Times Eye

Sri Lanka-Best place for a space port

2011-12-28T23:40:00.000+05:30

According to the Recently released a gravity map of the world[bbc] Sri Lanka is in the middle of the lowest

gravitational areas. The darkest of blue indicates the lowest gravitational pull while yellow the highest. As you can see its directly on the southern side of sir lanka. Its known fact that Sri Lankan government is building a multi million dollar port in the same area. However it seems Sri Lanka might also be the best place to build a space port in the future.Gravity is responsible for pulling things towards earth we are lucky to have it in sufficent amounts unless we are planing to leave the earth. Gravitational pull is the main obstacle preventing us from venturing in to the space.According to many scientists survival of our own species merely depends on interplanetary travel. Someone has to make a colony in the moon , mars or beyond. In such time we may need to send people or huge amounts of payloads to the skies. There may even be exports and imports to and fro between planets. Even if the difference of the gravitational pull is fractional,When sending millions of tons to space a fraction of a saving may save lots of energy . Arthur C Clarke's science fiction fountains of paradise describes of Sri Lanka being the place of worlds first space elevator. Space elevator is a concept which makes traveling to space cheaper than ever. Idea of space elevator is straight forward, fix a cable to the ground and the other end to a geosynchronous satellite use the weight of descending elevators to pull the ascending elevators making the net pull energy very low . Having the lowast gravitational pull and being near to the equator makes Sri Lanka the best place for a future space port or the space elevator.

Where are the trees? [Sketch]

2011-12-02T04:44:00.001+05:30

Rebel [Sketch]

2011-11-05T15:39:00.001+05:30

I admire Che Guevara . But I can't exactly say why I admire him.

Destination [Sketch]

2011-10-20T10:59:00.000+05:30

African Elephant Sketch

2011-10-15T11:12:00.000+05:30

I've always wanted to draw an African elephant , they are so artistic

I Sketched Steve

2011-10-08T08:39:00.001+05:30

I just felt like sketching Steve Jobs, that's how much he can impress people. This is my tribute to him.
Its not strange thing why people like him that much. People just gets inspired by his his looks, piercing eyes ,, thoughtful gesture and his inspiring speeches. Even his life story is inspiring.Adopted child , college dropout , fired from his own company, brought back to become the most successful innovator . A businessman getting this much of respect , unbelievable.

Talent Show

2011-03-06T14:18:00.002+05:30

I saw this extreamly talented lady , perhaps disabled, playing a musicals instrument on the pavement. I was mesmerized by the music .Its regretful not to record it.

Dancing to the Cow Boy Tune

2010-12-05T19:53:00.000+05:30

It been some time in singapore. Just found these old but sexy looking people dancing to some sort of cowboy music just out side the vivo city. Chinese lady in a cow boy hat , bit odd though but they were dancing to a nice tune.

The Bible Rock & The solitary monk

2010-11-01T04:00:00.002+05:30

I never forgets to gaze at the bible rock, locally called as bathelegala when ever i pass kadugannawa. Its a great vista i never feel enough of seeing . Bible rock was one of my goals in hiking . Finally after many years of loathsome gazing i could managed to set a date and reach top of bathelegla with my friends Madhusanka and Nilanga. They were keen on having some adventure.

Its not a hard climb, it could be even less than moderate climbing. We packed some rations from Mavenalla town and headed towards Gewilipitiya and reached Hathgampala . We took a wise decision of hiring a 3 wheeler which saved us lot of walking before starting the actual climbing. The rock is actually not a rock as its partially covered with vegetation. The village is spread half way up to the mountain , it seemed to me that these villagers could be mostly responsible for making a mountain a solid rock, we could clearly see effects of soil erosion. The first part of the climb was through a partially cleared area along a foot path, then we reached a small forest but the climb was not difficult there were stones placed to make the climb easy. Madhusanka who was on law diet to reduce his weight was suffering with lack of glucose at this point. I thought of offering him a chocolate but thought its best to give it at the top.

Then a small drizzle started to pour in , we prayed for no heavy rain, mist swept though the forest making it dark and gloomy. We sat on the foot steps to drink some water, listened to the rain drops falling on the leaves, wondering if it gets worse. Then we set to climb again trees were giving us shelter from the rain, for now, but if it gets worse before climbing to the top we would be in trouble. I dared mist it could prevent us from seeing the beautiful scenery below. Suddenly we reached a steep rock which seemed to takes us out of the forest in to a Savannah like area. There was a metal cable for support , this could be a tricky path and a good experience for a novice. I could see some guys were struggling with balance , its mostly to do with mind . If the were to confront the same obstacle without a dangerous drop they would have managed to to it without much trouble. One think i like about hiking is that you learn to control your fears and reach for the goal.

Madusanka & Nilanga doing the hard part

Suddenly the foliage cleared to give us a grand vista of beautiful mountains around. It made our spirits high and we were glad to be there. After taking few snaps we walked through the Savannah until we reached to top. These are the rare occasions we can be proud to be born in this island, truly a land like no other.

There were to paths leading from top of the mountain we choose one randomly to reach a dead end of the rock. The rock lives up to its name, the edges are almost 90 degrees drop. There were some scattered clouds drifting below us. The rock was standing in the middle of a large plane surrounded by greenish mountains like a beautiful prices guarded by mighty Spartans. The cool winds instantly make us feel relived . We stood at the edge of the cliff and looked at the grand arena of nature, tiny trees toy houses streams spiraling towards the horizon like blue laces it was worth the effort. I wanted to have my food sitting right near the edge of the cliff but we found there was not enough water. So we decided to walk through the other foot path to look for some water. We walked through an abandoned house and suddenly stopped in front of a Buddhist monk reading a book.

He was standing in front of a small house, you could even say a room. He looked at us and smiled. We smiled back and looked at each other blankly thinking of what to say next. I quickly come up with a question before its gets more stupid "We need some water, where can we find it" . The area where he was living was densely covered with forest , the monk pointed towards a foot path and instructed us that we would reach a cave where we could gather some water. We reached the cave and found a small pond , water was seeping through a small opening in the rock. How could this rock leak water like this? we were almost at the top. Maybe huge rocks has holes inside them, they might be storing rain water release little by little for ages, this is just a little theory of mine.

However the little cave was dark and damp, and we found lots of tadpoles swimming allover the water, we had no option but to filter out and drink. Then we reached the temple where the monk lived and that was the moment it started to rain like hell. The mist engulfed the forest suddenly we took permission to have our food there. The monk suddenly asked us a question and the answer i gave end up into complete Buddhist sermon which was really interesting and life changing , that sermon would be in our hearts for years to come , that will be another post. After listing to what he got to say about life and everything we were feeling glad that we reached the place anyway. After taking blessings from him we came out of the temple, the whole are was totally covered in mist and i was shivering like a fish out of the pond, thats the only disadvantage of being skinny.

We could barely see few feet ahead of us. The wind was so strong , the temperature was so low and it was getting dark we started to clamber back down. Climbing down is no easy as going up . I saw people slipping and falling few times. I gave little instructions on direct connection of balance and confidence to my friend Madhusanka, who listened intently , nodded , and barely managed to walk few feet's before slipping and hitting his butt on the rock again, That gave us some laugh, could have been a you tube hit .But few more feets down he would have been flying down the rock, no laughing matter . Mountain climbing is like learning to ride a bicycle, you need to fall few times , get some scratches, keep up the spirit then it gets more interesting . Rain stated to fall heavily when we reached half way, we put on our rain coats, munched some biscuits and continue.

We had to walk few kilometers until we reach the bus stop. The three wheel guy had some other work to do, so we had to walk all the way back until we find a bus perhaps 3 kilometers or more . We were tired and exhausted but our hearts were relived and full of an experience to be told and retold in the years to come .

On-Board Jet Liner

2010-10-10T19:17:00.001+05:30

Its one of the bright idea's of Sri Lankan Navy. Now you can dine and party inside Jet Liner which was used to transport troops during the war. It cost my wife and me close to 8000 rs. The ship traveled along the cost about one and half hours, good thinking, My wife was already vomiting and i was feeling bit dizzy due to sea sickness. A band was playing some country music and there was a dance floor with disco lights just opposite the bar.Hard to walk while the ship is on the move, saw people moving as if they were drunk swaying to and fro. After coming back to the port there was a magic show, buffet and more dancing. Magician taught us few tricks . Food was great though. Didn't feel like waiting until the end and a navy bus took us out and dropped us near the port. Don't feel like going there for the second time. I could have had more fun for 8000 bucks some where else. Navy should have more creative ideas to get people back on Jet Liner, other wise the hype will die in few years. I heard they rent it for weddings for 2 million rs, thats 20000 dollars.

Shades OF singapore

2010-09-24T18:54:00.001+05:30

These are some of the photos i managed to capture during my 9 day stay in Singapore. Most of them are from the Botanical garden of Singapore.Its a nice place to relax and meditate. My mind was full of tension with overloaded work,a stroll through the park made our minds extremely relaxed. Singapore is a well planed city. An example to the world , how nature and man can co-exist.

Acrobatic Bird

2010-08-27T21:26:00.000+05:30

do u know this bird?

Beautiful colors

Principles Of Open Space Technology and One Law

2010-06-12T22:00:00.001+05:30

Open space technology is simple way of making people innovative and productive to solve complex problems.With Open space people tends to be responsible . Its mostly based on meetings and workshops started without any pre-maid agenda, which sets the stage for the meeting's participants to create the agenda for themselves. Participants will initially form a circle and a facilitator will briefly addressed the theme and starts the flow of the meeting. He then stay in the background to direct the meeting in relevant occasions. Success of open space technology is largely due to making everybody present equally important , which make them drive towards finding solutions and it only attract people who are passionate and willing to take some responsibility.

The Four Principles
1.Who ever comes is the right people
2.Whatever happens is all that could have
3.Whenever it starts is the right time
4.When it is over, it is over

Law of Two Feet" or "The Law of Mobility"
If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet, go someplace else.

Invisible Bird

2010-05-22T22:03:00.000+05:30

This cute little bird is a master of invisibility . They are one of the most common birds in sri lanka, Yet they have learnt how to live invisible in the eyes of humans . I have identified some of its tactics. It naturally have the gray color which is less attractive anyway, lives close to the ground, never show extreme terror when they see a human or a predator but alway keep a safe distance . They alway keep a sentinel to alarm them with a sharp chirp while they feast on the ground.

I have seen even determined cats were chased away by their constant mocking chirps. I think they are loving creatures perhaps one of the cutest, can alway be seen cuddling together in the rain or helping each other to tide up their feathers. I found these photos of them taken by my wife recently. Seems she managed to catch some of their cute social acts. They are called Yellow Billed Babbler endemic to south india and srilanka. We rarely notice them even though they are every where. Perhaps they are using the SEP effect to stay unnoticed.

Douglas Adams has his character Ford Prefect describe Somebody Else's Problem in Life, the Universe and Everything, the third book in the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series:

An SEP is something we can't see, or don't see, or our brain doesn't let us see, because we think that it's somebody else's problem.... The brain just edits it out, it's like a blind spot. If you look at it directly you won't see it unless you know precisely what it is. Your only hope is to catch it by surprise out of the corner of your eye.

The technology required to actually make something invisible is so complex and unreliable that it isn't worth the bother. The "Somebody Else's Problem field" is much simpler and more effective, and "can be run for over a hundred years on a single torch battery."

This is because it relies on people's natural predisposition not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain.

Hiding Dinosaur

2010-05-18T12:16:00.000+05:30

How serene is a butterfly - Poem

2010-05-12T21:55:00.001+05:30

It was Long Time

Since I saw a butterfly

The joy was Mine

To see him fly

I was a kid then

As happy as a nightingale

Saw bunch of them

drifting through the evening gale

That was the time for them

Pity i didn't know it then

Soon i grew out of ten

Made me came into town

Now i see them seldom

Yearning for my freedom

World is too fast

For an innocent butterfly

Will this unforgiving world

ever come to realized

In the life so cold

How serene is a butterfly.

Bird Watching Lunawa Lagoon

2010-05-10T09:07:00.000+05:30

Lunawa lagoon was famous for spotting migratory birds, I heard. So I woke up around 5 am, got my things ready and set out. If you want to spot birds go early in the morning around 5.30 to 7.00 am is the peak time. Lagoon is totally polluted and ugly. There is no place to look except the dirt road around the lake which stretch around 2 miles. All the other places are fenced and walled by humans. But i was able to spot around 12 species of birds like Pied King Fisher, Pelican,Common King fisher, Yalow Stroke, Moor Hen and Fishing Eagles and many more. Saw a fishermen throwing a net to catch fish, caught tin cans and coconut shells more than he caught fish. Lagoon is a good example of unplanned development. Its a miracle to see at least few birds fighting to survive in the blackened water polluted by the slums around. Pied kingfisher had a different style of catching fish, It doesn't dash in to the water like its relative Red headed kingfisher . Instead it flutters over the water at the same place until it spots any fish. Bird watching is more interesting when you have a catalog of birds and a camera but Lunawa i don't recommend .

Urban Parrot

2010-05-08T18:04:00.000+05:30

Colombo suburb is not dead naturally. Well Not yet. I found this parrot feasting upon a fruit near my house.

They have not yet given up on Colombo, still trying to survive fighting the urban life. Bravo, i wish him luck. As Darwin said, Those who change survive, those who doesn't become extinct. Will they suvive the industrialization of next 20 years, I have little hope.

Hugo Chàvez Starts Tweets

2010-04-28T17:33:00.002+05:30

Hugo Chàvez president of Venezuela started tweeting recently . Another way to criticize america . But there is a small problem with that . He has to do it in 140 characters. He's well known for his marathon TV addresses to the nation. You need more than guts to criticize america on their door steps. What to expect from a best friend of Fidel Castro. His first tweet in Spanish

"Epa que tal? Aparecí como lo dije: a la medianoche. Pa Brasil me voy. Y muy contento a trabajar por Venezuela. Venceremos!!"

roughly translated , he says that he's going to Brazil, but as he promissed he started tweeting after midnight. He has 32,414 followers right now and that includes me, this is going to be interesting. I hope one day Fidel starts tweeting . Then twitter is going to be a really interesting place to be.

Co-founder of MySQL invest in OrangeHrm

2010-04-21T13:55:00.001+05:30

David Axmark, co-founder of MySQL and Larry Stefonic, ex-EVP of MySQL has joined hand with OrangeHrm. OrangeHrm is the worlds most famous open source Human Resource application. This product has been developed mainly in SriLanka and US. As srilankans we can be proud of being part of this Open Source sucess. The press release states that ,

it has received Series A investment capital from principal investors Larry Stefonic and David Axmark to finance the sales, marketing and development of OrangeHRM, the company's flagship product. The investment capital will fund the development of new HR modules such as training, budgeting and benefits modules

OrangeHrm provides low cost highly functional software for maintaining business process. This is the dawn of Cloud Computing, OrangeHrm can be easily used as a cloud application in your own server. One of the main reasons for OrangeHrm to be popular is its simplicity and stability.

Six Steps To Make People Like You

2010-03-22T09:37:00.000+05:30

This post contains extracts from “How to make Friends and Influence People”, by Dale Carnegie. I managed to stumble upon this book while strolling along the MG road in Bangalore. There was this guy selling books for dirt cheap price, possibly fake prints which looks original. That was a time when I was doing everything to make new friends. I bought the book without a second thought and with a discount of course. The more I read the book the more I loved it. Dale Carnegie has a deep awareness about human nature. Some techniques were so simple the most people will miss it without even knowing. Since then I tried to absorb these facts in to my life, and believe me it gave me immense success at many occasions. In this post I would like to introduce 6 techniques with short descriptions using my own experiences, but if you really want to dig deeper please read the book.

1. Show Genuine interested in others

People always like attention to themselves. When you look at a group photograph who is the first person that meets your eyes, 99.9 percent of the time that will be you. This is more evident in the childhood when we are honest with our feelings. But as we grow up we hide it inside deep corners of our mind, but it’s there in every one of us. We like being in the spot light, and crave for appreciation. Once I was to teach computer lessons for a group of students who were misbehaving badly, specially at the presence of foreign teachers. Lots of my friends tried to keep them in order by yelling, complaining or sending them out of the class. They failed miserably; they were always in tension, and never enjoyed teaching. Most of them time they were trying to keep the class in order than teaching them he subject. I took a different approach. In the first few classes I identified the trouble makers and started showing more attention towards them. I showed my genuine interest on whether they understood the subject, spent more time with them than the brighter students, always walked to them and helped them to do their practicals. Within week’s magical thing happened .I was not having any trouble in my classes and students started liking me. Even if someone tried to make trouble other students will stop them from doing so. I taught them two and half years and believe me I never had to complain against a single student. People really like others to be interested in them.

2. Smile

There is a Chinese saying which goes like this “A man without smile should no open a shop”. Smile has a big effect on human psychology. In animal world showing teeth is a signal of aggression so never smile at a Dog or a Lion. When you smile at someone you will see the immediate effect on them, they smile back, even a stranger. If you’ve got to get something done from a stressed up government clerk try this, look at him in the eye and greet him with a biggest smile you can give before telling what needs to be done. I have observed that people who smile more are popular at work places. I had a friend who can laugh and smile after every 3 or 4 sentences, people loved him. Everyone seems to be happy to see him. Most popular politicians and celebrities tend to have beautiful smiles and they do it genuinely. Never try to fake a smile, because it will be always felt by others. So generate an ability to smile genuinely and people will like you.

3. Remember Names.

Have you ever noticed that you always loved teacher whom called you by your name. Once I met a teacher who taught me when I was in grade 10.I have completely forgotten his name and then to my utmost surprise he called me by my first name. I was overwhelmed by gratitude, it even brought tears to my eyes. Even now I respect him than other teacher just because he remembered my name. A man called Farley had a remarkable ability to remember peoples name s, even after years when he meet the same person he would call him by his name and ask about his family and what they are doing. This remarkable ability helped Him to put Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House. Napoleon the Third had the same ability; he would always ask a name of a person and make sure he pronounces it right, no wonder he was popular. So call people by their names and remember them.

4. Listen, Make them talk.

Once I met this stranger at the bus station. I asked him time and we drifted in to general conversation, we get in to the bus and I asked some question about his profession. He told me that he was an engineer. Having nothing to do until I reached the destination in 3 hours I showed him that I’m more interested in knowing about the nature of his job. During the conversation I only disturbed him for cross questions he kept talking for the rest of the three hours, I was genuinely interested. Finally when we depart after 3 hours he gave me his number and invited me to his house. By then I knew all about his school time, family and love life including some personal stuff and most of all I made a good friend. All these by just listing to what he said. I worked for a company where our boss seemed to think that he’s commander in the army. We all hated him, mainly during the meeting where we should listen and agree to whatever he says. Nobody likes to listen to what others got to say. Everybody likes to give their opinion. On the other hand I worked for a company where boss encourage employees to give their opinions. He even tells us to be prepared ahead of the meeting, and press us to give our ideas. And he’s loved by everybody. If you want to be popular in the office start listening to others.

5. Talk about their interest.

If you really want to get along with someone learn his interest. At the moment you show that you like what he’s doing you’ll be his friend. If you want to impress a girl don’t miss this out. First know what she likes and show your interest. It could be music, movies, puppies or even having babies. Some people naturally got these in their behavior and they tend to be more popular. If you are a business man before visiting an important contact try to find out his interest, start your discussion with something that he likes.

6. Make them feel important.

Sigmund Freud once explained that humans crave for two things

1. Sexual desire

2. Being important

Have you ever thought of why immensely successful businessmen turn in to politics, even though they have everything? It’s to get the feeling of power and importance. People like being appreciated, during the World War soldiers risk their lives just to get a medal that can wear in their uniforms. It made them feel important; they were even willing to risk their lives. If you see someone doing a good job honestly appreciate it. I was working on a hotel school once. Students used to pick flowers for functions from the school garden. One day college gardener made a huge protest during a meeting for making students to pluck flowers without his permission. He was distressed, he was doing a good job, but nobody appreciated it nor stopped to think how much effort he put to make the garden so beautiful. College director instantly made a decision to make a new rule “Students and teacher had to take permission from the Gardner before plucking flowers”, new rule had no effect on teachers or student’s .They got yes to every request they made. But it made a huge impact on gardeners work; he was working more proudly and enthusiastically ever since.

Green WoodPecker

2010-03-20T19:28:00.001+05:30

Green WoodPecker, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Beautiful mix of color

Value Of a Miracle

2010-02-28T19:01:00.000+05:30

Once Buddha was travelling with a group of monks to a distant city. They reached a large river. The boat was on the other side of the river. So the blessed one was waiting on the bank until the boat returns. At that moment a Yogi came to cross the river, seeing Buddha was waiting for the boat he decided to perform a miracle in challenge. He laid a piece of cloth on the water, climbed on it and started to float across the river. Seeing this, monks expected Buddha to perform a counter miracle. But the blessed one showed no interest in this whole incident, Feeling ashamed some monks approached Buddha "The blessed one, that Yogi is challenging us, show him that you can defeat him". Buddha smiled and signaled them to be quite. Eventually the boat reached the bank. Buddha spoke to the boat man,"How much do you charge to cross The river ?". "Its only fifty cents" boat man replied. Buddha turned towards the monks and proclaimed "Bhikkus , The value of the miracle that Yogi performed is only 50 cents, don't ever expect me to be like him, He may have spent his whole life to learn that trick which is of no use, but we are perusing something of a higher morale value".

Awkana Buddha, originally uploaded by poojitha.

Browns Beach

2010-02-22T09:51:00.001+05:30

Browns Beach, originally uploaded by poojitha.

This is a fantastic beach in srilanka, you can even get a ride on one of those boats for a fair price. tourism is flourishing in srilanka. I have seen a long line of these boats, near to the horizon, good income for the poor fishermen.

impermanence

2010-02-15T21:06:00.003+05:30

buddha impermanence, originally uploaded by poojitha.

impermanence buddha, originally uploaded by poojitha.