Dog sense and Mine (observation)

Dog sense and mine

Dog has astute sense.

I do not have that sense but I have the power of simple observation.

I was walking down the road and all the Paraya (stray) dogs were agitated and barking.

All of them know me well.

All of them including the Yorkshire Terrier (abandoned by the master) were very friendly with me.

I just say hello to them, even the most "horryfied" (not the English meaning but the Sinhala translation for horry-the unwelcome skin disorder of all Paraya dogs) one get my attention.

I paused a bit and looked around but saw nothing unusual.

My fifth sense ignited, an extra diligent observation was warranted.

No strangers (dogs kind) have ventured into the area inadvertently.

Then the intensity of the uproar increased and I saw two policemen coming down from a nearby steep foot path.

The oldest dog with one canine missing, with his back to the policemen (in case of aggression by the intruder) was barking at full pitch and volume and cunningly, its frontal (face) partially hidden with the remaining canine clearly visible to the policemen.
The message was clear, "I got one tooth lost and the remainder (canine) has its biting power reduced but I am 80 years old" (human age-the dog age is 16 plus) respectable and wise enough to know a human from a vulture.

I could not stop laughing to myself, since I cannot show my bare back to any XUxx, with or without a hat.

Then when, I reached the bus stop there were two policemen in the boutique, where I usually have a "banana treat" and feed the two adorable dogs who welcome in style and kind.

I looked around to see them.
They have vanished.

Corollary
If you are a foreign visitor and if you do not see stray dogs, please avoid that area.
There is some inherent danger.
Either police or thieves.

So I avoided entering the boutique and reached Kandy to see an altercation of an old man and two women constables both without identity badge (one probably was a reserve).

He was refusing to show his identity card to the officer supposed to be without a badge.

I told myself not only dogs who hate police but vagabonds, too.

My approach toned down the altercation and he paced up away from the two WPCs.

I paced myself to him and gave a friendly advice in a soft but affirmative manner.

This is the period, one sees more policemen than average visitors to the city.

Some of their behaviour is atrocious.

I have seen a policeman urinating in the open, right in front of a mixed school, fortunately (for the policeman) or unfortunately (for me) I did not have a camera.

This is a city some of our Paraya dogs cross the road only at pedestrian crossings and school children are like the policeman mentioned above.

I think (children) they have taken a cue from the law officers.

I avoid the city or find a short cut, if I do visit.

Generally, I avoid the city for the entire duration of the festival.

It is a welcome change to my routines but you will miss many of my observations on the RUN or on the FLY.

Sorry for that.

One more joker (in police parlance) less in the city is better for the ambiance.

Thousand and Two reasons why our Wild Elephants would become extinct

Thousand and Two reasons why our Wild Elephants would become extinct

As I stated in the previous blog piece that I wanted the Elephant Saga to be my 1001th piece and it should coincide with the annual Esala Perehara (Kandy Pageantry).

What I wanted write here was inspired by a wooden craft in display at bargain price.

It was given at half price.

Why?

It originally had three pieces (three elephants).

The tusker, the mother and the baby.

What was left?

Two and one tusk missing.

Mother had been taken away forcibly (stolen)

It ashamed me, just the pity look of it, probably a Sri-Lankan kid had done this damage to a  wonderful piece of Kandyan craftsmanship.

My guess, he could have been a son of a Ganga Grower, who has visited the city with ill gotten money with his son unsupervised (or supervised to see that there was nobody on the floor, so that he could practice, a broad day light break in and stealing) who accomplised the ruthless task of disfiguring a figurine in display. 

Having seen his father doing that in the jungle, he was probably practicing, the skills on a dummy.

The father and the Jim-band would have been proud of his skill.

I have another pray for this season.

i want it to rain for ten days (there are draught stricken regions in this country). the entire period of the festival.

One and only one reason.

Poor elephants (babies) burn their feet on hot tar roads.
I want the rain to cool their feet and body.

Elephants love water, it is their play mate.

Thousand and One reasons why our Wild Elephants would become extinct

Thousand and One reasons why our Wild Elephants would become extinct

I want my blog piece of 1001 to be on elephants, not the domesticated ones but the wild and neglected lot.

Unfortunately, I was looking for a blog piece I made for www.wrteclique.net but this site has been vandalized by a rival party.

To be precise, I think it is the Sir-Lankan government.

I was looking for a little piece, that I copied from somewhere (probably from a book) that illustrated how American Banks cheat their little tiny toddler customers.
It was about a young guy who wanted to open an account from his Piggy Bank, collection.
I cannot remember how much the bank costs the young customer in charges to open an account but the dad had to supplement over $100/= dollars for the ordeal.
In this part of the world toddlers are cheated by both the bank and the politicians.
 (This was well before stock market crash).

Good example was how my daughter was cheated and that money was utilized for bribing voters in a presidential election.

This is a miracle producing country.

After two hours of sifting through my archives, it turned out be blank and a blind episode with 10 blind men describing an elephant (affair).
But with a welcome stroke of luck, I managed to find the first draft of my writing on pachyderms.
 I tuned to my writing at www.wrteclique.net.
I stop writing at www.wrteclique.net  many moons ago, since its web master, stopped my writings getting, to the top ten.

I had hit even, 10 out of ten.

They used my age as a bar, which is blatant violation of fundamental rights, on age basis (this piece of legislation is still not there in UK).

This site meant for young writers but entry was free for all.

At the beginning, there were writers like Jean Arasanayagam, contributing.

She actually gave the introductory speech.

I was not into writing fray then, in any way and it was the pronged university strike in the university that made me to pen a little verse, to ease my boredom, if not anger.

It became infectious and here I am writing about elephants, now.

My annoyance with the web master was that he should have informed me (I could have under-aged myself, in that case) of his concern.

I was one who was vociferous about the poor standard of English in school then, and this was an idea I discussed with the Director of the British, Council Library.

The other obsession was my life time obsession on computers, in this case computers for children for fun and education.

At that time there were no computers in school in Sir-Lanka and the first five computers for young members were given by the British Council of Colombo but with little persuasion, they came to Kandy, too.

Thank you British Council for the pioneering work, in Sir-Lanka.

This is long before “Nana Sala” which is used for political agenda, now.

My real reason of dissociation with British Council was a different one.

The British Council, with pressure from British Writers Association, decided to close the Library and then decided to teach (it became a language Center) English.

That was my bone of contention.

No Library to visit browse some technical and academic stuff, not English literature.

They charged exorbitant amount for the course and used that money to pay the local staff.

That was naughty and that contributed to more decline in English standard in Sir-Lanka.

Only the rich could pay principle was applied.

There was no benevolence for learning English as a second language.

That did not tally with my Free Software and Linux mentality.

So writing skills are partly the result of boredom and partly the result of British Council investing its money on English for foreign students.

Coming back to the Elephants with this long preamble is necessary, since my writing investment in elephant welfare dates back to Price Charles visit to Sri-Lanka.

I wanted him to be aware of the real plight of our elephants and his father, Duke of Edinburgh is the Patron of the wild life society.

There was a conference in London in the beginning of this year.

I am glad Crown Price William has taken, the traditions and the interest.

Elephant poaching and ivory is a global issue.

I was indirect privy to nefarious activities of our ganja (hashish) growers who kill our elephants in the name of, “they are destroying their vegetable (hashish) gardens in the jungle”.

175 to 200 them are killed each year.

Some of them are for ivory and with political cover.

In Monaragla range there supposed to be 5 elephants of The Majestic (Suthdhantha) Genealogy, sited before 2009.

There is only one sighted now and it has become a killer (just the survival instinct) by default and not by design.

We are having elections there NOW and I am pretty sure Ganga (Hashish) Growers and their masters will win a resounding victory.

About 180 baby elephants were (perhaps more) were captured and over 100 had died in about the same period, according to wild life imprecise records.

In today’s. Ravaya paper, it is mentioned that a Sir-Lankan, judge had in possession, an illegal baby elephant.

That is how the law and order is maintained, in this blessed country.

There was prolonged Amnesty for these Elephant Dealers.

I am made to understand, baby elephants captured in Pollonnaruwa are smuggled to east coast and auctioned in the sea.

That may be one reason, Indian Fishermen are caught, in the sea.

This country has become a “Paraya State for Elephants”-four legged variety to be precise.

Facts can be put in a nutshell, and that was the reason for a long preamble.

Postscript
There are more than 20 ways used by these poachers to kill our elephants.
I wanted to include them in my third book but fearing the methods might shoot up to even "fifty ways of killing an elephant", I would not write, them in print or digital forms.

Instead my third book will be on Elephant Myths.

One myth propagated by Sri-Lankan Politicians and Buddhist monks is there are 5500 elephants in the wild (this  an enlarged and bogus figure) instead of culling, domesticate them for religious functions (second myth, inside a grandiose myth) but they are used for money spinning on a daily basis.

Poor animals are used for commercial activities (one in vogue is weddings).

Yarn
I should state a little yarn, we used to utter when we were kids.
There was a big elephant with a Big Penis.
He always traveled with a young monkey.
One day, he met a teenage she elephant on his routine patrol .
He was to mate impromptu and without any wedding ceremony and his Penis became Plump.
The monkey in his curiosity landed on the dangling object.
The master was annoyed.
Then the monkey said,
"Mama Ussala Denna Hadewe"- 
I was trying to lift it up to the entry point (hole), the English translation.
Then the Elephant said,
No THANK YOU,
I have done it before and I can do it again.
If you do not land on my back QUICK, you will be inside a big hole or or warm cave, My dear.

My corollary, for Sri-Lankans who use elephants in weddings is as follows.

If you do not have a big penis do not marry!
Elephant Penis is too big for this occasion (wedding) and for the bride who is a virgin (it is not necessarily true for a whore), even if the bridegroom  has lot of money in his purse.

Money cannot by erections (just like the Etha above) but it is spontaneous.
Sign of virility not money.