples, well ahead of time so as not to waste a single minute of my booked 3 hours! .....no...it's not plenty of time to get work done.....these high resolution imaging stuff takes ages for a scan!

And if I don't manage to extract all the information I need within this 3 hours, it might be another week before I can find an available time slot to continue my work, the SEM seems to be in very high demand.

So the person who's responsible for the SEM, let's call him Dr. H, was kind enough to explain to me how it all works before he began scanning the samples for me. And again no....we are not encouraged to 'do it ourselves' with this sophisticated piece of equipment which is worth $$ big bucks $$!!! So there's this Dr. H who operates it for us.

So, all was good and we were just about an hour into our work, took some images of the sample surfaces and was getting into the more interesting and important part of the work when suddenly the computer got stuck!!!

hmm...ok, so he did what he would normally do, shake the mouse a bit....sit patiently for a while....shake it again.................no response.......Esc.......Enter.......shake the mouse again (this time a bit impatiently) and now the mouse was also stuck!!! .....now that's weird....

When we came to the point of realization that the shaking is not going to work, we had to Ctrl+Alt+Del; once,...twice.......thrice....still nothing..........so Dr.H got really impatient and he kept pressing hard down on the keys till it shut down!

And then restarted it...but this time it wouldn't log in! The computer has gone seriously bananas!!!!

And it's not just a stand-alone computer, it's linked to the SEM, so we had to abandon my work!!!!!!

And my precious samples are still stuck inside the SEM! and they will have to stay there until some service people come down and figure out how to fix the system. Grrrr!!!**&&^# I wonder when that's going to be.

The SEM has been functioning very well for the last couple of months and just my luck it decided to crash right now!!!??!!

Wyomi making a fashion statement! :)

My School class-mate and University batch-mate Wyomi has been selected as one of the finalists of the Fashion Designer of the Year competition in Sri Lanka. Although it doesn't come as a big surprise to me since I've seen her create works of art throughout the years, it sure comes as good news.

At school our class always won the Wesak lanterns competition all thanks to Wyomi's creativity. And she was always the brains behind the annual "Kala Ulela" (Cultural show) decorations.

The article appearing on 13th October edition of Sunday Observer can be found here. And anyone (as long as you are in SL :D) can vote using the coupon in the "Spectrum" section of that newspaper.

Great work Wyomi!

Muilti-culturalism

Melbourne is known to have a very multicultured and diverse society. People from all over the world call the city home.

And I've got a fairly representative sample of that population at my research centre. I share an office space with an interesting bunch of people. an Australian, an American, a Russian, a South African, a Vietnamese, a German, a Chinese, an Iranian, a Spaniard and a Sri Lankan (that's me!)
Funny mentioning America, Vietnam, Germany and Russia all in one sentence :)

So it gets very interesting when we get a chance to talk outside of work, like during lunch or tea, you discover very interesting aspects of life and different cultures. But that sort of occurence is very rare! because all of us don't feel hungry at the same time, and tea/coffee is something you have all day long.....one after another........at your desk...until you finish your work, it's kind of like.... fuel.

Anyway. and even if a few of us meet up in the lounge area for lunch (by coincidence), after a brief chat, as it starts getting really interesting, someone goes "aah.....better get back to work!!"

The joy of experiments!

During the most part of this week I've been locked up inside laboratories doing some very delicate experiments, with the "Laser on" warning light going on outside the door, so that others would think twice before disturbing.

Everything was going very well, and I was feeling very productive for getting so much done within a couple of days, and was just about to wrap up the first stage of my set of experiments. I only had to do an extra set of analysis of the teeny weeny Silicon samples that I prepared so carefully...and patiently!

So I put them under the microscope, which is connected to a PC, a CCD camera and a spectrometer. After adjusting everything, I hit the "Acquire Data" button on the software programme. Tuk..tuk....peep...tuk..tuk....peep........that's the spectrometer analysing the sample and the computer outputting the graph....after a few minutes of tuk tuks and peeps, the computer showed me what the final graph looked like........... "What the...??!!!*&^#"
I didn't need my well experienced colleague to tell me that that is not what we are expecting!

hmm...ok, so back to the begining, adjustments......laser, camera, focus the microscope, cables...etc etc.... ok! Hit the button "Acquire Data"
tuk...tuk....peep...tuk...tuk....peep......

Final graph...."Darn!! What in the world is going on?"
So we were running around the set up, scratching our heads trying to figure out what's wrong.
After about two hours of tampering around, we discovered that the laser we were using was 15 mW in power, which is about 50 times more than what it should be!!!!!!!!!!!
How the hell that happened we don't know, but what it means is that not only were we subjecting our eyesight to potential damage but were burning holes right through my precious samples all this time!! Oh Joy!!!

A Breath of Fresh Air

The music of Yanni is a fresh breath of air during a hectic day at work, so I always keep a set of earphones close by ready to plug in and listen to a healing piece of music, to relax a bit before I set off again.

The complete compositions from his latest album "Ethnicity" can be listened to over his web site using either Windows Media Player or Real Player. As for the rest of his albums you can only listen to the samples.

My favourites from Ethnicity are "Playing by heart", "Rites of Passage" and "Never too late", not that I don't like the others!

What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger

When we mess something up, it's very easy to attribute ourselves with "I'm terrible with this kind of thing". But every mess-up has a lesson to be learnt, if only one would sit and recollect "now, where did I go wrong?"
If you can spot that, next time you are sure to do a better job than the last.

This brings to mind the famous story of Thomas Alva Edison's light bulb. It is said that his attempts to produce a light bulb failed him over a thousand times (I don't know how far the figures are correct, but sure must have been a long 5 years!). He tried with Platinum filaments...doesn't work....Nitrogen gas...doesn't work......
but after each failed attempt he said "I just learnt another way of how you can't make a light bulb!".

So, the best way to learn something is through mistakes, you generally learn more through making mistakes than through getting it right the first time.

So the next time you make a mistake be glad that you did, for 'failures are the pillars to success'

The arcane world of vacuum technology

If you’ve watched the film Matrix, you probably would have got that eerie feeling when you switched off the tv and looked around you, “is this the real world or is there something going on underneath that I’m not aware of”.

I recently read up on ‘vacuum technology’ as part of my work and revisited something close to that weird feeling.

There are so many things that we use in our day-to day lives without realizing the work that lie hidden beneath it.
The technology of vacuum coating is something that goes into your pair of sunglasses, reading glasses, your car windscreen, fluorescent lights, LCD screens on your mobile, calculator, digital watch, computer, CD’s, DVD’s and the small chip on your credit card, magnetic strips on your ATM card and old cassettes, inside all electronics and much much more.

Something as simple as a pair of sunglasses goes through a couple of vacuum chambers (which are deemed of air) to get its UV reflection coating, polarization coating (to reduce the glare) and other coatings that are needed to protect your eyes. Same goes for your laptop screen, car windscreen and shutters (tinted or not) and now that I’ve mentioned it tinted thin film layers etc.

All these fine coatings can’t be done under a normal environment with air and water vapour present for they get in the way of the coating and you get a pretty lousy product.
So what manufacturers do is they put them in a vacuum chamber and evaporate the material that needs to be deposited on it, which then goes and sticks itself onto the product, and since there’s no air, you get a high purity coating. And of course it’s not as simple as it sound, a lot of consideration goes into the process, like maintaining the right temperature, rotating the sample to get a uniform coating, and making sure that the coating thickness (which is generally less than a hundredth of a milli meter) is just right.

This is a technology that is vastly present behind many things that we use everyday, but most of us don’t even know it exist.

Back with a few changes

A vacation has to be a vacation so didn't even open my blog when I was in Sri Lanka.
Now Back at work not much time to blog.

:)

Interview with an IT professional

Debbie Timmins of ACS interviewed Vishuddhi about IT in general, if anyone is interested the interview can be found on her blog.

Just 2 and a hlaf days to go!!!

Exasperated, Confused, Tired, Angry, Irritated and Bugged!

I've been trying to design a set up for a vacuum chamber that I have never seen, using components that I never knew existed, and trying to calculate the electrical loads and wire connections and what not using just the pictures and very little details provided in catalogues!

Simply driving me nuts!!!

And I can't get the required information from the component manufacturers! Obviously they are not in a hurry as I am.

Once I decide on the design I have to order the suitable components (based on my hypothetical design). If by some chance I overlook some small detail on one of these components and the thing turns out to be unsuitable, it's going to be my neck!

And I'm supposed to complete this before I leave to SL, so that an order can be placed for the components.

I hate deadlines!

Specially when I'm totally confused about the subject matter.

Countdown

Nine days more to go.......

Home and the World

A scene from Satyajith Rai's make of the film, based on the book.

Yet another piece of magic by Rabindranath Tagore. The way Tagore understood the complexities of the traditional cultures and the mind frames of people living in his time is simply amazing. His ideas are ahead of his time and even our times.

I won't go into a review here because Ineshka has done some excellent work on this.

And for anyone interested Purnima has found an online resource on this as well.

A Million Little Pieces

An alcoholic at the age of 10, a drug addict at the age of 12 and a drug dealer at the age of 15, charged with offenses and crimes in 3 US states by the age of 18, James Frey was at the point of no return when he was dragged into rehabilitation aged just 23. This is the compelling memoir of James, the son gone wrong of loving parents.

Hallucinations..... Sleepless.... Seeing things, Hearing things...... Blacking out........ Throwing up blood...... Craving.....Craving for drugs...and alcohol... screaming....screaming for drugs....This was his state when the story starts at the rehabilitation centre. And it's no joy ride to recovery, if he ever gets there.

But still deep down inside him he discovers the strength....the strength to make a choice....to live or to die. He protests against the rehab staff, and refuses to follow their instructions simply because it doesn't make sense to him, despite the fact that every one seem to insist that following their rules is the only way out. Despite the instructions of the counsellers, he refuses to 'give himself to God, and have faith in Him'. James is adamant that it's not God who made the decision to take drugs, it's me who did it, so if anyone is going to make the decision to quit it, it's going to be me and only me!

During the rest of his time at the centre he surrounds himself with people who were at one point drug addicts, dealers, womanizers and criminals. But out of this bizzare combination springs some extraordinary friendships that brings out the human counterpart of these people who are despised by the general society.

A best-seller; this is a very powerful and moving story that brings insight to the dark side of life. It's got a considerable amount of foul language and graphic details which only adds to the reality of life.

Read this and you will never look at a drug addict the way you used to.




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wil just quote a part from the early chapters of the book, but this is definetly not for the faint-hearted. Warren and the bald man here refers to his room mates at the time.

My heart is racing and it's racing irregularly and there is pain with every beat and there is pain with every irregular beat and the pain shoots through my left arm and the left side of my jaw. The liquid has stopped flowing through my body and out of my mouth, but the action of vomiting has not stopped. It feels as if my stomach and my throat are coming out or they are trying to come out. It feels as if my body is trying to rid itself of itself. It is trying to rid itself of me.

I can't do this anymore. I cannot continue to live this way. I am an alcoholic and I am a drug addict and I am a criminal. My body is falling apart and my mind fell apart a long time ago. I want to drink and I want to smoke Crack even though I know drinking and smoking Crack are killing me. I am alone. I have no one to talk to and no one to call. I hate myself. I hate myself so much that I can't look myself in the eye. I hate myself so much that suicide seems like a reasonable option. My family is ready to write me off, my friends are ready to write me off, I have destroyed every meaningful relationship I've ever had. I am vomiting for the seventh time today. The seventh f** time. I cannot continue to live this way. I cannot continue to live this way.

The gagging slows down and I start breathing. Warren is holding me steady and the bald man is staring at me. I raise my hand and I motion for Warren to step away and he stands and he steps away and I lean my head against the front of the toilet. I breathe. I take in as much air as I can. I know the air will slow my heart and calm me down, so I breathe. I take in much air as I can. Calm me down. Calm me down.
Warren speaks. The bald man stares.
"Are you all right?"
I nod.
"Do you need help?"
I shake my head.
"I'm going to get someone"
I speak,
"No"
"You need help"
"No"
"James, you need help"
I stand. I am unsteady.
"I decide what I need. Not you!"

I take a deep breath and I stumble to the sink and I turn on the water and I wash my face and I clean the vomit out of my mouth. When I finish, I turn off the water and I turn around. Warren is staring at me and the bald man is staring at me. I walk past them and I walk out of the bathroom. Warren follows me out and he heads to his area of the room.

"Let me at least give you a shirt"

I look at my shirt. It is white and brown and red. Covered with streaks of bile and patches of shit that I have never seen before and streams of blood.

"Here"

Warren tosses me a shirt. I catch it. It is a starched white Oxford. I look at it and I look at him. He speaks.

"It's the only clean shirt I've got left"

I look at the shirt. It is not a shirt I would wear. I laugh and I look back at Warren.

"Thank you"

He laughs.

"No problem"

The Passing Away of a Pioneer

Vidya Jothi Emeritus Professor V K Samaranayaka had passed away in Stockholm, Sweden. He was a pioneer in the IT industry in Sri Lanka, and an intellectual that we as Sri Lankans can be proud of.

Even though I hadn't had the honour of attending his lectures at University, it was through his work that myself and thousands of other students past and present benefitted immensely. And generations to come will benefit into the future.

It was a life well lived!

Good times

Was cleaning up some folders on my computer and I came across some old photos, old like in just over an year ago, so not that old.

In a temple in Rajangane (Damn! can't remember its name), up on the rock is the earliest known map of Sri Lanka carved in stone.

The temple is being run by a Buddhist monk who used to teach me when I was in Sunday school (and he was in Colombo for his studies). Very rough life, but admirable!

Thanthirimale.

Not the most convenient place for a living, but for those people and monks who opt to stay here helping each other out through all hardships is very touching to see.

Ramya Uncle (who took the photo) insisted on stopping the van and reversing it, to get a few photos of these fellows.

On the steps of the "Biso Maligawa" in Anuradhapura.

And on the way home, we had a good climb at the Rosa thirivana mountain in Namal Uyana as well.

Ali-gata Pera

Came across this by chance yesterday.

Ever wondered where "Ali-gata pera" (in Sinhalese) got its name from? It surely doesn't have any connection with Elephants..?!

Well....... due to their rough green skin and since its shape is close to that of a 'Pear' it's also known as "Alligator Pear"!
:)

The things I miss (from SL) Part 1

• My parents


• My brother (wasn't expecting to miss that!)


• Bingo, Bindu and Bussy


• Bumping into an old friend on the road (never happens here!)


• King coconuts!


• Mom's cooking


• Warm weather


• Relatives/Neighbours/Friends paying visits


• Driving (driving is too prim and proper here, very boring)


• Kola kanda with jaggery in the morning


• Down to earth living


• Birds and squirrels singing as the dawn breaks (and also when they spot our Bussy hiding in the bushes)
• Listening to some real news on tv (and not about Paris Hilton! ugh!)

23 days to go......

Port Adelaide

Yesterday we paid a visit to 'Port Adelaide'.

Port Adelaide is located about 14km north east of the city of Adelaide and is the main port for the city of Adelaide. It had been first proclaimed as a harbour in the 1830's and it has also been the first port of call for migrants into South Australia.

The light house

The port is located further inland from the outer harbour. The difference between a Harbour and a Port is that a harbour shelters and stores ships, whereas a Port is a coastline facility built so that boats and ships can load and unload goods. Therefore ports are generally accompanied with transport systems, cranes and ramps. Ports can also be seaports, riverports, fishports etc.

I was quite eager to see the bottle nosed dolphins who are living in the waters. There are special cruises for dolphin observation 'up close' (as they say), so we boarded a 2 hour cruise journey onto one of these 'dolphin cruisers'. After about an hour in the calm waters we arrived at the Dolphin habitat, only to see a couple of dorsal fins of the dolphins, they never came close to the boat and the boat didn't spend more than a couple of minutes trying to catch a glimpse of the big fish. Very disappointing!! The journey back was very slow and uneventful.

A Dolphin!

Next we climbed up into the old lighthouse, walked around in the "Fisherman's Wharf Market", no it's not a fish market but full of local produce and souveniers and stuff. Then went to see the 'Sea Horse Farm'. It was pretty interesting, they had an educational video and some sea horses, funny creatures they are! Did you know that it's the male seahorse that gets pregnant and carries children? yup....interesting!

And I got to touch a living shark! Well.....no it's probably not what you would imagine, it was a really small one like a well grown Carp. And boy was his skin rough!!

Up in the light house overlooking the port

Up in the light house overlooking the Wharf and the Wharf market

There were quite a number of museums around but we didn't get the time to visit all of them.

The grass is always greener on the other side..

When I was in Sri Lanka I always used to wish the country was located a few latitudes further up from the equator, so that it wouldn't be so hot and humid all year round!

When I was growing up, I wished that we had the four seasons so that I could see all the flowers bloom in the spring, the sun shine in the summer, leaves redden and fall in the autumn and cold days in the winter with some snow!! Well, I got over that once I grew up, but I still wished that it wasn't so hot there.

Now, I've been in Australia for almost one year and have experienced the four seasons, it's not as wonderful as it sounds in the books. It's pretty difficult to distinguish between the season changes in the first place, there's no clear cut boundary between spring & summer, summer & autumn etc.

And I can't think of more than a couple of days where I actually enjoyed the weather, it's either too cold that I would start shivering from head to toe or either too hot that I simply have to take at least 5-6 baths a day!

Just a couple of months ago - in the summer temperatures soared past 42 Celsius. It was like living inside an oven! you can literally feel your skin burning! Now it's winter (just starting) and daytime temperatures hang around 10-12 Celsius, and it's like living inside a fridge! Nights are even worse!

How I long for a beautiful tropical climate like that of Sri Lanka!!!

Papadam in 45 Seconds!

I don't know if this is common knowledge, but it was certainly news to me when I first heard it on a cookery programme on tv a couple of weeks ago. So I thought of sharing this with anyone who enjoys (or rather don't enjoy the hassle of) cooking! Just to make life easier.

All you need is some papadam and a microwave oven. Keep the papadams towards the outer edges of the rotating dish in the microwave (I'm assuming the dish is clean enough!) and turn power on 'High' for 40-45 seconds. Times might slightly vary depending on the thickness of the papadam. Once you hear the 'beep' open the microwave and 'ta-da!!' You've got ready to eat papadam! and without the unhealthy oil.

Bushism

Found a good book Mr President?

• The attack on the world trade centre in NY

-"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

• Flattening out Afganistan in the search for Bin Laden

-"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."

after some time...... when they couldn't find a trace of him

-"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."

• Iraq

-"We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories...for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them."

I see....I wonder where they are now?

-"Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."

“Governments accountable to the voters focus on building roads and schools—not weapons of mass destruction.”

The U.S. has over 10,000 nuclear weapons

-"Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties [in Iraq]."

-"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur. "

-"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."

-"These people are trying to shake the will of the Iraqi citizens, and they want us to leave...I think the world would be better off if we did leave..."

Finally he's talking some sense

-"Iraq and Afghanistan ...are now democracies and they are allies in the cause of freedom and peace."

yeah right!

• Refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol

-" It isn't pollution that's harming the environment.
It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it. "

-"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."

????

• Hurricane Katrina

-"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is, 'to be prepared'."

That's only one word

-"Brownie (Michael Brown of FEMA), you're doing a heck of a job."

I wonder why Michael Brown had to resign from his post.... becuase his handling of the situation was so good?

• Foreign Policy

-“I don’t have the foggiest idea about what I think about international, foreign policy.”

Tell me something that I don't know already!

• General

-"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."

-"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."

-"For NASA, space is still a high priority."

I didn't know that NASA has other priorities..

-" Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."

hmm.....

-"The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for 'entrepreneur'."

'Entrepeneur' comes from the French language..

-"'There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — (pause...confused look) shame on you. Fool me (pause...) you can't get fooled again.'

-"To the C students, I say you too can be president of the United States."

-"I'm the commander — see, I don't need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president."

-"I believe God wants me to be president."

I wonder whether He's is the only one..?

-"God told me to strike at al-Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East."

Never have I seen such an entertaining president..in the history of the world

:)

Dictator of the (so called) Biggest Democracy

Democracy or Dictatorship?

In 2002 Bush decided to attack Iraq, why?..... because they had weapons of mass destruction hmm.....
The UN opposed, the American public opposed, the general public of most other countries including Britain, Australia and France protested. Jacques Chirac heavily condemned and so did the Pope... but did that matter to Bush? .....nah!

Since then everybody has been talking about when the troops in Iraq are going to be withdrawn. Just a few weeks ago, after a lot of drag, the US passed a congressional bill to withdraw troops from Iraq, only to get De vetoed by Bush...




Thanks Powell, I couldn't have said it better!

Glorifying Death

I thought of writing this post when I saw this news article in the BBC. Two girls aged 16 in Perth, Australia had killed their friend (aged 15) and buried her. Why?... just to see if they would feel any remorse afterwards. This has taken place almost one year ago, after the court hearing they have now been sentenced to life in prison.

Isn't that shocking?

In a slightly unrelated note recently there has been a lot of talk about a certain 'EMO sub-culture' here. Due to a double suicide of two teenage girls in Melbourne who belonged to that culture, and a murder of another teenage girl in Adelaide.

Emo means something close to over emotional, and are usually unhappy and pessimistic. Self-infliction i.e. cutting or harming oneself with knives or sharp objects are common among them. (I'll write a separate one on this) But generally their view of life is gloomy and they have a way of 'glorifying death and murder'.

I seriously don't know where these people get this attitude from. But I have a feeling (I maybe wrong) that tv programmes contribute to this mentality.

Last night on tv, there were 2 crime scene investigation stories on one channel back to back, another murder story on another and a violent prison break story on another.
The day before I watched half of CSI-NY which is a very popular tv series all over the world. And not forgeting the other CSI Miami and CSI Las Vegas which have become quite popular. Anyone who watch this type of drama know how in agonising detail they present the murder. Every small step taken by the murderer to cover up, and every little clue the investigators pursue to find out the truth. The stories really are captivating and addictive.

However, I personally believe that these put ideas into people, specially young ones. Teen years are quite hard for children, and they can be confused and mislead very easily.

I very well remember when I was little there was a drama on tv in which a person hangs himself and commits suicide. Later on in the week there was a news on the paper (I remember my parents talking about it) A boy had tried out the suicide to see if it really works, and had died. Therearfter there was a roar about what should be broadcasted on tv.

My companions back home

That's Bingo and Bussy at home back in SL : my brother sent me the photo.

They are not really best friends :)

Bingo likes to come in and sit in front of the cat, blocking its way - just to show him who's the boss around here.

Gilchrist and his squash ball

Here we go again..

After I finished the post 'bye bye world cup' I was pretty resolute in not writing about the world cup again. But the hot topic of Gilchrist and his squash ball which keeps popping up in a lot of blogs and discussion groups just pushes me into writing some thing on it.

The first time I heard that he's got a squash ball inside his glove to help him with his grip I also asked the same question from myself "Is that........legal??" And I've been debating it with myself and my husband....well, if some extra object does enhance a players performance, it doesn't truly reflect his/her abilities, does it? No doubt Gilchrist is a great cricketer, but in this innings he did seem like 'superman'.

There are a lot of arguments going around, and I beleive the question is to be taken up at ICC's next meeting.

http://different-stroke.blogspot.com/2007/05/sri-lanka-cricket-to-question-legality.html
http://andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=22452
http://wordpress.com/tag/cricket-etcetera/

Anyhow, my question is that if he's allowed to do that, does that mean that any batsmen can stuff in any object of their preference under their gloves to enhance their performance?. Surely there has to be some regulation in this.

If the wicket keepers are not allowed to put on extra padding in their gloves, and bowlers can't wear bandages when bowling, and definetely fielders can't wear gloves (even inner ones) to improve their grip on the ball..........how come that batsmen can?

Farm in the City

This farmyard was in the middle of the city's busiest shopping street.....

No idea why they were there.

Wesak - The Festival of Light

Today is 'Wesak' full moon poya day. 'Wesak' is the Sinhalese name for the month of May, and 'poya' refers to the full moon days that fall once every month.

The significance of Wesak lies with Lord Buddha, it was on a Wesak full moon day (somewhere around 6th century BC) that he was born as Prince Siddhartha to a regional king and queen near the now India-Nepal border. And it was on a Wesak full moon day, 35 years later that he attained enlightenment. It was also on the same day another 45 years later that the enlightened one passed away.

Buddhists all over the world celebrate this day for its symbolic significance. Some prefer to observe 'sil' which means that they will spend the day, disciplining themselves to behave in the fashion of an 'arhath' disciple. Practicing 'morality', 'compassion', 'humility' and meditation to calm the mind.

In Sri Lanka (I'm not sure about other Buddhist countries), towards night fall people light up the whole country with lanterns and creative work, filled with lights, candles and colours. The creative aspects of children and adults alike come alive during this time. And there's so much to see no matter where in the country you live.

The symbolic aspect of this 'light ceromony' is the depiction of 'enlightenment'. Which brought the light of 'wisdom' and drew away the darkness of 'ignorance'.

Bye bye World cup

Ok, so the world cup is over, and Australia took it home.

This certainly has been quite an eventful world cup, with a load of controversies, confusions and emotions. Just to name a few

• The heavy weights Pakistan was sent home before the Super 8's
• Bob Woolmer, Pakistan coach was murdered (so they say)
• Inzamam resigns, the Pakistan cricket board president resigns and lots of mayhem
• Another big contender India also sent home before the Super 8's
• Riots in India
• Greg Chappel steps down
• Flintoff gets sacked
• Critisim towards the ICC at the organisation of the world cup; too long, bad turnout of spectators, loss making, no carribean atmosphere, not enough resources for players etc
• Many big names retire; team coaches from Tom Moody to Duncan Fletcher; players like Lara, McGrath, Stephen Fleming, and our Russel Arnold (this will also probably be the last world cup of Jayasuriya, Murali and Vass as well)

Oh boy! It's good that a world cup comes along only once in four years!

The world cup final that shouldn't have been

We were all excited to watch the world cup throughout the night.. I put on an extra winter coat to keep myself warm throughout the match and was all ready to watch the match. Was feeling very excited and nervous! to my annoyance the tv channel was showing "spiderman" till just past 11 o'clock ??!!!!^%@^&@ (the match is supposed to start at 11) Then finally they switched the channel to the sports channel, where Ian Healy and Mark Taylor were discussing weather, it was raining in Barbados..oh great! so the match is delayed.

Next to keep the viewers entertained till the match started, they began showing the extended highlights of the world cup final of '92, match between Pakistan and England. what the hell?!!@!
Out of all the possibilities why did they have to bore us with a match that had nothing to do with either Australia or SL? At least they could have given us a recap of this world cup or a summary of all the world cups since '75 or something interesting as such. Well, by the time the match finally started I was bored to death watching Imran Khan bowling the same ball to Ian Botham in slow motion over and over again!

Finally,..the match started with just 38 overs, what a pity for a much anticipated world cup final!
You would have expected the most important match in the whole series to have been organised so well, that you could kick back and enjoy. But this match turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. All went well for the Aussie innings, and Gilchrist (Gilly) batted out like mad! it was an incredible batting performance! Specially for someone who hasn't been in form all throughout the series.

Next the Sri Lankans came out to chase what seemed like a humanly impossible target of 281 in just 38 overs, that's a run rate of 7.4! but we still had Jayasuriya so there was a glimmer of hope, so I thought. However, to me it didn't seem like any of our batsmen were confident enough to go all the way. I dozed off and missed a couple of overs around 5 in the morning and woke up to a boundary by Jayasuriya. Jayasuriya and Sanga settled down a bit and lifted the run rate, but the strokes they played seem to be more out of desperation.

To add to the annoyance, it started raining again (just after we passed the 20 over mark; should have been good if the rain poured down a bit earlier :) but that was not to be) anyway, after another while yawning away, the match started again. The batsmen came out into the field not knowing what the revised target was. So both the batsmen and the Aussies stood there confused, waiting for the information from the umpires who were doing the D/L calculations. Wow, how professional. Finally it was announced that the 38 overs were further reduced to 36.

From there on the match went ok until it was begining to look very dark out there. Next came the biggest blunder of the whole series. The SL batsmen were offered to take the bad light condition and call an end to the match, which they did. And the Aussies started celebrating the victory, but not for long, the umpires intervened and told them the match isn't over yet. We were all confused as to what is going on. Next the SL batsmen were called back in to bat in the dark. The commentators were furious. it seriously was absurd, the ground didn't have lights to play on. So Mahela and Ponting discussed to use spinners for the last couple of overs instead of throwing fast balls at someone who could barely make out where they are coming from.

After what seemed like ages, the match came to an end, with Australia winning the 2007 world cup,..... Again!!

Have to admit it the Australian team is doing exceptionally well, and they do deserve to win the world cup.

But the Sri Lankan team has done very well to have come into the finals and put up a brave performance. Win or lose we are with you, you have always been the pride and joy of the tiny little island in the Indian ocean.

Oh well, better luck next time!

World Cup - The Grand Finale!

Just finished reading a few Sri Lankan blogs and news online and listened to a new song by the Gypsies made for our team, seems like the whole country is on their toes and getting ready for the big thing! The country's president is also in the Windies for the final.

My brother is also ready with enough snacks to last throughout the match.

Here in Australia there's no atmosphere of a Cricket World Cup final going to be played in a couple of hours. Not even an advertisement on the tv about it being telecast tonight. Nobody seems to care about it. It's all footy for them, a game played only in Australia among local clubs, a cross between rugby and soccer. They are just crazy over it. Cricket is just another game, not a part of life as in Sri Lanka.

Wish I was in SL to enjoy the anticipation and the excitement. Anyway, looking forward to a victorious sleepless night.

:)

A match well played

Still recovering from staying up all night to watch the match SL Vs NZ, which started at midnight Aussie time. And having to watch the World cup semi-finals on live streaming on the internet (sitting in front of the laptop and cramming our necks) because these people here don't think it worthwhile to telecast on tv!!! outrageous! But of course the Aus Vs SA match was on tv because it was Australia that was playing!

Anyway, we won!! it was all worth it!

Mahela was excellent. At first I was quite annoyed with him for defending each and every ball without hitting it with the bat and getting some runs. But of course they are the experts, and what do I know? He didn't play hard because he knew it's not the way to go. But later on he gradually hit the accelerator and ended up with a century (not out) and a strike rate over a hundred. That was literally a 'captain's knock'!

And all credit goes to Upul Tharanga, and for the team to have kept their faith in him. Comforting to know there's young talent emerging to replace the senior players in the near future.

Next...against the ruthless Aussies in the finals on Saturday...hope...hope...hope!!!!

The art of original thinking

Our society tries to define a person's intelligence by the level of his/her formal education. but does it really reflect the person's intelligence? I think not. Personally I'm beginning to think that 'formal' education actually restricts our mind frame, teaching us what some other person found out and telling us to carry on from where that earlier person left...in his path of thinking. Well, it is sort of trying not to re-invent the wheel, but at the same time it also restricts our minds to think along the lines of someone else, and does not encourage 'original thinking'.

Perhaps it's not just the teaching, but maybe the way we are taught. As students we are taught things and not encouraged to ask 'why?' and 'how?', and pretty soon we get used to 'hanging on to every word' the teacher say like in blind faith.

After reading Sir Richard Branson's autobiography I was wondering about this factor. He wasn't an A-grade student, not even close! But he understood that the authoritarian rules in his school were restricting the freedom of students, and wrote down a list of suggestions to the administration of the school at the age of 15. He challenged the ideas of most 'conservative' businessmen, and went on to break a lot of 'defined' rules. Somewhere in his book he mentions about the degrees and educational programmes on "entrepreneurship", well..it shouldn't be about sitting down and studying the subject but throwing away the books and getting down to work!

On the same note I was interested in finding out how Einstein coped with this. So I just finished skimming through a book called "The unexpected Einstein", trying to get some insight into this. Einstein excelled at maths in school, but was terrible in other subjects. But the thing to note is that he wasn't interested in what the teachers taught him, (and so he wasn't a favourite with his teachers at all) but he was interested in the subject and he learned it in his way. He didn't get bogged down with the 'formal teachings'. Once during a chemistry laboratory session, he had thrown away the teachers instructions and tried to do the experiment - his way, which had ended blowing up in his face. And later he dropped out of school by the age of 16.

Another example Martin Wickramasinghe, one of the most prolific writers of all time in Sri Lanka, dropped out of school early. But in my opinion Sri Lanka has't been able to produce a better author at handling the Sinhala language since. It's not just the language but his insight into the society and the people is simply amazing. In one of his books 'Yuganthaya' if I'm not mistaken he writes about how this character, a surgeon carries out a delicate and complex surgery on a patient. You can't stop but wonder at the intricate details of the human anatomy and the medical procedures he goes on to explain. How the hell did he get such a knowledge? (There weren't any Internet or the Discovery channel in his time!)

I remember our music maestro Premasiri Kemadasa once saying (by the way that's another example) "when you play music in a class room and ask the children to clap to the rhythm, if there's one child who doesn't seem to be clapping to the correct beat, take interest! he might be seeing something that all the others don't".

All in all it's difficult to define and mould a person's intellectual capacity and original thinking. But the guideline "not to believe in anything anybody says without giving it proper consideration" as preached by Lord Buddha in the Kalama sutra seems to be absolutely correct!
----------

"Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumor; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another's seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, ..... when you yourselves know: 'These things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,' enter on and abide in them."

Murder she wrote

I was reading a couple of Agatha Christie novels during last week. Her novels are among the best sellers of all time, second only to Shakespeare. She's known as "Queen of crime" for her something like 65 crime novels.

All her stories frame work is more or less the same. A death takes place, turns out to be a murder, some detectives or some amateurs get involved in investigating the crime. The most part of the story is on the investigation, the suspicion shifts from person to person, and makes the reader guess all sorts of possibilites and suspects, but at the end the murderer turns out to be either someone you never thought of suspecting, or someone you considered earlier but ruled out at one point. I'm sure I've read at least a dozen of her books and still I've never been able to make the correct guess!! (better luck next time!..maybe)

It's funny that even though the framework is the same for all stories, no two stories are alike, every story is very unique, so instead of getting bored after reading a couple of books, you get kind of addicted to her mysteries. Reading her book is like solving a puzzle or mystery, it keeps you guessing all throughout.

Most of her stories are based in UK, but there are quite a significant number of stories based in other countries like Egypt, Iraq etc. each one giving a touch of its culture.

End of an era..

Brian Lara, who created a sensation in West Indies cricket retired after a successful career which spanned almost two decades.

It's a bit sad that towards the end of his career, he had to become more like a one-man team for his country.

But in the international cricket arena, he will always be remembered as a legend who brought life to the game of cricket.

An interesting blog

We found this very entertaining blog

http://www.ranjitfernandosucks.blogspot.com/

so thought I should spread the word... :)

Big deal!!!!

We lost the match against Australia, which was not a very big surprise, but the surprise was that the SL team decided to rest two of their best bowlers, and that's excluding Malinga who's got an injury.

Well, I agree that it was a bit of a surprise, bit too sudden and made me go like "huh?...what?!....why?... ehhh ........ hmmm ...... blank!" But once the news had time to digest, I don't think there's anything really wrong with that move, it's not illegal or anything!! After all that's why there are reserve players in a team.

But what I can't understand is why everybody is so wound up about it. It's understandable that it's a bit of a shock (at first), but to go to the extent of suggesting that match fixing can be involved is taking it waaaaay too far!

Ponting has been complaining too, but then again he has been complaining about practically everything since the tournament started.

And guess who had joined the list now, the captain of Ireland, preparing for the next match with SL "Every team we've played against has put their full-strength side against us, which is a credit to the way we've played our cricket in this tournament."

!!!!!!!!

Handy game

Click to enlarge


Good idea to keep a printout of this one whenever you are attending a seminar or presentation,
in case you get bored.. :)

Kangaroo Island

Admiral's Arch


Remarkable Rocks


Seal bay


Last weekend was a very long weekend as it was Easter, with Friday being "good friday" and Monday also a holiday for some unknown reason. So we went on a trip to Kangaroo Island, which is the 3rd largest island off the coast of Australia. We left home Saturday afternoon and came back just before Monday noon.

Kangaroo Island is off the coast of Southern Australia which is around 100km from Adelaide. The island is separated from the mainland by a 13km stretch of water which is the southern ocean. Access to the island is by ferry which is a huge one which can carry couple of dozens of vehicles as well as passengers. The sea is usually very calm around this area so the ferry ride is generally smooth.

We arrived in Kangaroo island just after sunset on Saturday and we checked into the small hotel, which is a kind of hostel, great for backpackers and travellers. Then we had a chance to walk around and meet up with some penguins who had come upto the shore from the seas as night fell. The island is a far cry from the city life, and nights are pretty much dark as there's not many lights around. And for this reason the night sky looked simply magnificent! I had always been an admirer of the night sky and had never seen it so full of stars, it was simply breathtaking!

The next day we went around the island in a tour coach (bus). The island is quite big ~150km long and ~50km wide. Our coach driver who was also our tour guide talked to us throughout the whole journey (from 9:30 am till around 6:30 pm) and flooded us with information. It was really enjoyable.

The highlights of the tour were Seal bay (full of Australian seals sleeping in the sun), Remarkable rocks (a few big unusual looking rocks on a pure Granite base), Admirals arch (an arch in the rocks near the sea), New Zealand fur seals (again a bunch of noisy big fellows), and a small farm where we had a delicious lunch!

By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted. But it was simply great! The island is very much self-sufficient. There are people living in the island something like 4500. Most of them working on farms, it's more like a step back in time, with large areas of land with a farmer's small house in the middle, cattle grazing, flocks of sheep just idling around and of course kangaroos hopping all over the place. (we almost ran into kangaroos jumping across the roads, two times). The manager of the hotel that we stayed in told us that his nearest neighbour is 1km away, and that he often finds kangaroos peeping in through his windows at night.

We came back in the ferry Monday morning. It was a great experience! I could recommed this place to anyone without a doubt. It seems one of the last unspoilt places on earth.

Sir Richard Branson

Finished reading "Losing my virginity" the autobiography of Sir Richard Branson. WOW!!

Once you start reading the book you find it very difficult to put down, it's always very exciting, funny and very much out-of the box.

To sum it up, he was a normal boy performing quite badly at school, and looking for ways to make money and to improve things. Starting from scratch, he is now the owner of the Virgin group of companies which has over 200 companies under its wing. From Virgin airlines, Virgin rail, Virgin mobile, Virgin Vie (cosmetics) down to Virgin Cola (at present he's supposed to be working on "Virgin Galactic" - space travel !?!) . "Virgin" is considered to be the strongest brand name in use.

His approach to both business and life is very bold. His attempts to fly around the world in a balloon and cross the Atlantic in a speed boat etc. earned him a personality of his own.

The book is fun as fun can be, with a lot of business pranks and challenges to overcome. This is one book that I would recommend to anyone, whether you are business minded or not, it doesn't matter, it's all about guts and glory! Nothing much technical, no it doesn't talk much about balance sheets, the financial accounts and the technical stuff. As he himself mentions in the introduction, "Some people say that my vision for Virgin breaks all the rules and is too widely kaleidescopic; others say that Virgin is set to become one of the leading brand names of the next century; others analyse it down to the last degree and then write academic papers on it. As for me, I just pick up the phone and get on with it".

Mr. Bean is Back!

Mr. Bean is upto his old mischief again. And this time he has won a lottery ticket prize - a trip to the south of France, Cannes. All he has to do is get down from the train in Paris, take a taxi to the next train station and take the express train direct to Cannes. It's simple really!

But leave it to Mr. Bean to complicate life's most simple things and get himself in a real jumble! And knowing just one French word "Oui" meaning 'yes' doesn't help things at all!

The film was simply hillarious! It's a good one to just go have a good laugh at, because this just might be the last Mr. Bean movie to come out. Rowan Atkinson has mentioned that he had done all experiments with Mr Bean so that it might be the time to call it off.

Siddhartha

I read this book a couple of weeks back, but couldn't write anything about it. The book had been written by Herman Hesse who's a well respected German author, who once even won the Nobel prize for literature.

When I saw this book on display in the library I thought it to be a peice of fiction based on the life of Price Siddhartha before he left his palace in search of salvation, a work similar to that of Martin Wickramasinghe's "Bhavatharanaya". But it was not to be so. When I started reading it only did I discover that the Siddhartha referred to in the book is not the same prince Siddhartha who atained enlightenment and came to be known as Lord Buddha, but a different person, a Brahmin's son who lived in India during the time of Lord Buddha.

It's a fairly short story, and the story goes as this Siddhartha along with his friend goes in search of the meaning of existence. And just like the prince Siddhartha we know he goes onto learn different beliefs and practice rituals etc. under different teachers but realizes that they are not the liberation that he's looking for. After some time they both pay a visit to Lord Buddha, who they have been hearing so much about.

However, the story takes an unexpected turn here, and from this point onwards I think Hesse had got it all wrong.

Lord Buddha only appears in this book for a very short time, and at this point Siddhartha's friend decides to stay and become a Buddhist monk. However, the main character of the story Siddhartha decides to move on in search of self-realization. His argument is that there's no point in learning from someone else, but you have to realize the path by yourself alone. This point is not directly in contradiction with Buddhism, which says that you shouldn't believe in something just because someone says so or it's written in some book etc.. but analyse it and after due examination if it's intended to be good towards all others you may take it in. (From Kalama Sutta: but not the exact words, sorry about that) anyway, my point is that this doesn't necessarily mean that you should disregard what all others say.

Anyway, this Siddhartha goes on with life, searching for whatever he's searching for, and gets himself entangled with a courtesian, I think this woman named "kamala" is taken from the character of "Ambapali" in Buddhist texts. For later in the story this Kamala donates her mango grove to the Buddhist monks.

So, Siddhartha gets himself in a lot of different situations and finally one day suddenly ends up realizing that this life is meaningless! And goes in search of self-realization again.

The story I thought was pretty weird. The worst thing about it was that Hesse had to name this character as "Siddhartha". I kept wondering about that all throughout the story. Didn't make any sense at all. Perhaps he expected this character to be a close image of Lord Buddha himself. The introduction to the book was given by a scholar who had been studying Buddhism, and he had mentioned that "Hesse's understanding of Buddhism was not very accurate".

In my opinion, this is a book which is not worth reading, it only leaves you confused. Unless you are one of those people who just love to criticise others work!

Weekend...

Friday night we watched the Sri Lanka Vs India match over the internet. Had a couple of hours sleep before getting up at midnight to watch the match. yeah.. it was not a nice feeling, so only watched the SL innings, then went to sleep at 4am and got up again at around 7, the match was over by that time. So watched the highlights. We are through to the Super 8. I saw a photo on today's online Daily News, a soldier guarding Rahul Dravid's house...hmm.....

On Saturday we went to Marion which is a large shopping centre a little more half an hour's drive from the city. Next went to see a kite festival in one of the beaches. Wasn't as grand as it was advertised I guess.

Sunday at home, the usual household work laundry, cooking, ironing, cleaning etc...
We bought a set of badminton rackets so spent a couple of hours Sunday evening brushing up on our badminton skills, sent the shuttle-cock flying over to a neighbours place a couple of times. However, the weather is getting a bit too cold for outdoor sports now.

Got a new book from the library, Sir Richard Branson's autobiography (the owner of the multi-national Virgin group of companies) titled "Losing my virginity" yeah, it's a weird name, but the guy is weird too. He's one of those people you would have trouble distinguishing between 'genius' and 'mad-man'. I was thinking of just skimming through the book without spending hours, but once I started on it, it just looks too interesting to do that.

We won!

Got up a bit early to follow the SL Vs Bangladesh match on the net. No game, we won by 198 runs on a Duckworth-Lewis decision. It's nice to see all our key batsmen putting up good scores for a change (without the usual one-man show).

Hope they would keep up the good work!

Mysterious vibrations

For the past few days I've been trying to figure out whether my lab setup is stable enough to carry out experiments. I've got a vibration isolated 800kg steel table, which measures about 3m long and 1.5m wide, sitting on a concrete block which is something like 7m long. And this whole thing is pumped up in pressurised air just to isolate it from the ground vibrations.

So effectively my experiment which will be sitting on the table and the concrete block will be completely isolated from any ground vibrations. But when I set up a scheme - an interferometer to check this, the table was very good but the concrete showed a small vibration. It's in the scale of micrometers and nanometers, but in optics that's a big issue. I turned off all AC's, exhaust fans and asked my colleagues to keep their voices down, but still I couldn't get rid of the confounded vibration.

It got my supervisor and the other students also thinking.. but finally we managed to find a work-around to it. The vibrations are still there, but I'm going to set up my experiment so that the vibrations will be compensated.

So that done, I'm sitting here blogging, waiting for my big mirror (1m diameter) to be lifted up and mounted for me. That should be done by today afternoon - hopefully!

No Comments?

I feel like I'm doing all the talking!
So please feel free to leave any comments, ideas, objections, complaints and whatever your thoughts are, all are welcome!

Lasers in a nutshell

When someone mentions "Laser" we are instantly reminded of a bright light beam whether it's from a James Bond movie or from a stage display. But what exactly is a Laser?

In plain English, it's only a light source. Just like an ordinary light bulb or sunlight, a laser emits light. So what's so special about a laser? Well, there are a couple of differences, the major one being the high degree of coherence (I'm not going to explain that now since it's going to be very technical) another is the high intensities they can produce.

In some instances Laser intensities can be so high that just by looking at an object illuminated by a laser can burn your eyes for good! So lasers are categorised according to the level of damage that they can cause. Therefore lasers categorised as class 3 and above require wearing goggles and protective clothing.

A description of the importance of lasers is beyond my scope, they range from medical applications such as cancer cell burning and teeth whitening to metal cutting, engraving, and precision measurements of incredibly small distances, (I'm talking in the nanometer range).

I'll write about my research later on, for the moment I'm using a He-Ne laser which is categorised as 3B, that means I have to wear goggles, which can be quite a pain, for it cuts out most of the light and I keep knocking on things in the lab like a blind bat!

What did I tell ya?

In the chain of events following Pakistan's cricket world cup controversy, Captain Inzamam Ul-Haq is retiring from One-days.

....................

Shockers!

Some world cup this is turning out to be!

It all started when Bangladesh beat the daylights out of India over a 5-wicket victory. Even though it was unexpected it was still not unbelievable. Next day some of my colleagues were debating whether non-test playing countries like Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, Bermuda etc should be given the chance to play in the world cup. After all it's THE world cup, it's a big thing to even participate in it, so teams should fight to get in!

And Voila!! Ireland defeated Pakistan! and threw them out of the tournament! That was a big stunner!!

Next even before that news was digested, came the news that Bob Woolmer, the Pakistani coach had collapsed and died! within 24 hours of Pakistan's defeat. hmm.......I wonder what the next shocker is going to be.

Water

Today we watched the film "Water" directed by Deepa Mehta. I'm not going to go into details about it simply because I'm just too tired after playing cricket with Vishuddhi. Anyhow, the film is about child marriages in India, which is supposedly practiced even today. The film was mostly shot in Sri Lanka and casts a few of Sri Lankan actors like Iranganie Serasinghe and Buddhi Wickrama, and of course the main character Sarala.

Cricket World Cup 2007

The Cricket world cup is here! Not here exactly, it's on the other side of the planet, in the West Indies. And I'm REALLY, REALLY annoyed that the tv stations here are not broadcasting it!!!!!!!!!!! It's the world cup for god's sakes!!!#^%@!&$!!!!

I suspect they are hoping to telecast some of the 'good' matches that Australia will be playing. But that's not fair!!!

I guess we'll have to rely on cricinfo.com for the scores.

I hope Sri Lanka wins! Failing which, anyone but Australia.

For your own safety

Next Tuesday supposedly there are some folks coming from some OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) thing to evaluate the safe work practices in the Physics building. Much to the annoyance of practically everybody!! Well, we are doing quite well without them, aren't we?

The lab wardens and technicians are annoyed since they are required to take care of all safety related actions and be prepared to deal with these folks, because if something goes wrong they will be partly responsible. The supervisors are annoyed since this 'monkey business' is taking up lot of useful time (research time). And students are annoyed because we are supposed to read up and be prepared to answer all sorts of possible questions they could ask, instead of doing our work! And of course this means that the lab warden would not have time to put up my optical table till after next Tuesday!!!@!?@*#&^!!?!

I don't know why we have to go through these stuff. We very well know how to use a Laser, to wear eye safety and not to poke our fingers into a high-voltage outlet! And above all, only authorised persons are allowed in the laser labs, so there is no risk of some curious passer-by getting into one of them. And of course there are those fire drills that goes off every now and then and we have to abandon all our work and go out of the building - just for fun!!! next there are those forms that we are required to fill out every now and then.

All these paraphernalia is just wasting time. I know it's better to be prepared than be sorry, but seriously there should be a limit!!

One of my colleagues actually believe that he will come down with some mysterious illness on Tuesday. And another a pure Australian, hoping to pretend that he's from France and can't speak any English! Well, he wouldn't get further than "Parlez-vous Francaise?" on that, and specially not if one of the evaluators happens to be fluent in French!...hmm......that would be fun!