AHAMED NISHADH

Movie Review: Ponniyin Selvan Part 1

2022-10-01T22:25:00.000+05:30

A movie 70 years in the making they say. Many tried. Many failed. But Mani succeeded. After a few attempts at least.

I'll start by saying, no, I have NOT read the book. But I've heard numerous people talk about it. Describe parts of it. Praise the creativity of the author. And listened to about 20 mins of a 1.5 hr summarised version of the books.

#PonniyinsSelvan The Movie is Mani Ratnam's version of Kalki's book. Don't expect a word to word representation of the book. That being said, the movie is MASSIVE!

Casting is perfect. The list is too long to describe one by one. But everyone is on their A game. From the smallest character to the largest. Karthi plays his role well. Aish, Trisha, Vikram just take over the moment. That meeting scene of the two female leads is beautifully shot making the viewers try to decide who is going to win the contest.

Ravi Varman's camera work is stunning capturing the beauty of the Chola Kingdom and the other locations as well as the characters. The colour palette just fits every scene of the movie. And Sreekar Prasad's editing has complimented the camera work very well.

Thota Tharani's set work easily beats the VFX work done for sets in Bahubali. Only one place I feel the makers went wrong in terms of set which I will mention later. Apart from that, the attention to detail and the quality of work is crazy good.

The action sequences and the dance choreography is top notch. The picturization of the "Ratchasa Mamane" song was the highlight for me. The at sea battle was also done very well.

And being true to his guru, A.R.Rahman has given his best work for Mani Ratnam as always. The songs seemed ok when released but in true ARR style, it's slow poison. Grows on you and then when you see it with the visuals, it's just next level. And the BGM, the multiple versions of Ponni Nadhi, Alaikadal, Devaralam Aatam (the Monkey Chant) help connect the multiple numbers of characters throughout the story.

And finally, direction. Mani Ratnam after a few not so great outings has come out strong and has put his mark again on Indian cinema to say he is the best. He has done the balancing act of giving the right amount of time to each actor, keeping the suspense and ensuring even for those of us who haven't read the book understand the characters quickly and are able to follow them.

The two major flaws in the movie are, one, the VFX, in certain scenes only which are most of the time not noticeable thanks to the art director and the cinematographer's work. The other are the portions about Sri Lanka. If they had shot the scenes in SL, that would have been perfect. But since they shot them in Thailand, the temples and the buddhism shown in the movie are heavily Thai influenced. That could have been avoided.

Overall, an enjoyable movie. And a must watch if you are a tamil movie fan.

My rating: 4/5

#PS1 #PonniyinSelvan1

Hello World 2.0

2022-09-26T00:30:00.081+05:30

Hello again to everyone and anyone.

Its been exactly 1000 days since I last posted on this blog. That was the 31st of December 2019.

Its not that I stopped writing. I've been sharing my thoughts through lengthy posts on Facebook where the reach is more I guess.

Recently, I received a notification through email about this blog so I decided to check out and see what have I done here in the years gone by.

The title of this blog says "a place to read my mind". Similarly, it was nice to read my mind from many many moons ago. It did also bring a smile here and there reading some of the things that I have written.

What has changed now? So many things I guess.

The last time I posted, I said I am getting married in a few days. So, now, I am married to this wonderful lady who is probably keeping me in check. Her name is Muiza. Met her sometime back. I guess things clicked. Asked her the question. Both homes were happy about it. And it happened.

COVID happened. Lockdowns, quarantines, vaccines, discrimination, and what not. I too ended up in a hospital, spending 10 days there including 3 days in the ICU. Thanks to god and the prayers of all those who prayed for me, I recovered and here I am writing about it. Even got married in the middle of it all with as many friends and family as possible around allowed at that time.

With the lockdowns and what not, I guess there was more time to learn and explore. Completed a few courses during this time. A few new opportunities also opened up. Explored a few, exploring a few and will explore a few.

We had a new addition to the family. My niece Taaliah was born. A little bundle of joy together with my nephew Zayn. The two are growing up so fast and I can only watch it all on video unfortunately. But I am super proud of the two. Cant wait to see them again hopefully in a few months time.

Then there is work. With the pandemic, everything came crashing down. All the plans we had were out. But that also was an opportunity for us to think differently. As always the team took up the challenge and we came back strong. Did so many things that looking back now, we can laugh about how we pulled it all off. Imagine doing a conference with 100 speakers from around the world, 2500 participants, over 5 weeks, 2 days each week and 4 hours each day. All virtually. Yeah we pulled that off. How? that's the magic of the team and the supporting service providers we had.

And as you all know, things are a bit different now. Times are tough. The #Aragalaya happened. Things changed (but was it the change we wanted?). Economy has nearly collapsed. Everything in Sri Lanka with regards to financials has gone up. Prices of goods, prices of services, inflation, exchange rates etc. etc. But unfortunately, the salaries of people have remained the same or even gone down. How people are going to survive and get through these times, I dont know. Unfortunately, those who can do something about it, still are in the denial mode.

Lets see where all this goes. Times are tough like I said and times are changing.

Until I decide to write again,

Adios!

Aloha 2019; Aloha 2020

2019-12-31T19:23:00.000+05:30

With a few hours to go for the end of 2019, here's some reflection on the last 360+ days of the year.

2019 has been an year of reflection, change, positivity and eye opener.

Early this year started on a very not so steady platform. Personally and professionally. As the days and weeks went by, things didnt get better. Two families I grew up with over the last 6 years, I decided to let go from my life. TEDxColombo and ICTA. One for personal reasons and one for professional reasons. Things didnt seem great at all. And then came the horrible Easter attacks. Friends became enemies. Yet I made so many new good hearted friends. While many were fighting using the keyboard, I decided to put the keyboard to good use. With the help of many like minded and kind hearted people, we helped a lot of people in need. And continue to do so. I say we coz Im not doing this alone at all. Cheers to all the good, kind hearted people who have volunteered their time and money for the various initiatives.

By April, one chapter had ended and a month later, I started another. A new job, a new set of old colleagues, new work, more work, new environment. Many ups and some downs but it's been going great ever since. Hoping that 2020 is going to be much more exciting and we'll get to do much much more.

Also this year, I found out who were my real friends, who was working with me, who was working against me and most importantly who was backstabbing me. I've learned to keep the toxic people away from my life and some still try to find a way into it. But hopefully they will disappear in the future.

I've had a lot of fun too this year working on some amazing new projects. Learnt quite a few new things and have decided to let go of things burdening my head.

And amongst all this mess, I found that one special person sometime this year. Together, we've been through quite a bit. And I will be saying "I do" in a few days time.

Positive, negative? I'd always say positive. Everything happens for a reason.

Here's to a wonderful 2020 to you, me and everyone..

Happy new year everyone.

Sri Lankan Holidays 2019 - ICS File

2018-12-03T21:59:00.002+05:30

Hello to everyone,

While the country is still trying to figure out what is happening in the political ecosystem of the country, we the people just continue with our day to day life. And so as to continue doing that in 2019, we need to know when the Sri Lankan holidays are.

So, as always, ive created the ICS file with all the Sri Lankan Holidays as Gazetted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (Gazette can be found at http://www.moha.gov.lk/web/images/latest_document/special_notices/Holidays_for_the_Year-2019/2077-32_E.pdf )

You can download the file from http://bit.ly/2EaNavq

The file can be imported into nearly any calendar application that supports ICS files.. I've used it on Google Calendar and Microsoft Office Outlook. If you dont know how to import, ask your best friend (ok, I mean Google).

Seasons greetings to you all.

Adios!

A new year.. A new project.. "The Curse of Sri Lanka"

2018-01-06T00:39:00.000+05:30

Let me start off by wishing everyone a Happy New Year!!

So, thanks to some interesting events in the last several weeks, I decided to start on a new personal project..

Its a book.. I know its difficult to write a book.. Im not a writer like Dan Brown or like my friend Yudhanjaya.. But, its an effort Im going to put some personal time in.. And its not going to be fiction either. Its going to be a very true story.

I've not even had time to finish the 11 blog posts i've started writing in 2017.. How am I going to finish this book.. Well, its going to be a long long long term project. I haven't set a deadline as it involves a lot of content that has been generated and that will be generated..

One may ask what this book is on. Let me assure you that you will have an interesting read once its out. Also, its not about Sri Lanka being a curse.. its about a curse that haunting Sri Lanka.

And here's a promise to myself.. Im going to write at least one blog post every month this year and publish it. With me taking over another interesting project at work, I think I'll have some things to write about if it all goes well..

Adios for now!!

Sri Lankan Holidays 2018 - Google ICS File

2017-12-21T19:22:00.002+05:30

We are at the end of yet another year.

To make it things easier for people, I've created the ICS file with all the Sri Lankan holidays as announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs through Extraordinary Gazette No. 2024/55 published on the 24th of June 2017. (http://www.moha.gov.lk/web/images/holiday_calendar/holiday_calendar_2018_e.pdf )

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE HOLIDAYS LISTED BY GOOGLE ON THEIR HOLIDAY CALENDAR FOR 2018 IS WRONG! So dont put your trust on this! Looks like they have missed some Poya days as this year we have 13 poya days as there are two months with 2 poya days each (its a double blue moon this year)

You can download the calendar from https://goo.gl/3AXhVB

Here's some interesting stats about the holidays next year..

18 of the 26 holidays listed are falling on weekdays. But be sure to check how many of them are mercantile since your organization may be giving you only mercantile holidays.
January and March will have 2 poya days each on the 1st and 31st of the months.
6 long weekends in 2018!
there are 8 holidays in 2018 with just one day in between a weekend (holiday either on a Thusday or Tuesday). Again, check on the mercantile holidays for this before you apply for leave!

If you dont know how to import this calendar into your calendar app, just Google it!

So, its a time of celebrations and joy!!

Stay safe and act safe!

Seasons greetings to all..

Adios!!

And then I changed my mind..

2017-11-13T00:03:00.002+05:30

I've been working with TEDxColombo and the team putting together the show for 5 years now, but 2017 was a little bit different for me (may be for a few others too). I was at one point thinking to myself if I should leave as I had so many other things to be concentrating on among many other reasons.. I was not giving my 100% to the team as I had used to in the previous 4 years. Mind you, I left the hospital 3 days after having surgery for appendicitis and was in 2016 controlling the backstage 6 days after my surgery.

As usual, one morning I turned up for rehearsals and I heard for the first time Aritha doing his first cut of the talk. After the talk, we had a really long conversation about many things related to his talk and other stuff.

I've been working with different types of people throughout my life in different projects. I've talked to so many people. My ability to speak and understand Sinhala and Tamil has helped me understand the stories from both sides of the decades long civil war that was in our country. I've traveled to all 25 districts in Sri Lanka for work and leisure. I've worked with the politicians, top businessmen as well as people affected by natural disasters, the war and other issues. I've talked to people who supported both sides of the war (personal opinion aside).

Having heard the stories from both sides, I've often thought, how can we solve this issue? What can we do to change this society? What is that one piece of the bridge that cant still be fixed? or rather, how or where do we start to fix this broken piece? Listening to Aritha that morning, and processing his idea a few hours later in my head.. thats when I realized, hey, this might be the fix that all of us who wanted peace and reconciliation have been looking for. We cant fix everyone. But we can start by changing the generation thats going to be everyone very soon. We cant change everyone now.. But we can start the long term process now..

No one knows this, not even the TEDxColombo team, but that night was when I decided, I was going to stay on at least for this year and give my 100% for the show again.. Something in Aritha's talk gave me that little spark that was needed for me to strive for the best again. Thats what made me realize here is why I do TEDx.. here's why I put in time, effort, skills and connections (and sometimes money too) into TEDx.. It is to give people like Aritha the stage to tell the world how we can change it.. to tell the world, here's how we are changing it.. to tell the world, how we can all be part of the change..

I believe that everything that happens in this world, happens for a reason.. If for any reason, I hadnt gone for that rehearsal that morning, I dont really know what the outcome would have been.. But, I did and then I changed my mind.

Watch Aritha's TEDxColombo 2017 talk below

Waste Management Failure in Sri Lanka : We The Citizens Are To Be Blamed!!

2017-04-15T13:37:00.000+05:30

After the incident at #Meethotamulla recently, I see so many who are posting articles about Waste Management and how its effectively done in other countries in the world and the big question in the end being WHY CANT SRI LANKA DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS?

"Waste is not waste but a resource that has value" said Chinthaka Abeysekara at TEDxColombo 2016. He showed us how countries around the world have successfully monetized waste and recycled it to produce alternate sources of energy and much more.

So, again, why haven't we been able to do it yet? Well, the answer is simple. it is us. Yes, us, the people of this country! We the people of this country are stupid enough to elect the same corrupt irresponsible greedy pigs into power all the time at every election and they in-turn want bribes, commissions, favors from those who want to make these waste management plants which then discourages the private sector and the investors and today, we have over 10 innocent lives including 4 children who have paid the price with their lives and who knows how many more victims they are going to dig out of the landslide?

We are selfish enough to be electing officials who can do us favors, get us a job in the government, get our business a lucrative contract, get our children into schools, get out of paying fines and taxes, but have we ever thought, what has this guy done to the country? How did the guy build a palace out of a parliamentarians salary? Do we even know how much a member of parliament gets as a salary or how much it costs to the people of the country to have an MP with all the perks they get?

When one government comes into power, we think they are going to do a good job, after all, isnt that what they promised us during the elections? Didnt we all fight/argue over these manifestos on Facebook and at weddings and funerals? But what now? Once they come into power, it is the same old thieves who get power thanks to the loopholes in the system. And then, 4-6 years late, we do the same and again and again and again like a hamster on a wheel..

Its about time we change. Numerous lives have been lost due to not only this problem of waste management but many others that politicians have blatantly ignored as they have not been able to profit out of it. How many more should sacrifice their life before action is taken?

The people of Sri Lanka.. This is over to you!

2017 Sri Lankan Holidays - Google Calendar ICS File

2016-12-20T23:14:00.003+05:30

Its nearly the end of 2016 and as usual I was trying to find the Sri Lankan Holidays calendar for 2017 to add to my work and personal calendars. But unfortunately, I couldnt find one. So, I decided to make one on my own.

Thankfully, some good guy out there ( I really cant remember his name) made this calendar for a few years which I've been using so I just copied the old events to a new calendar and changed their dates according to the dates published on the holidays list by the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs (http://www.pubad.gov.lk/web/index.php?option=com_latestdocument&documenttype=8&lang=en)

So, here you go. Download the ICS file from the link below and just import it into your calendars add the holidays.

The calendar is set to Sri Lanka as location and GMT 5:30+ as the time zone.

Download the file from https://goo.gl/7E40Q2

Feel free to share it with others too.

All credit to the original guy who made this.

The politics of Colombo Youth Activism

2015-04-13T22:05:00.000+05:30

Its been a long time since i last blogged. So thought ill write something about a matter that I've been thinking about so much over the last few months. The Politics of Colombo Youth Activism.

Well it may be a list of words that could look not right when put together, but hey.. its my blog, my thoughts so the title will be anything that i want it to be.

So what is this Colombo Youth Activism and whats this politics im talking about you may ask. So here's the deal. Many people who know me know that over the last several years, ive been involved in some kind of youth related activities, volunteering, organizing a hell of a lot of events etc. At first, it was fun, refreshing and gave me a good feeling about what i was doing. But, over the years, ive noticed that things are changing.

HOW? Well, to start off with, youth clubs have become like political parties in Sri Lanka now. Except without the part where they together form a government. ;) Every Tom, Dick and Harry (or rather Ram, Mohomed and Perera and George) wants to have an organization. Everyone wants to do a fund raising to help the cancer hospital, to help an orphanage, to refurbish a school but doesn't want to do it together in a big way. They want to do it in their name. why? my view is to fill up their worth for nothing CV!

In my personal view, youth activism in Colombo is in such a pathetic state now that all the posh boys and girls from these high class school in Colombo have out of no where become youth activists who care about what happens to the society but dont know shit about what the young man from Anuradhapura has to go through to feed his family of 5 members. Meetings are held every other week, in posh restaurants and coffee shops to do what? You spend 10000 bucks on a meeting to plan a fund raiser which collects 15000 bucks. WOW! Yes. Every penny donated counts but you could have saved that 10000 and given that away too if you just had the meeting at someone's house or done it via skype (or hangouts or what ever online thing).

Following the Trend
Now this is another issue. No one organization wants to do one thing. I do a car wash. One week later, he does one, two days after, she has another, and for a couple of weeks, we see car washes in havelock road or at the kanatte junction in borella. Then we have the "walks".. Some people were even smart enough to have a walk on a weekday evening too. And do I need to even talk about the so called fundraisers through celebrating "holi"??

No one cares about the cancer patients when the trend is aids awareness. And no one cares about people in elders homes or children home when its the "season" of cancer hospital projects. I suggest that the Social Services Ministry might aswell designate some project for every month or every week so that beneficiaries know when their "day" will be.

Know it all..
Another problem with these youth groups in Colombo is, they have a lot of people who think that they are the ones who know everything. And these guys try to make all the decisions and "influence" decision makers with the knowledge in their peanut sized brains. And this effects those causes that need attention because these know it all people just get others to work on the cause they believe in only. Not the cause that needs more attention.

So why am I writing this?
Nope. Not to just complain about it only. I have been involved in this for years but since ive joined the corporate sector, my involvement has been reduced in the front end of the work to being in the back end of many. But, ive seen a lot. Ive seen a lot of organizations, ive seen a lot of people and ive seen how people work. In addition, ive seen a lot of people who need help, lots of areas that could do better with help, lots of places that havent had any help and lots of places that dont need help getting loads of help.

This needs to be fixed. Simple as that. Like the title of this post says, its like politics now. Everyone wants to be a leader but doesnt want to do anything to help anyone except those he cares for only.

May be a "yahapalanaya" like change is what is required here too..

Adios

#GazaUnderAttack : So?

2014-07-19T01:51:00.000+05:30

The world goes mad when 200 girls are kidnapped. When women are raped. When USA is attacked. When UK is attacked. When a plane vanishes from earth. When journalists are jailed.

But when #Gaza is attacked, no one cares about it, its not a human rights violations, its not a war crime to hit hospitals, ambulances, disability support centers, houses and kill women and children mercilessly while playing on the streets, sleeping after staying up for hours.

Where are all the Human Right protectors?? Where are all the petitioners?? Where are all the human right organizations? Why is everyone silent when it comes to #Gaza?? Is it because you dont get enough $$$ to talk against these issues? Is it because your afraid your big posh offices in US and UK will be shut down if you talk against it?

When girls being kidnapped, women being raped, journalists being jailed are considered crimes worth of international attention, how come killing humans, bombing houses, destroying communities, targeting emergency services isnt considered a crime? Is it because they are #Muslims or is it because they arnt considered #Humans?

If Al-Queda targeting American citizens is a crime, if Hamas targeting Israel citizens is crime, If Lashkar-e-Taiba targeting Indians is a crime, If the LTTE targeting Sri Lankans is a crime, If the terrorist organization is Ireland targeting Britain was a crime, how come Israel targeting Gaza is right? Is it because Israel is a country and not an organization like Al-Queda, Hamas or LTTE? What kind of logic is this?

The US and UK are publicly known for providing arms and weapons to Israel. If so, arent they also a supporter to the crimes committed by Israel? Shouldn't they also be held responsible for the crimes committed?

Terrorism committed by any organization or government in the name of anything is a crime. Be it Israel, America, UK, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Al-Queda, Hamas, LTTE; wrong is wrong and a crime is a crime.

The world keeps silent while the death toll keeps rising in Gaza. Only time will tell what will happen to them in the future. After all, dont many of us believe in karma?

Pray for peace in this world. Pray for health of Humans!

Adios!

#wewillnotforget (yeah like as if anyone can and would)

2014-05-27T16:08:00.001+05:30

Sitting on a hospital bed, going thru my twitter feed, i find out that today is some kinda remembrance day for the US Army and the hashtag #wewillnotforget was being used for this...

Browsing thru the hashtag tweets, i find more negative tweets from people around the world on how they will never forget what the US army has done for their lives by destroying their families, killing their children, siblings, parents, friends etc instead of not forgetting their service to the nation of the so called US of A..

Taking a step back, i was just wondering is this all right. How is killing innocent civilians, children, women etc in the name of national security and world peace going to help protect your country? Isnt it only going to help create more enemies who want to take revenge on you and your countrymen? Then your child takes revenge then their child takes revenge.. Tit for tat n it goes on eh?

Leader of the free world they call him.. But what is this so called free world? Are we living in a free world? Is it possible for me to send my friend a text message without a govt agency and a US spying software reading the contents now or in the future? Who is trying to kid who here?

Terrorism in all form, govt or non govt shud be brought to an end is my personal opinion. You do it in the name of your religion, country, caste, race or even your own mother, wrong is wrong. Who gives you the authority to kill another human?

'they say' that 3000 ppl were killed in NYC during 9/11 so lets go and destroy all their countries, kill all the people possible, make the rest slaves or prisoners, put economic barriors on the country and destroy their religion and leave after millions n millions r affected.. How fair is this? Millions n millions of lives to compensate for 3000 lives? Are those 3000 lives some kind of super humans worth a thousand lives each? O.o

Directly involved in Japan(nuclear bombs), Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and indirectly involved in Egpyt, Syria, Turkey and many other Asian n African countries distrupting lives and peace, bringing sorrow and tears to the people, destabilizing n destroying countries and its people..

We'll if not for Americans and their , the world will surely never forget..

Comment with your thoughts..

Adios

Sri Lankan Photographers : What the hell are they doing?

2014-01-25T19:29:00.001+05:30

When was the last time you went to a party/event and had a great time without having to pose with your friends for 10 different photographers?? When was the last time you went to a concert and was able to enjoy the show without your view being blocked by around 25 photographers??

Its obvious that Sri Lanka has gone through a "DSLR" boom and all the rich kids who used to own a decent digital camera now run around with a big ass camera of which they dont event know how to use 90% of the controls. And then there is the photography craze. Any event you go, there's at least 5 photographers from 5 different "online media" taking your pictures and publishing them god knows where. Seriously, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO PRIVACY?

Any event you go to now a days, you have photographers. Photographers trying to beat the other photographer in getting that special shot that would get people to come to "their" facebook page and click "like" on it. This new thing called "online media" which most of us Sri Lankans have got it wrong has changed the Sri Lanka events industry. Gather a bunch of photographers, start up a facebook page and you call yourself "online media". JOKERS! If only these jokers knew what media actually was.

In the beginning, it was fun. I have to agree on that. Having your pictures online with your friends. Those were memories that were created. And now? its a NUISANCE!! Like Ive mentioned before, now you get a whole bunch of photographers taking pictures. You wont event know them and they wont even know you but your picture will be there on their facebook page. Its such a nuisance that you never know who is taking your picture, what kind of a picture are they taking (dirty picture, embarrassing picture, etc) and where they are going to publish it.

And then there is the famous "essay" these photographers write on their pictures. "The photographer reserves the rights for this picture.. blah blah blah blah blah. You cannot publish this anywhere else blah blah blah blah". Who the hell gave you the rights for the picture? You may have taken the damn picture using your camera but who asked you to take it? Did you take the permission of the people in the picture to take their picture and publish it? Ive personally experienced where the event organizers themselves have been in difficulty on controlling the photographers and with the publishing rights. Some of these photography based "online media" are such that they go on to say that the organizers themselves dont have the rights to publish their pictures anywhere else. WHAT THE HELL? I do the hard work, I invite you and you get the publicity?

And then there's the aspect of girls. There's this certain photography based "online media" who say they cover events via photography. And when you invite them, a huge number of them invade your event. And then if you see the pictures taken, the following will be the ratio 95% pictures will be of girls and women at the event. 4% of group pictures. 1% of the event. PATHETIC! Sad to say, ive noticed that many of these "online media" are doing the same.

So now you must be wondering, so this guy hates photography and so he's blaming photographers. Hell no. I myself take pictures. Not on a damn DSLR. I take on my phone. And I admire the pictures taken by photographers who have real "talent". I respect the photographers who think photography is a form of an art and not a tool to prey on girls at parties and events. Photography is supposed to be enjoyed by people. Shared with friends and the world. Not to be locked and kept on one room.

Obviously there are laws that come into effect there. Laws regarding photography in public spaces and events and there's the privacy laws too. You are not legally required to get permission to take a picture in a public place, but its ethical to do so. Who knows what trouble a certain guy in the background of a picture at taken at Galle Face may face after your picture is published in some form. There are legal and moral regulations when it comes to photography. But then who cares. We live in Sri Lanka. Who obeys legal and moral obligations here?

If you are a photographer and read this, I sincerely hope you fall into the category of the "talented" photographers. Else do think about what I've said here. You make feel its against what you do, but then There's always two sides of a coin. What you think is right may not be right for another. Or if you have anything else to say, comment below.

Just thought of writing down my thoughts. If you agree or disagree is not a problem to me.

Adios!

And so starts 2014

2014-01-23T02:56:00.003+05:30

Hello and welcome to my blog. Its been several months since I posted something although I gotta say ive got several drafts on my blog which are half baked and some which I dont ever intend to publish.

So its been an eventful 2013.

Many news friends came into my life.. Some went out.. did certain things that I would never regret in my life.. learned a lot of important lessons and to top it off, ended with V Awards 2013.

Ive almost completed by higher education but thanks to some jerks and also part of my inability to study and understand maths fast enough, I was unfortunate not to graduate last year. So gotta wait another one more year.

Met some great guys in my life. Started working for ReadMe (www.readme.lk) and did a cameo appearance at a certain software company.

As always, volunteering was a big part of my life over the year. Was part of the Twinning Schools Programme Grand Finale in Badulla.. Months of preparations (which i was not directly part of most of the time) and then a week of fun, experience, friend, volunteering for a good cause. And then in the end we just became one big family. And the fun we had since then. No comments.

And then came the big hurdle. The FINALS. got through them with gods grace I would say. no surprises there.

Come August. Hello V Awards 2013. The biggest volunteer appreciation show in the country was back for the 2nd edition. The late nights, the long discussions, the treats, the fun, another set of friends made and merged into my life, the intense debates, the running around madly, the secrecy and then finally the show on the 6th of December 2013. I can without a doubt say that I am immensely proud that I was part of a team that put it all together. Another project done and dusted.

No big surprises in terms of births or deaths (thank god). Only regret that I couldnt be there with my friends at the graduation even though I wasnt graduating.

One thing I realized during the year was that its nice to have friends who care about you genuinely no matter what. Im not gonna say which incident(s) this refers to but, its always nice to check up on a friend who may be in a bit of a trouble...

2014 is here.. Its 23 days since the new year dawned.. a year that I assume is going to be very important in my life. I have no idea what god has planed for me. But what ever that may be, I just hope I can pull through it all and talk about it in a similar post next year.

Lesson learned in 2013 : working with like minded people will always be easy. working with like minded people who are friends, will be easier..

Adios!!

Happy New Year 2013

2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+05:30

And so 2012 comes to an end...

2012-12-26T00:07:00.000+05:30

2012.. probably the best year in my life i would say.. so many things have happened.. so many people have come and gone in my life.. so many new experiences.. the loss of a very dear person in my life from this world and so the list continues.. its pretty long... and im pretty sure its the same for the world out there too.. from jumps from the space to tragedies and of course Gangnam Style... its pretty eventful too...

well i havnt blogged as much as the last year in this year.. mainly probably coz i was too busy.. sooo many things in my life to take care of.. so many events.. gosh.. started off the year with cousins and relatives like in the past few years.. and then the next few days went on to become very dramatic in my life.. a certain event that only very close frnds of mine wud knw of.. and then took a shap 90o turn thanks to some awesome friends in my life and to some new friends that i found through volunteering and what not..

some of the most interesting/remembered moments in my life are these..

V Awards Grand Finals

Starting up YGSL

Joining as a writer at www.cricturf.com

APIIT Entrepreneurship Week

Starting up CGYE

Starting up Connect Lanka

Trip to Malaysia, Singapore n India

Colombo +20

IYD2012

Becoming a Microsoft Student Partner

Starting my Final year in the degree

Tantalize 2012..

The Motorola Competition

APIIT Sports Extravaganza

IVD 2012

and finally passing away of my grand mother..

pretty eventfull.. lots of things learned.. lots of things gained.. lots of things lost..

and with the world not ending on the 21st of December and the year coming to an end, all i say is..

BRING IT ON 2013..

happy new year to you all..

Adios...

Life and everything else...

2012-08-20T22:58:00.001+05:30

its been a looooooooong time.. a very very long time since ive put an update on whats been happening with me and my beautiful steady unstable awesome super duper life.. :) to be precise nearly 8-9 months i guess.. and trust me, there's a preeeeeeeeeeeeeety lot thats happened over the last few months...

life's been good i wud say.. kinda treated me well and with a bit of fairness compared to other times.. I may have taken one or two bad decisions over the time, but i know i certainly did take one particular decision that i know i will regret for quite a long time.. :) but then past is past.. time to more on i say..

V awards, exams, assignments, festivals, parties, tours, first family trip abroad, colombo+20, cricturf, connect, youth day, cgye, new friends, new experiences, new responsibilities, revelations, and omg.. the list just keeps going on..

Im sure everyone probably knows what V Awards is by now.. if not, just find the post i did about v awards somewhere in January this year and you will know and can watch what it is.. Post V awards i would say, life kinda took a very dramatic turn and that too in a good way.. more volunteering opportunities.. more responsibilities.. more awesome new friends.. damn.. life's been good i would say.. life's been pretty damn good. :)

then then comes the dreaded assignments and then exams.. and to my relief, i get thru them all peacefully.. i say that coz it was kinda easy for me in the first semester.. :)

and then time passes, few people opt to move out of my life which i say im perfectly ok with coz i know i have no regrets and i havent done anything wrong.. and those who know it will know it. but then again, past is past.. time to move on... lole lolz scene eka ne.. :P

damn hard to even remember whats been up in ma life.. oh yeah.. a few APIIT events.. Pool Tourny, TT Tourny, ARC Day and a few more..

March 2012, is kinda a memorable one for me due to very many reasons.. some i say i think i should keep private but one is that after a very long time, i got back into sports writing again. and thanks to a cricket crazy frnd and the Royal Thomian of course, i start as a writer at CricTurf writing articles about cricket and what not about cricket etc.. its been pretty awesome.. lots of cricketing events to go to.. and then the SLPL too.. (i shall write a separate article abt it later ).. then end of march comes APIIT entrepreneurship competition.. one week that me and 5 others can cherish for a long time.. shopping at places we never did for stuff we never did.. some of us doing stuff that if our parents saw would be surprised we even knew doing stuff lyk that (making fruit juices i mean.. ) and all in all, running a business of our own.. :) fun times i wud say.. and after all making a profit of 2000+ rupees.. good time.. good times.. :) and thats probably when a new guy joined the clique i wud say.. :P (those who knw, knw it.. )

April and it was some family time and that too in a different country.. a family trip to malaysia, singapore and india for two weeks.. damn.. was so happy to get back home after two weeks.. missed the country so badly.. :) (patriotic i am, arnt i.. :P ) and then starts yet another important project.. the Motorola Competition.. coming up with 4 projects from virtually no where and then 2 of them getting selected out of the 96 entries.. damn.. good feeling.. progressing pretty well at the moment.. will let the world know wat happens once its over in october.. :)

then again exams, assignments and what not.. few more apiit events.. and then its back to get V Force into action.. Colombo +20 planning starts early june.. some pretty good time.. and a few more new good frnds.. some good contacts too.. and then within that time CGYE starts too.. to knw more go to www.cgyesl.org and u can get all the info there.. :P and also YGSL (www.ygsl.lk).. and in between getting involved in the forming of a new youth organization called Connect Lanka with (www.connectsl.org) some other interested individuals and taking up some very ambitious projects.. Connect should be a very integral part of my life in the future i wud say.. and i hope it to be too..

tanta work too starts in the meantime.. part of the committee finally after missing out last year.. :) should be an interesting one this year.. (anyone willing to give ads, banners, sponsors contact me IMMEDIATELY).. in the meantime, get into the Volunteer crew of the ICC World T20 2012 tournament also to be held in SL this year.. been informed that im a team leader too.. hope to make new frnds and do a good job to too again this time..

i remember, back in 2009, me along with a small committee, we organized a massive scale event in just 2 weeks in skool which turned out to be a success.. history just repeated again few weeks back with the organizing of the International Youth Day falling on our heads.. with a crew of 5 members, 10 team leads and 150 volunteers, we organized an event with 2500+ participants and need i say, it was a damn MASSIVE SUCCESS! i should say im damn hell proud to be part of it.. I know something like that can be done again only by our team and no one else.. :) kudos to our team!!!

and with that, i come to present time.. not much.. except that heavily busy with lots of projects and studies.. hoping things to go all well in the future..

one thing i forgot to mention in my past 8 month recall is that the passing away of my grandmother.. one person i would dearly miss for quite sum time.. she was the only grandparent i had during my days of growing up and starting to understand things.. i knw its a big loss for my mum... but it is for me too.. especially to see your own grandmother passing away right while you are watching and futhermore, holding her hand.. damn, i hope she can rest in peace knowing that she's been a good wife to my grandfather, good mother to my mum and aunts an awesome grandmother to me and my cousins and a good great grandmother to my nephews and niece.. living for nearly 85 years... im sure she lived through a lifetime.. i surely will miss her..

so.. i guess youve got an update on my life happenings over the last 8 months.. have been trying to blog for a long time but havnt got the time.. been quite busy with lots of work.. got some time today and decided I WILL WRITE TODAY!! :)

hoping to put an update very soon..

have a great day...

peace to u all..

Adios!!

EID MUBARAK

2012-08-20T21:53:00.000+05:30

HAPPY VESAK

2012-05-05T16:15:00.002+05:30

CHECKOUT ALL OTHER GREETING CARDS IVE DESIGNED @
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Beautiful Colombo - Lets Be Proud About

2012-03-16T14:49:00.002+05:30

Over the years, we have been looking at pictures of foreign countries and foreign places and wondered how beautiful they are and why our own country is not like that. But with the years passing by and some very large scale development projects being carried out in Sri Lanka and with the Colombo Beautification project underway, things seem to have started to change.. many of those living in Colombo may have seen this change taking place. The area around Gangarama, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Independence Square and the surroundings, Galle Road from Bambalapitiya junctions to Kolpetty are some of the prime examples of these development and beautification project(s).

Recently, i received an email with a set of pictures of Colombo and i couldnt not resist sharing these pictures. Our Colombo beautified even more through the skillful eyes of the wonderful photographers who captured these photographs. Im sharing these pictures here for all to see. Copyrights for all these pictures belong to the respective photographers and hats off to these photographers for these lovely pictures.

Take a look at them and see how our Colombo has changed from the times we knew sometime back...

what do you think of Colombo now eh?? pretty good looking aint it??? lets hope this continues and the whole country looks the same in the near future..

Enjoy...

Adios..

V Awards - Grand Finale [FULL SHOW]

2012-02-05T00:50:00.000+05:30

The Grand Finale of the V-Awards show was held 2 weeks ago on the 21st of January 2012 at the Stien Studios in Ratmalana where Dr.Sinniah Devananthan won the award for the Volunteer of the Year 2011... like the previous show, i too was part of it yet again.. great memories and awesome experience... will write in length about it in a different post when i get time, but for now, watch and enjoy the full show in this post below if you missed watching it live..

V Awards - Unveiling of the Finalists [FULL SHOW]

2012-01-13T01:56:00.000+05:30

Like ive stated in my previous posts, V Awards is an awards ceremony to award the volunteers of Sri Lanka. The first part of the ceremony which is to announce the finalists was held on the 5th of December 2011 at Stien Studio's in Ratmalana in a very glamorous event. The Grand Finale of the ceremony is coming up next weekend on the 21st of January 2012 which is hoped to be a even bigger event.

For all those who couldnt make it to the event or want to view the event, the full video of the event has been uploaded onto YouTube by the organizers and ive also embed it in this post below for all those who want to watch it.. So watch the show, enjoy it, appreciate the efforts taken, inspire yourself through the stories of the many volunteers and give back to the society what you can give.

Furthermore, If you would like to come and watch the event yourself, the go and register yourself at http://www.iyv10srilanka.com/grand-finale/ and you will receive a invitation upon availability and your confirmation of participation.

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V AWARDS - UNVEILING OF THE FINALISTS

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Hope you all enjoyed the show and took a lesson or two from the stories that were mentioned.

Adios!!

Happy New Year 2012

2011-12-31T12:12:00.000+05:30

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T00:20:00.001+05:30

UN Volunteers, V-Force and V-Awards.. A Journey Begins...

2011-12-09T19:42:00.001+05:30

If you've been watching Sirasa TV, Channel One MTV or Shakthi TV or listened to the radio stations also owned by the same network over the past few months you would have seen or heard about V-Awards. A one of a kind and also the first of a kind event in Sri Lanka this is. V-Awards, like the tagline says for itself "Shinning a Light of Those who serve in Silence" is an event which is an awards show that was organized to honor, support, say thanks, encourage and to bring out those people around the nation in Sri Lanka who have served in silence to serve the people without thinking of their own personal benefits.

A joint effort by the International Year of Volunteers +10 National Steering Committee and News 1st along with many other partner organizations such as the UN Volunteers and others was V-Awards. Hundreds of applications were received from various parts of the island nominating many individuals who have done tremendous work in terms of volunteer service and from these applications, 26 were short listed to be the best of the lot.

Come, December 5th 2011.. its International Volunteer Day 2011.. and best of all, its the 10th Anniversary of the IVD since it was started way back in 2001.. and so like everywhere in the world, here in Sri Lanka also, plans were drawn up to celebrate the day in style and this time it included having the V-Awards Announcing the Finalists show too...

V-Awards Announcing the Finalists show was a veeeery grand event held at the Stien Studios Ratmalana, which boasts as one of the largest ever in South Asia and owned by the MTV / MBC Networks. With a large amount of guests including VIP's, nominees, their families, friends and everyone else, the event was a resounding success. First the 26 shortlisted nominees were felicitated on stage and then the shot list was brought down to 15 finalists who were announced one by one with a surprise factor coming in where a volunteer from the V-Force shadowing them awarding them with the certificate and im proud to say i was also one of those who awarded one of the nominees. In addition to all these, other events such as entertainment items and what not were performed to make the event a huge success.

While I was talking about the event up there, you would have noticed I had talked about a V-Force.. even the title of this post says so.. And im sure if you didnt knw abt it all this time, you would be wondering what exactly the V-Force is.. to tell you a bit about it, the V-Force is a group of volunteers who have joined up to volunteer themselves for these projects and probably many more to come in the future. There are almost 300 members in the V-Force and around half of them played a part in the V-Awards show too...

To be honest, volunteering is not something thats new for me. Since long time, ive been helping out with projects on my own just so that the others feel that they have an extra hand in their team to support them. Ive been part of the Red Cross in school level and also participated in many CSR projects done during school times and continued the trend into uni life too with joining the student club as a volunteer and working in events.. Once i heard about the V-Force and the UN Volunteers thing thru an event that was supported by the V-Force, i always wanted to join in... and so thru a V-Force website i submitted by application to join and thus started receiving updates on events being held and stuff.. I badly wanted to participate in many of these events but never was able to due to the work load i had with lectures and stuff but when the V-Awards update came i was determined that i atleast be part of this and get started with this.. and thus started my role in V-Force.. ive worked in a V-Force event for only two days but its been fun.. to see the different kinds of people who come in to join hands for worthy causes.. its good to see it.. especially youth coming together.. means a lot.. a whole lot more in a country like Sri Lanka just after a war has ended...i just hope this V-Force doesnt break up and stays strong and grows in the years to come and i be part of it...

There is a quotation that i remember reading somewhere which says "If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours".. this is probably the basics of volunteerism... you can have all the money in the world but you will lack happiness. volunteer yourself to make someone happy and see yourself smiling too.. Just like Mr.Heenbanda (finalist of V-Awards) said in his AV on the V-Awards day... "money is nothing. i do not take money for what i do.. i do it for personal satisfaction. the smile on another persons face when they feel good just keeps me running".. this is true volunteerism..

to leave you with, i attach a picture gallery of the V-Awards event held last week and also a news coverage clip of the V-Awards...

Created with flickr slideshow.

Just like Marion Wright Eddelman said.. "Service is the rent we pay for living.".. so... HAVE YOU PAID YOUR RENT???

Adios!!!