Captain Alistair Cook and Sri-Lankan Cricket

Captain Alistair Cook and Sri-Lankan Cricket

I am officially on digital retirement, but if I do not pen few lines on Alistair Cook, I feel very uncomfortable.

Apart from Mahela and Sanga, Alistair was my favorite cricketer.

I enjoyed watching his stylish strokes, typical of English cricketers of yesteryear.

I was very unhappy he had to take the burden of the captaincy, thinking he will fail in his batting.

He did not.

I want him to continue play and beat Sachin’s record.

I firmly believe he can do that in couple of years.

He should not let his body burn out but should pick and choose where and when to play now that he is not the captain.

Five test matches in India was not the right choice.

He should do that in mainly in England and Australia.

I also think he should drop out of 50 overs which generally ruins the master strokes of a good player.

Thank You Alistair for your contribution on and off the field.

One more point, I have noticed lately, you have gone bit haggard.

Before you took up the captaincy you had a lovely boyish smile and a chubby face.

You need to get that cheerful self now that you are a dad.

Kids do not like to see a grumpy dad.

Chubby face will come once you start enjoying family life and cricket.

Good luck and I am watching YOU closely even if you score only 30 runs.

There is a caveat here!

If you beat Sachin by any chance, it won't last for long.

It will make Kohli to up his gear to catch up with You.

He is a class act (Kohli) and he did come to cricket bit late, since Sachin was hanging onto his driving seat, bit too longer than it was necessary.

In my opinion 30 runs is the base for an opener and any run in excess is a bonus.

If you get that 30 base consistently not only you will have a 50 average when you retire but certainly will go pass Sachin’s record.

Below is a collection of my blog writings that include a comment on an Andrew Strauss’s innings against India.

Captain Cook masterminded his Timing and Batting

Sunday, July 27, 2014

They say class is permanent and form may have temporary setbacks.

Two examples are Mahela and Sanga.

They go through patches of bad form but when they come back, they come back in style.

I think Cook as a batsman is a Class Act.

He knows it and poor English commentators should “Eat the humble Pie, NOW.

What the selectors should do is to find him a partner, and possibly make him come, one down.

One does not send the best batman to guillotine, first up especially when the guy is out of form.

There is a lot to learn from Mahela and Suaga.

Not only they are friends but complement each other.

Poor Captain Cook does not have good pal to comfort him in the thick of things and in the field.

I am writing this before he gets his ton.

Whether he gets his ton or not, I will always watch him play.

I say you won't see a guy like Mahela for another 20 years but I watch him play all the “wrist-ky” shots for a few moments, even he makes only 30 runs.

This phrase is applied to Sanga too, but with a little revision, watch when you are in 70 to 80 and do not get out to a part time baller.

Getting run out, I do not blame.

Your legs are “achy backy” at thirties.

The last phrase applies to Captain Cook, too.

Do not let him run a lot.

He is a big guy unlike Mahela and Sanga, and has to carry a Big Frame on his legs.

Where are the Gentlemen in Cricket?

Monday, June 9, 2014

Where are the Gentlemen in Cricket?
I sometimes feel ashamed to be a Sri-Lankan.
There are hundred of reasons but I will list only a few.
1. Our politicians lie blatantly and what is worse is that they are proud of it.
2. Sri-Lankan including politician do not work on a schedule or on at least a flexible Time Table.
Our politicians only have private agenda.
Good example is our ethnic issue we are prolonging and procrastinating (both sides).
3. We have the most ugly constitution in the world, and generation of politicians who promise to change it abrogate their responsibility.
4. Then, the Buddhist Insurgency (that is how I wish to call it unfortunately), the latest fashion, Buddhist monks have taken over police duty while our policemen will kill suspects not convicted arbitrarily.
The explanation generally is that they were taken to a hide out / dug out and were exploring hidden weapons and the suspect got hold of a weapon and attempted to kill a policeman.
This is kids stuff and explanation.
5. I never thought, cricket will be on this list.
Let me explain why I do not watch cricket now.
One of our ex-minister of sports was known to have used his goons to kill university students.
That was his sports, primitive hunter gatherer mentality.
Another was good at rigging polls at massive scale.
Rigging vote was his sports.
He also had a penchant for female athletes.
Another one was a thug who suppressed the voting rights of minority.
Thuggery was his sports.
I have dealt with many other issues especially mass scale corruption in building a new cricketing venues and plundering money even in laying Grass not on the cricketing turf but he was a TURF man by default.
 
Only reason we became proud was cricket.
 
That was because of winning the World Cup.

I have a prediction, they we will not go beyond the quarter final in 2015.
I need not analyze the reasons.

When cricketers become politicians (except Arjuna Ranatunga), they think they can use their influence to win games by hook or by crook.
That was what happened in England.

This is related to Mankarding Joe Butler.
It is my opinion (within the spirit of the game)!


By making these changes, the ICC have changed the balance of regulations in the professional game in favour of the fielding side. Attempts at, and appeals for, a run out under these circumstances are upheld, despite protestations by some that they are "not within the spirit of the game."
In July 2014 The World Cricket Council, an independent consultative body of former international captains and umpires, commenting in the light of the Buttler runout by Senanayake, unanimously expressed support of Sri Lanka's actions and a lack of sympathy with the batsman.
Win the game by hook or by crook.
He was supposed to be coming from a premier Buddhist School (when we look at some monks this is not an aberration) in Colombo.
He was under scrutiny for his balling action.
He should have been prudent in his selection and choice of activities on the field.

He wanted become a hero and actually became a minion in front of ardent Sri-Lankan expatriates.
 
I am not defending the English cricketer.

I am ashamed of the umpires too.

They could have been proactive after the first warning.
They did not.
Many of their umpiring decisions were pretty bad.

Sri-Lankan captain should have been conscious of the fact that his team mate was under scrutiny and he could have pulled him out of the deep end of the pool.
He did not.
He allowed him to sink in disgrace.

One of the reasons, I think is that the Sri-Lankans do not have self belief of winning, even in such a low key match.

The glory of the winning was under the dark sky, just like the typical weather in spring in England.

If they do not have that self belief how can they win the World Cup?

Cricket sometimes is a mind game, the present day cricketing is noted for its lack.

Not dirty tricks under the carpet.

For some unknown reason, I felt he was not ready for the top job and now I feel he is not good at shepherding the minnows (size of the country not the population).

He was predicted as the most valued player in the last world cup.
He could not complete and compete at the last world cup.

He will be in the next world cup.
He will surly burn out well before the final stages of the game.
He comes as a baller and only balls when the conditions suit him and not the team.
He does not believe in his balling.

How can he give confidence to younger players when he himself does not have confidence?

That is the bottom line.

When he balls he might get blasted but then as the captain he can withdraw himself easily which option Malinga does not have.

I am not suggesting Malinga is a better choice.

Good player does not become a good captain.
Good example is Cook.

England is ruining his talent but they have many talented players and during the next few months they will find a good captain.

Unfortunately, we do not have a pool (for captaincy).

Like politicians our cricketers will slit the next one in line and I do not think we play as a team.

Every player is trying to secure his place and secure his pocket with money not glory.

I am sorry, Sri-Lankan cricket lovers, for my scathing remarks.

I will not write anymore on Sri-Lankan cricket.
That was my resolve for many years now.

But keeping silent is very bad.

That is why our politics is in ruins (on the field and outside).

I am writing on behalf of the spectators not on behalf of the cricketers.
I do not care for them now.

I would pen down few lines on Chandhimal before writing my obituary (like the obituary on Democracy) on cricket.

Like the comments of South African sport writer Chesterfield (I hope I got the name), I have a query on him.

He queried who is this Chandhimal, before the last world cup?

I was not much interested last time, I wrote a response under his comment thinking it was Chamara De Silva (I thought Chesterfield was not picking up Sri-Lankan player names which are not like Christian names but he had made a mistake but in fact I made a mistake).

That was the first time I knew about Chandhimal.

My current comment is who ruined Chandhimal?

I think it is Sri-Lankan sports writers and Dhilshan.

Dilshan was sent as an opener by one of the cricket selectors to ruin his career.
Dhilshan knew that the AXE was on him and he thrived on the challenge.

What happened was the CHEAP and CHIEF selector had to go.

I think Sanath (chief selector) has to go before the voters oust him in the next election after failing at the next world cup, if he wants to keep his parliament seat with a big pension.

That is what I call a wise counsel (from me to him).

There was a very bad taste in my mouth, when Angelo (them vying for the top post) let Chandhimal get his century, risking a loss in a one day international in England.

When did Chandhimal win a game for us after that.
That was self before the game (both Angelo and Chandhimal).
One was eying for the top post and the other to secure a as a regular player.

Both ploys were bad when there is collaboration.

One succeeded and the other is out of the team.

This is total mismanagement.

What we need is Total Quality Management (TQM).
We do not have it now like the Singer's Punchhewa, who was behind our victory as a non player.

We also need good sports writers like Chesterfield.

We do not have any.

I think Chesterfield is in heaven and I am told by Maha Brahma, they are not allowed to play or watch cricket in heaven.

They only allow Mega Cassino Play, just like in Sri-Lanka.

Our Cassino owners have direct access to Heaven, Hell (for players), Cricket and Sri-Lanka.

Postscript;
Mind you there were three ex-captains on the field when this happened.
The incident ruined their (bad taste in their mouth) image too, especially taking into consideration Mahela who walks out when he knows, he is out.

I think both Mahela and Sangakkara should retire, if they feel their body is out (I call it the burn out syndrome), in style now but not after failing under a bad captain.

I respect whatever their personal goals and decisions and wish them happy life after retirement.

Both of them have done wonders.
I think Dhilshan is already showing signs of burn out and reconsider his options,too.

Who says one day cricket is dull?

Monday, February 28, 2011

We had a fascinating game of cricket today.

The match was between cricketing fanatic India and the game's originator England.

It was nice to see England captain Strauss take man of the match award beating, the legend of India, Sachin Tandukar.

There is is no match for the young blood of England and it was no fun for Sachin and his weary legs.

I suppose when time comes one has to retire and there were guys in this side of the Palk Straight who wanted to join the team and we were wise enough to spare him the agony. Trying to entertain your fan base is not good for your physique and health our Sachin also will retire and become a sporting ambassador to the Asian continent who are keen on betting and bringing bad name to the game.

I hope Indian spectator would be nice to him the day he fails and retire.

Anyway cricket was the winner taking the game to the wire and making a tie was a big achievement and neither side deserved to lose this match.

It was a good stater for the tournament.

A star was born and that is Andrew Strauss and English fans should be proud of him.

Not only he brought ashes home (team game) but brought the 50 over game to its heights.

But you boys must make sure you beat Australia in this tournament.

We will be cheering for England all the way.

We are fed of Australian arrogance and I saw somewhere England was written off.

I predict a final with England and South Africa and it does not matter who wins if you make it into that point even though I favour South Africa.

CST or the "Cat Shit Theory" of Evasion of Accountability!

CST or the "Cat Shit Theory" of Evasion of Accountability!

Even though, I wanted go digitally silent for good, for reason of my own sanity and public consumption, this piece has become mandatory. 
 

Cat Shit Theory is the closest that, I can get to describe how both Private and Public Services in Ceylon operate.

Niceties first, before I get bogged down with the exposition of this theory.

All the institutions that I visited have dropped the political colour display to a significant degree, in their official costume (but some still wear pale blue overall- I now hate any shade of blue) which was a great plus point.

There are millions of colour shades that a computer can detect but the human eye can contrast only about 256 colours and many of us can only name about 16 colors for certain.

If we discard all the colours political parties use,  blue, red, green, maroon, still we have 12 more colours.

Why can’t we use them, instead?

That is my question.

One hospital had an attire in apple green which was soothing for a patient.

The workers in the business institution had a reasonably well customized suit but little hint of blue was still visible.

The shoes they wore made obnoxious sounds (high heels) which was very disturbing.

I even hate the sound the slippers make, that girls wear.

Buddha was supposed to walk without making a noise or without even disturbing the dust.

One who is adept at meditation walks swiftly across.

Below, I have some advice, I fished out from the Internet to reduce the sound of shoes and slippers.

I

If you need to stop squeaky shoes, try a quick fix first, such as sprinkling some baby powder under the insole.

If you aren't wearing any socks, put a pair on.

Take care of your shoes.

If they are leather, you might want to oil them.

Be sure to fix any loose heels or soles.

Lastly, if your shoes are wet, you will need to dry them thoroughly.

II

In my workplace, it seems that for males, the higher up you are in the hierarchy, the noisier are the shoes, almost as if it’s in the job description.

Middle managers shoes tend to make a bearable noise level, but when a male VP walks by, I could swear he’s wearing high heels.

Are quality men’s shoes noisier? 
Or is this just that executives tend to prefer noisy loafers by design?

III

I moved into the second floor of a building, right above a family. I've been living there around three months, and my neighbor just told me about this recently. The place has pretty bad sound isolation, which is definitely part of the problem.

My neighbor was pretty polite and nice about it. 
He said that I'm generally not otherwise noisy, but that I'm the loudest walker who's lived in the apartment in all the time he's been there. I'm not inclined to believe that he's making it up or being overly sensitive.

I'd really like  not to be a Horrible Neighbor, but I'm really not aware that I walk particularly loudly!

I don't wear shoes inside or stomp a lot, and am not particularly heavy.

I have hardwood floors, which are kind of creaky when I walk, and no carpets.

I'm not really willing to get carpets. 
 

Are there magic tricks to this?

I generally tiptoe walk indoors without shoes; just land with the ball of your foot rather than the heel. It's not at all awkward or inconvenient once you're used to this.

IV

Better quality dress shoes usually have leather soles and a heel built up from several layers of leather. It doesn't have quite as much give as a sneaker or a rubber sole, so they tend to make a sharp clacking noise when walking on them. I've noticed that even the Allen Edmonds I have with rubber soles tend to make more noise than cheaper dress shoes I've owned, I believe because the rubber is a bit stiffer.

I visited Colombo yesterday, after two year lapse to attend to some work for a “Third Party” bound to a wheel chair.

Two Private Hospitals and a private service that facilitates VISA services for UK and Australia.

The latter had a presumptive need to help a person on a wheel chair but did not have a dedicated individual.

In one of the cubicles, negotiating the wheel chair was almost impossible.

But all these institutions have individuals (not trained, though) designated as security officers.

Business on Wheel Chair is a thorn in the flesh of Ceylon and no government institution has even help for a person gone blind after retirement.

That is the bitter part of service orientated institutions in Ceylon.

In the two hospitals, I visited one with a dress code, the runners were used as it to cover up the inefficiency of the service.

A procedure centralized with a proper software (ideally Linux not Microsoft) management, I believe all the procedures could have been finished in an hour the most, but it took 3 hours even after making an appointment at a fixed time.

The doctor was late and there was no proper management system to expedite the process.

Mind you in early 1990s, I was involved in promoting the National Quality Award (for the first time) for the other institution and it has slipped down drastically in its procedural aspects, in spite of the massive expansion of its facility.

All the grand institutions of yesteryear, including the Elephant House Fountain cafe are no more and are gobbled by this institution.

The restaurant was awful and nasty.

I decided to go to Majestic City and bring some food for the patient (while the patient was waiting for the consultation, nearly three hours) after a fixed appointment.

I asked the next in line after us and he had been waiting for 5 hours.

This place was for the visually handicapped and the lighting was very poor, even I could not find the numbered room after going up and down for three times.

The entrance was narrow and did not give any consideration for a handicapped person (no wheel chair) entering.
The security officer was more interested in acting as a traffic warden rather than a nurse in attendance.

Mind you blindness is a big handicap.

If the person did not come with a helper he or she would be knocked down by the next vehicle that enter, the institution.

This is after paying a hefty fee.

What the public announcer saying was incomprehensible, like a railway station in London of yesteryear.

It is no different to public sector except for the time and money wasted.

Now with that preamble with lot of diversion, I would like to expand on the “Cat Shit Theory”.

Cats are very good at covering up their mess after voiding  without soiling their paws.

What a blessing if the dogs also had that facility fine tuned in their brain?

My dog of course, make it a point to do it outside, very rarely accidents inside even as a puppy.

We never trained him but he has realized that even as a totally blind soul he wished not to do it inside.

Now come to humans.

They are very good at covering their excesses and misappropriations, just like cats covering their mess under soil.

The difference is they soil their  hands and soul with tell tale tracks.

Ceylonese, especially the politicians for the last 38 years (17 under UNP and 21 under SLFP) covered up their tracks as diligently as cats but the only exception is the Armed forces including the Police.

Now it seems the Law and Order Minister has come forward and stifle the progress of any investigation by the AG (with officers of the office aiding and abetting) against persons of wrong doings in the forces.

The Lasantha Wicramatunge murder is a case in point and not yet properly investigated.

Not a single investigation has been concluded independently to full satisfaction of a global citizen.

I go under the banner of global citizen.

I need to pen down how our excellent public service under British Administration was destroyed by successive Presidents of this country.

All Presidents without exception are bane of this country. 
That is why I want it (Presidency) abolished as soon as possible and go back to parliament system.
Then at every electron we can get rid of the rouge elements in the legislature by vote.

No list MPs please! 

Let me start with President Premadasa as a Minister of Land and Construction under JRJ.
He had the canny habit of delivering letters to his followers by hand in every electorate (as a preparation for campaigning for Presidency much later) he visited.
In reality officer in charge can release these letters much earlier without waiting for the Minister to deliver it at his political meeting. 
He had directed his public servants to hold onto them (letters of approval or any similar official sanction or deeds) as long as he visits the electorate in his political schedule.
He has a saying that "he will act on anything within 24 hours", though. 
So officials of the Public Service collect all the outstanding letters for him to deliver personally and get the credit from his voters.
All the public servants in high officers became his political stooges and redundant in this political exercise. 
That is the beginning of the downfall of the Independent Public Service. 
Of course there were rogue elements in the public service who solicited bribes for simple work.
That had been in practice from 1970s if not sixties.
This is much worse but a political bribe.
Under his administration many of the Ministers (I decline mentioning their names here and many of them were considered as his enemies) had major  mishaps related to LTTE.
LTTE had printed large amount of counterfeit Rs.100/= notes with the sword of the Lion upside down.
The notes were not visibly different from that were 
 official notes but to the touch they felt different.
I was working in a Private Hospital then and one day a chap who could not sign his name paid a large bill.
I happened to be with the Manager and I was bit suspicious of the chap and took the notes from the bundle and palpate them for texture and told the manager, they were fake notes.
I took few notes and held one by one to sunlight and discovered the upside down sword in them.
The manager was surprised but I told him do not make an issue since the patient was still hospitalized and make some inquiries to see who this guy was.
I told my senior of the discovery and he did not object to my investigation.
The guy was a smuggler who bartered diesel and petrol to LTTE in high seas at Kalpitiya.
Then we made sure the patient brought in real notes not faked ones at discharge.
That was my first discovery and within a few months every second Rs.100/= was a faked one. 
We declined to take any payments in Rs. 100/= notes for a while.
As it is the government took some time to discover this and the Central Bank took a low profile probably under instruction from the higher ups.
The popular belief then was that the LTTE had delivered large consignment of faked notes through one of their insiders in the government for foreign exchange.
This money was used for buying first cache of arms for the LTTE.
This is to illustrate how we were taken for a ride including the Central Bank.
Then the Bank started destroying the notes in circulation with the sword upside down and started issuing slightly different new Rs. 100/= note with a strip inside over a year. 
Little I say about Chandrika's Presidency is sufficient.
Public Service including the Armed Services deteriorated under her command much lower than the UNP regime.

Under Mahinda Rajapaksa total destruction of the Public Service started with fresh appointment of very large number of party stooges to all institutions from Samurdi to Bank (servants). 

These stooges did not have any training but political clout. 

So in 21 years SLFP destroyed the Public Service including the Education department.

Some of the things, I cannot publish here regarding police officers and school principals.

Just today, I went to pay a bill and the cashier threw the balance back at me even without an eye contact. 

I just knowing the consequences I stomached it up and decided to pen the frustration down here.

All the government institution including semi-commercial ones fall into this fold except one.

That is the Office of The Commissioner of Elections.

Mahinda Deshapriya and his team of officers are the only officers who could rise up to the need of this century.

If they can do it why can't the others follow suit?

It is because when we allow the system to rot for over 20 years, getting them back to serve people takes 100 years or more.

It is an uphill task but we have to start somewhere.

Only way we can achieve this is by sending few of the officials of the former regime to prison for good.

But the current legal system protect them like "CAT SHIT".

So we are a CAT SHIT COUNTRY.

The ruination is obvious even in courts and lawyers, both in state and private institutions are no different. 

To get ride of the rouges in our pariament we should have the "First Past The Post" elections soon and constitution should aboloish the post of Presidency and revert back to Parliament System of administration.
We were good in doing that until 1977 when JRJ came in and made a mockery (of the current system) of our democracy.
If that is not done by the current regime, I wish I should not be born again in this country.
I can't go to the Hell too, since its current director is an ex-president of this country.  

“Live and Let Live"

“Live and Let Live"
A brief moment
Of Insanity
Destroys
Thousand moments of Sanity
And the vanity
That drives
This perpetual
Self image
The Man
The Only Mighty

This Ego concept
Is the one
That makes him to
Exploit everything
On this planet Earth
To its “Sixth Extinction”

It is almost,
Too late
Since the Sun’s Cycle
Of “Sun Bursts"
Are already in evidence
That make us become
More Insane
Even for the briefest of moments

Calm and serenity
And sanity
Dwell  upon
My mind
The moment
I listen to,
The Mother nature
In its “Crying Moment"

If the Mankind
Can take out
The “I”
The “Me”
The Concept of Delusion
Out of  context
This World,
Is going to be a better place
To “Live and Let Live"

Then,
The brief moment
Of Insanity
With its attendant Vanity
Will disappear
For the good
Of the Earth and Mankind

End Result-No Rain Gods

This is a bit from my book Living with Nature.
I have touched on almost every aspect of  environmental catastrophes that are man made.
Current failure of North East Monsoon rain (in fact wind is blowing almost at a cyclonic speed but there are no rain clouds) is due to global warming ably helped by thermal power plants (Coal Power) lifting the warm air along with the residual rain clouds.
This is not a scientific analysis but simple observations, over 15 years in Kandy District.
The effect are magnified in the North and East.
Failure of paddy cultivation was the ultimate byproduct.

End Result-No Rain Gods
In the city and the villages that surrounded it, where I grew up,  almost anything that one throws away grows (plants and seeds) on its own provided they did not rot away due to too much water. There was no need to water the plants and like a clock set, the rain did come in 10 to 14 day cycles even in the dry season.
Inter-monsoon rain was regular and now I understand and believe that the vegetation itself fashion this rain and its cycles.

More trees mean more regular  inter-monsoon rain.

Less trees means less rain, for sure, inter-monsoon period.

Global Warming and its Effects on Cloud Formation
There is a distinct change in cloud patterns with global warming taking it toll on weather, especially the rain clouds. Nimbus and cumulus cloud formations are distorted but cirrus formation is promoted are my beliefs and of course are reinforced by my routine observations.
This is especially so when the wind currents are slow and there is no obstruction from the mountains to the movement and to the flow of the clouds . With the North East monsoon that bows inward from the East of the country the clouds break into two directions, if they hit the Hantana range.
One goes towards Kandy, on the basin and the other lifts uphill and raises towards Katugastota. That is the normal pattern it used to be. If the cloud come low down to the Hantana range it usually rains  either in Kandy or Katugastota. But with a warm air currents below, over the landmass, the clouds remain high and they do not form into cumulus and later rain clouds. In other words the clouds do not increase in height or mass.
Instead they become flatter at the bottom and as they become flatter they lift up as they move towards Kandy city and the gray or dark colour of the cloud changes to fluffy and white. The Kandy city which has lost its tree cover is warmer and that is the very reason the clouds that are normally destined to become nimbus or rain clouds turn gradually to cirrus variety.
At a distance at the same level away from the hills one sees the cirrus clouds and no nimbus clouds.
There is a distinct lack of breaking of the cloud mass into two. Even, if it breaks and move towards Katugastota, those clouds will remain high due to comparably warmer Katugastota landmass.
If I summarize the events from Hantana Range to Heerassagala, it goes like this.
1. Clouds that reach Hantana range from Gampola are cirrus with a touch of cumulus and nimbus (for description cirrus should be taken as High level clouds, altostratus should be Mid level and cumulonimbus clouds are Low level rain clouds). That means cloud has to gather more water for it to become a rain cloud.
The word cirrus means curly or cotton wool and stratus means thin and layered and cumulus means heavy or thick clouds.
2. By Heerasagala within about 20 to 30 minutes and a distance of 3 kilometers (without heavy winds) the clouds break into three to five fragments.
3. This is what happens next.
The clouds breaks into pyramidal lumps as they rise up slowly. As they rise up the pyramids change into the shape of (similar to fuel exhaust tails of air planes) thin tails.
In other words cirrus becomes thin tails.
One never sees more than three pyramids or three tails, simply because in no time tails disappear and the pyramids change to tails and no clouds reach Kandy.
So we have to go to Maligawa and invoke blessing from unseen current Devas. Buddha having attained Parinibbana would not interfere with human affairs until the next in line Metta Buddha appears in time measured in eons.
By that time Kandy becomes a concrete jungle and the only way to have some respite is to sneak into city center before 8.30 P.M., well before the air-conditioning is switched off.
The rain that is used to come by 3 P.M. or late in the evening never comes. Mind you temperature at 3 P.M. is 90 degrees Fahrenheit and it falls to 80 at mid night. If it rains it is well past midnight and towards the morning and the showers are light since they have not become cumulus by the constant warming effect of the landmass. The delay of few hours makes the clouds to move towards the sea which is cooler and the rain lands on the sea or perhaps in India.
So Ceylon has less rain and some parts of India which never has the same amount of rain gets downpours.
These rain clouds hold much more water due to the higher temperature that preceded their formation.
It does not rain but it pours.
I have not watched the South West monsoon but my gut feeling is that this pattern would repeat itself albeit in a minor degree. The reason being in the South West monsoon produce bigger clouds and the atmospheric temperature is little lower in this season.
If the temperature remains as high as 90s my guess would be there will be less rain even in the South West monsoon.
The landmass has to cool below 78 degrees Fahrenheit or below for the precipitation to occur and the temperature is usually above 80 during the North East monsoon.
We are really seeing the effect of global warming.
One of my exotic flowers bloomed and there were two tiny fruits. I forgot to water for three days and the stem which was green is now gone brown and it is bent down and does not have the turgidity to remain erect. 
That is the end of the formation of the fruit.
This is the second time this happened in two seasons.

Bigger Picture of American Conspiracy and Chinese Interests.

Bigger Picture of American Conspiracy and Chinese Interests.

The American conspiracy ably aided by the Church was to attack communism in the name of free market (dominated by USA and UK) and democratic freedom.

The second weapon is the spread of heroin to all the countries including Ceylon.

In Ceylon they used LTTE as a proxy for this heroin operation.

I often wondered how we survived the American hidden agenda to convert Ceylon into a Christian Colony just like, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Both agendas failed.

In Ceylon, it was fortuitous, ably helped by our Veteran Buddhist Orator, Migatthuwatte Gunananda.

The Catholic Conspirators called him Muttara Balla (turning Batthara Mulla, other way round in Sinhala, where the present Parliament is located) but they could not answer a single counter argument posed by him and retreated when Colonel Henry Steel Olcott descended on this country with Helena Blavatsky.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (12 August [O.S. 31 July] 1831– 8 May 1891) was a Russian occultist, spirit medium, and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the leading theoretician of Theosophy, the esoteric movement that the society promoted.

But in China it was Mao Sedong who defeated the American Conspiracy (using Taiwan and Hong Kong as bases for heroin industry, ably helped by Britain).

The plan was to poison the Chinese with Heroin brought from Americas.

This they thought an easy task since most of the poor peasants had the habit of smoking hashish (probably smuggled from Afghanistan through Pakistan).

Mao Sedong banned heroin for his foot soldiers and peasants.

He banned religion too.

For Carl Marx “Religion was an Opium” and Mao used this phrase for his political ascendance.

However, it was Lenin who made the first break through in socialism (labour force activism) but it was spearheaded by the iron hand of Stalin.

China did not have a labour force but peasants.

Mao Sedong’s answer was to take land from feudal land lords and distribute among them, the peasants, the land right.

The peasants became the slaves of the state.

In other words state monopoly.

In America the monopoly is with the few rich capitalists (Bill Gates, a good example) and the rest are suckers on a low salary working for the industry.

The corporate agenda is also based on (private) monoploly.

The point here is whether it is state monopoly or investors monopoly, the workers gets the bread crumbs, CEOs the cream.

The best form to describe capitalism is to use Buddhist term in Pali Agati.

Americans are the living example of all four Agaties sated below.

The literal translation of Agati into Sinhala means any form of extremism, be that it may be capitalism or communism or autocracy.

The term 'Agati' in Pali means wrong course or going bad way.

There are four bad ways,

a) Chandā Agati – the blind attachment-the going a bad way through will

E.g. Any Religion

b) Dosā Agati -the opposite of Maithrie the Hate-the going a bad way through hate

E.g. Hate the communists.

c) Bhayā Agati - the going a bad way through fear

E.g. Americans live in constant fear for life (now from Muslims and Blacks Americans) and everybody wants to have a gun or guns of many makes in his or her possession and they are always “Trigger Happy”

d) Mohā Agati – The wrong view (the anti-democratic means) the going a bad way through delusion

Whole world should be made to become Christians or Catholics or democracies supported by America.

Another point of American conspiracy in Ceylon was to stymie the Rubber Rice Pact with China in 1950s.

USA banned sulphur import to Ceylon to destroy our rubber industry.

My point to end this short analysis of modern human history is to see how we remained a non aligned country.

I think the credit should go to Sir John Kotalawala.

He is the one who said just like capitalists we should be vary about communists, too.

I think he should be called the Bandung (Colombo Plan Summit) Veeraya or Hero.

Sir John had the correct vision for this country.

That is why our Leftists destroyed his political career.

Just like Gaminie Dissanayake (killed in his case) he could have been our best upright (not the preset back bending-rather arching leaders we have) leader.

Not only that he cleverly negotiated with China to have regular supply of rice for rubber.

China with Mao Sedong in power, bailed us out hunger and misery.

But I am not sure with the current Neo-Liberal Chinese who have a global capitalistic agenda.