Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt

Why do you come to me
When there is a thunder storm
And hide under my bed
Not sleeping like
You usually do?


Why do you come to me
When the ugly sounds
Of the fire crackers
Litter the atmosphere
In the new year?


Don't tell me you fear
The noise more
Than the enemy
That come from behind
With the dagger in hand


My dear
It is only a big sound
Like when one taps
On an empty pot
But
It is the lightening that is
Deadly and fearful
And those who sound big
Are not as big as they appear to be


But when the Ceylon Krait
Landed on my shoulder
You were the first
To charge fearlessly
Like a true friend
But
Didn't you realize that
It was a big danger
Lying ahead


Don't you know
One of my favorite dogs
Before you
Died
Without any mercy
With a simple bite of a snake
When I was away
Doing night duties
In far away land


I could not have saved him
From the danger
By leaving him
Unattended
Having being
A selfish soul
Those days


But I am happy that
I saved you
For saving me
In the first instance


You are a true friend
In need
And I will
Call you hereafter
My thunderbolt
Indeed

17th October 2006
 

My Night Terror

It was many moons ago
I was just a kid
Barely seven years old
The war broke in

Yes, we were moved
From here to there
There wasn't a place
To hide
Except the trenches

I had four sisters
Two were taken for cadres
And rest were sent to
A far away place
Over and beyond the sea
I never saw them again

I was smuggled out
And grew up
In a Foreign Land

I grew up fast,
Very successful in
My academy
Met lot of
Guys and gals

One day,
I met a beautiful
Blue eyed girl
They used to say
Irish blue eyes

We fell in love
It was natural
Whenever I tried to
Kiss her
In her blue eyes,
Yes I saw
My Sisters eyes
In red, green
And dark shades

I could not
Bear it
We broke up
As friends
Promising never to
Kiss again!

Many moons passed
I met a gal
Much older
We were in bed
In no time

But the moment
We were under the blanket
I had a night terrors
"Crawling in,
Dark trenches
Bombs falling
Near by"
It was horrible

She had gone
Secretly
In the morning
Leaving a note
Please take treatment
For night terrors

Very morning,
I booked
A ticket home
To see my
Aging mother

Yes,
I was dreaming
I had never seen a bomb
Or a trench in my life
Why I am dreaming
Like this?

If my night terror
Was not bad enough,
How could it had been
The days and nights

For the guys and gals
Of the Yesteryear War?
Living without a roof,

I wonder?

Coconut Cookies

Coconut Cookies
Bashing the coconut milk and coconut oil is the standard practice in Ceylon and abroad. This has become a significant propaganda in America since there is a lobby in America who benefits from this misinformation campaign.

They have done this little over a half century and now only our people are asserting ourselves.

My intention is to bash the nuts of these people who probably do not have nuts as strong as coconuts.

Before that I should briefly state few of the conditions that would likely to give a heart attack to a susceptible candidate. 
There are so many of these variables or the predisposing factors (that one is likely or not to get a heart attack) pondering about them is actually a research work shrouded in mystery.

It is difficult to decide which ones is the most important and the most likely cause to increase the incidence of heart attack in spite of the proliferation of the literature.

Pointing a finger on one single variable especially on coconut milk is the most inappropriate.

It is not prudent in a scientific sense.

I have seen a debate on local papers (on coconut and its usage) but resisted any comments.

I thought the wiser counsel should prevail and avoid engaging in conflicting dialoge.
But now there is another debate on local paper whether "plant can sense or not" I think it is better to voice an opinion and arouse thinking habits in the minds of young ones.

The plant can sense but their sensing of events without a neural system is very advanced and they can sense the time of the day and night more accurately than an electronic clock. 
They use nano-particles and nao-systems to sense the ecosystem and weather that now only we are beginning to discover the true secrets.

So any prejudice is not warranted.

The probable variables of the likelihood of getting a heart attack are more that 20 and a few of them are as follows.

1. The diet containing many refined sugars and starches
2. Consumption of western food
3. Consumption of animal foods
4. Lack of exercise
5. Smoking
6. Alcohol consumption
7. Hypertension
8. Diabetes mellitus
9. Adaptation of western life style
10. Stress of any kind from money to domestic to work
11. Lack of antioxidants in food
12. Lack consumption of fruits and vegetables
13. Factors that encourage thrombosis
14. Poor oral hygiene and related minor infections

In this list I have no intention of putting coconut milk or Pol Sambol since we eat a combination of food items and not single items like fruits.

Furthermore, we eat after some preparation or preservation which increase or decrease the food value.

In the above list the least understood but the most common cause of heart attack is thrombosis. 
It is not possible to accurately discern this element (thrombosis) as at present and that is the most common precipitating and damaging factor.

The research should be directed there but not on atherosclerosis.

My belief or the gut feeling is that the smoking is a major contributor (direct as well as indirect) to thrombosis.

In some way vehicle exhaust fumes and air pollution also contribute significantly to thrombosis by cell damage by releasing mediators causing diseases known and unknown.

Air pollution has a major contribution to the increase in heart attacks in urban areas.

We were made to believe that carbon is an inert particle and does not do any damage and this view is fast changing in the West where research indicates that the air pollution due to vehicle exhaust impair physical performance in young children.

Winding, I should say, Maw-Kiri (Breast Milk), Pol-Kiri (Coconut Milk) and Piti-Kiri (Powdered Milk) kept me going on from my childhood to adulthood (in that order of sequence of introduction of milk and milk products to me in my young age).

I believe if not for the Pol-Kiri, I would have been dead in my childhood (there were no antibiotics except, Penicillins and Sulphas, those days) even following a simple diarrhea episode.

My mother's care and the Pol-Kiri, (Kiri Hodda) saved my life.

Probably my parents and my grand parents, too.

The rich "polkiri hodi" given to us in the recovery period of any febrile illness including diarrhea not only provided the energy (excellent readily available energy of short chain fatty acids) and nutrition but also the very valuable and non toxic antibiotics (some of the fatty acids).

Polkiri was the essence that contained all the other antibiotics that came in the way of onions including garlic.

They were the basic antibiotics that we consumed in our childhood with no side effects of the modern antibiotics!

Any attempt at discrediting the polkiri or pol sambol is bashing at the wrong thing for the wrong reason.

It is an offense.

We are what "we eat" and their consequences and putting the blame on a single element of coconut milk is the lack of the ownership of one's own responsibility for the mistakes of wrong habits (including smoking and drinking) and of dietetics.

24th November 2006