Beautiful
Dream
Let
me start with my current predicament.
Financially,
I am not getting a red sent from this country.
In
British parlance I am in subsistence existence!
The
University Provident Fund I finished in nine months.
That
was to buy two new computers and few accessories (a digital
microscope which children in America uses, included) for academic
work for the next five years which the University could not provide
me, while working there.
Just
like my children, I am cursing myself for coming back to work in this
country.
I
am going to mingle real life stories within the dream (state).
From
the time of the terrorist attack, I get up at 3 to 4 a.m with a very
bad dream, on daily basis.
I
dream a lot but rarely wake up in the dream state or remember them.
After
one month and two days, I had a lovely dream.
In
a sketch it went like this.
There
was a lot of commotion in a place near a tiny enclave where a
rudimentary church / mosque was built for three kids of the priest.
The
land next was vacant and a few villages had gathered around to built
a temple for the five or six children who were refused by the priest
mentioned above.
I
got involved and said no more religious schools but common school for
all!
The
commotion could not be dulled and the higher priest of the above
priest visited the place and relieved the underling of his duties and
appointed another priest in charge.
By
that time gathering was in hot tempo and was about to manhandle the
new priest.
I
was looking for a way out of the mess and for my luck army personnel
with few trucks came in and dumped building equipments for the
proposed new school.
In
the thick of it, I proposed the new name of the school as Nation
Building College (NBC).
Everybody
including the army accepted the name but that did not let me off the
hook of the mob.
For
my luck a guy with money was trying to build a private sport complex
nearby.
He
was an outsider.
I
hit a bright idea and told the commander of the team we will takeover
that land and make it a sport unit for our NBC and the Army, Navy and
the Air Force.
Presto!
In
few seconds we were confronting the rich guy.
Army
let me put the proposals.
Land
should be divided into four units.
1.
Number one for the owner for his bar and accessories.
2.
Number two for the NBC Sports.
3.
Number three for the Force’s Recreation.
4.
Number four for me, the exclusive unit for playing billiards and
snooker.
One
table for me the other for the forces.
There
was a little caveat.
I
had to fund my table.
I
woke up with a heart pain.
Now
the life like incidents during the J.V.P 1989 insurrection.
I
worked for a foreign agency at Digana and it decided to wind up its
operation by knee jerk reaction to terrorist threats.
The
decision was taken secretly with the connivance of the Auditor a
Ceylonese crook. I was in the executive committee but I was not privy
to the decision and I opposed it.
There
was no redundancy protocol and I was clueless of both redundancy
payments and any form of negotiations with the foreign agency.
Mind
you the boss was Robert McNamara!
The
decision was to move the Head Office to Colombo Hilton Hotel.
Fearing
any mishaps to foreigners yes was my response.
We
were to launch a satellite worth millions and the satellite was in my
care.
It
was safely moved to Colombo.
The
computers and cars were moved to the hotel.
Fridge
Freezers were given free to the pharmacists.
Furniture
were left to idle and I picked a computer tables but not a computer.
Mind
you my computer then was better than the unit computers they had for
financial transactions.
We
were detailed to look after the premise or the Digana Village.
I
packed the family home and called all the others to my house with all
the liqueur bottles.
We
had plenty in the pharmacy with labels of medical terms (attached to
hoodwink the auditor) tagged but none in my house.
Then
the “Deasapremis” with over 80 guys visited me in the middle of
the night.
One
of my minor staff members who was a Deshapremi recruit to spy on me
forewarned me of the impending scenario.
They
collected our IDs.
I
was asked to come to Colombo hotel.
I
refused.
I
called a round table meeting and said we have to negotiate with the
big boss Robert McNamara, nobody else.
He
came in double quick time from America.
I
told the guys to contact young Dinesh Gunawardena and to prepare
local protocols.
Dinesh
never obliged (he was hiding in fear) and I had to fish through all
the previous government negotiations and picked the best (mediocre)
to put on the negotiation table.
Day
came we had a lovely Kandyan ceremony with dances to greet the big
boss.
No
harthal or any unwelcome reaction from the minor staff.
No
display boards of discontent.
I
was the sole negotiator with two senior civil servants with me (one
was a family friend) to keep records.
I
prepared the best tea service I could muster.
After
introduction and little chit chat we sat down to business.
As
an opener, I asked him how much the cost of the plane trip.
He
did not answer. I told him if he did not come, the money saved could
have been put as a bonus for the redundancy payments.
Little
Premadasa was giving (he never lived to achieve that objective)
Rs.
25,000/= was an offer for the poor.
Minimum
for the minor employees should touch above Rs.100,000/=.
Rest
should depend on the service contract and if possible double it.
What
for you he asked?
Keep
the rest of my contract as working but pay it in Dollars and Pounds.
In
ten minutes negotiation was over and he was relieved.
He
expected hard bargain (wouldn’t have come to Ceylon if it was
easy)!
I
said I am sorry we could not launch the satellite and told him
probably Sonia Ghandhi was helping the local Sinhala Rebels to abort
the satellite launch.
That
was how Indira contributed including LTTE
terror.
She
hated of us of having a satellite before India.
That
was the contribution of the Dehapremis who were rounded up and killed
by Premadasa goons.
We
could have had a satellite 30 years ago but Dephapremies ruined it.
Now
after 30 years China is looking at the ground structure (30 years
old) which was built by US AID for resurrection.
Can
you believe it?
I
immediately went to UK and was waiting for an interview and the day
before the interview, I got a call that my son was ill.
I
returned by the earliest plane and since then, never went to UK but
to New Zealand subsequently.
One
think I learned there was Unix in New Zealand.
The
entire hospital systems in the two islands were linked during my time with the Unix
System.
Before
a patient arrives all the life history including criminal acts were
laid free for inspection for the doctor.
As
a habit I restrained all the criminals on their medical (drunk, drug
abuse) conditions and handed them over to the police.
Can
our system identify the potential terrorists using a computer
technology?
I
guess not.
I
started leaning Linux at about the same time as a hobby.
