Rats and Rat Chase

If I don't say something about rats having hated cats for their killing spree, the spirit of this blog site is not complete.

Before that I must talk about the squirrels.

They are very intelligent and watchful (scientific in many ways) and social animals.

They are the first to alert of any danger and Pol Kittcha is the other guy.
They work in tandem when cats and snakes are around.

I have looked after many orphaned squirrels as a kid and gave it up after two major incidents.
1. The cat (killing one of my favorite squirrels)
2. When they are uprooted from their environment they become dependent and vulnerable to infections and one day I found in it's nest thousands of tiny flea like creatures to which I did not have any remedy.
With advancing age I realized that they deserve to go back and since then every squirrel or animals saved were nursed back to nature.

If you do not have cats at home one can get them (squirrels) to feed from your hand like pigeon and they love cheese like any cat.

Furthermore, do not have bird table if you have cats at home.

We have decimated our house sparrows and I am still wondering why they disappeared in little over 20 years.

We cannot improve nature but we can make "live and let live" a simple principle.

Never ever try to improve nature knowing man is the biggest polluter and destructer of all living beings including man himself.

There is a house nearby where there is a bird table and I have often seen when house is empty the cats from the neighborhood ( including the cats of the same house catch birds).

They are not Buddhist but I often wonder this is one way to feed the hungry cats when they are away?

I never talk to them at the same breath as here but warn them and report them I have seen cats catching the birds and don't leave food when they are away on the bird table.

This is where I want to write about wastage of food (the have's) in a lighter vein but perhaps not except stating that my house is a classic example (I have been trying to make them understand for ages).

Now that coconut is fifty and tea is double the price and sugar and milk are up I make sure one article is in short supply always (I wish all of them to get the message in full).

Slowly but surely I am getting the message across through necessity.

Before I forget India loses 40% of its grain to rats every year.

It is far better for them to not to send their children to America for further study and corrupt them but get them to do some ongoing research to minimize this and invest some I.P.L money to have this trend arrested and bring food prices down for the down trodden people who do not watch cricket.

They have done wonders for us and our team now even cannot make even 100 in text cricket.

Please kill our cricket in full then we won't have corrupt politicians pulling strings behind the scene.

I wish English to white wash them in this series and (even without that we are going down precipitously) nobody can arrest the corrupt practices of politicians and their stooges at all levels which has ruined our cricket.

I was one of those who believed only way to arrest these corrupt practices (certainly not ICC is made corrupt by IPL already) for us to lose and lose and then only few who love the game will play (like England County Cricket- Good example is Thescovisk of England) and without much crowd watching except the friends who join at the pup/bar after the game.

In that case we can also go and watch cricket without a ticket like good old days with plenty of beer from saved (to purchase the ticket) money.

I am in the minority but sports should be for fun (not to destroy one physically) and not to make one fabulously rich and lose touch with common sense.

I am way off the title but that was done deliberately ( I am not going to write on cricket any more than what I stated above and I have totally lost interest due to how it has become so corrupt) since what I am going to say from now onwards is not very appealing for healthy being.

There are people on this earth who eat bats, squirrels and rats too.
There are rats bigger than some cats in India and some cats fear them.
We have of course big political rats of all shades.

I must mention here if anybody find a remedy for rat population he will get the next Nobel prize.

I have seen rats in London Underground and now I believe they have made connections with rats from France who do not speak English through the channel tunnel.

This was a big achievement of Mrs.Thathcr and the idea was to get the message across through underground rats who will tell the French that English originated from French.

Very clever political deal.

I am one who believes that rats fly through Trans Atlantic Airways to America from France and have made some good connection with American diplomatic rats without WiKiLeak tapes.

If not passenger flights, they are flying to America on cargo planes without having to get Visa from America or tickets for the flight.

They will have their head quarters near those hotels where IMF bosses play Pick a Boo.

I am told that the next IMF boss's, one of the first priority jobs is to meet the rats alliance to discuss food storage in USA.

There is a grand wold alliance of rats and they have a party every time the new candidate for Republican party is declared.

They (rats) now know that American are the best food wasters of the world

I will list them and finish with how I used squirrels to complete with the rats.

1. I had to dissect rats with bare hands in school (please do not take this as a rag. Now present undergraduate needs spoon feeding about leadership roles, which they will never get with the present constitution which is amended for third round of elections).

2. It was uphill task to find one from the Municipality (there were rat catchers employed and some of them are now candidate for local elections after retiring fro their of posts and many of them are in the ruling party.

3. I once killed a rat in my rage for damaging a plastic top of tin of baby milk powder imported during 1989 dark days.

4. His companion I could not kill but escaped. I never so that rat who was terrified.

5. I was angry I missed the other one.

6. Then when the anger subsided, I asked myself why have you done that.

7. Plastic Micky Mouse Picture hanging on the wall told me a different story.

8. What is the different from a squirrel. They almost look the same except the ugly long tail.

9. There should be a method to control not to kill.

10. Make the house rat friendly or is it not friendly.

Now I am a Mickey Mouse convert and my daughter was less than six months then and am I able to tell her that I kill a rat because of a tin of milk with plastic top?

Shall I bring my children animal friendly?

Not due to religion but simple logic tells me that I have no right to kill or destroy any life.

Will I make them vegetarian?

In ten minute of contemplation, I was a different person.

The next stage was to use my observation habits.
I looked for all the dwelling places of rat.

My rat research started, then and there.
It is based on rat friendly theme.

1. Baby Food were stored in either fridge or in steel cupboard.

2. Rat poison was banned from the house on the pretext of lest the children be poisoned.

3. No rat traps

4. Store less food

5. Clean regularly and meticulously

6. Do not leave food out in the open, be that it may be, bin, table or kitchen.

7. Cats were prohibited but one landed on a rainy day.

8. There were lot of opposition but I was the master of ceremony in charge.

9. After many months of perseverance and observation I finally realized that rats never have their nests where squirrels were nesting. There was healthy competition and squirrel made sure that rats are chased especially when young are nursed.

10. Rats make nest in total darkness, whereas squirrels need lot of day light.

Final conclusion no food no rats and if you have food put them in tight plastic or steel compartments.

90% of our problem was solved.

Never ever keep your house /rooms not occupied a single day.
Every time you are out they know you are out they have a party late at night, like after the declaration of candidacy for next American Presidency.

There is a misconception that cats can see in total darkness and catch rats. The reason that rats prefer nocturnal activity is due to the fact cats cannot see in total darkness. Cats have dark adaptation and ability to reflect light (photons) that had not impinged upon rods.
Similar reflecting mechanism is used in roads to reflect light and that is why they are called cat's eyes.

In addition cats have long whiskers to guide them in dim light or total darkness.

So not feeding cats at night expecting them to catch rats is a total misconception.

However, Ceylon Civet (now Famous Kala Waddas) is better at hunting rats at dim light than cats.

So it is better to have a Kala Wadda instead of cat at home but they are very secretive animals and avoid humans at all cost!


In Sri-Lanka rats come for a party only on President's House where food is thrown at lib.

In our houses food is becoming scarce and most of our rats are hitchhiking to America. They do not prefer to go to India because of IPL.

The best way (Sri-Lankan way) to control rats is for us to eat less bread and rice.

We are on that pathway now.

India can follow us without feeding their rats with stored grain.

Or else they should eat them without sending them across the Palk Straight for our consumption and make poor Indian strong enough to play IPL cricket (not test cricket).

Kandy the so called Heritage

Below is a reproduction of a verse / poem posted at www.writeclique.net few years ago.

Reason for reproduction is now even a squirrel does not have the trees in jumping range.

See the preceding blog why I hate cats?

Somebody recently poisoned the monkeys in Kandy City.

Just to illustrate the fact that there were more monkeys in this city I have reproduced it.

Monkeys in business suits now have taken over the city.


Reproduction is below

Years gone by
Five centuries to the count
Where the present lake stands
Were the paddy fields that stretched
To the far corners of the valley
Forming the rice basin of the hill country


The commoner garden
Name for the city was Bogambara
Which literally meant
The valley with plenty (of water and produce)
Of bo (plenty), gam (village) bara (belonging)
Was a place of homage to the Dhamma Raja
The Buddha


Then there were more monkeys
Than human beings dwelling in the mountains
That stretched from Knuckles to Hantana range
And the monkeys could reign
The tree tops
Without ever climbing down


Though the palace was built
More than five centuries ago
The lake that is rudiment
Of its former majesty
But thrice as big as it today
Was built by the last King of Senkadagala,
The Rajasinghe


With the ascent of the British
The city lost its majesty
One end of the lake
Left to be filled up
And the other end of the lake
Becoming the Bogambara stadium
With a prison nearby
Leaving behind a legacy
Sans the beauty and serenity
Of the Wadawasam age


The forest range
That overshadowed
The southern belt
Was cleared up rapidly,
Roadways and railways built around
With most of the old monuments
Demolished except a few
A British design was planted
With an armory of offense
To the west of the city


A half a century ago
When I went for
A cold bath in my birthday suit
To Raja Pihilla, the King's fountain
My mum had to worry about
Only the monkeys who descent down
To pinch our bright coloured cloths


Just in the last quarter century
With monkeys in business suits
Taking over the city
On a so called tourist drive
The lake that is reclaimed or filled
With more and more of filth and rubbish
Without any semblance or regard to aquatic life
Is it a living monument to the modern age pollution?


In fifty years from now
With the wanton destruction
Of the remaining rain forest of mother Lanka
The rains failing and the rivers drying
The lake would be a muddy field
Yet again,
Back to its original self


But million dollar question would be
Who would plough the fields?
With all the business monkeys
By then,
Would have
Left the city of Kandy

Asoka

Why I hate Cats

I hate cats from my childhood.

The day our cat caught my squirrel and killed it I started hating all cats including our cat (never my cat in my vocabulary).

I cried and got hold of the tail of the cat and trashed her on the floor till my anger subsided but felt short of killing her.

The cat got the message and would not come near me and then one day I handed over her to one of my aunts whose house had lot of rats.

I cannot remember having a cat till late in my life.

Then we had two orphaned male cats one was killed by a dog and other was poisoned and dished out during Perehara for supper.

My daughter looked after 33 litters (she had counted) in her childhood and the last litter she came and told me that all five of them were blind to a different degree.

The had no defense from Kala Waddas (Ceylon Civet) and we looked after them in a cage and were disposed and I told her no more caring for cats (litters).

This year, New year's eve I found three kitten in an open area of the house (neighbor's cat) not protected by civets.

My decision was wait till they are bigger and dispose them quickly.

I frightened the mother cat (thinking she may take them away) but she was cunning and secretly come and go but not caring for the litter but found her catching birds in a nearby house.

Then she did not come to feed for three days and I found one dead and two others just surviving.

Called a yesteryear servant girl now a big woman and told her to take them away and give them to somebody with two small packets of milk vitamin enriched and cash for another big packet (now over Rs.300/=).

Today I was watching over my cup of tea and there we over 10 young squirrels come out of the nest due to rain. Many of them were barely able to jump and their mothers did not had any control over them.

I knew the worse would happen.

One missed the jump and fell over 40 feet down and before I could reach, the cat had already caught it.

The irony here is there are very few trees below that would have prevented the young squirrel from landing on the ground . Thirty (30) years ago when we moved here there were many trees and during this period at least 7 jack trees were felled in addition to other trees.

This is what we call development in Buddhist Style.
Before the turn of the last century monkeys would go from Hanathana Range to Knuckles range without ever climbing down to the ground and then there were more monkeys than business monkeys of present.

Read my verse on Kandy the so called heritage


That is it; killers in my neighborhood.

To my surprise there were 4 cats guarding below watchfully.

I could not believe westerners love them and feed them and there was an old woman in America, neurotic about the lost cats and not the house.

People are saying how cute when one cat was found.

Unlike dogs they can fend themselves in the wild and they are wild animals domesticated and never can be trained not to kill.

The other reason I hate them is they steal food.

Cat in the neighborhood come and secretly drink my dog's milk.

Now I sit with him till he finishes.
My dog deliberately leave them for the cats (probably learned from me).

1. They kill (not appropriate for Buddhist ethics) birds, squirrels and rats and any animal at their disposal
2. They steal (not appropriate for Buddhist ethics)
3. They can be never trained
4. They know how to coax
5. They make very ugly noise in the night
6. They urinate on linen.
7. Their scat has an awful smell
8. They are never at home but always at the neigbour's house stealing
9. They breed so often
10. Above all they are nuisance to the neighbors
11. They never look after our household

I think we should have a cat's law (we have a law for dogs- why don't we round the cats up and kill them since they also transmit Rabies) for Cat Buddhists.

But our cat's law goes like this, Yes it is my cat but I did not ask him or her to kill or steal: it is it's (their) instinct to help Cat Buddhists and Cat Philosophy.

I call it my cat logic or catelogic (how it is pronounced in typical Sri-Lankan Style!)

They perpetuate catalogue of errors of discretion.

We Buddhists in Sri-Lanka have bizarre law and ethics and very selfish too.

I cannot think of anything good except the purring.

Sri-Lankan keeps cats and they never feed them.

They say if they feed them they won't catch the mice ( I must call them Cat Buddhists to add to my list of Buddhists in Sri-Lanka) at night but go and give Bodhi Puja every weekend.

I feel like killing my neighbors (this feeling was there for the last 30 years) having cats and not feeding them but until now I have resisted it.

The Common misinterpretations of a Pali Verse that states the body decays but the Name and the Tribe does not

This verse I have heard many politicians of yesteryear utter in tandem with political speeches, I often wonder from where it originated.

This has nothing to do with Buddhism or Dhamma.

Somebody with knowledge with Pali had coined this verse and all politicians of yesteryear and present use this as a phrase to propagate his or her name and tribe. This is how the post-colonial culture and politics developed.

“Rupam Jirati Majjanam (Body decays)

Nama Gottam Najirathi” (nmae and tribe do not)

The face value seems all Buddhist in nature but its implication in modern day is really disruptive to the nature of Dhamma as stated in the Tripitaka (the Three Baskets).

There is no problem with the first statement.

The second statement destroys the whole tenet of Dhamma in its entirety.

In Buddhist phenomenology self (Nama or Soul) does not exist and the tribe (Gothra) is an illusion that originate from the above wrong premise.

I have to restate the same with my own invention as below.

The meaning I am trying to derive at is that the Mind State does not vanish at death but (Patisandhi) re-link with the next Bhava using Kamma as the vehicle or the driving force.

Rupam Jirati Majjanam

Nama (means Mind here) Kittam (means Kamma) Najirathi

(The Gotham is substituted with Kittam-Kriya)

In Abhidhamma context it is realistic to use the above version of the verse (even though I am not a Pali scholar) to express the conditional existence of Bhava. The term Nama Rupa (stated above in first chapter) occurs frequently in Abhidhamma and Nama is used interchangeably with the Mind. The term for body is corporeality and not Rupa in Pali context.

Who perpetuated this myth is immaterial but the damage it has done is enormous. In that context writing something of my own contradicting the statement is appropriate even though it is a departure from the original tenets of this book.

This I think originated with the British rule. It is common for us to blame the British for every little mishap we are going through in our modern history. But this one is a direct antecedent. They are the one who started naming the streets even in Kandy with British names of inheritance and their Governors. All the streets in Colombo have some relevance to British authorship. In their tradition it is a normal and is all welcome by every British administrators big and small.

What went wrong was that we adopted this tradition without scrutiny in the post-colonial period and continue to do so even now. Instead of naming the street with some meaningful road traditions like main street, cross street, first lane or second lane we started adapting our own names. Politicians in turn for their gain started naming these streets with the names of their kith and kin. They invented and used the above jargon riddled Pali verse for the propagation of the political agenda.

Even though the tradition is British the wrongful doing is our own ill vision, political patronage and heritage.

Buddhism and its Corruption

1. Buddhism has been corrupted and hijacked by many.

2. This probably included the modern day writing.

3. Buddhist text are enormous

4. It is unlikely that one has time and resources to delve deep into its tenets.

5. Biggest division and argument (Vada) are Theravada and Mahayana

6. There is no centralizing theme to home in.

7. I believe one can extract the core values, key words and concepts if one is not entangled with modern concepts.

8. Best way to master Buddhism is to learn and master Pali (interpretation is very difficult). There are very few Pali scholars left currently.

It has almost become a dead language.

Sinhala has killed Pali in its entirety.

Reviving Pali is of utmost importance.

9. Untangling the tangled is my objective (This was true in Buddhas time too).

Brahmajala Sutta (Bikku Bodhi) is the best if one is to discover the tangle and then to untangle oneself.

10. I feel I am less entangled or confused (even though I have kept my own interpretations based on my big / little ignorance of Pali) now that I have put them into English words.

This is for one who has never known it and wants to have some grip with it. I hope I have not confused anybody in this endeavour.

Unfortunately we now have very few erudite.

Below is how I see Buddhism evolved in this little country over the past 50 to 60 years and how it is getting corrupted by the day.

1. Eggo (eggs and not ego-there is no ego in true Buddhism) Buddhists

This is something as a little brat not even going to nursery school I have heard and seen at first hand.

There was an intense debate over eating eggs before and during 1956 (2550 celebrations ) and the Eggo Buddhists won the day.

Their argument was that we Buddhists can eat eggs as long as we eat the eggs not fertilized by a cock.

This is where cock's right to sex is violated; not any cock but the bird's variety.

We are cock sure that every egg we eat is not fertilized before our consumption and we can see it through the shell with penetrative mind cultivated in meditation and some cultured meditative instincts.

This is where cocks rights are violated by default and cocks are not allowed to screw since if they do that we Buddhists won't be able eat eggs.

This is the cork screw solution we extend to non-Buddhist rearing animals (for our consumption and if we Buddhist are not there to consume the products they lose a livelihood) and birds for food.

The logic of it pops out like a cork screw of a campaign bottle.

With this point of confirmation we Buddhist over the next 50 years evolved the modern Buddhism to even kill fellow beings in the name of a Nation and National build up.

2. Then came the Mujja Pama Dharshaya which culminated during the period of Mrs. Kumaranatunge where the highest amount of alcohol was on sale and produced except wine.
This is coming out of the 5 precepts where one takes intoxicating beverages and depends on one's liver's powerful enough biochemical mechanisms to detoxify them and as long as one does not show signs of intoxication it is not a bad thing (corollary is little bit is OK).
The rationale here is one must train the liver to identify alcohol early enough ideally during pregnancy and then when the big match (cricket the national game) comes one must train the teenagers to indulge on it. If the training is done early one can consume alcohol even on the Dalada Perehara (except elephants on 4 legs) and specially on May Day Perehara.

3. The third one is the most powerful economic wise. Arogyasala Lottery or the Hospital Lottery introduced around 1956 and this has now progressed in 50 years to Lotto Game (Universal National Game of the poor) and extend even up to World Cup and I.P.L cricket and bidding of players.

4. Then come the Casino. The owner can be a Buddhist as long as the players are not Buddhists.

All the above are for the powerful Buddhist in the Colombo 7 and around.

5. Sri-Lankan Ego Buddhists with copyright to Thera-Vada.
Now that the sole authority (copyright) on Buddhism is on Sinhalayas and there is a category of Buddhists who protect the copyright of Buddhism (without practicing precepts and principles) of Theravada, come what it may and promote practices exclusively mentioned below and resistant to spread of Buddhism to other nations and countries and monopolizes Theravada (spreading Vada or argument for this monopoly for commercial consumption).

The rest of the five are for the followers.

6. Bodhi Puja Variety and is the most popular one.
This is the category who get round the Bodhi or the sacred pipal tree (not papal or pupal or phallus) chanting and pouring milk on it roots (which leads to rotting of the aeriel roots and the tree prefers dry or arid soil with roots growing very deep in search of underground water).
This chanting is done without understanding the difference of water and milk to a living tree.

7. The Chicken Buddhists
The next variety is the most common. If you ask them do you eat meat. They say no, no and not for beef but if you prompt and what about fish and chicken, they come out with the circular theory and logic that broilers live for 42 days and if it was killed on the 41st day and we actually contribute to its welling and it's misery terminated and helps them to evolve into better life next time (one day earlier) by making a hungry human being happy at meal time.

This was the best philosophical tenet that evolved from Eggo-Buddhists to modern Tech and Computer Buddhists.

The answer for fish is fodder for another fish in the food chain and Man is the last in that chain because we are terrestrial and the fish on a muddy pool is saved from cranes and they have no business to be on our soil or terrestrial footing anyway.

8. The next is the confused Buddhist like me where part of me is ancient Buddhist thinking and the other part is modern but with age catching up with my intellectual interpretation I am becoming more and more of an ancient Buddhist good for an ornamented coffin, in few years time.

The last two if I try to explain fully I will be expelled from this blessed country like the Buddhist monk who wrote poems instead of Gatha in ancient times, the Vidhagama Rahula Thera who ended up as a saint in Mumbai (Goa).


9. Political Buddhists in the Parliament

10. National Buddhists in the Army

11. International Buddhists

12. and above are the emerging Buddhists from ashes (of ruined practices) of Phoenix, some of whom are already in Parliament and devising various means to make Buddhism more and more difficult to understand and is good only for foreigners (international Buddhism but not for simple practice-practicing Buddhists) with various cults.

12. Cat Buddhists
Recently I have added this item to.
Details elsewhere; these are Buddhists who keep cats starved at night to make them catch rats.
Little they know cats cannot see in total darkness.

Freeman

Freeman

Let my mind
Toy and joy with
With compassion, kindness and equanimity
Let it be that nobody
Believe in something
Since it is
The tradition to do so
Or it is in the scriptures
Or it is hearsay
Heresy
And my teacher said so

Let there be no bias
Towards a notion
Specious reasoning
Faith
Liking
Soothing to the ear
For repeated hearing
Do not go upon
By rumour
Nor upon surmise
Nor upon a lovely axiom
Or just by pondering over
But by ones own realization
Greed, hate and ignorance
Are not the root causes?
The birth, decay and death
Are the miseries

And until one knows
By oneself
That what must be done?
Has been done
There is no more to be done
No more to come
The life has been exhausted.
Truly
The freedom is achieved
From within

Mind boggling question

Mind boggling question

Mind is
Fluid
Frequently
Flying
To reach
A distant goal
Flitting
And Fleeing
Why not call
It a mystery?
Which it is

Instead of the
Ill conceived
Ill understood
All abiding
All encompassing
Term called consciousness
Which truly
Is a misnomer par excellence

Dream-02 and its interpretation from Heaven

Edited some grammatical mistakes but the content was not altered.

I think my predictions are real now not futuristic.

Maha Brahma had got it slightly wrong but I stand correct!

Currently Buddhist monks want to be like lay persons and politically active without even Andana Kada in high streets.

Whereas, Buddhist laymen/women practice Metta and not hatred except Wira Wansa and Holman Pila an P. (P stands for Kunuharupa he utters in broad day light, his mother is turning in her grave) Vasu!
 
Dream two (2) of course is a fragmented dream.
 
The full version was dreamt for me (until he takes over the spell cast on me) by Maha Brahma.

Part One of the dream goes like this

1. I was given huge load of linen by some godforsaken guy and he came to collect it soon after giving me a call.

2. At the time of the call the top part of the bundle which was 4 by 6 foot size an 6 foot in height (which appeared to me like bedsheets) was in disarray and fallen sideways and leaning on the doorway and preventing the door being opened when the guy comes to collect the load.

3. I was rearranging the lot and with the sound of the telephone I was woken up.



Before the interpretation was released Maha Brahma asked me a question.

Why are you sending half of a dream, he asked?

Sir, this was a armchair dream and mind you it is a day time dream?

Why are you dreaming at day time?

I could not help, Sir.

We are on industrial action and we have given up our headships and the head chair was empty and I sat on it to see how it feels like without administrative work like filling e-forms and mundane stuff like timetable for students and annual calender.

Then the head's telephone rang and I was woken up.
I was annoyed that the dream was interrupted rudely but unfortunately for me there was nobody to answer the call.

Did you answer the call?

No Sir.
Why?

It is head's telephone if I answer it, I will be in trouble.

Why?

If the guy on the other side is from FUTA, he might think I am secretly working.

If the guy on the other side is from the Ministry, he might mark another stupid head is working and add to his statistics.

The beauty is that lot of guys who never had an opportunity to sit on this big chair (like our politicians wanting to sit on high chairs of others when they are sleeping) to see how it feels like and when a call comes unlike me, answer it.

Even before caller's call ends, guy says, wants to be head speaking for head.

It must be a lucrative post for aspiring candidates.

No Sir it is only Rs.1000/= and not even enough to pay the monthly telephone bill and we pay from over pocket, the telephone bill.

Or I see.

Why then people want to be heads?

It is a very good and open question Sir but I think it is a dress rehearsal for becoming a politician, I believe .

Sir, can you tell me the full dream.

Part Two of the dream.

Mind you I like your futuristic dreams shall we make some arrangement for the first part for you to dream and the second part for me to dream and it saves me reading a long email.

No problem Sir, till our industrial action is over we will be dreaming of a pay hike and dreaming is our objective proposal and vision for miracles in this country, like Martin Luther King, we do like to dream even day time now.

He told me the setting is not at your home but at the laundry.

The guy who was dreaming had come to collect the dues (linen) after 3 months on credit card (that is the time laundry takes no responsibility for the clothes).
  
He could not pay for the bill.
 
He was a professor of Political Science.  

Unfortunately had not got any salary hike he dreamed of, for 10 years.

Then before he pays the bill, the guy who gave the first load has given him a second load and that is the reason for it falling sideways.

If the dream was continued the guy gets a heart attack and dies at the laundry.

Was it me Sir?

No you stupid?

These are futuristic dreams not current.

Then?

The guy is a Professor of Political History of Sri-Lanka and this is ten years from now.

Had I let you dream the rest of the dream you would have had a heart attack and die in your armchair (dream).

I saved you in nick of time.

But what's the point Sir, the way the things are developing in this country we do not have to dream.

We Know for certain we won't get anything for our lifetime.

That is not the point.

If you die I won't get these lovely dreams.

I love them and if you go who is going to dream for me for the first half of the dream.

It is my hobby and I won't die for eons unlike you!

I am going to have this fun only till you live and Aryubovan (Long Life) for You.

Sir, there are 20 million people here.

We dreamed that we bring the world cup home for the second time round but we did not.

Those dreams are mediocre and not futuristic like yours and lasts only a day and people get on with their work as nothing has happened.

But pay hikes are our daily dreams not only of professors Sir.
Every Sri-Lankan who is able is dreaming of a pay hike.

Only problem is politicians do not see that way.

Sir, can you pass one of these lethal dreams to the treasury secretary and let him dream it in full, instead of me.

That is criminal, know?

But if he goes millions will be happy millions times (we made billion in India to be happy by losing the World Cup and we deserve a pay hike at least at Indian Level) and there will be pay hikes!

Well I will see about it and in any case he is in the geriatric age group isn't he?

I got to go.

Interpretation.

It is 10 years from now.

1. Global warming has peaked to 38 F and there is no alcohol (no yeast-no alcohol-the song no woman no pain- theme is adopted to no alcohol no fun) except imported in this country. 
The imported stuff is available in international institutions and hotels.

2. There is no rain for two years.

3. All rivers have run dry

4. Coal power for 2 hours at night for email services only for booking air tickets etc.

5. No laundry services at hotels.

6. People are asked not to wear anything like IMF boss while in hotels.

7. There is no air conditioning

8. There are no maids for cleaning especially in the International Buddhist Institute.

9. Buddhist monks are permitted to wear only the Andana Kadas by the hierarchy at International Buddhist Institute. 
There is a big Vada (argument ) developing to wear or not to wear Andana Kada.

10. Some get heat strokes while in meditative mode in the tiny cubicles.

The laundry load was Andana Kada from the International Institute.

Action necessary to prevent this scenario.

Grow trees in Colombo instead of developing international Hotels!

This applies to Kandy too.

To be a more Kindly Kindle

To be a more Kindly Kindle

E-book was something I was looking for for sometime and expecting them to come down in price so that even school kids can use them.

I have many reason and some of them are special and related to disability.

People are not born equal and many have minor or major disabilities.
Visual handicap is one theme, I have been interested and it looks like I myself come into that category with the type of typos I make on daily basis.
I hate making mistakes especially typos but it has become a common occurrence.
Thank god their is spell checker but sometimes I feel spell checker itself is a handicap.

One has to keep on checking the word and the meaning and many a time, mainly due to oversight, they keep appearing and re-reading ones own writing is not something I fancy.

I have to do this on daily basis.

Most of these mistakes are due to small fonts and the distance between ones eye and the monitor, which is basically a physical relationship and not a handicap by itself.

Having worked with children and elderly with multiple disabilities the scope becomes much bigger in here in my writing.

1. Physical-Hand Eye coordination (keyboard and monitor)

2. Various degree of visual handicap including age related.

3. Hearing Difficulty

4. Various types of dyslexia

5. Many other disabilities including language.

I take language as a major handicap to use computers (English) and programng language is one of the most significant. Visual basic has made some impact but I think it has not done enough to integrate with natural language which is basically written or spoken.

I will concentrate here on written and spoken.

This is where Amazons should make giant step.

The ipod is killing its entry into main stream but ipod and the hifi gadgets are for the able and busy bodied rich guys and girls.

In my case I have so many books which I have read and many I keep for reference since library facilities especially in English books are vanishing species now with Swabasha emphasis on government schools.

It has become problem with taking lot of space and I do not want to make my living quarters a library.

I prefer big open space.

If I can take all my books out and put all that into a Kindle that is the last think I wish in my life.

Then I can take everything out of my room cum study or donate them to a school or university library.

When I want to fish a book or an article it takes ages sometimes days since the last time I made some in depth study of that material may be 5 or 10 years ago.

Facts are vivid in my memory with minor memory failure (almost normal in nature) and a bit hazy in some areas that need either clearing or refining.

If the kindle can do that with the help of the publishers and coordinate e-phasing (that is a new word I am coining here) my library of books it would be a blessing for my kith and kin in my absence.

My mother who passed away on 92 had wonderful memory of Dhamma which she had read and understood better than me.

She knew all the verses by heart.
In my case I never by heart, but remember where it came from, book or volume or article and refer them (that is my scientific way of approaching a problem) as often as can be when the need arises and get the meaning into ordinary English, not scholarly adage.

Brevity and simplicity is my attempt but vary rarely succeed in doing so since Dhamma has meaning beyond its general appearance at face level and is sometimes so succinct I miss the point in my deliberations.

She lost the ability and interest in reading almost suddenly.

Then whenever I get an opportunity I flick a page and start reading from some leading stem read and she recite the rest with my initial prompt.

Then I tell her the meaning, which is the most difficult part and the higher level of cognition.

Unfortunately Dhamma is for the extremely intelligent (she is intelligent enough and there are no arguments developing in these very brief dispensations but occasionally she alerts me if I am off the target a lot).

This was a two way process since she had read thousand times more than me.
The procedure ends that she knows it better attitude even though I had some major disagreements in content.

They were supplemented with TV, radio and cassettes and not books.

From reading stage she went to listening stage.

Then her memory started failing (short term) and things like she had eaten or had a drink but till the very late stages could recite but concentrate on few verses of four in spite of the disorientation in time and used to sleep (very lucky) a lot.

This is where kindle would have been helpful.

If Kindle had all the verses and the sound to go with, it would have been a big boost to her moral.

In her lucid intervals it could have been a nice companion.

So kindle could be a lovely companion for elderly gentlemen/women in retirement.

Equally it would be intellectual boost for kids, especially the handicapped.


The biggest obstacle was the price and now it has broken the sound barrier so to speak of market philosophy and could be affordable in the third world too.

Another venture would be in different language.
Imagine if they can introduce it to mainland China.
Like breaking the sound barrier Kindly should break the language barrier too.