Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Thanks for mobile phones

I think if there is a reason for how people survive in this artificial world, that will be only mobiles. Sri Lankan Tamils are very good at saying hi and goodbye since they have no option. Most of Tamil youth find ways to go abroad just even to survive. Most of the guys complete degrees and even their masters and then they are going abroad and joining as low-level employees. This war made them to lose their ambitions. The guy who invented mobiles must be worshiped. At most times husband will be in Europe or America. The wife will be in Sri Lanka. She might have problems in getting her visa. Sometimes her fate will decide to wait her for more than five years to see her husband after the wedding. So they get a couples package and talks talks talks until the visa comes. Mothers have other options to show their affection. They make dry foods in homes, pack it and then send it to their sons or daughters who are in foreign. So thanks for mobiles and free packages.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

A is A theory

Aristotle developed A is A theory few centuries ago. Simple logic behind this theory is that A cannot be something else at any time. If we take gold, it gets changes from the day it was found. It goes to several persons’ hands and ultimately becomes as a bangle, neckless, wedding ring or a neck chain etc. But basically it is gold.

Humans are just like gold. We get unbelievable changes in our life. Sometimes I ask myself is it me? Just think about our past. Mind of a person is the best diary and it won’t tell lies to us. Sometimes we are too different from our past. A person who had an ambition to become as a doctor may be a business man at present. It doesn’t mean that we don’t like our present. Our interests get changes. Values get changes. Our dressings, lifestyle and even the entire life get changes. Beggars become as millionaires. Millionaires become as beggars. There are incidents where the people who loved us start to hate us and the people who hated start to love us.

The latest way that most of the people prefer in order to make them beauty is changing their skins. Think about Michal Jackson. He got a disease in his skin and there were white dots. It gave an ugly look and then doctors advised him to change his skin that distorted his entire colour in complexion. Most of us don’t know that he was a black several years ago. Changing names is becoming as a norm. People change their names as they like. But remember it doesn’t mean that you become as a new one as you change your name, complexion and life style etc. A is A. It can’t be something else. The people who love you, they do love you accepting your pluses and minuses. There is no best art of living like you.

You might be ugly. You mightn’t have any talents. You might feel lonely. You might think that there is no one even to bother you. But remember still you have one thing. There is no one like you in the world. So you have an identity. If you try to imitate anyone, you lose your identity. Simply A is A, gold is gold and you are you. You cannot be anyone. Believe in the philosophy states no one is there in the world that they can’t do anything. So find your pluses and develop them to show to the world who you are.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Memories of our yard mango tree


This June brings me a lot of memories of our home’s yard mango tree in Jaffna. Usually mango trees bring fruits in this month. Anyhow they start to bloom in April or May. Mango flowers are bunched and almost look like a bouquet. Jaffna is very famous for variety of mangoes. Mango lovers have given several names to those varieties. I can remember a few names which are karutha colomban, Wellai colombam, kilichondu, villatu and ambalavi etc. Youth do not bother much about mango fruits. But they are fans for green ripe mangoes. Eating a ripe mango with the combination of salt and chili power gives the heaven in the earth for most of us. Mango thieves are very popular in this season. There are solemn mango lovers who cut schools, colleges and find ways to steal mangoes from neighbors’’ houses. They are experts in extracting mangoes from the tree by throwing pebbles accurately. Sometimes these pebbles break out the window glasses of neighbors and then you can imagine what will happen next. These mango fights, mango funs and mango thieves are very famous in Jaffna.

Here I should mention about the cuckoo birds and crows. Cuckoos don’t know the mechanism of making nests. So they spend majority of their life in mango or papa trees. In April, trees get a greeny look and bloom. Until this April, cuckoos seem to be quiet and don’t make any sounds. But when April starts, they become joyful and make charming hums. We can see their romans in trees. Crows also find mango trees intending to taste their sweet fruits. As these trees are very large and shadowy, they find it comfortable to make nests there. In April or May they start to construct their nests by dried leaves and other wastages. Both cuckoos and crows are supposed to put eggs in these months. Since cuckoos have no way, they find crows’ nests to put up eggs. But the female crow will be in the nest always. Again cuckoos must find a way to cheat the crow. So male cuckoo sits in the tree where the crow’s nest is constructed and continuously makes sound to irritate the crow. Crow gets angry and goes out to chase the cuckoo. Using this opportunity the female cuckoo goes inside and puts the eggs into the nest. Since these eggs are almost same in the shape and colour, crow believes that the eggs are its own. Both these birds are black and almost similar in appearance. So the crow looks after the chick cuckoos without knowing the truth. When chick cuckoos grow up, they make different sounds from chick crows. Then crow realizes the truth and chases the chicks out of nest. The crow will almost intend to kill the chick cuckoos after it realized the truth. Anyhow they will escape from the situation. There are incidents where the cuckoo babies go inside people’s houses and then they are looked after by men. After a few days they will release the bird.

In this month, crows should have started to chase the chicks out of nests in Jaffna. In April, May and June the life will be almost going with mango trees. The nature is undividable from Jaffna life. But we have seriously lost our real life with war. Most of us are staying in Colombo, Europe, USA and of course all over the world and recalling our past. There is no doubt that you are having mango memories. And obviously we do miss them.