The Youth Declaration is being drafted and views of the general public are being collated at present (See our post of May 1, 2008). SahaSamvada ’s responses to the Focus Questions are given below. To download the Focus Questions or for more informati…
තම මතය සනාථ කිරීමේ අරමුණින් පාර්ශික සත්යය පමණක් ඉදිරිපත් කරමින් ජනමතය හැසිරවීම ට වෙර දරන සහ හසුරුවන ජනමාධ්යය ජාවාරම් කරුවන් සහ මත නිෂ්පාදකයන් ගේ (think tanks) වෑයම තුලනය කිරීම සඳහා හැකිතාක් දුරකට මාගේ පෞද්ගලික දෘෂ්ඨිකෝණයෙන් මිදී කරුණු කාරණා අමුවෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කරමි.
මානව හිමිකම්
මානව හිමිකම් සුරැකීමේ අරමුණින් එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ සංවිධානය 1948 උඳුවප් මස 10 වැනි දින විශ්ව මානව හිමිකම් පණත සම්මත කරන ලදි. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
ගුවන්තනාමෝ කඳවුර
2002 වසරේ සිට කියුබාවේ ගුවන්තනාමෝ (Guantánamo Bay) හි ක්රියාත්මක වන සිරකඳවුරකි. ඇමරිකානු-ඇෆ්ගන් යුද්ධයේ සිරකරුවන් රඳවා තැබීමට භාවිතා කෙරේ. මෙහි ඇති වෙනස නම්, නීතිය ඉදිරියේ වැරදිකරුවන් ලෙස ඔප්පු වූවන් නොව සැකය මත අත් අඩංගුවට ගත් පුද්ගලයින් සිරකොට තැබීමයි. සැක කරුවකු සහ වැරදි කරුවකු අතර වෙනස මෙහි නොපවතී.
යුරෝපය
යුරෝපය ලෝක ආර්ථික බලය අතට ගැනීමට දරණ තැත, ලෝක ජනගහනයෙන් 5% ක් වන ඇමරිකානුවන් ලෝක සම්පත් වලින් හරිඅඩකට වැඩි කොටසක් පරිභෝජනය කිරීම මෙන්ම ලෝක ස්වභාවික සම්පත් (උදා තෙල්, රන්, ඛණිජ ආදිය) වලින් වැඩිකොටසකට හිමිකම් කියන අප්රිකානු මහද්වීපයයේ ජනයා දරිද්රතාවයෙන් මිය යාම (ලෝක පුදුම හතෙන් පලමු තැන හිමිවිය යුතුය) සහ අවිනිෂ්පාදකයින් ගේ වෙළඳපල ස්ථීර ලෙස සහතික කෙරෙන අප්රිකානු රටවල පවතින යුද්ධ (ලංකාව ද මෙයට එක අවාසනාවන්ත උදාහරණයකි) වල ප්රතිඵලයක් ලෙස සරණාගතයින් ලෙස ජනයා සංක්රමණය වීම වැලැක්වීම (යුරෝපයට ඇතුල් වීම වැලැක්වීම සඳහා) 2008.06.18 වන දින (Strasbourg, 18 Jun 2008) යුරෝපීය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විශ්ව මානව හිමිකම් පණතේ 2,3,5,6,7,8,9 සහ 13 වන වගන්තීන් කඩ කරමින් නව පණත් සම්මත කරගන්නා ලදි (රටවල් 27 ක නියෝජිතයින්ගේ ඡන්ද 369 ක් පක්ෂව 197 විරුද්ධව සහ 106 ක නිහඬතාවයකින්)
යුරෝපීය ජනමාධ්යය ගුවන්තනාමෝ කඳවුර පිළිබඳ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ නිහඬතාවය විවේචනය කිරීම
පසුගිය වසර 2 ක සිට මෙකී සිර කඳවුර වසා දැමීමට යුරෝපය කරන බලපෑම සහ එයට එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය දක්වන නිහඬතාවය
2006.02.19 වන දින
French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte told CNN: “Guantanamo is an embarrassment, and so it has to be solved one way or the other.”
The British envoy, Sir David Manning, said: “It’s difficult to find the right line to draw between your duties as a government for security and safeguarding liberty, but it is clearly an anomaly and it needs to be dealt with.”
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday urged saying it must be shut down “sooner or later.”
යුරෝපය විශ්ව මානව හිමිකම් පණත කඩකිරීම පිළිබඳව එ.ජා.සංවිධානය දක්වන නිහඬතාවයට හේතුව කුමක්ද කියා දෙකවසරේ ඉගෙනුම ලබන ජෝන් බ්රවුන් ළදරුවාට පවා තේරුම් ගත හැකි සරළ සත්යයකි.
ගේ වටකොට තාප්පය
මෙයට වඩාත්ම ස්ථීරසාර විසඳුමක් ලෙස ලෝකබලවතුන් විසින් තීරණය කරන ලද්දේ ගේ වට කොට තාප්පය බැඳීමට සමාන දෙයකි. ද්රව්යමය ලෙස සම්පත් මංකොල්ල කෑම, යටි උගුල් අටවමින් යුද්ධ සහ ජනවාර්ගික ගැටුම් ඇතිකිරීම තම රටවල යහපත් සාමාජික ආර්ථික පරිසරයක් ඇති කිරීමෙන් මූලික වියදමක් නොදරා ක්ෂේත්රයේ නිපුණතා හා පුහුණු දැනුම තම රටවල් කරා සංක්රමණය වීමට සැලැස්වීම සහ මෙකි නොකී හේතු කරුණු කොටගෙන අගාධයට ඇදවැටෙන රටවල ජනයා තම රටවලට ඒම වැලැක්වීම සඳහා ඉහත කී ගිවිසුම සම්මත කරගන්නා ලදි.
සරළ ලෙස සිතමු, මගේ බත්මුල උදුරාගත් සොරුන් මා සාගින්නට ගඩාගෙඩියක් කඩාගත්විට මා වැරදි කරු කොට දඩුවම් පැමිණිවිය හැකි නීතියක් සම්මත කරගන්නා ලදි.
You speak as if you need to mount an expedition to the Andes on llamas.
— Kahuna, on Darth Teddy’s lack of enthusiasm in locating important literary works lost in the depths of his lair.
Moistness comes to those who are patient.
— Darth Teddy’s Patient Teddy Hypothesis.
May the cat o’ nine tails feature prominently in your immediate future.
— Kahuna, raising hopes of a long-overdue disciplinary encounter for Darth Teddy.
No doubt your ancestor Obadiah Gordon was the surveyor in question.
— Kahuna, attempting to implicate Gordon in the border dispute between Georgia and Tennessee due to a 200-year old cartographic error.
Your relational algebra is getting me down.
— Gordon to Kahuna, expressing frustration with Kahuna’s latest insinuations.
I should have sent you to find the serial number of the air starter armed with a candle in a methane atmosphere a long time ago.
— Kahuna, regretting not sending Gordon on a deadly quest after reading the antics of Dimi and the Chief.
I didn’t realize Benedict XVI had such a position on his payroll.
— Kahuna to Gordon, on the Pope’s chief astronomer saying that life on Mars cannot be ruled out.
Each Mihin Air flight should also be dubbed a miracle once it lands.
— Gordon to Kahuna, noting that F-117 pilots dubbed themselves bandits, with each given a bandit number after their first flight.
I’m contemplating assigning you a bandicoot number.
— Kahuna, unveiling plans to enumerate Gordon in an arguably less flattering manner.
The anaconda may be fed on Tuesday or Monday.
— Darth Teddy to Kahuna, posting a new feeding schedule.
You can’t just install Windows here; plus, Linux is better on lower spec hardware.
— Gordon to Kahuna, reneging on a lifelong pact with Redmond and admitting to dabbling in Linux.
Did you run the bug detector before you uttered that statement? I believe the central control room in Redmond just went into red alert.
— Kahuna, cautioning Gordon of possible reprisals from Ballmerville.
Maybe I’ll just put my lens in my pocket and tell people am happy to see them.
— Darth Teddy to Kahuna, proposing an alternative use for his telephoto zoom lens.
You will note that the root cause of this is the lack of prayer to the great god Baal with a cactus up one’s ass.
— Kahuna to Gordon, on the hazards of commencing projects without divine intervention.
Are you the chicken or the pig?
— Fluke, attempting to establish if Kahuna was merely involved or committed.
Neither; I’m the wolf who’s got his eye on your ass.
— Kahuna to Fluke, disclosing a completely different agenda.
This is quite an unorthodox requirement; I suggest a meeting with the Patriarch for spiritual guidance.
— Kahuna, learning of Gordon’s need to do bitwise AND across rows using SQL.
The database engine will evaluate the code and after it determines that you wrote it, it will twiddle its interrupts and count cache misses.
— Kahuna, explaining the personalized execution plan for Gordon’s SQL code.
I understand you intend on unleashing the anaconda on foreign soil.
— Fluke, expressing concern over Kahuna’s proposed visit to the Orient with Darth Teddy.
Imperial stock is on the rise, however; someone’s been telling a lot of lies somewhere.
— Gordon to Kahuna, attributing market sentiment to fresh baloney.
These shares entitle you to attend the AGM and heckle the board.
— Kahuna, advising Gordon of his rights as an Imperial stockholder.
I am usually at one with pussy, mostly ’cause I haven’t had the opportunity to be with two.
— Darth Teddy, postulating the Tao[1] of Teddy.
You’re the Bone of Contention; or more aptly, the Boner of Contention.
— Kahuna, expounding the Te[2] of Teddy.
A banana is a dangerous construct; if the terminator is missed it could go on forever: bananananananananananananana…
— Kahuna to Gordon, illustrating the little-known hazards in handling bananas.
You need professionalalalalalalal help.
— Gordon, seeking to institutionalize Kahuna.
Oh, he’s been offering furtive cuddles in exchange for your endorsement?
— Kahuna, accusing Fluke of receiving kickbacks from Darth Teddy.
I operate in bright sunlight unlike some of us who are cuddling up to the dark side.
— Kahuna, accusing Fluke of dabbling in the dark arts.
I cannot resist the dark side of the farce; it is a calling I simply cannot resist.
— Fluke to Kahuna, admitting to being seduced by the dark side and more specifically by Darth Teddy.
If someone turns up for lunch after a 0640 arrival, I would greet them with a Howitzer.
— Kahuna to Gordon, on the correct protocol for dealing with idiots who might invite themselves for a midday meal after a grueling intercontinental flight.
Do you have access to this idiot’s remote management port? You will replace its BIOS with the MP3 version of Help me Rhonda.
— Kahuna to Gordon, recommending a permanent fix for a chronic idiot.
Clowns in adjoining workspaces have come to ask what I’m laughing about BTBOTP.
— Gordon, admitting to workplace chaos during a conversation with Kahuna.
And you’ll be using your rubber ducky as your scepter when you take over?
— Kahuna, expressing misgivings on Fluke being His potential successor.
More likely my Barrel-O-Slime.
— Fluke, confirming Kahuna’s worst suspicions.
Oh, you’ll be needing props?
— Kahuna, unimpressed by Fluke’s selection of accessories.
You would be nothing if not for connectivity.
— Darth Teddy’s Connected Kahuna Principle.
You would be nothing without your snake.
— Kahuna’s Slinky Teddy Hypothesis.
The first mongoose to turn up will disrupt your business model.
— Kahuna’s Corollary to the Slinky Teddy Hypothesis.
I will have you covered in topsoil if you don’t watch it.
— Gordon, proposing to compost Kahuna.
This is no time for humus.
— Kahuna, unamused.
Teddy only knows things related to humping.
— Kahuna to Fluke, dismissing Darth Teddy as an authority on the merits of Ethernet switches versus hubs.
I will fit a turbocharger on your ass linked to a dynamo that will give you a jolt each time you fart.
— Gordon, proposing a rather anal Rube Goldberg mechanism to deal with Kahuna.
A magnesium flare shoved up your ass will help you see the error in your ways.
— Kahuna, retaliating with incandescent measures to help Gordon see the light.
Your paws tend to wander when unsupervised.
— Kahuna’s Unsupervised Teddy Hypothesis.
They also do when they’re supervised. What’s your point?
— Darth Teddy’s Pointless Supervision Corollary to Kahuna’s Unsupervised Teddy Hypothesis.
And will you squeal like a piglet if I send you a toy?
— Kahuna to Darth Teddy, plotting to distribute dodgy gifts.
[1] Tao, (Chinese: 道; Pinyin dao; Wade-Giles: tao; audio) is a metaphysical concept found in Taoism, Confucianism, and more generally in ancient Chinese philosophy. While the character itself translates as “way,” “path,” or “route,” or sometimes more loosely as “doctrine” or “principle,” it is used philosophically to signify the fundamental or true nature of the world.
[2] Te, (Chinese: 德; pinyin: dé; Wade-Giles: te; audio) is a key concept in Chinese philosophy, usually translated “inherent character; inner power; integrity” in Taoism.
The leadership crisis of UNP has been the talk of SL politics for some time. Ranil Wickramasinghe is now facing immense pressure even from his close allies to step down from his post. The nomination of former military veteran Major General Janaka Perera for the post of Chief Minister of North Central Province has been one of the outcomes of leadership crisis in UNP. This nomination would have never been on the card, if UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe was in a stronger position.
Janaka Perera is one of the most respected General in Sri Lanka Army. LTTE feared him more than any one else in the battle field. He managed to keep the people in Weli Oya area despite the LTTE terrorist attacks on civilians. He had to work closely with UNP politicians like Gamini Dissanayaka to get the government’s support to develop infrastructure facilities of the villages. However, Janaka Perera was soon branded as a UNP supporter because he worked closely with UNP politicians.
LTTE terrorists faced their most pathetic military debacle when they attacked Welioya Army camp which was then under the military leadership of Major General Janaka Perera. The CBK government had kept aside Janaka Perera due to political speculations. However she had no other option but to call him back at the eleventh hour of most probable military defeat in Jaffna Peninsula. He together with Major General Sarath Fonseka played strategic role in repulsing LTTE terrorist attack in Jaffna Peninsula.
Janaka Perera is renowned to be a military leader who knows the pulse of his soldiers and care the needs of them in the battle field. These qualities have been attributed to the success of his military leadership. However, this time he has been nominated by a leader whom is branded by his own senior party members as a man without a heart and feelings, a man who depended on foreign interventions and media support than his own leadership.
The LTTE completely pruned UNP leadership by killing R. Premadasa, Gamini Dissanayaka, Lalith Athulathmudali, Ranjan Wijayarathna, Weerasingha Mallimaracchi and many more secondary level leaders. It paved the way for a mere political clown to grab the helm of the UNP leadership. The nation has witnessed the affect of weak leadership of Ranil Wickramasingha in the last ceasefire period.
UNP has further been eroded in the last decade due to indifferent attitude of Ranil Wickramasingha. The top rank UNP secondary leaders like Karu Jayasooriya, Rajitha Senarathna, Hema Kumara Nanayakkara, Navin Dissanayaka and many others have already left UNP and joined hand with Mahinda Rajapaksa government. The government is very popular among the people due to success in defeating LTTE terrorism.
Ranil Wickramasinghe has looked for popular characters to cover record number of election defeats under his leadership. Recent appointments of film star Ranjan Ramanayaka (Katana), former beauty queen Rosy Senanayaka (Colombo-West), former cricketer Hashan Thilakarathna (Avissawella), TV programme presenters Chandana Sooriyabandara (Kandy) and Buddhika Pathirana (Mathara) as party organizers were part of his survival strategy.
Ranil Wickramasingha’s ludicrous strategy is more evident when one looks at his selection of nominee for chief minister of Sabaragamuwa Province. It is another ‘star’ in the form of a tuition master, film producer, and media presenter Upul Shantha Sannasgala. He was highly criticized for organizing various sexual oriented promotional campaigns backed by NGO’s on Valentine days. Ven. Soma Thera criticized Sannasgala’s petty acts which were against our culture and values. He initiated religious “Sill Campaign” to counter Sannasgala’s sex oriented gatherings at Victoria Park.
Certainly, Major General Janaka Perera was one of the most popular and respected military leader in Sri Lanka. He should not be just another ‘star’ of Ranil Wickramasinghe’s survival drama. He has played more responsible role for the nation in the last two decades, and he has to pay extreme attention to his personal security because he is not a mere celluloid hero, but a real war hero.
The nation has already witnessed the assassination of Major General Lucky Algama in rally in Ja-Ella in 2000 presidential election campaign of Ranil Wickramasinghe. Therefore, Major General Janaka Perera should take maximum security precautions in his political campaign. He should not be another victim of Ranil Wickramasinghe’s popular political strategy.
In the future, Mr. Janaka Perera will decide on his destiny in Sri Lankan history as a great General and war hero, or a petty politician contracted by a political clown to try and avert the opposition from the people, or success in both military and political arena serving the nation. If he can show his military leadership qualities in political field, the nation will be benefited. His arrival into politics should serve more purpose than being mere clutch to a defeating political leader who lacks leadership skills.
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- Maharagama Chinthanaya (Aug 20, 2007)
The Story of the our MultiMedia projector
After Completing the special project of “having a multimedia projector” Success fully , we bought a multi media projector.
_______It was Started on 01.06.2008 and finished it within 14 days on 17.06.2008.
_______We had a raffle draw of lottery tickets. and It should be appreciated the dedication of the students and [...]
After giving up my IBM Thinkpad laptop sometime back, I got used to working on Desktops for a while. But it didn't help me a great deal in organizing things when shifting my work from home to office and vice versa. So again I started hunting for a laptop that will fulfill all my needs. Finally I settled with an ASUS X51R notebook that comes with a Dual Core 2Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 256MB ATI VGA Card, 120GB Hard disk, DVD Writer, Wireless etc.. It turned out to be good deal at the end so I went for it.
I loaded my OS of choice Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron on this and everything went very smoothly except that I couldn't get the wireless working. By running lspci the wireless card was shown as Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter which is an Atheros AR5007EG wireless card. The proprietary driver for Atheros was installed by Hardy but when I ran iwconfig this is what I got.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
Few google searches resulted me about madwifi. Madwifi is a team of volunteer developers working on Linux kernel drivers for Wireless LAN devices with Atheros chipsets. I got madwifi installed and got my wireless card working. Here is how I did it.
First I disabled both proprietary drivers in System -> Administration -> Hardware drivers.
Then in the command prompt I did the following
Get this version of madwifi
Untar the file
Move inside the directory
You might need build-essential if you haven't compiled anything before
Building madwifi and installing the modules
Loading module at boot
Enter the line below in the last line of the file and save.
ath_pci
Thats it. I restarted the machine and ran iwconfig again to check
eth0 no wireless extensions.
wifi0 no wireless extensions.
ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:17 dBm Sensitivity=1/1
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=0/70 Signal level=0 dBm Noise level=0 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
As you can see its now showing that the wireless card is working properly. Thanks to madwifi.
When it came to my graphic card I had to use the ATI propriety driver to make full use of it. Since Hardy comes with compiz out of the box I managed to get the 3D desktop working without much hassle.
To get compiz working in Hardy there are two things to be done.
1. Goto System -> Preferences - Appearance and click Visual Effects tab. Then tick Extra to get the effects working.
2. Install the Compiz Settings Manager.
After installing you can goto System -> Preferences - Advanced Desktop Effects Settings to add/configure/remove effects related to compiz.
I also enabled Emerald themes to get out of the standard Gnome look. Here is how got emerald working.
Now if you goto System -> Preferences - Emerald Theme Manager you can configure an Emerald theme of your choice. By default it doesn't come with any themes so you need to download themes from Gnome-Look.
However you need to tell compiz to use Emerald as its Window Decorator. To do that goto System -> Preferences - Advanced Desktop Effects Settings and under Effects category click on the Window Decoration icon which will take you to its settings. In the 'Command' field delete whatever is in there and add this value to that field
Have fun..
I found a nice Emerald theme which kinda reflects the one used by Matt Farrell in the movie Die Hard 4.0. Here are few screeshots of my desktop.
3D desktop with compiz on Hardy
Desktop with new look theme
Let’s see if anyone can guess who the guy in this picture is…I was really suprised when I came across it myself, ’cause he looks sooo different now that he’s old.Hint: You know who he is - it’s not some obscure writer/painter/someone you’ve never see…
What is this big joke of blue film producer Upul Shantha Sannasgala contesting the elections for UNP in Sabaragamuwa province? Previous leaders of UNP like Hon D. S. Senanayake and Dudley Senanayake might be turning in their graves hearing this news. H…
Note - Additional Events may be organized outside this schedule.Please click on the picture for a better readable view
Pinwath Loku Swaminwahanse (Most Venerable Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero) conducted the (June) monthly Bhawana programme at the Mahamevnawa Dhammachetiya Asapuwa, Anuradhapura. It was held on 21st June 2008 from 8:00 am in the morning. The newly built …
I remember my post of life being a roller coaster….. Well, it’s happening again!
A few days ago, I was upset about the fact that I was broke, filled up with work and deadlines and doing a degree in International Relations which is really not my cup of coffee. Well, things have taken a nice turn [...]
I’ve heard alot of good things about Timbre, but i’ve never really managed to head out there. So finally found the time to go there and boy was it worth it.So Timbre is an outdoor live music venue. It’s very chilled out, very spacious and has plenty of…
If what the Sunday Leader says here is true, and I’m convinced it is, Keheliya Rambukwella is an idiot. Ramith, or whatever his son’s name is, and a couple of his mates broke into the office of the Senior Games Master of Royal College and stole a co…
Console wars were and are raging. The video game industry raked in $9.5billion in 2007 so its no small crowd of geeks anymore, its mainstream now with big money on the line. So its a fact that companies will try all their marketing tricks to grab a pie…
The found poem is a delightful subset of the poetic art. Poets wake up every morning hungry for images. They scour nature programs, read newspapers, comb their pets, anything to tease out some reminiscence, or to enable themselves to describe the somet…
Me, A Poet?I try with lyrical attempt to string words that otherwiseWouldn’t make any sense.Finding balance between expression, freedomand the fear of revealing myselfI try to hold down a sense of sadness within my scope of funAn oxymoron gives me the …
So I had a good idea to add a transparent board index to our forum. Which sounded like a revolutionary idea at the time as we had not seen it on any other forum before :)Also it would involve a fixed background picture so that the board would scroll ov…
No I am not mad. Or castrated. Don’t tell me I don’t know what I am missing, I know very well 
From Tawnee Stone or Jordan Capri, from Priya Rai to Mindy Vega, from celebs you know, to “Hi my name is Shanelle” from pics to live cams to downloads, fro…
මේ “කථා කරන ඉරිඟු” ලිපි පෙළේ දෙවැන්න ය. මෙහි පළමුවැන්නෙහි සඳහන් වුනේ ඉරිඟු වලින් ඇති ප්රයෝජන හා එය ලෝකයේ අර්ථිකයට ඇති බලපෑම ගැන ය. එහිදී අධිසාන්ද්ර ඉරිඟු පැණිය, සියයට සීයක්ම ප්රතිචක්රීකරණය කළ හැකි ප්ලාස්ටික් විශේෂයක් හා ඉරිඟු භාවිතයෙන් සාදන ජීවඉන්ධන ගැන ද කතා වුනා.
ලෝක බලශක්ති අර්බුදය කියන්නෙ දැන් දැන් කරළියට පැමිණ ඇති උණුසුම් [...]
Her head was back, blonde hair fluttering in the breeze that swept in from the sea, high above the roads and trees, over the little dotted lights of his city, banishing the heat from the balcony and the bed room. She sat on the metal box of the air conditioner that was fixed to the concrete of the balcony; smoke drifted softly from her open mouth, and the cigarette glowed in her fingers.
“Not any more,” she said, with an amused tangle in her voice, head turning up, cheeks creamy, touched with pink.
“I’m ravenous. I don’t think I ate much dinner.”
“Oh!? And what about the crab?” she was laughing now.
“I was so focused on showing you how to eat it right, and that I just barely ate one.” He nodded, stopping from saying more.
“So that was a demo one then?”
“The crab or the eating?” He kept his voice light, but now it was getting harder to do that.
She got up and kissed him, full and on his mouth. He tasted the arid, acid taste of used tobacco on her lips.
“I’m going to have dessert. Its in the fridge; I made it yesterday.”
“Oooh. What is it?”
“It’s a strawberry cream thing. I call it strawberry orgasm.” He’d called it that, way back when, after he had first made it after experimenting for weeks, and got it right, because he had thought it was cute at the time, and it had just rolled off the tip of his tonge, when he was cooking for friends, and laughing with them, but now he felt embarrassed as he said it.
His eyes dropped.
It was later, when she had shared his one, and scraped the delicate glass clean with the tiny spoon, that she asked with a sigh, “So how do you make that?”
He started off, glad for the simple question. “You wash your strawberries, and then slice them up really thin. Drop a forkful at the bottom of each shot glass, and then reduce about one, well one and half, cups of strawberries with a cup of vodka.”
She listened, still and quiet. Out side, the breeze dropped, and he could hear the roar of the sea, deep and strong and bitter.
“Add a little icing sugar as it thickens, and when it does, strain it, it should be very thick, but you can reduce it a little more in the micro wave…” He waved at the silver box on the black granite counter, as if to say, ‘there it is’ - like it mattered. “And when it is syrupy, add a little more vodka, mix it though and pour into the shot glasses, so that the strawberry slivers are just covered.
“You did all that? I should write this down.” Her voice trailed off.
“Yes, it’s a bit of work. Then you take the pulpy strawberry mess, that didn’t strain through, and you puree it, as fine as you can, straining it with a coarse mesh thingy again, at the end, not a fine one that is - and then I like to add cream or coconut milk, and gell it, like a panna cotta, over the vodka syrup at the bottom.”
“Wow,” she said. “Yeah, those layers are really some thing.”
“Then when its set, a few hours later – or the next day, add fresh whipped cream, and more slivers of strawberries on top.
“It was soo good!” she said, but already he wasn’t listening.
Iqbal had roared with laughter. “Just make it and tell darling!” He guffawed on, slapping Siddha’s back like she was a guy.
“Strawberries After Crab,” from my novel (in progress)
Plains Like a Calm Sea.
Publisher inquires are welcome.
I just completed my independent study review paper. As the title suggests, it was about "Using Artificial Neural Networks to Solve Complex Problems". If you haven’t heard about neural networks before, they are a new approach for solve problem…
the photo of my plate was of prawns caught in the river in front of my cabin in Raja Ela, Hingurakgoda and much tastier than lagoon prawns.I sold two Ambun banana bunches yesterday, in Hingurakgoda for a Rs1000/- that was for 125 fruit. This is the ret…
This year Poson Poya, fell on Wednesday, June 18th 2008 and therefore was a midweek day. There was no exodus of the Colombo middle class to provincial 5 star hotels for a weekend of fun and therefore these hotels were empty. I went to the Deer Park Hot…
Pictures from: Ritu Kumar and Rohit Bal Collections, Jaipur Gem Palace, http://iheartmake-up.blogspot.com
You do not do, you do not doAny more, black shoeIn which I have lived like a footFor thirty years, poor and white,Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.Daddy, I have had to kill you.You died before I had time–Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,Ghastly statue…
This is great i tell you, Finally some real tabloid style news stories over here..Renowned film actress and singer Anarkali Akarsha yesterday accused ruling party western provincial councillor Duminda Silva of threatening to kill her and her mother if …
Nethmi’s daycare asks parents to put in two extra underwear in the school bag each day along with the afternoon change. Since Nethmi likes to be in charge, she chooses these in the morning by herself and leaves it on the bed for Hareen to put in her …
Parliamentarian and President of the National Freedom Front (Jathika Nidahas Peramuna) Mr. Wimal Weerawansa said that architects of the new party initially had no intention of starting a separate movement to liberate the nation. But they were compelled…
Hi Boys and Girls,Welcome to Appu’s Kussiya (pronounced as kouss-eeyer)Cooking is Appu’s way of sharing his passion (ok, who wants to get passionate with Appu, ‘eh?) b’coz food is what Appu uses to maintain his figure. Appu hopes to make this a regular…
G.W. Bridge - New York, originally uploaded by AbraCadabRa 13.
New York has many many absolutely wonderful sights to keep the first time visitor’s jaw permanently open. Of of these no doubt is the George Washington Bridge.
Having lived right…
On a nice hot day there is nothing quite as refreshing as biting into a juicy slice of watermelon. Depending on my mood I do prefer the seed type. Even though this can drastically reduce the speed at which you can eat your slice it does introduce a cer…
“The real secret is to focus on what makes you FEEL GOOD… your own JOY is the key to all abundance”
The theory behind this advice is that if you can feel, right now, the good feelings that you would experience if you already had the object of your desire, this accelerates the process that brings [...]
Minimize Stress, Maximize Success: Effective Strategies for Realizing Your Goals (Positive Business Series) is written by Clare Harris. She is a visiting lecturer at the Cranfield school of Management’s Praxis Center for Developing Personal Effectiveness, which takes a pioneering and holistic approach to personal and organizational development.
Explores how stress impacts on us at work, examining how it affects both our body and our mind. It takes a look at common causes of stress in the workplace, and teaches us how to evaluate our major stressors.
Focuses on how stress can influence our thinking, feelings and behavior, and how it can affect adversely our physical health and well-being. We learn how to monitor our thinking, and how to trust the messages our body sends us. This chapter looks at the topic of change in detail, because today’s corporate climate is highly unpredictable. Once we get a grasp of what happens during the process of change, we are better able to cope with any upheavals.
Is packed with tried-and-tested suggestions as to how we can help relieve stress and improve our well-being, both physically and mentally. We learn about the importance of controlling our breathing, of taking the right kind of exercise, of eating healthy food, and of getting a good night’s sleep. We also find out how to release mental stress through thinking more positively, re-balancing our work and home lives, and finding new goals and dreams, to form a comprehensive stress-busting strategy.
Is dedicated offering specific answers to most common problems managers face in the workplace. Topics covered range from decision-making, assertiveness and communication to time management, delegation and harassment. We are given an array of proven methods with which to tackle them.
When we find ourselves in difficult situations, we sometimes need a quick-fix to instantly release tension. This chapter is full of useful exercises that help us stay calm and focused.
Building Your Own Time Bomb Do you find that, once or twice a year, you begin to feel seriously overworked? Do your energy levels dive; does paper work pile up; and you have no time for relaxation, let alone fun? And a couple of weeks later, do you feel really under the weather? If so, you are not alone. Many generally healthy, energetic people have these significant dips in well-being.It nearly always starts with some genuinely stressful episode – say a frustrating project that doesn’t go well, or anxiety about an impossible tight deadline. Unless we are skilled in managing stress, we find ourselves dwelling on the problem night and day. Our agitated mind takes over and keeps the body bathed in stress hormones almost continuously –creating our own well-being time bomb.
We run out of words in appreciating the true Sinhalese Buddhist son of our soil who placed this remarkable matrimonial advertisement in Lankadeepa. We fully endorse his wish not to marry a girl who watches Sirasa TV. Given the unpatriotic uncultured pr…
Waiting for egg rottis and tea in Anuradhapura.On the way back from Anuradhapura by trainAvocado pears getting up in the morning, in Kandy.Negombo in the horizon, an evening north of colombo harbourSunset over wellawatte marin drive, as seen from a fla…
Do you want to hear something funny? I was on my way to office, late of course since the spirit- not what comes in a bottle- is not there, I see a Mercedes Benz parked next to Sirikotha.
As three of four people were crowded around the back of the car, inspecting its body, with a tuk tuk parked nearby, I assumed there must have been an accident.
But upon close inspection I see that they were pouring petrol in to the vehicle’s tank from a bottle.
My my… if Mercs run on empty tanks, what would our fate be? heehee, well that was not actually the case. The driver simply must have forgotten to fill the tank. OR maybe the owner was broke.
Actually it was quite funny at the moment because I have never ever seen a Merc on the side of the road, being fed fuel from a bottle.
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