All I want for Christmas... (කිස්මස් එඩිසන්)

Dear Santa,

I'm writing this letter to you from the island nation if Serendib on boxing day soon after the Christmas...

I would have written you earlier but decided to do it after Christmas because i didn't want to be like the other folks who asks stuff from you.. 

Even if i got a chance to write you i would have written you only this.

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is for it to end quickly!!

Thanks.

So as you can see this would have given a bad blow to your Christmas spirit it self. So i decided to stop myself and delayed the letter.

This year we are celebrating Christmas with coconut going at 110 rupees and rice at 85, thanks to our beloved president Maithree.. Dude is very busy these days trying to fight the most dangerous and most severe crisis of all times which is drinking "milo" 

I think our excellency is correct when it comes to this milo matter considering the amount of injuries Anjelo Matthews is having who is the brand ambassador for milo!!    

Apart from that nothing exciting is happening these days here mostly due to parliament holidays. All of them have gone abroad to spend their "hard earned cash".

I know that non of this is your concern but i wanted to give you a glimpse of what we had to go through currently.

Sri lanka has the most unique way of celebrating  the birth of the christ.
It is called the "Celebrating Christmas in Buddhist Style"
All the people in the world gets together and enjoy the day being merry with the booze... here the fucking bars are closed.

For heaven's sake we are celebrating the birth of Jesus who turned water into wine!!
But Nooo... in this land that does not matter you have to do the celebrations on Buddhist terms without alcohol
(Some may argue that this is for safety reasons .. fuck that im not going to believe that bullshit)

I'm not a big fan of religious festivals my self but i must say that Christmas always brings out the positive vibes and energy  to the society through catholic culture unlike Vesak or other religious celebrations in the country.

But there is one thing i don't like about Christmas, and in my opinion its the most dangerous factor in 21st century.

 Its the abnormal consumerism among people in the month of December.
Its the largest global economic stimulus of our time.

Statistics shows that normal retail sales boost up to at least 3 times in Sri Lanka during this time.
Looking at the global stats, an average person in UK spends 748 pounds on Christmas and in US the retails sales generates three trillion dollars for Christmas. Guess who's prayers are answered by the God!!  multinationals and corporates.

Millions are spent on artificial decorations and for those who needs a more natural touch,more than 80 million pine trees are cut down this year to use as Christmas trees only to be thrown away in few weeks of time!

Unlike your days Santa nowadays every thing is controlled by the capitalism and Christmas is no exception .we tend to become collectively blind to see the fact that the vast majority of the people are unable to celebrate Christmas in the way that we have been told to celebrate.

The average middle class usually  ends up in debt with credit cards after over spending for the season.

If you spend some time listening to the local radio and TV stations lately, even you would get fed up with all the Christmas advertising and marketing campaigns.

I thinks the best gift that one could give some one is "time" where you will be genuinely and fully present. Taking a break from the rush of earning money to pay off for stuff and spending that time with your family and loved ones would make your life flow much slower.
That's where one would find the true Christian spirit.
You would feel much more liberated not only for the Christmas but for the whole year.

So Santa i know your a busy guy and don't have time for this kind of absolute lunatic thoughts of mine.
Im also not that jobless to write long letters to a non existing character like you.

So till i write you again next year, have holly jolly Christmas!!!

With Much love,
Arrack Diaries.

සුසන්තිකා ගේ මැඩල් එක

සීන් එක දන්නෙ නැති කට්ටිය ඉස්සෙල්ල මේක බලල ඉන්න

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFHBdkQik5E

සුසන්තිකා ජයසිංහ හිතන් ඉන්නේ එයාගේ ඔලිම්පික් පදක්කමට රටක් විදියට අපි එයාට ණයගැතිය් කියලාය...දිවි ඇති තෙක් ආණ්ඩුවෙන් එයාට අති සුකෝපභෝගී ජීවිතයකට මුදල් ජාතික අයවැයෙන් වෙන් කල යුතුය් කියාය.

හරියට බැලුවොත් සුසන්තිකා විතරක් නෙවෙය් මේ රටේ බොහොමයක් ක්‍රීඩකයන් සහ කලාකරුවන් හිතන් ඉන්නේ ඔය විදියටය.

අණ්ඩුවෙන් සලකන්නේ නැති නිසා තමන් ඔලිම්පික් පදක්කම වෙන්දේසි කරන බව සුසන්තිකා කියන්නේ මේ නිසාය.

රජය දැනටමත් ඇයට දීමනාවක් ගෙවන බව කවරුත් දන්නා දෙයකි...ඔය පදක්කම් වෙන්දේසි අඳෝනාව පටන් ගන්නේ එය රුපියල් 80,000 සිට 60,000 දක්වා අඩු උන එකටය. ඒ  ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්යන්ශයේ උපදේශක වශයෙන් කටයුතු කරනවාටය.
ඔය්ට අමතරව සුසන්තිකා ජතික මලල ක්‍රීඩා කමිටුවේත් තව ලෝකෙ නැති ක්‍රීඩා සංගම් හා කමිටු වල සාමජිකාවක් බව හැමෝම දන්නා දෙයකි.ඕවට ගිහින් දීපු උපදේශ සහ කරපු ක්‍රීඩා සංවරධනය ගැන අපි අහන්න යන්නේ නැත (වත්මන් මලල ක්‍රීඩාව ඇද වැටී අති තත්වය බැලූ කල එය හොඳින්ම පෙනේ)

ඊට අමතරව පසු ගිය මහින්ද (රජ) සමයේ රාජපක්ෂ වරුන්ට රෙදි නැතුව කඩේ ගොස් මදි නොකියන්න වරදාන ලබා ගත්ත හැටි අපට නම් අමතක නැත.

මේ අකාරයට ආණ්ඩුව සුසන්තිකාලට වියදම් කරන්නේ ජනතාවගේ මුදල්ය.
හරි නම් අපි සුසන්තිකා පදක්කමක් ගත්තාට ඇයට ණයගැති විය යුතු නැත. ඒ වෙනුවට මේ රටේ ජනතාවට හ රටට සුසන්තිකා ණයගැති විය යුතුය.

කෑගල්ල අත්නාවල ගමේ උන් ඇයව ජාත්යන්තරය දක්වා ඔසවා ගෙන සිඩ්නි ඔලිම්පික් පදක්කම නම් වූ ඓතිහාසික මොහොත දක්වා රැගෙන ගියේ මේ රටේ බදු ගෙවන ජනතාවය්...

පුද්ගලික දක්ෂතා තිබූ පමනින් ඇය ගිය ගමන යන්නට නොහැක.
එදා ඇයගේ පුහුණු වීම්, පෝෂණය, නේවාසික පහසුකම්, වෛද්ය පහසුකම්, විදේශ පුහුණුවීම් හා සංචාර සඳහා බරපැන දැරුවේ රජයය්.
ඔලිම්පික් පදක්කම දිනූ සමයේ ඇයට අලුත්ම ජීප් රථයක් සහ ලක්ෂ 50 ක මුදලක් රජයෙන් පිරිනැමුනි.
මම නැවතත් මතක් කරන්නේ මේ සියල්ල අහිංසක ලාංකිකය්න් ගේ බදු මුදල් බවය...

කෙටියෙනම කියතොත් අද සුසන්තිකා අත්විඳින සුඛවිහරණ සියල්ල අත්විඳින්නේ රජයටත් ජනතාවටත් පින්සිදු වන්නටය.

දැන් එයා මාධ්ය ඉස්සරහ හොටු පෙර පෙර අඬන්නේ ජීවත් වෙන්න විදියක් නෑ කියලාය. පදක්කම විකුණන්නේ පවුලට කන්න දෙන්නලු. ආණ්ඩුව එයා ගැන බලන්නේ නෑලු..

මට මේ කතාව දැක්ක ගමන් අවංකවම හිතුන දෙය නම්, අනේ යකෝ මුනුත් ක්‍රීඩිකාවොද කියාය... ක්‍රීඩාවේ හරය ඩිංගිත්තක් තරම් දන්නා කිසිවෙකුගන් මෙවැනි පකාශයක් බලාපොරොත්තු විය නොහැක. අඩුම තරමේ ඉස්කෝලෙක ජිල් බෝල ටීම් එකක ඉඳපු එව්වොන්ටත් ඔය්ට වඩා ක්‍රීඩාව සහ එය්න් ජීවිතයට එකතු කරන හරය සහ වටිනාකම් ගැන අවබෝධයක් තියෙනවාය.

ක්‍රීඩාවෙන් කියා දෙන්නේ ජීවිතයේ තම අරමුණ වෙනුවෙන්  බාධක හමුවේ නොනැවතී ධෛර්යයෙන් ඉදිරියට යාමටය. මාධ්ය ඉදිරියේ තම පුද්ගලික ජීවිතය සම්බන්දයෙන් නාහෙන් අඬමින්  විවිධ පාර්ශව වලට ඇඟිල්ල දගු කිරීම ජාත්යන්තර ක්‍රීඩිකාවකට කිසිසේත් නොවටී..

ක්‍රීඩාව අමතක කරමු. මෙවැනි කතාවක්  අවුරුදු 42 ක් වූ පරිණත වගකීමක් ඇති කාන්තාවක ගෙන් ඔබට බලාපොරොත්තු විය හැකිද?

මගේ නම් අදහස ඔය ගෙවන රුපියල් 60,000 ත් රජයෙන් නවත්තන්න ඕනය.

ඔලිම්පික් පදක්කම බැරිනම් ඕන බඩමාලුවක් විකුණගෙන කාපුවාවේ... අපිට පාන්ද !

මම කඩෙන් ගන්න සීනි පන්සීයට සහ කරවල දෙසිය පනහට ගහන බදු වලින් කොහේවත් ඉන්න සුසන්තිකාල නලවන්නට මට නම් කැසිල්ලක් ඇත්තේම නැත !!!

Nothing Personal !!

Have you ever come across this weird situation when having a conversation with your friends, colleagues or bosses in work place where they keep mention you not to take things personally. It may be a particular incident or a decision they have took or an action they are about to take.

They just want you not to take it personally.

I'm sure you must have got similar experiences.

Wow .. interesting right!  how can i not take something personally which is inevitably affecting my self. I really cannot understand this. May be my microscopic brain is not capable of handling the logic.

Going back to the original statement where you get advised not to take things personally, these people who tell you these stuff thinks that they have the perfect balance between the work life & personal life. These are the kind of people who tells you not to take personal issues to office and not to take office related matters home.

Well if you ask me i would say the whole work-life balancing thing is a big fat lie !

Bitch, i only got one life to live and i don't have split personalities to live two lives (work and personal) which is a mental disorder!

How can you divide things between work &personal life?

I earn from my job and i use my earnings to feed my self and pay my bills and i got in to my job and in current job role because of  what i study and practice as a person.

So how exactly can we draw a line and separate. I honestly don't understand.

If you take me as an example i'm a kind of person who get things done based on the priority level. you may see me working on my office projects on holidays and I may do my banking or shopping in office hours.
Even when i'm at office if i don 't feel like working, I may not work. I would rather work at night in my bed with the highest level of concentration.

So if you are telling me not to take work related stuff too personal, I might tell you to get your split personality ass to hell and give a blow job to the devil him self.
I mean seriously, for me everything which happens around me affecting myself is bloody personal. 
We are not some pre -programmed robots to live two separate lives from 8 to 5 and from 5 to rest of the day.

As humans we cannot do that no matter how hard we try . If you try to  do this by force, you will end up as a fake person who always wears a mask to hide your true feelings.

Lets be honest guys do you really think that you would be able to control your thoughts and be normal to a colleague who did a dispute to yourself and tell you that its nothing personal. You will probably just try to "act" normal. But actually you are not. That 's the human nature and its totally fine.

Another famous quote in cooperate is that "I do not have personal grudges with people, its all work"

My point is you can have as many grudges you want with people.But you cannot categorize them as work related or personal grudges!

Its quite simple either you have grudges over people or you don't.

In my limited span of 27 years in this pathetic world, what i can understand and what i believe is, you cannot take out your profession from your personality separately. In the same way you cannot take out your interests & your personal characteristics out separately from your profession.

All these are combined together as factors which define yourself. 

All these small parts come together to illustrate and interpret a one final product - which is you.

Again that 's my take on it... you all can do what ever the fuck you want with your miserable lives!!!

Happy Birthday Buddha !! (Vesak Special)

Yeeeeeeeees.... Soon before we could finish the laundry of our Awrudu Sarongs and Lungis here comes the Vesak!! 
It means more holidays. Two days of leave followed by the weekend. Dude that's why im in love with this awesome nation.

What comes to my mind when talking about Vesak? Well obviously free food or "Dansal" then the
colorful vesak decorations, lanterns ,"Thorans" across the cities and hot chicks dressed in white!

Oh shit..! I totally forgot about the Birth, the Enlightenment and the Parinibbana (passing away) of the Buddha. 
But who cares about that right...
 I might still go to the temple upon forcing of my parents with trying to recover from the hangover due to Pre- Poya evening drinkle which is very common among us Lankans.

One simple fact which I always  wonder from childhood is why do all the special life events of the Lord Buddha occurs in full moon days (Poya). Starting from Birth , renunciation, Enlightenment, the first sermon,Preaching special Sutras & visiting Sri lanka. All these events happened only on full moon days and we celebrate them as Poyas. 

hmmmm... interesting right, guess nothing special happened on normal days.
Well no offence intended, just trying to point out an interesting fact.

As usual media do their part tremendously well by pouring all the religious bullshit in to people's heads these couple of days. Its like they are trying to transmit the entire teachings of the Buddha (The full Thripitakaya) in a time span of two days one program after another.
Monks are the hot celebs these days & they have the highest demand which surpasses all the actors and politicians.

This is what i see as the most amusing part of the whole spiritual drama embedded with Vesak.
People try to gather virtue or "Pin" for them selves as much as they can in these couple of days by worshiping relics,observing Sil and stuff ,like if it is some kind of a race.
After a solid two days of overdosed preaching, monks go back to their temples exhausted and people carry on with their shitty corrupted lives continuing their sinful habits.

Well im no different in that sense. Im leading a sinful fucked up life my self not giving fuck about the after life, the heaven nor hell. Only thing is that i don't go behind those spiritual bullshit relating to any religion. Fortunately that works for me.

No matter how hard they try to establish the argument that Vesak expresses the spiritual aspect of the Buddhist,Im never going to buy in to that ever.
Its purely a cultural hype nowadays fueled by Buddhist authorities, Monks and Media.Im not telling that its bad or anything. Its kind of good to have a couple of days off from your busy schedules and experience some "dansals".in vesak breeze which comes only once a year.

I think Vesak festival is missing something here. I like to bring it up as an improvement area or a suggestion. why cant we have a unique food item which would be exclusive to Vesak.
Just like Awrudu, Ramadan & Christmas we should have special meals or food items specially for Vesak.
Rather than giving the same old ice cream ,kadala and rice dansals we could have dansals which gives this exclusive food. 

Well im just saying guys.. No matter how fucked up the world is we still have some luscious food all around. Should make the most of it while we are here.

Time to go Dansal hunting!!

Awrudu in Pearl Nation

For most of the Sri Lankans this would be the time to celebrate the transition of the Sun from the House of Pisces to the House of Aries which marks the beginning of Aluth Avurudu.
The whole island is geared up to forget old disputes and welcome the New year on joyous and positive note.Its the time for a new beginning with new hopes.

But fuck that shit right...!! For me Awurdu is non of that. Its all about the time off you get from your Office/School, Unlimited seasonal sweetmeats and of course the time spent with your family. oh.. not to forget the "Extra" Boozing time with the buddies.

I know most of the folks are just like me but they tend to get things more complicated going into the whole Awrudu groove.
Lets start off from Awrudu shopping. Seeing the extensive queues at local textile shops in towns one may wonder whether to whom has the Awrudu come. to people like you and me or to the shop owners.

we have laid ground rules for our selves saying that you must buy new clothes for Awrudu. Otherwise  its considered as a serious crime and you will not be accepted to the civilization and neglected from the society. It has become a dead serious concern among families.Whether you have got your awrudu bonus or not, Got the salaries or not we just need to buy new clothes for Awrudu, End of story... 

I know people who got loans for the season just to get  clothes and stuff to their  kids and relatives back home,Thats fucking retarded.

Don't get me wrong here guys, I have nothing against celebrating Awrudu with new cloths by any means. If you have the wealth  please do buy new clothes not only for the season but for the whole freaking year. Just don't  judge people like me who don't want to spend money at the times when society insists.

The most irritating part for me in Awrudu is closing of  Bars.
For fuck's sake how do they expect us to do a celebration without the most essential party starter of the human race...

But not to worry darlings the good old fathers and uncles of this nation had already stocked just the right amount of liters of Ethanol to survive the Awrudu week.Then there is this occasional over prized black market "Gal Bothal" service in case if you ran out of the stock which is the usual case with me and my friends.


Then the most fucked up part in the season, the auspicious times or the "Nakaths". We have denoted times for every freaking thing we do from Bathing , Cooking ,Taking meals and going to work.
I some times wonder why they don't have auspicious times for  brushing teeth or taking a dump.

The screwed up part is that government is officially driving this by setting up a so called "Rajya Nakath Kamituwa" where bunch of mythological retards giving us times , what to wear and what to eat based on stars, spending millions of public funds.
Not to forget the state sponsored national festivals throughout the week.

Funny part is even these experts in astrology cannot agree on a common auspicious time among them selves. That's what happened this year where these fairy tale morons arguing back and forth on the "official"  auspicious times.

I of course do not even bothered to look at these arguments as i know i'm going to sleep till late and eat what ever is there when i wake up and go for a booze with the amigos later the day. So that's my official  auspicious activities.

Just think, we have been eating "Kiri Bath" in auspicious times for centuries have we gain some thing at least a worth of an ant testicle. The dollar is skyrocketing like never before in the history and all we care about is a cultural brag of 2500 years.


In my opinion "Awrudu" is a concept which stimulates a nostalgia among our selves going back to the this fantasy world of old traditions, That's why people brags more about the "Ape Gama" or the Village life with a cultural delusion.
You can witness this firsthand by simply switching on the television these days. The amount a of promotion done together with scholars.astrologers, actors and singers  just to enjoy this "Old Times" concept is enormous. (This is where the "Ranwala Balakaya" type groups chip in and make

fast buck enough for the whole year)

Since that's non of my business to give any amount of fucks,
I just sit back and enjoy the whole "drama" simply having a bite of Kokis!!