Cheers to Tears

CHEERS! was the last word in my last column. Appropriately a day before December 24 just before the dawn of Christmas. So may I begin with the same word as we are stepping closer to a new year too. this time it is as an expression of greeting though.

But the word I used before cheers was tears (one person's tears is another person's cheer) Loitering about the same subject of tears and television and all I must confess that since the holiday season hit the city and its people so it did with Colombian and here I was at home cleaning-up and also having some time to watch the idiot box which generally is given an exalted position in the drawing room of most homes but in my case it boringly sits in the bedroom waiting to be switched on and not until news time on a daily basis.

There is no criteria to our tele-dramas, anything goes as long as the players can cry at a drop of a, a, a bottle of Glycerine.

Watching all those long drawn sob stories (the latest one is a 550 episode super tear serial) Colombian feels that directors of these tele-dramas should shed aside their sponsors, which are generally Insurance companies, Banks and Biscuit manufacturers and join hands with Tear Gas importers, Chemical Companies that produce Glycerine or Undertakers as their sponsors.

Measuring her love

TALKING of undertakers, the younger set of the elite of Colombo are agog with the news that one of their set is being wooed by a grandson of a leading undertaker.

According to her friends this most ambitious girl concerned had fallen for the boy, who looks deadly (sporting a Tattoo of a Bat on his arm muscle) because it has now become obvious that the young man will inherit the coffin business from his father.

Though the girl is in a hurry to get to know her suitor a little more, the boy I am told is playing a passionate game of 'beating about the cemetery monuments'.

In the meantime the girl's friends are getting tired of her beau pursuing them at night clubs and hotels staring at the lass from far. But the young lass seems to be enjoying every minute of it, though her friends say that the undertaker's little boy is gaping at their friend "as if he is measuring her up for a coffin".

Jingle bells and wedding bells

A long-standing sportsstar and fashion model turned actor has finally got caught in the web of romance. The young man who even travelled to America some years ago and was tested for talent at the house of Calvin Kline returned home to star in his maiden film by a young director on the off-beat path.

But owing to a number of restraints the film is not being released and the actor is at a loss because if the film was shown many believe that the model turned actor would have had an edge over our present younger acting fraternity of the local cinema which has gone stale with the years and what! with no new faces showing up.

Many who viewed the movie at its press show around a year ago is in the opinion that the actor though good had made his entry in to the trade in the wrong film for a starter.

What they say is if the 6 foot dusky romeo was cast in an action packed musical many of the reigning brawny bucks would have had to run for their money.

Running to India

TALKING of money and running the one who is really running with her money is the lady behind a shop that is selling Indian goods here in Sri Lanka. The place though patronised by many an artistic type is not selling enough to the lady's heart's content.

With very economical prices and a variety to choose from the dear one is wondering where she went wrong. But you know how most of our travellers to India are, wanting everything at low prices but the bait is that Indians think that our natives are all gaga over their goods.

But what they really have over the moon are the prices, sometimes not even bothering to convert the related value.

The lady should realize that by the time the goods arrive in her shop the price hikes by one and three quarter in value, and when the profit margin is added it hikes a little more: for somebody who travels to India regularly the price is not much but for others they are as or more expensive than our own products.

This festival season goods were selling almost at cost and yet very few takers I am told. It seems what attracts our Lankans about Indian goods are not the Kashmiri mirror work, Pearls from Hydrabad or Bead work of Orissa but the likes of Sumeet, Bajaj and Usha.

The lady sings the blues

TALKING of Ladies one of Colombo's leading ladies have confessed her private grief to a magazine which has gone public with the story putting to rest tongues that wag on other people's behalf.

She has revealed the truth and nothing but the truth not holding back anything for the gossip mongers to gossip about and any more takers wanting to have a peek at the not so sensational break-up can have a go at it for a mere Rs. 250 at the news stands.

Twisting the wave

AS Asia was mourning the tsunami disaster that occurred a year ago foreign news agencies were flashing news photos of the event from all over Asia as sent to them by their correspondents.

While India reported on survivors trying to make a living by going back to their old occupations Indonesia focused upon events that were organised to commemorate the event.

The Sri Lankan news photos showed how some of the debris from the disaster are still being cleared from affected areas and fishermen are still building their boats to go to sea.

I wonder how useful these news photos are for the tourist industry as at the moment hoteliers are already blaming the media for over-exposure of the disaster and also for using it as a fore-runner for the presidential election campaign that concluded recently.

The fact remains that almost all the hotels that were partly damaged have refurbished and re-opened for business and a few of them were over-booked for this holiday season.

Sadly these positive images are rarely focused upon by foreign corespondents and questions are asked whether its plain ignorance or vested interest?