On blogging and killing

There’s an old saying that "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

As far as the Sri Lankan blogsphere goes I’m just a newbie. But already it’s been apparent that blogging has some severe side effects that seem to consume the blogger from within.

First it comes as asserting your own opinions and establishing grounds for an online ego. But it doesn’t stop there. These opinions and established grounds slowly creep up to have an impact on real life. Of course, blogging is a reflection of thoughts and feelings in a given instant, not necessarily a glimpse of the blogger herself.

But the problem is; writing these thoughts and feelings down, not only makes them immortal but it also make them seemingly real. Absurdly real.

It’s kind of like building and sticking to a business brand, doing a PhD or worse yet,
getting involved in a long-term relationship.

There are a lot of things to do in Sri Lanka (i.e. reverse engineer modern fabrication processes to accelerate industrial development, build standards for safety inspections and non-destructive testing, establishing a fully fledged forensics division for the Sri Lanka Police, facilitating policies to help grab a portion of the offshoring R&D markets like nanotechnology etc etc etc etc)

And if I ever feel bored or alienated there’s plenty to do in the world as well….

Quite frankly I cannot afford to let myself be trapped in a cage that I have conveniently created for myself. It's time to commit suicide and start a new life.

Lions in a cage & Abortion

The Story:

While listening to a radio news broadcast, heard that a doctor was taken into remand custody. Apparently the husband has lodged a complaint to the police after the death of his wife during an abortion.

The Fact:

Abortion is illegal in Sri Lanka. Imposing our own moral values upon others is also a favourite pastime of ours.

The Irony:

I was reading the following on the Internet when I heard the news.

[glowsun] : I heard about this guy who broke into a lion's den at the zoo
and got mauled
and people were talking about how there should have been better defenses put up to prevent people getting into the cage
a friend of mine suggested setting up some kind of deterrent
for example, putting some sort of fierce animal in the cage, which would attack anybody who climbed in

Hundred Years of Irrigation in Sri Lanka: A Pictograph

Had the privilege to design this back cover for the “100 years of Irrigation” book which was published around a month ago. There were several publications that were unfolded to commemorate the centenary of IESL, and this was just one.

The book has a rare collection of photographs, drawings and maps that have not been published any where else.

Bawa, the Parliament and Butterflies

While waiting upon the obvious results of Judgment Day, the mind wandered to a “what-if” moment.

What if Geoffrey Bawa made the Parliament 'seating arrangement' a little differently? Perhaps a round table? Perhaps something like the big octagon? Anything to break the group mentality of the MPs.

Of course this wouldn’t have any effect on crucial decisions like today’s budget vote. But it would certainly reduce the probability of raping each other in public.

We all know the Robber’s cave experiment and the Stanford Prison experiment, and the utter madness that lies when humans divide into groups. So anything at all to disturb the gangbang mentality of Party Politics would be nice. You never know...Butterfly Effects do happen.

Ahh…. A little wishful thinking a day, keeps the frustration away.

Pissu Women and Paranoid Men

I for one love working with women. Stereotypically speaking, they’re good at several things that most men back away from.

Today we were searching relentlessly for a dimension in a concrete column that was impossible to find in the plan. While we were busy discussing the improbability of an estimated value, she walked in and said “50mm”. When asked how she derived it; she simply beamed and said “I called the contractors and asked.” A moment of awkward but profound silence followed.

There are other obvious reasons that I love working with women. But to illustrate it here would be digressing from the point.

The topic for today is exactly the opposite; why men don’t like working with women. I sincerely cannot formulate a solid theory thus far, but this particular trait observed especially in the senior staff is worth documenting.

“Me pissu genuth ekka nam monawath karrana be!” is one of the favourite lines of our divisional head. [Translation: Can’t do anything with these mad women.]

He’s a fairly young chap (40-something), married with two kids and definitely not gay. Hence the distance between him and the female co-workers is unclear.

The CEO is worse. He has a beautiful secretary by his side but chooses to type his own letters and file his own documents without bothering the girl. To him the secretary is more of a nuisance on the grounds that 'she always complicates things'. The lucky girl therefore has the freedom to do nothing all day and gossip around at the reception.

It’s been observed that this tendency to avoid any contact with women is directly proportional to the attractiveness of the woman in question and the hierarchical gap between her and the paranoid male.

The result is a decrease of the gender dynamics of the organization (and therefore the decline of efficiency) and the increase of confused females.

According to Geert Hofstede’s classification, Sri Lanka is a feminine society. But is that the sole explanation, or is there any other sociological factor that I’m overlooking?

Fields of Gold - Roads of torture

Lamasooriya is a village 40km from Kandy that you will find before the Randenigala reservoir.

The village has no roads. Thus no transport. As seen in the last photo, the villagers use thawalam to transfer goods from the village to the outside world.

Everything from plain groceries to cement bags are carried on the backs of cattle (bulls) and sometimes humans. (Both men and women, depending on the load.)

Walking 2km can be considered good exercise, if not a good recreational activity. For the villagers, it's just life. Perhaps an inconvenient reality.

Who needs Engineers when we have Audits?

I don’t have any personal grudge against auditors. After all, they are human beings most of the time, and how ever one puts it, they are just doing their jobs. Obedient blokes with a creative sense of humor....

Last week the audits came and gave an order to suspend the life insurance of the scientific officers in the Non-destructive testing section. Their reason was pretty straightforward; the officers had not sustained any injury so far, and thus there was no point in paying for insurance.

(For those who are not aware of non-destructive testing; it’s a profession which involves contact with X-rays, Gamma rays, and radioactive sources as well as handling potentially harmful chemicals. We also run the risk of fatality when doing a field inspection. Especially when it involves climbing heights.)

We were thinking of nominating the audits for the next Nobel Peace Prize in Rational Thinking but later decided against it when we heard another incident:

The auditors have recommended a “cheaper” safety switch to the engineer who had designed the power grid for a reputable authority.

Damn, such innovative and brilliant solutions! These guys/girls should be promoted to presidential advisers. Their talents are clearly going to waste.