Nisadas

So there’s this little segment on radio called “The first step” or something of that sort. It involves a particular phrase being said in all three main Sri Lankan languages – Sinhala, Tamil and English.

It’s a good thing certainly and most of the phrases are likely to come in handy. Except that since I’m concentrating on driving, I don’t really remember most of them.

Except for one.

The lady says in Sinhala : ඔයාට කෝල් එකක් (Oyata call ekak – there’s a call for you)
Then some guy says in tamil the same thing in Thamil, except he uses the real Thamil words (my knowledge of the language is rudimentary, but it involved something like Ungalukku Tholeikasu Pesi)

That’s interesting because “කෝල්” isn’t even proper Sinhala – it’s the english word expressed in Sinhala. The right term would be “දුරකථන ඇමතුමක්” (Durakathana Amathumak – phone call). Why complicate the Thamil version when it’s most likely that speakers of both languages would slip into using the easier english word? Especially since that word would be understood definitely by both of them (which is quite fascinating in itself – how ubiquituous English is in our daily lives).

This struck me as especially interesting when I was talking to an Indian colleague today – he was telling me about his driver teaching himm how to say good morning and good night. Of course, the driver had used the original Sinhala words – “සුභ උදෑසනක්”(subha udhaesanak) and “සුභ රාත්‍රියක්” (subha raathriyak) – which my colleague found helpful due to their similarity to Sanskrit. Of course, I explained that no one really uses those terms anymore and the usual greetings are in English. Turns out, most people in India don’t really use purely Hindi while speaking, slipping in quite a few English words as they go.

The last time I heard anyone speak pure Sinhala was when we had Sathischandra Edirisinghe deliver a lecture at a workshop I attended.

Purists will shudder and thunder about the pollution of the language, but can that really be avoided in this day and age? With the proliferation of communication technology and all that jazz about the world getting flatter and smaller, there’s going to invariably be mixing. If that means we can all understand each other a little better – is that really a bad thing?

This year you’re sixteen and you’ve only just got on the internet. Some chap from a Bradby playing school (where at some charity walk you will win the voucher to get you internet access) has tagged me to write to you.

No of course not, that link doesn’t work ‘cos it links to a site in 2009. No, Netscape isn’t that cool, but yes, anything is better than Explorer. For what it’s worth, your dislike for Microsoft will continue and you will only get over it with the introduction of something called Office 2007. But then again, that will be more out of necessity than anything else.

And yes, you will (cringe) have your own site under (y)our real name. But you will call it Nisadas (a combination of Nidahas Adahas, which are two other blogs by friends at your old work place) and people will think that’s (y)our name, so don’t worry about sudden popularity. Besides, you still can’t write to save your life.

So what do I tell you?

1. You will not become a monk. Amma is going to be very worried about you and this tendency of yours to be cynical of life in general. Please spare her the trouble. You’re not cut for that kinda thing and sure as hell the Sasana isn’t cut out for the likes of you. But take the time to join her on her visits to the temple. You will grow out of this Heavy Metal/Atheism combination and mellow out with a more Agnostic and far more buddhist attitude to life. That will help you and it’ll help Amma as well.
2. No, that means you won’t be going to Wudang mountain either. Geez.
3. Yes, you will know all the songs of Metallica’s Reload by heart. What did you expect, playing it in the background while studying? Although, you might not want to write most of them at the end of your English Lit paper…
4. That first (and only) piece of vandalism on your school desk? The one where you painstakingly draw the Whitesnake logo? Well, you’re gonna miss school one day and come back to find it gone. Dilan will have scraped it away and replaced it with the words of “My heart will go on”. No, we’re definitely not going to understand nor forgive…
5. You have impeccable taste in women, my boy. Almost all of the really interesting ones you will not pursue on the grounds that they are older than you(No, we never really get along with anyone younger than us until much much later in life), the wrong religion (y’know the ones where your kind of atheism isn’t approved of) or just plain out of your league. This is generally due to your inherent geekiness, and you’ll never really grow out of it.  Nevertheless, you will be blessed with some very good looking and intelligent friends of the fairer sex. As for the ones out of your league, that won’t stop you from marrying someone who’s as out of your league as the All Blacks are in comparison with the school team. So don’t worry too much. But make the most of every opportunity
6. Yes, the All Blacks are a rugby team. Malli will take up rugby, so you will get to hear a lot about it. Try and be more involved – it’ll save you both the trouble of having to get him explain various technicalities while watching the matches.
7. Love your hair. Er… as in take good care of it. You’re gonna lose most of it pretty soon.
8. Yes, you will do Maths for your A/Ls. I know you wanna do it ‘cos of all the cool stuff in the Demo Scene, but you’re not going into IT. Not that it makes much of a difference, since everyone in your department is going to tell you that IT would suit you more than Finance, but the CIMA classes are a lot more fun. Trust me. But pay more attention when you’re in class, especially calculus.
9. Save money. A couple of years later in 2000, track down a guy called John Pereira. He has already sent himself a list of all the results of sporting events in your not too distant future. Be his friend and see if you can find some stuff out. Bet on that and make a lot of money.
10. Keep some of that money and invest in shares. All those times that you think share prices are good for buying will turn out to be just that. Well no, I didn’t save so I didn’t have the money to invest. So you change that.
11. Stay in touch with your friends more often.
12. Dream. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

Yeah, that’s about it. That last part is from an awesome speech. Look it up when this thing called Youtube gets on the scene…

Enjoy being young. You will find that growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional.

Chill, bro.

D.

P.S.

Just in case the Pereira fellow doesn’t help out, I’m sending you a list anyway. Check your mail in a little while.

And with that, the tag stops here. That’s all folks!

I recently had the opportunity to read Banker to the Poor – the story of the Grameen Bank by Muhammed Yunus. While you can easily find out the story of Grameen at its Wikipedia page, there are some points of interest in the book that don’t make it into Wikipedia:

The worm’s eye view

Most interesting is the point that is made right at the beginning, where the professor is confronted by the magnitude of human suffering caused by famine in 1974. Upset by the scenes of death in Jobra village, Muhammed Yunus decided to take a different view in order to help solve the problem:

I promised myself to try and learn everything about the village. I thought I would be fortunate if I could understand the life of one single poor person. This would be a big departure from traditional book learning. By attempting to equip the students with a bird’s eye view, traditional universities had created an enormous distance between students and the reality of life. When you can hold the world in your palm and see it from a bird’s eye-view, you tend to become arrogant – you do not realise that when looking from such a great distance, everything becomes blurred, and that you end up imagining rather than really seeing things.
I opted for what I called the ‘worm’s eye view’. I thought I should rather look at things at close range and I would see them sharply. If I found some barrier along the way, like a worm, I would go around it, and that way I would certainly achieve my aim and accomplish something.

Not only did Muhammed Yunus adopt a radical approach to the problem, but he also adopted an attitude of not letting obstacles prevent him from achieving his goal. There is a lesson here to anyone in business – your feet need to be on the ground if you plan on delivering a good value proposition.

Cynicism and Independence

Another constant theme throughout the book is the professor’s cynicism towards the various international aid agencies and notably, the World Bank. His reasons for independence from their influence reminds me of the book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. By refusing to obey the rules set by international agencies, he has been able to formulate an approach to the problem of poverty in Bangladesh. The book details many occasions where Grameen has maintained its independence, even though it meant refusing significantly large amounts of funds in the form of “soft loans” from the World Bank.

Interestingly, he alludes to a proposal made by the World Bank in 1984 for an alternative micro-credit organisation; the Bangladeshi government rejects the proposal which (according to the prof.) is then amended slightly before being thrust upon the government of Sri Lanka.

Too often we are prepared to take solutions from elsewhere and simply dump them on our problems with the expectation that the results will be the same. Blind faith in foreign intervention is clearly not the best approach. Possibly, the approach of learning from others (the prof. was a Fulbright scholar with a degree in economics from Vanderbilt University) and tailoring the solution to the specific problem would be the better alternative.  Here in Sri Lanka, IMHO we find that many policy proposals are made by people who believe wholly in western ideals, or those who wholly reject them. Perhaps a healthy dose of disbelief of foreign motives, coupled with lessons learned from foreign lands would be better?

Charity is not a solution

This is a theme also constant throughout the book, where that age old adage of feeding a man for life by teaching him to fish can be evoked. Muhammed Yunus criticises Bangladesh and other third world countries for adopting and sometimes deliberately promoting the view that they are in an incurable situation. Being a realistic observer of politics in South Asia, he points out how little of donor funds would actually end up helping the supposed beneficiaries and how much would be pocketed by intermediaries. This is a lesson that we should take to heart. As a nation we have many issues to sort out, but also many avenues of growth. While it may be difficult to sway those “educated” people who firmly believe it is the government’s job to generate employment, there are surely plenty of people with the skills and the desire to grow wealth who can do some wonders with access to funds (see Rajaratarala’s post on Sri Lankan ingenuity).

Passion and Attitude

HRH the Prince of Wales in his foreword mentions the passion in Muhammed Yunus towards poverty alleviation. Similarly, there is mention of how recruits to the bank were hired not on banking experience but on their desire to carry out the bank’s goal of reducing poverty. In fact, “experts” with experience in traditional banking were rejected, since “re-programming” would take too long. By generating the feeling that they are instruments of change in the community they operate in, Grameen empowers its employees to help alleviate poverty, empower rural women, encourage entrepreneurship and educate the younger generation among other things.

In a country like Sri Lanka where the traditional “honour thy elder” culture has been perverted to the stage where hierarchy exists to stifle employee motivation, there is much to be learned. There are companies which have grown thanks to passionate people which have nevertheless burdened themselves with unwieldy hierarchies. While in some cases a hierarchy cannot be simply done away with, it must not exist to distance the employee from the company’s objectives. Of course, it’s a lot easier to create employee engagement when dealing with a notion like eradicating poverty, but there are surely ways of engaging employees in order to achieve optimum results. By creating a passionate environment and encouraging a “can-do” attitude firms can achieve good results, but it may require a lot of management of the egos of those higher up on the ladder in many cases.

A poverty free world

The book closes with the question on whether a poverty free world is possible. While economically there will quite likely continue to be a gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots”, Professor Yunus’ ideal of a world where everyone is able to meet their basic life needs seems quite plausible. Hopefully, we can learn from his experiences in Bangladesh and perhaps adopt a similar approach in Sri Lanka.

Passing along the highlevel road, I thanked my stars that the tank was full. Although, I might’ve just as well been better off with a diesel vehicle…

The vehicles belonging to these good people were probably the same ones parked along the road right upto Police Park.

Clearly, LIOC was doing better off than these guys…

I’m fairly sure there must be some kind of demand for these things. With a heel of variable height, straps to hold the shoes in place and other features depending on the lady’s taste and enough protection to ensure that those delicate toes are well protected.

It’s either that, or there’s gonna forever be a new variant – the Cha-Cha-Ow!

Of course, 595 US dollars is a little too much for what I’ve got in mind…

Anyone in the footwear industry?

Eat five fruits or vegetables a day! by st3f4n

A couple of days after reading on Indi’s blog about the effects of a low calorie diet and Rajaratarala’s posts about his latest misadventures in farming and the dietary habits of rural Sri Lankans, I came across the following TED talk by Carolyn Steele. (Embedded YouTube video. MP4 download available at the TED site).

It’s an interesting look at the intricate relationships between humans and our food and how all of this has affected the placement of cities.

Especially important I thought was the point on how our demand for food (which isn’t helped by the amount we waste) is literally eating into the rainforests. Given the limited amount of arable land, this will mean that we will have food production issues far greater than that the sort you would find playing Caesar or Settlers.

Given that the population of the world is on it’s way to the Nine billion mark by around 2050, food will definitely be an even larger item on the global agenda than it is today. If Carolyn’s “Militarized shopping spree” comparison to the growth of the Roman empire is anything to go by, the latest acquisition of farmland in poorer countries by richer nations should also ring a bell (The Guardian, UK).

This brings us to the subject of vegetarianism. Surely the ancient Indians were on to a more sustainable system when they espoused a vegetarian lifestyle. After all,

• A higher portion of grain goes towards meat production, so cutting down on that would also make more land available for agriculture for human consumption.
• A pleasant side effect for those with a hindu/buddhist/PETA mindset would be the significantly less slaughter of animals, not to mention the less animals being maintained for food in awful conditions.
• Fewer cattle may have an impact on reducing the amount of methane gases being released into the atmosphere and causing global warming, but that’s just taking it a little too far…

So there’s definitely scope for businesses in the food industry for the future, especially if they adopt newer methods and possibly focus more on the vegetarian option. Neville from the USA has had an interesting experience after switching, too.

But even if you’re not so hot about switching to a full vegetarian diet (it will take me a long time before I can truthfully say no to a breakfast of bacon and eggs), perhaps reducing your meat intake could possibly help the world, one step at a time. You might want to read up on Cerno’s guide to insecure meat eaters while you’re at it.

Post Script:

On a wholly different note, the Stormtroopers365 by Stefan set is just awesome!

Right above that Nalaka wheel alignment/tyre merchants joint in Colombo 02 is another branch of the famous Food Waves restaurant. This one’s called “Thiru Kumaran’s Food Waves” and it’s a vegetarian restaurant that serves South Indian food. Good food for good prices – enough reason to like it.

The reason that I wanted to blog about it was to put up their phone number on the net. After searching online in vain for the number (don’t get me started on how fun it was trying to find it on the SLT online directory), I ended up going there to place my order, which was thankfully ready in ten minutes. Of course, my order wasn’t a full meal, so that shouldn’t be a benchmark – take away should ideally still be called in advance.

The lunch buffet is priced at Rs. 130/- and is supposed to be good, although I don’t know this from experience. I can recommend the Naan, Paneer Butter Masala, Malaysian Kottu and Chilli Parota (my favourite). Very nice.

Recently, six of us dropped in for dinner, had the main dishes that I just noted plus soup (one portion is generally enough for two people), some starters and dessert, all for around Rs. 500/- per head. I’m not too familiar with the restaurants in Colombo, but I think that’s pretty good value for money.

Their flyer reads that they’re open 365 days of the year, 11:00am to 10:30pm. Lunch available from 10:30am and Dinner from 4:00pm.

The Address:

Thiru Kumaran’s Food Waves

55, Hyde Park Corner, Colombo 02.

Tel: 471 8709 / 471 9522

So recently I get a photograph in my mail of President Barack Obama checking out a young lady’s behind. While I’d normally shrug this off as instinct getting the better of the man, a friend also sends me the link where the situation behind it all is cleared through a youtube video, which proves Sarkozy to be a true frenchman.

Okay, so it’s old news but you can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbifTbJtgJA.

Seeing world leaders’ little indiscretions caught on tape for the world to see reminded me of a good friend of mine doing a (impromptu and with only a little egging on by the compere) funky dance right out of an American Pie kinda movie on stage at an Interact function many years ago. No cameras (in phones or otherwise) to record this strange occurence or the shocked fascination of the crowd; just human memory in all its fallibility to carry those images for posterity, to be brought up at get-togethers and laughed about.

Nowadays, you can bet that any incident of that nature will be recorded and found on a social network. With any luck, the poor soul will end up tagged and watched by millions of people who never knew he existed until they saw the video.

This simply means that today, we need to be far more careful about what we say and do; especially the moments of spontaneous craziness (see the part about the Star Wars Kid in the article at Scientific American on social networks and privacy).

This point was driven home extra hard when I took part in a training recently. When the guy doing the training pointed out that my Outlook calendar was easily visible to my superiors at office – something that I understood was possible, but something that I never really thought about. I got a little bothered about this and asked him “Where’s the privacy in that?”

The response was simple – “What privacy? Your system adminstrators have full access to the information on your computer – you just need to make sure that you don’t do anything unnecessary with it.”

And then it struck me – all those personal details on Facebook? All those emails in my “personal” mailboxes hosted by big “free email” companies? Just how private are those emails? Or my events in Google Calendar?

The main argument presented in this case is that “Good people have nothing to hide”. But what if I’m just a private person? Okay, not so private that I blog under my real name, but private in the sense that I like having control of how much information about myself is revealed?

There are so many facebook photos that get saved on to folders and forwarded via email that you might wonder if being in touch is worth the price. It just means that you have to be careful about what the world sees. What used to be the private pain of celebrities the world over has now become a far more common problem. Sure, you can try and sue the moron from the photo studio who decided to share all those interesting photos of your girlfriends off your digital camera with his friends, but how do you intend on proving it?

It seems that privacy as we used to know it died quite sometime ago, around the same time that it became possible to fish out old “personal” emails and forward them to people who weren’t in the loop. All that can be done now is to watch your step – and hope that if anything about you is on the net, you know about it.

Anyone who’s taken the Galle road will know how much fun Dehiwala can be. Used to be (haven’t taken the route in some time) that the traffic would extend somewhere upto Ratmalana in the mornings (to Colombo). Evenings are no better on the way back. The best advertisement for travel by train could’ve included photos of morning/evening traffic in Dehiwala.

Now it would seem that there’s change in the air. I saw some guys with “Access” on their luminous vests along the roads at Dehiwala junction, which is also now missing some pavement.

Apparently, a flyover will be under construction soon. Hopefully, construction will be in 2-4 month range similar to the Kelaniya and Nugegoda flyovers which means some short term pain for long term gain.

However, there’s still the question of this will ease traffic out of Colombo, since there’s still plenty of that in the evenings, but I guess time will tell.

After what has been undoubtably ages, I planned on actually posting something instead of just trawling along achcharu and facebook.

And then I came across xkcd on Jerry’s blog. The theme’s changed, so I think he typed IDDQD again.

After that, on FB I found a link to Gossip Aiyahs Juicy juicy mambalam Blogage.

Looks like I will spend this weekend consuming, not producing – not that you really noticed, anyway…