Lovescope

Heed their words the stars they say
While the thorny game of love you play
Keep all your worries out at bay
On this blessed St. Valentine’s Day

It’s not the only day of the year
To attend and care for those who are dear
No matter if they are far or near
Love them each day and make it clear


Aquarius
The stars are all evenly spread out in the cosmos for you so there is nothing significant happening in your loveosphere. Looks like you will have to creep into that pitiable ‘bachelors party’ again and spend Valentine’s Day with the guys – watch a movie, grab some junk food, drink Cola, idle around town, go home and pretend that you had the best Valentines day ever. How could you possibly have all that fun if you had a girlfriend no?

Pisces
You broke up just before the big day – so what! I mean who cares? I don’t mean to be insensitive here but what were you thinking in the first place. That guy wasn’t going to stand around watching you complain about his faithful mountain bike and watch you compare him with your previous boyfriend who had a BMW! Get a life girl and learn to measure a guy’s worth by the diameter of his vehicles wheels... not the amount of leather in the seats!

Aries
I got bad news and worse news for you. Well… the bad news is that all the stars have deserted you this time. Yes… even Uranus… (Even though it is technically a planet) Looks like its going to be a long and lonely Valentine’s Day this time as well. Hey… wait a minute… I am not done with the worse news. The stars say however that your personal space will be invaded… by mosquitoes during nights and flies during the day. I do feel for you… too bad you were born into Aries, but hey, don’t blame me. I am just the messenger!

Taurus
Jupiter will be going out with Venus (lucky bugger!) and mars is stuttering to ask Pluto (yes… out of desperation), but you my friend better keep to yourself this time. Looks like you will have to wait till the moon is reunited with the sun (the next lunar eclipse or solar eclipse – whichever takes longer) before you can even hope to strike a romantic chord with anyone. If you disregard this advice, your relationships will break up within hours (that doesn’t mean you’ll turn into Britney Spears either)!

Gemini
The stars say that all the bad luck you have had in your romantic pursuits has something to do with your health. The stars are showing me your teeth… Hmm… let me think… Right! It is about your oral health and hygiene… I am sorry to put it so bluntly but you will have to go brush your teeth before that all important date – because your breath stinks! A proper bath wouldn’t hurt either. (Darn! I was never good at breaking bad news.)

Cancer
Your stars seem to be jumping the queue yet again... ahem… wait… no they are going on a merry-go-round. Mixed fortunes and misfortunes seem to be the order of the day. You like this guy but he likes your friend and your friend likes this other guy who happens to be his friend’s brother-in-law’s cousin. But that dim wit of a guy likes you, but you like this first guy who only likes your friend who likes his brother-in-law’s cousin… or was it nephew... Err… it’s a vicious circle this… life is!

Leo
Fine! You love the girl and she might like you too, but the stars don’t like your approach. You should win the family over before you can woo the girl you idiot! However, personally I would start by making friends with the dog first… then the family (once you are safe from the barking Rottweiler, you will have the peace of mind to deal with her father who has a shot-gun) and finally the girl. It’s a flawless strategy, but somehow that didn’t work for me the last time though… I mean I made friends with the dog, but nearly got shot by the father!

Virgo
You two are a match made in heaven I tell you. You are simply amazing together. But hey! You got to be out of your mind to give her that ruby ring for Valentine’s Day! Do you have any idea what she’s got for you? She made a cake for you… just a cake! (How cheap I’m telling you…) And out of all that love, she over-baked it. Its charcoal man! You can’t eat that. Here’s an idea… pretend that you are allergic to gluten and sneak it out to the Gemini’s… they could use some charcoal to clean their oral cavities.

Libra
Oh… having love trouble now are we? Everything was ok until Mars jumped on Pluto and ruined it all for you at this extremely critical moment in time. I know how you feel… but we can’t call the love doctor because the guy has volunteered to help out with the Tsunami victims in the south and east since they need more help! Never mind that, you got friends don’t you? You can count on them to make you feel… err… better… sometimes… if you know what I mean... err… you don’t? Never mind… just forget it! Things could be worse. Ask Aries if you don’t want to take my word for it.

Scorpio
Why are you looking so nervous? You look like Saturn when it caught the ring fever… ha haa… that wasn’t a pretty sight! Anyway, are you worried about asking her out? Oh, that’s a tricky business isn’t it? I don’t mean to make you more nervous, but she could turn you down even before you can ask her out you know. Swear to God; it happened to me once! Then again it doesn’t have to be the end of the world… even though it could well be if your friends find out about it. Get drunk on water. That will ease the nerves my friend!

Sagittarius
So you think your good looks and flashy dresses will get any guy you want to play around with and dump, all with the blink of an eye? You are just like the guy across the street who thinks his flashy sports car is a “chick magnet”. Well he is right… I mean the car is a “chick magnet”… just that he isn’t… and when he takes it to the mechanic, the mechanic gets all the girls! Have you ever considered going out with him? He’s a great guy you know… and you two make a great couple!

Capricorn
So you love her, but you are too afraid to tell her how you feel. But seriously, how is she ever going to know how you feel if you don’t tell her? Think she has telepathy ha? The stars are clueless too (they always look the other way and blink when they are clueless. See what I’m trying to say?). At best you could win her heart and live happily ever after. At worst she might slap you or set the dog on you. So why not give it a shot and see? But then again, it’s not that easy is it? (Running away from that mighty Doberman I mean…) Good luck!

Walking with her shadow

I danced with an angel on a starry night
On a cloud in a misty dream
Floating through the mist and trance
Her face alit with a piercing beam
I caught a glimpse of her glimmering eyes
They looked so much like the stars
I was too afraid to hold her hand
As we danced away on wet blue grass

A million stars and a crescent moon
Shone above all through the night
The mountain peaks in a misty haze
Were hidden beyond my flimsy sight
I watched the stars and mountain mist
With the dawning sunbeams disappear
But love endured in a broken heart
And drowned it in a brackish tear

Shadows of angels shine in the dark
In daylight they burn like a blazing fire
They douse and tend the thirsty heart
But in content minds they brew desire
Dreams bring back those gleaming eyes
And blind mine with qualms of history
I lope through days and nights alone
But her shadow walks along with me

I'm back!!!

Now I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that there is a conspiracy to keep me from posting on this blog. Besides being tied down with work, I could not log in. Every time I enter my username and password, I would be logged into someone else’s blog – I am guessing that blogger.com was reading the wrong cookie because the blogs I got into often belonged to someone at Uni (I am using Uni computers). Anyway, the system administrators seem to have solved it after a couple of thousand complaints (they even fixed the CD-RWs!!!).

Conspiracy or not, here I am doing my bit to maintain my meagre existence in the blogosphere!

The aftermath

Being many oceans away from paradise isle, I have been unable to keep abreast of all the developments and destruction that is going on within the pearl of the Indian Ocean during the past few months. As it is typically the case with pearls, I would assume that the irritation and suffering is still very much a part of daily life for a majority who are poor and powerless.

The war is not officially over yet but we have been at war for more than 20 years. Even though the cause of the war may have its roots in history, many agree that the war itself began in its current scale with the 1983 massacre of 13 soldiers by the LTTE – where the people of the south reacted in a most disgraceful manner (apart from the LTTE there were many more armed rebel groups in the north at that time). As disgraceful as it was and is, the fact is that we as a nation could not bear the deaths of 13 of our own. That is how sensitive we were then.

Fast-forward a decade and a half and see how we reacted when 1500 soldiers were massacred in Mulativu and when the Dalada Maligawa was bombed. One can argue that we had learned from our mistakes after 1983 and matured as a nation, but on the other hand we forgot those incidents within weeks. (I can recal in vivid detail the tragic death of Princes Diana in August 1997 and the Maligawa Bombing in January 1998 and how by June 1998 - we were still mourning the death of the English princes with more anguish than the attack on our most sacred national treasure!) The daily death-toll of soldiers in the news received less attention than the cricket scores that followed. Our hearts had hardened and we had lost our sensitivity. We as a nation had forgotten the value of life.

It is much easier to make a soldier out of a man than to make a man out of a soldier. If you were given a machine gun and asked to shoot those in front of you, would you or could you do it? This is what "training" does to the mind of a soldier. The average soldier gets a "thrill" out of killing the 'enemy' because that is the only way that he can ignore the immorality of his actions. This is not an erosion of their morality – but rather a mask they wear unconsciously to hide themselves from self judgement. Society however makes them heroes and champions of the nation because they are the only ones who make a genuine sacrifice for the sake of the nation – and they sacrifice their lives. When generals and commanders talk about the morale of the Armed Forces– this is what they mean – their willingness to kill. The dark truth is that a soldier who gets a 'kick' out of killing need to keep going – or else he would suffer psychologically – they may call it boredom but it could be that their conscience is catching up on them! Either way, they are men with noble intentions who have been forced to indulge in an evil to safeguard the sense of security of a nation and the political interests of an elite few.

What is happening to the thousands of soldiers who don't get to 'indulge' in active combat as a result of the ceasefire and subsequently with the dawn of a permanent "lack of war"? Their stress levels will increase as a result of the fact that they don't get to 'kill' anymore and they would eventually engage in acts of violence against society. When we hear about army "deserters" causing all sorts of trouble; this is what is taking place. It is a complex problem with its roots in psychology and a gloomy influence on sociology.

At the end of the war, the soldiers should be 'de-militarised' and rehabilitated before they can be re-integrated into the society. This is a very complex process and one that might even cost a lot. That is the cost of peace in the aftermath of war and next big challenge that we will have to face as a nation. What we may have to face as we try to rehabilitate the combatants of both sides could be a war of sorts in its own right. Imagine the stories we will hear and read from the soldiers who come back – how they lost their best friends in battle, of the widows and orphans that were left behind by those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and the memories of fire and destruction in the minds of refugees. How will we face the obliteration of an entire generation and the erosion of a grand culture that had evolved through millennia? How will we look back on the ‘80s and ‘90s and deal with memories where we rejoiced when we heard that our ‘enemies’ have been killed by their thousands – when it would have dawned on us by then that they were in fact our own brothers and sisters?

Think about it… and you will better understand what's going on…

It's time for bed

Since the exams are over, I have decided to join the bears of the north and go into hibernation.