It's a Wonderful Life

I mean it.

:)

Shame on you Sri Lankans

I was ashamed, to say the least, about the reaction of our good old Sri Lankans, including women, about the above video. The very same ladies who whine and bitch about how women are not treated equally, how men put them down and what not. But this video has been doing the rounds in Facebook and several forums, and the general conscience has been that she's dumb, retarded, an embarrassment to the country. I'd say those people who criticise her are a bigger embarrassment.

The reasons for these pundits to laugh at her are 1)she's not very good looking 2)she's not good at English and 3)her answers are silly and 4)she doesn't know what a cow sounds like.

Let's see. Her beauty, or anyone else's for that matter, is a matter of personal opinion and taste. While I agree that she's not the best looking girl ever, who are we to judge. Besides, it's not her fault. She has the right to contest, so she did, and if she truly doesn't deserve the title judges are to be blamed, not her.

And why the fuck should English be a qualification to win a miss Sri Lanka or Miss Universe contest? If you look at the video it is clear that she's very uncomfortable and nervous because she is speaking English. Had she spoken Sinhala (I assume she is Sinhalese) I don't think she would have sounded that nervous, plus her answers would have been better. If I blame her for anything, it is because she did not speak in Sinhala. Perhaps that might have something to do with us Sri Lankans' inferiority complex, but everyone who laughs at her are suffering from it more severely than she is.

I agree that the best gift you received being denim jeans is a kind of not an answer that is expected. Maybe she said something simple like that because she might have found it difficult to explain in English how your family, or you being a woman is the best gift she received. The thing is, though impressive the answers given by others are very fake. The best gift you received is you being a woman or your family or whatever? Those are well rehearsed answers and are supposed to impress the judges. All you have to do is call for the world peace and the next thing you know you're into the next round. That's the nature of these Miss Whatever contests - it's all a big lie. At least this girl is honest.

And then some laugh at it because she imitated the cow as 'umbaa' as oppoed to 'moo'. Well, anyone who studied at a Sinhala school knows that that's how they are taught. Again, inferiority complex much? And above all, why the fuck should you be able to imitate a fucking rocket or a cow to win a Miss Universe contest? The organizers who thought of asking that kind of a question are the retards I'd say. And if you look at what some of the other contestants do, this girl does not look that bad. It's not the answers, it's the questions that are really silly.

But what do we do? We laugh at our own the hardest. Shame on you Sri Lankans.

Upholding the Spirit of Cricket

Following yesterday's cricket encounter between Sri Lanka and India, SLC and BCCI, the cricket boards of the two respective countries held a joint press conference in which they addressed several issues regarding the incidents happened which seemed clear breaches of BCCI Code of Conduct.

Umpire Kumara Dharmasena was found guilty following him giving Virender Sehwag out LBW when the batsman was only 88 runs short of a well deserved 100. We find this act unsportsmanlike, and should be avoided in future games, remarked Nishantha Ranatunga the secretary of SLC. This is not the way we would like our players and officials to approach the game, hence Dharmasena will be severely penalized for his behavior. He faces a prospective ban of 4 international games, and will be likely to lose all his match fee for the Sunday's game. However, the BCCI officials confirmed to us that Dharmasena went to the Indian dressing room during the break and apologized to Sehwag, an act of showing his remorse which might come in his favor when giving the final verdict. Batsman Virender Sehwag has confirmed this on Twitter saying "He came to me apologizing, and I accepted it being the gentleman I am". Mr. Ranatunga extended his apologies to the BCCI on behalf of Dharmasena at the press conference.

Furthermore, Mr. Ranatunga stated that they have launched an investigation regarding the conduct of the selection committee of SLC which is headed by the former cricketer Aravinda de Silva. We are questioning their move to bring Thissara Perera into the Sri Lankan lineup out of nowhere, who dealt a decisive blow to India's chances of winning the game by taking a 5 wicket haul. We have appointed highly reputed investigators to find out if this was a deliberate move by Mr. De. Silva and his committee to defeat Indian and not upholding the Spirit of Cricket. If found guilty, they may face severe penalties which may include life bans on selecting anything whatsoever. We do not tolerate this kind of behavior, as plotting to win a game of cricket against India is a clear breach of BCCI Code of Conduct, said a visibly angry Ranatunga. The fate of Thissara Perera is not yet clear, but he is more than likely to face a ban of more than a year preventing him taking part in next year's world cup. Ranatunga again apologized to the BCCI regarding the matter.

An official from the BCCI stated that Asad Rauf, the Pakistani umpire who gave a horrendous decision against Yuvraj 'Water Boy' Singh has also extended his formal apologies to the BCCI and the Water Boy himself. He told us that he deeply regret the moment of insanity where he gave the accomplished Water Boy out, and will make sure would do no such thing in future. Meanwhile, a senior official at the BCCI who wished to remain unnamed informed this reporter that Mr. Rauf has also offered to give five decisions in India's favor in the next world cup if he was given the opportunity to officiate those matches. When asked what the response of the BCCI was, he replied that they have no intentions of doing things that would go against the BCCI Code of Conduct.

The SLC secretary also said that they were launching a separate investigation about the manner in which Sri Lankan openers batted in reply to India's total. They racked up 79 runs in mere 9 overs, a severe spanking of Indian bowlers which does not seem in right spirit of the game, added Mr. Ranatunga. However, they (Dilshan and Jayawardene) have sent messages to the SLC saying that they got out deliberately, and asked us to take it into consideration in giving the final verdict. Finally we have asked Kumar Sangakkara to explain himself why he denied Ishant Sharma a well deserved hat-trick. If he is unable to satisfactorily explain why he failed to uphold the spirit of cricket by letting Sharma take the hat-trick, he may face severe penalties, stated the secretary of SLC. Mr. Ranatunga extended another apology to BCCI for the players' disgraceful behavior.

Being asked by a reporter whether these moves have got anything to do with SLC being broke and BCCI being their only ally, an outraged Mr. Nishantha Ranatunga imposed a life ban on the reporter right then and there, preventing him from attending any more SLC press conferences, thus ending the proceedings for the day. At the end of the day, the Spirit of Cricket was upheld, and all was well, said a beaming BCCI official on his way out.

Don't Read This

Things are strange. In an uneventful, monotonous yet mysterious way. I already see that this is going to be one of those unintelligible gibberish type of a rant to you dear reader, but oh well. Let this be one of those rare posts which I might as well have written on a notepad and clicked delete, yet I'm gonna hit the 'publish' button. If it's really unbearable, I suggest you do something else worth your while.

Alright. I'm back at work after nine days of summer vacation where I did nothing much except eat and sleep, movies in between. It wasn't that bad to be back at work this morning, which surprises myself more than anyone else I guess. Why, I don't know. I'm kind of unhappy, albeit slightly, about something I can't really figure out what. I usually have this attitude - maybe a developed one but still - that I don't much worry about things that are out of my control. And I always try to see the cup half full. Thus, I could truly say that I was happy with my life, what I have, and things seemed perfect. Until recently.

I never thought letting your thoughts out is this difficult. But right now, I'm struggling to put a few sentences together, and I'm not able to even rant properly. Neglecting this blog of late must not have helped - looking at the recent posts I see they are really far and apart. More than half the month is gone and this is the first post. Only 6 for July, 4 for June and May each. Not good, but what can you do once you lose the drive to write. But I digress. The point being, there's something that's bothering me and I can't say what it is, and most certainly I have trouble putting it to words. The only thing I can say is I don't like it. Sometimes, not knowing what your problem is worse than knowing you have a big ass problem in which case you can do something about it.

Does anyone know if there's a "How To Find Your Problems for Dummies"?

Linkin' Post

My life is heading towards ultra boredom. So much so that - I never thought there may come a day I'd say this - I'm dreading the coming 10 or so days of summer holidays. Having 10 days at your disposal, with nothing in particular to do, in scorching heat no less, isn't really my idea of a vacation. Strolling on the ruins of a great empire, or the 'water streets' of Venice, like this time around last year, is. Damn I should have planned something a little earlier. I could climb Mt. Fuji, but I did it once already, and not really feeling like it this time. It would account for a few breathtaking photos of course, but still. Or else there's always the option of randomly picking a train, preferably a long distance one, and go wherever it takes me. There is also the thing that a lot of weird, funny or potentially life threatening things happening whenever I'm on or nearby a train, so at least I'll have something to blog about afterwards. We'll see.

On other things, after months of procrastination finally I started my own Project 365. What held me back the most is, as good as my life may be here in Japan, daily photo opportunities aren't that good - at least not when your camera is an SLR. You see, usually my weekdays comprise of going to work at 9 in the morning, and leave it 6pm-ish. I'm SO not a morning persona to wander around with a camera in hand at 7 in the morning, and after a hard (let's say so for the sake of my happiness) day's work, you don't want to go out again just to take one photo. It is not practical to bring the damn camera to work so all I'll be left to shoot will be inside my apartment which is like 10 x 10 feet. OK not that small, but you get what I mean. However, finally, I drew inspiration from our good old Darwin, though she's not as much old, and made up my mind to do it challenging myself to come up with something interesting each day. Not gonna be easy, but let's see. Here are the first week's stuff, take a peek guys. And girls.

And then, on the same historical day, I got the bicycle I ordered online, delivered to me. It is, however, is a historical day not because I started my Project 365, nor is it because I got the bike. It is because our good ol' chap Murali took a wicket with the last ball he ever bowled in Test cricket, but I added to the speciality of the day with my project. And my bike. Don't you think so? But I digress. The thing is, this time I'm determined to not let any poor Jap steal my bike, like the last time. I shall take extra care with it, which merely mean check upon it once a month as opposed to two, which was the fatal error I made last time. The bike is quite good, sexy even, though it is not the same sexiness you'd associate with a particularly hot chick. I digress again. As I was saying, the bike is excellent but for the seat. Why someone designed a seat such as that is something that beats me. After 10 minutes of cycling my ass started to hurt so much I briefly contemplated letting someone steal it this time around as well. It is such a pain in the ass, the seat is. And I mean it literally.

Farewell, legend, you will be missed...

Some of my very first memories of cricket, which did not involve backyard games played with the kids, are of Murali. However, those are not the games he played for the national team. I was greatly lucky to have gotten the opportunity to study at St. Anthony's College, Kandy, which to date is one of the most memorable places in my life. And I was equally lucky, nay, honored that I was there at a time when a great cricketer of all times was in the making. Yes I was only 9 or 10 at the time, and knew only very little about cricket, but Murali was my hero - he was just about every Antonian's hero back then.

In early 90s school cricket was immensely popular the length and breadth of Sri Lanka. Perhaps because there wasn't much TV coverage of international matches, perhaps because rugby was still to be a major sport in Sri Lanka or merely because people had more time in their hands. Either way, school cricketers were very popular not just among school boys but within the general public as well. The likes of Murali, Kalpage, Marvan and Vaasy were well known even when they were playing for their schools. And Murali, perhaps, was the biggest star of them all - everybody knew he was something special - and he brought many a victory to our college which we could boast about so proudly back then. Heck we still do it, but it really is something to be proud of, isn't it? I remember back then, being the cricket enthusiast he was, our principal father would let the students out of the classes at 12 on Fridays if there was a match. And we stayed to watch till the end of the day's play, and even come back to watch on Saturdays - that was a time when tuition was only for the inept. The point is, as little kids we grew up watching Murali play for our college, and he was our hero, our Murali, long before he was everyone's "our Murali". Wonderful times, those were.

Many a year later he is now at the end of a long and illustrious career in every sense. The man has carried Sri Lanka team almost singlehandedly through two decades, and arguably the man who's responsible the most for making us a force to be reckoned with in international cricket. Yes there were others, but where would Sri Lanka be if it wasn't for Murali? No other player in the history of cricket has had an impact on his team as huge as Murali had on Sri Lanka. Here is a champion if there ever was one. However, wonderful as it may seem his career is, no other cricketer in the history of the game has had to go through so much shit as he did. Never has a sportsman been harassed as much as Murali has been, in the history of any sport, but he managed to smile through it all and emerge the winner at the end of the day. And when you see where he stands today, victorious, I can't help but admire the courage the man has. I don't even go into the whole ridiculous mess of chucking - time and again he has been cleared by the ICC, and he is not a thrower, and there the matter rests. If anyone can't accept it, too bad but it's their problem. Murali will always be remembered as one of the true legends of the game.

Murali isn't just about cricket either - he is much more than that. In a country which was torn apart by a long and depressing ethnic conflict, here is a minority Tamil who was loved alike by everyone. Honestly, I am yet to meet a Sri Lankan who didn't like the fellow. When he was winning us matches, it wasn't just the Tamils who cheered. When he was called for throwing, it was the whole nation that sided with him, not just Tamils. In short, he is a man who united a whole nation just by his presence. Nobody ever really thought of him in terms of race, he was, and is, everyone's hero. He truly is a man apart.

Today he is sending down those mesmerising deliveries for one last time. Today he is trying to win us a match for one last time. While batsmen the world over must surely be thinking that this is a cause for celebration, for us who loved the man so much it is hard to believe that we won't see those big off breaks anymore. Those eyes, as big as fists, who could have not loved those? And his childlike enthusiasm and the truly Sri Lankan smile, not to mention the awesomely wild batting. I am almost certain that his wild slogs brought joy to people as much as any good batsman did with his perfect stroke making. However, as much as I am sad that the legend is leaving, it is also the right time I think, for every good thing must come to an end. You should always go on your own terms with your head held high, and he decided to do so. For that I salute the man. We will never see another Murali again, and rightly so. There was, is and will be one and only one Murali.

He will be missed though his legacy will live forever. Thank you Murali for all the memories!

My World

So I hurriedly accepted the open tag from the Drummer who was inspired by LadyD. Yes I'm jobless like that.

Things That Make Me Happy

Friends
Hanging out with them doing nothing
Or doing the things we love to do the most
Friday evenings
Waking up early in Saturday mornings to realize that it's the weekend
Wit
Watching All Blacks play rugby
Playing touch rugby
Playing cricket
Watching cricket
A hot water bath after getting really tired
Coffee
Eating what I cooked
When a program I wrote works like a charm the first time
A good laugh
Beaches
Long evening walks on them
When a photograph turns out better than I expected it to be
Cats
A good book
Opening the inbox to find an email from an old friend
Or from a very dear one
The thought that I am so lucky
Just About Anything...

Have a nice weekend all!