Sometimes the wind is hot and dry
And at night it blows a deadly chill.
No matter how far I venture or try,
I cannot see beyond that little hill,
So I ask the wind if it dared to pry
Whether you're thinking of me still
It wraps me in hope, myth and wry
I wonder if it does the truth conceal
Is it your heartbeat that I often hear,
When the city clamour faint and cease?
Sometimes the soft whisper in my ear
Brings me comfort and a happy lease
When the sun comes out and skies clear
I can hear the busy banter of the trees
As the wind takes away a lonely tear
With a secret promise across the seas
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Our 'one candle prayer'
I dreamt of the day when our eyes shall first meet
In a moment I thought I had the world at my feet
Holding your hand; it was the most blissful treat
It’s amazing how a dream made my night complete
A candle was burning with a dim crimson flare
Sweet music flowed, I know not from where
I kissed your cheeks through waves of glossy hair
And cuddled on a cloud we whispered a prayer
In a moment I thought I had the world at my feet
Holding your hand; it was the most blissful treat
It’s amazing how a dream made my night complete
A candle was burning with a dim crimson flare
Sweet music flowed, I know not from where
I kissed your cheeks through waves of glossy hair
And cuddled on a cloud we whispered a prayer
Friday, October 20, 2006
'Glorious' Hates War
This is a Multimedia assignment we did at APIIT in 2002. Personally, my attitude towards war has slightly shifted since then, but I guess this still bears a timely message that's worth thinking about.
The music is from one of my favorite hymns which is ususally sung at weddings. This is a rendition of 'O Perfect Love' by 'Jenna' on a Cello and Harp, but the words of this hymn are extremely powerful in its poetry and meaning...
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
In my place
Reuters photo by Buddhika WeerasingheThe empty boots and blackened helmet
Could have been mine
Streams of tears flowing through a hamlet
Could have been mine
The fallen corpse, lifeless and shattered
Could have been mine
The father lost, leaving a family tattered
Could have been mine
The loss of love that tore another life
Could have been mine
Their little corner of the world in strife
Could have been mine
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Social experiment #2
I have been crashing in on a few stranger’s blogs lately… lets call it a social experiment – but the last time I undertook such a social experiment was when I decided to click through the profiles of my friends and their friends and their friends and their friends on Hi5, to find out how closely linked our generation of Sri Lankans actually were… surprisingly enough, almost all of us at least had a ‘friend of a friend of a friend’ in common!! But no… this it about my blog crashes… it all started when I Googled to find out what actually happened at SAG 2006 and ended up in cynically yours.
As a result, I stumbled on a few remarkably interesting blogs (Manshark's Random Rantings, with a few old friends among them Paxified), many refreshing ideas that almost cured this severe attack of writer’s block that I am going through at the moment and also realised that the Internet is probably the best place where one can stumble into the most intelligent and refreshingly creative young Sri Lankans… I mean, apart from a very few friends, who are intern scattered around the world at the moment, it is not easy to find a creative, intelligent and funny human being among our generation of Sri Lankans…
Or is it just me???
As a result, I stumbled on a few remarkably interesting blogs (Manshark's Random Rantings, with a few old friends among them Paxified), many refreshing ideas that almost cured this severe attack of writer’s block that I am going through at the moment and also realised that the Internet is probably the best place where one can stumble into the most intelligent and refreshingly creative young Sri Lankans… I mean, apart from a very few friends, who are intern scattered around the world at the moment, it is not easy to find a creative, intelligent and funny human being among our generation of Sri Lankans…
Or is it just me???
Free hugs
| Last week, Google bought YouTube.com for 1.65 billion US Dollars. Against a backdrop of many debates that were sparked off by the deal, there lies one very noticeable fact – that the Internet is slowly but surely becoming a multimedia phenomenon in the true sense of the word. Take the story of the ‘Free hugs’ campaign that was started by Juan Mann in the streets of Sydney, Australia and ‘The sick puppies’ - a rock band that barely had a crowd of more than twenty people for their gigs around town. Simon Moore, the band’s lead guitarist and singer saw Juan and his ‘Free hugs’ campaign which he recorded on his video camera, and later dubbed with their song ‘All the same’. Simon posted the video on YouTube last September and in a phenomenon that surprised even YouTube, the video was viewed by hundreds and thousands of people every day, launching the ‘free hugs’ campaign and the little known Sydney rock band into world attention. -Haren | |
Monday, October 16, 2006
Strength & power
Dear nangi, malli, cousins, nephews and niece,
I hope all of you are keeping well. As you may already know, the past few weeks have been full of rewards and blessings in my life – even more than I had prayed for. I am looking forward to the coming months with a lot of optimism and also a hint of anxiety caused more by expectations rather than doubts.
This time around, I thought I’ll write to you about a few lessons that I feel I am just beginning to understand only now. Unlike in the past, where I have been sharing my past experiences and thoughts with you, I hope we could learn these lessons together throughout the duration of our lives – because it is the nature of many real lessons in life that we can never fully understand them, but we continue to grow with understanding through each experience and the learning process continues throughout our lives.
First I want to share a few thoughts on ‘power’ and ‘strength’ (it may be a good idea to stop reading for a moment now to look up the actual definitions of these two words in a dictionary).
The physical sciences as well as the social sciences have precise definitions for what is meant by the word ‘power’. However, the word ‘strength’ has no place in our scientific exploration of the world – the word that comes closest to it is ‘energy’ but that has an entirely different meaning. In terms of physics or chemistry, power is the rate at which energy is converted while performing a useful task and is usually measured in “Watts”. You may have seen the power of a light bulb indicated as “60 Watts” or “100 Watts”. In scientific realms, energy is of no use if it cannot be converted into power; or in other words if the energy cannot be used to do some useful work. Therefore, scientifically speaking, power is a very useful thing that we, especially in modern times, cannot live without. Cars, toasters and refrigerators need power to perform their tasks and they usually get that power through electricity or by burning fuel. In fact, the per capita power consumption is an indicator of how developed a country is in comparison to others.
Sociologists on the other hand define power as the ability of one person or group to impose their will on others, even if those others resist the imposition. This sort of power is usually categorised as political power, military power, legislative power, judicial power and so on. If you have an interest in law, you will be able to find out that three fundamental divisions of power is necessary for a nation or state to function effectively. These three powers are; legislative power – the power to make laws; executive power – the power to enforce those laws; and finally judicial power – the power to judge whether the laws have been abided or not. If you decide to investigate further, you will also find why these three elements of power in society need to be separated and balanced and how the collapse of any of these powers could lead to a “failed state” such as what has happened in Iraq at the moment, where there is no law and order in society.
An individual may gain power in many ways. Painters, actors, singers and writers have the power to influence people’s thoughts and emotions. In fact in writing this letter, I am exercising my power to influence you in some way. A politician may have the power to take decisions that impact the lives of the citizens of his or her constituency. A corporate executive may have the power to employ or sack an employee. I suppose it won’t be too difficult for you to see already, that power – metaphorically speaking - is a double edged sword that can be used for positive as well as negative purposes.
Strength, by definition, is different. It implies the possession of power but not its use. ‘Strength’ is also the opposite of ‘weakness’ or ‘fragility’ and therefore implies a desirable quality in a person. You can think of the strength of an object or material too. With exceptions such as Kevlar – a bullet proof fabric - strong objects are generally not very flexible. Engineers often have to choose between deferent types of material in construction projects. Sometimes a task may require a material that is both strong and relatively flexible such as fibre threads for a safety net. I think modern cars are amazing feats on engineering because they are made to be very strong and durable, yet in a crash, they collapse rapidly – absorbing the shock of the impact – to maximise the safety of passengers. I sometimes wonder whether a person could be like that too – strong enough, not to let its strength harm or hurt others. Here, I am reminded of the famous prayer of General Douglas McArthur for his son when he said; “Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.”
I have my own thoughts on ‘strength’ and ‘power’ and about the ‘strong’ and the ‘weak’ and the ‘powerful’ and the ‘powerless’, but I will not cloud your minds with my thoughts. I would rather give you that space for yourselves to think about it at depth and form your own thoughts and opinions about them. I want you all to think about what it is that makes a person strong. It is physical strength? Does knowledge and talent make a person ‘strong’ or does it rather make the person ‘powerful’? Does the secret to a person’s strength lie in his or her belief sysem of ‘faith’, ‘courage’ and ‘morals’? you may come up with different views about these things and I would be delighted to read about your thoughts on it. I will write to you soon about ‘trust’ and also about trusting what we have been taught and trusting our own feelings. As I conclude for now, I have a wish for all of you; that you may learn to see the difference between ‘strength’ and ‘power’ and that you may always respect a man’s ‘strength’ but never his ‘power’.
Yours always,
Haren ayya/mama
I hope all of you are keeping well. As you may already know, the past few weeks have been full of rewards and blessings in my life – even more than I had prayed for. I am looking forward to the coming months with a lot of optimism and also a hint of anxiety caused more by expectations rather than doubts.
This time around, I thought I’ll write to you about a few lessons that I feel I am just beginning to understand only now. Unlike in the past, where I have been sharing my past experiences and thoughts with you, I hope we could learn these lessons together throughout the duration of our lives – because it is the nature of many real lessons in life that we can never fully understand them, but we continue to grow with understanding through each experience and the learning process continues throughout our lives.
First I want to share a few thoughts on ‘power’ and ‘strength’ (it may be a good idea to stop reading for a moment now to look up the actual definitions of these two words in a dictionary).
The physical sciences as well as the social sciences have precise definitions for what is meant by the word ‘power’. However, the word ‘strength’ has no place in our scientific exploration of the world – the word that comes closest to it is ‘energy’ but that has an entirely different meaning. In terms of physics or chemistry, power is the rate at which energy is converted while performing a useful task and is usually measured in “Watts”. You may have seen the power of a light bulb indicated as “60 Watts” or “100 Watts”. In scientific realms, energy is of no use if it cannot be converted into power; or in other words if the energy cannot be used to do some useful work. Therefore, scientifically speaking, power is a very useful thing that we, especially in modern times, cannot live without. Cars, toasters and refrigerators need power to perform their tasks and they usually get that power through electricity or by burning fuel. In fact, the per capita power consumption is an indicator of how developed a country is in comparison to others.
Sociologists on the other hand define power as the ability of one person or group to impose their will on others, even if those others resist the imposition. This sort of power is usually categorised as political power, military power, legislative power, judicial power and so on. If you have an interest in law, you will be able to find out that three fundamental divisions of power is necessary for a nation or state to function effectively. These three powers are; legislative power – the power to make laws; executive power – the power to enforce those laws; and finally judicial power – the power to judge whether the laws have been abided or not. If you decide to investigate further, you will also find why these three elements of power in society need to be separated and balanced and how the collapse of any of these powers could lead to a “failed state” such as what has happened in Iraq at the moment, where there is no law and order in society.
An individual may gain power in many ways. Painters, actors, singers and writers have the power to influence people’s thoughts and emotions. In fact in writing this letter, I am exercising my power to influence you in some way. A politician may have the power to take decisions that impact the lives of the citizens of his or her constituency. A corporate executive may have the power to employ or sack an employee. I suppose it won’t be too difficult for you to see already, that power – metaphorically speaking - is a double edged sword that can be used for positive as well as negative purposes.
Strength, by definition, is different. It implies the possession of power but not its use. ‘Strength’ is also the opposite of ‘weakness’ or ‘fragility’ and therefore implies a desirable quality in a person. You can think of the strength of an object or material too. With exceptions such as Kevlar – a bullet proof fabric - strong objects are generally not very flexible. Engineers often have to choose between deferent types of material in construction projects. Sometimes a task may require a material that is both strong and relatively flexible such as fibre threads for a safety net. I think modern cars are amazing feats on engineering because they are made to be very strong and durable, yet in a crash, they collapse rapidly – absorbing the shock of the impact – to maximise the safety of passengers. I sometimes wonder whether a person could be like that too – strong enough, not to let its strength harm or hurt others. Here, I am reminded of the famous prayer of General Douglas McArthur for his son when he said; “Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.”
I have my own thoughts on ‘strength’ and ‘power’ and about the ‘strong’ and the ‘weak’ and the ‘powerful’ and the ‘powerless’, but I will not cloud your minds with my thoughts. I would rather give you that space for yourselves to think about it at depth and form your own thoughts and opinions about them. I want you all to think about what it is that makes a person strong. It is physical strength? Does knowledge and talent make a person ‘strong’ or does it rather make the person ‘powerful’? Does the secret to a person’s strength lie in his or her belief sysem of ‘faith’, ‘courage’ and ‘morals’? you may come up with different views about these things and I would be delighted to read about your thoughts on it. I will write to you soon about ‘trust’ and also about trusting what we have been taught and trusting our own feelings. As I conclude for now, I have a wish for all of you; that you may learn to see the difference between ‘strength’ and ‘power’ and that you may always respect a man’s ‘strength’ but never his ‘power’.
Yours always,
Haren ayya/mama
Monday, October 09, 2006
Golden wings
O little butterfly
Perched on my trembling palm
I wish you'd never fly away
Seeking the soft petals of spring buds
Enticed by their sweet nectar
Would you to abandon me here?
Often I secretly wish and dream
That you would find your garden in me
Where the parched rosebuds will flower
With the flutter of your delicate wings
The trees will shade you from the sun
While I gather the dew from my heart
To quench your thirst
For you have shaped my dreams
And my thoughts fly with you
Wherever you flap your wings in the wind
Yet I fear that I may never hold you
For I know that your place is among the flowers
And their sweet fragrance belong to you
But let this little dream linger in my heart
At least for another day
Which I submit to God with every breath
A sacred wish with golden wings
Perched on my trembling palm
I wish you'd never fly away
Seeking the soft petals of spring buds
Enticed by their sweet nectar
Would you to abandon me here?
Often I secretly wish and dream
That you would find your garden in me
Where the parched rosebuds will flower
With the flutter of your delicate wings
The trees will shade you from the sun
While I gather the dew from my heart
To quench your thirst
For you have shaped my dreams
And my thoughts fly with you
Wherever you flap your wings in the wind
Yet I fear that I may never hold you
For I know that your place is among the flowers
And their sweet fragrance belong to you
But let this little dream linger in my heart
At least for another day
Which I submit to God with every breath
A sacred wish with golden wings
Angel eyes
A little star on a silent night
Fell from a dark and cloudless sky
Turning itself to a streak of light
That beamed on me from heaven on high
I made a wish on that fallen star
So that through its burning sacrifice,
I may gain new strength to travel far
And catch a glimpse of her angel eyes
Fell from a dark and cloudless sky
Turning itself to a streak of light
That beamed on me from heaven on high
I made a wish on that fallen star
So that through its burning sacrifice,
I may gain new strength to travel far
And catch a glimpse of her angel eyes
Sunday, October 08, 2006
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