Leftovers

2 Things will be combined in this blog.

1. A scene from movie Blind Side
2. A scene from a World Cup match.

So all the jazz about the World cup is fading away. Thus Let me start with the World Cup.  People have started to feel the side effects of the loss. – The increased petrol prices. WC is not news anymore! New topics are in the scene like the pension scheme for the private, death of Sai Baba and Moon’s report on civil war. Saw Indi has blogged about it here.To think about it, he writes about everything! From MR in Time 100 list to Ranjit Fernando’s commentary. So no biggie there,

Ok, back to the scene from WC; I had the liberty of attending all the matches Sri Lanka played home. From Hambantota to Kandy to Colombo. It was as tiresome as playing the actual game. But enjoyed every bit of it. Specially the crowd and the atmosphere. Had to go to the ground around 12noon to secure better seats, and had to leave the ground almost after 1 hour after the presentation because I had to wait for the car of some friends to come and pick them. The hours before the game were filled with getting ready to cheer, trying to fight the sun, trying to locate prettier girls and enjoying the face arts. The after hours were all about enjoying the winnings, and dancing to the papare, except at the Pakistan match.

The organizing was surprisingly done well. May be there was a haahoo about selling tickets, but the ground organizing was beyond normal Sri Lankan standards.

Only the official sponsors had food stalls inside the ground. There were Pepsi and beer to drink, hot dogs and KFC food to eat. And the foods were not over priced either!! Everyone was enjoying a sip of pepsi when a boundary from Dilshan was changing the game. It was fun just to enjoy the amazing nice noise.

As mentioned above, I had to wait for a while after the game was done. When most of the people had started to depart. That is when I noticed the thing that took away all the winning joy!

Kids!

There was a bunch of kids, running around the pavilion looking beneath the looking for KFC food, Pepsi bottles, collecting as much as possible. It was as if they were waiting for the match to end so their battle for a meal could start. Most of the kids were below 10. At least pre teens, none of them “looked” 13. (May be the malnutrition is responsible for that if by any chance they were older) remember the scenes from Slum dog millionaire? Ah, the same kids here too. The only difference being, these kids were REAL, no make up!

 They were so active. Some had a drum stick hanging from his lips whilst running from one row of seats to another. May be they couldn’t wait to have a taste of this rare, expensive piece of meat. They were so happy and cheering gathering all the left over food. The cold pieces of KFC were enjoyed they are from London Grill.

By that time, I had enough chicken legs inside me to form a Scottish dancing troop. All the legs had started to kick my intestines so hard that I wanted to puke my brain out. I felt like a jerk for eating that much food. Felt helpless and responsible in a way but didn’t know what to do, how to react! This is when the incident 2 comes in. the scene from movie blind side. There is a scene in the movie where Big Mike sits at a Volleyball match and waits till the people walks out after the match. And then he does the same thing the kids did.. Collets all the left over popcorn bags. Days later, Big Mike – Michael Ohre gets adopted by a Leigh Anne Touhy and her family and ends up being an all American. Sandra Bullock who played the role of Leigh Anne won an oscar- for the best actress.

America too has poverty as one of its major social issues despite being the most powerful nation in the word. With a population over 300million- the biggest population after China and India, guess such divides in wealth is expectable in a country of that demographic scale. It is amazing how the poverty is spread among a small community like Sri Lanka in the same magnitude. The difference is huge. The gap between the levels is enough to lose ones’ soul. That is what happened to my conscious. Unlike Leigh Anne, I decided to do nothing about the kids. I just observed it, got a shock seeing the incident but made the choice of walking out of it.

Even weeks after the incident, the best I can do about it is blog. May be out of guilt, but, what matters is that my actions/ inactions did not benefit the kids. They continue to find leftovers as we speak. And that have left a hole in my stomach that could not be filled with any amount of food.

That’s what’s left by the kids.

The Real Star

There was a time where people were killed.everyday. The stories how soldiers, terrorists, civilians died were everywhere. The pain, the tears, the agony became a part of the life style of the remaining ‘living’ people. They started to wake up with a death notice. Went to sleep not knowing whose notice would be tomorrow’s. but knowing there will be one definitely in the morning. The evening news was viewed the same way you watch a cricket match.

“10 Army soldiers were killed in war today. The number of terrorist deaths confirmed is 22. But sources say could be more.”

 Then, you do the math. 10 against 22. Ah!! is not bad. You are relived.  We are winning!!  The next day let’s kill 50.

The mind sets were changed. You did not let the tears ruin your daily work. You cry for 5 minutes, and then move on with the bread.

I too have few war affected deaths in my life. I am sure we all do. 20 million population is very small to not to be affected by such a long devastating war.

 With the end of the war we all have forgotten how it was to be in tears. General public’s contribution to the armed forces ended with buying a yellow colored ‘api venuwen api’ handband. The responsibilities were left out with the government. the heavy hearts faded away with time and the sound of Malinga’s toe crushers.

The demolishing of LTTE ended the emerging of Sri Lankan heroes too. The time of Hasalaka Gamini’s, Major Tuan Mutalif’s, Colonel Fazly Laphir’s (shortening the list else I will not stop) is replaced with Sanga’s gentleman decision to resign and Murali’s genuine smile.

It was a not so sunny Sunday evening and I was just after my weekly cleaning of the house. Had a kind of heavy lunch and sat down for a Sunday movie. My pick was one of Brad Pitt’s early movies- A river runs through it. His time before Angelina, possibly before Jennifer too. I went to FaceBook just before the movie and noticed a video clip, little over 6 minutes, decided to have quick look at it.

And it bombed by mood . (Log in to Facebook and click the link. I could not download nor find the video in youtube)

check it here, 

[This is an extract from a reality show called Ranaviru Real Star]

It is an amazing to see how people tend to forget and move forward after a tragedy. I my self, have had few tragedies in my life, (ok, well may not be tragedies- but lets say very hard times) but was always could walk ahead after a few tears and sighs, AND with some “long times” on denial.

I am a 27 year old male and do not have a weak heart. But the way Jackson Anthony spoke, the story he said and above all the expression of the brigadier Rajitha Ampemohotti. (If it was an expression at all). Made me CRY. Actual salty tears ran down my cheeks before I realize it. I think what I saw was strength in his muted eyes. Guts in his closed mouth. The proud dignity of a man who refused to cry, to accept defeat.  To have people’s sympathy. These are the people that fought the war. The people that got killed. Voluntarily.

No wonder we won the war! No wonder I feel like a loser. And I am certain that I don’t mind being a loser near men like him.

The Meeting Laugh

It was funny!

I was in a boring meeting from 10 am till 4pm. I may have spoken 4 words the whole day. Except, Hi! Good Morning everyone!! I was not listening to any of the conversations and they didn’t notice my presence.

I had some pending email replies. Completed them in an hour or so. Spent another few minutes in forwarding random emails here and there. Then the lunch came. Food was good and I had too much! Was dozing off on my chair soon after. Didn’t want to sleep in front of the people so, started browsing the net.

Ended up in youtube and watching ‘friends’ online. I watch friends literally everyday, have all 10 seasons on my hard drive, but yet again, ended up watching some random clips in youtube.

I did not have my earphones, so had to mute the computer and watch the videos with out the sounds. Here is the link of the video I watched. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwJa7qY3xIM&feature=related It is a deleted scene from episode 16 of season 09. This ones called – ‘the boob job’

I could only ‘watch’ not hear. So had to lip read to understand what they said. I am pretty familiar with their voices and actions hence it was not that hard to imagine what they may have said. But the whole set up was weird and totally funny! I couldn’t stop laughing in middle of the meeting, the worst thing is, I didn’t realize that I was laughing and everyone else was watching. When I finally realized that they all have stopped talking and started to look at me, I desperately wanted to zip. But it was so freaking hard. I was eventually in the middle of fear, laughter, and ofcourse shy!!

I was like- erhh.. a funny email! Lets go back to work people!

I was still in a weird state of mind even after the meetings with what happened.

I hope my reputation is not scattered.