Premil Ratnayake’s articles on Anandian journalists give a lot of
information that the present young people do not know much about some of
the outstanding people in the media. Let me congratulate him for
remembering the past and conveying to us things we didn’t know earlier.
I remember when Premil and Pathi were working in The Island where
yours truly was in the features section editing the ‘Culture’ page.
Premil wrote several articles from the Middle East and also introduced
several Sinhala artistes for the pages of the paper.
S.Pathiravitane is a respected stylist in English language with an
incisive mind. I always enjoyed his writing since his Daily News days
and The Island and other papers as a freelance writer. I had the fortune
of working with him, Meemana and Ranjit Senaratne summarising the news
and editorials in Lankan Thamil newspapers for an agency a few decades
back.
Nihal Ratnaike (Viranga), present Editorial Director at Lake House
then working for the Daily News. The late inimitable Mervyn de Silva
introduced me to Nihal who reviewed my first book in English Thamil
Writing in Sri Lanka (1974) in his column.
Sunanda Mahendra was then working for the then Radio Ceylon. I
befriended him and as Premil says, Sunanda was pleasantly simple.
Dear editor, please continue to publish such articles as Premil
Ratnayake’s as they would remain records of forgotten memories.
K. S. SIVAKUMARAN - Colombo
I quote below 10 golden rules to be followed to achieve success in
life.
Sincerity: Please be sincere and faithful to your employer. You
should not take part in wrong activities of your employer and in that
case you should leave the employment early. Kindly do the correct things
with sincerity and devotion.
Fear: When a new and different task is given to you a fear will form
in your mind. Recognize this fear and act carefully. This will improve
your efficiency and involvement.
Job: Please love your job and do not believe that you have sacrificed
your life. Love the job you do and your work will be appreciated by all.
Family life: Please allocate adequate time on your family matters and
pay attention to their needs instead of concentrating on your work
always. At the time of depression your family members’ affection will
help you to recover early and gain extra energy.
Balanced life: Lead a balanced life which will make you healthy and
wealthy. Adequate exercise mental and body rest, good eating habits and
meditation will help you to lead a happy life.
Performance: Be proud of your past successful performance, correct
mistakes and concentrate on future tasks. I remember a business
magnates’ saying “Correct decisions are taken by me based on experience
which I gather after wrong decisions.”
Good temper: Please maintain a good temper at office and home as
well. Rude behaviour makes you unpopular. Do not insult your
subordinates, co-employees and the family members, in the presence of
others, but correct them with your fine approach. Please note a smiling
face is equal to thousand flowers.
Illegal matters: Do not involve in illegal matters to secure your
benefits which will never last long. Transaction on bogus documents,
evasion of statutory payments using violence etc, have to be avoided.
Those who assist you in illegal matters will create problems in the
future which will make your life miserable.
Money: Do not be greedy over money. Money has its value but it is not
everything. You must try to help others as and when it is required.
Please look into the life of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Nelson
Mandela and Dr. Anagarika Dharmapala. There is a famous saying “Even the
funeral undertaker should cry when he hears about your death.”
Personality development: This is very important. A good education,
adequate training, continued work involvement and good dress code will
help to develop your personality. Kindly maintain a clean private life
as well. Remember the mistakes committed by Pop Singer Michael Jackson,
and Poet Oskar Wild.
I presume the above rules will help the public at large to achieve
success in their lives.
S.R. Balachandran / Council Member - National
Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka
It is not difficult to see that a main reason for traffic rule
violations, that lead to accidents, is due to lack of knowledge of the
traffic rules.
This is obvious when observing the habits of a significant portion of
the ‘drivers’ on the road. It is no secret that this is due the manner
in which people obtain driver’s license without proper knowledge or
training.
In order to reduce road accidents, a crucial step is to educate
masses on traffic rules (specially the ones who hold licenses already).
In spite of so much media space available in the country, we’re yet to
see an effective audio/visual program that does this.
How difficult is it for the authorities responsible to air such a
program? Rather than paying lip service, it is time for them to take
some meaningful steps to address this menace.
Chinthaka - Via email
I refer to letters with regard to holiday bungalows for retired
public servants published recently. This will greatly benefited for
those who draw higher pensions than others. They can use their
limousines.
For those who draw medium and low pensions, the Pension Department
should meditate issuing one set of Railway warrants.
J.N.G. JAYANETTI - Boralesgamuwa
The prohibition on felling of the jak tree was promulgated sometime
in the seventies during a food shortage in the country. Trees could be
felled provided it was approved by the Grama Niladhari of the area, who
was on the spot. Though related to the shortage of food at that time, it
was not rescinded when the problem ceased. Like all Government
strictures that remain in force for all time, and are reviewed only if
the public draws attention to it; and remains so now too, the
restriction will soon result in a paucity of jak tree timbre.
The jak tree like the coconut, kithul, palmra and arecant trees is a
common sight in home gardens. The jak fruit is close to a staple in
South Sri Lanka, where the climate is conducive. What the Government
officers have not realized is that the tree will be grown profusely only
if it could be freely felled and not be subject to restrictions. It will
provide food until then.
Being a dual-purpose tree, that aspect should always be borne in
mind, and its cultivation be encouraged. Being a proteinaceous food it
goes well with rice to build good health. The fruit can be cooked at all
stages, from the tender to the ripened.
IVOR SAMARASINGHE - Dehiwela
I am referring to one of the best programs of Rupavahini Channel in
recent times - ‘Udarata Menike’ which was telecast on Saturdays at 7.30
p.m.
For the past three weeks, this program was not on for whatever
reason. Certainly, it is a very informative and educative program,
unlike those teledramas all the time.
The train journey has stopped at Pattipola probably awaiting
instructions (Tablet) from the Station Master. I should also mention
that the female presenter is doing a very good job as if we are also
participating in the train journey. Well done the presenter.
May I request the producer, if not the higher authorities at
Rupavahini, to bring back this program and let the Udarata Menike reach
its final destination - Badulla, with no more derailments.
Tilak de Alwis - Mount Lavinia
I refer to the editorial of August 14, and I totally agree with the
contents therein. Clusters of people should not be allowed to take the
law into their own hands, thereby disrupting the normal working systems,
causing many hardships to the normal lives of the public.
There are ways of handling grievances of the above nature, which
should not be allowed to be handled as above, creating a precedence of
handling such matters in the future, which should not be tolerated,
thereby nipping same in the bud.
Every Dick Tom and Harry should not be allowed to handle the law
according to their whims and fancies. On the other hand, authorities
responsible for such lapses should also eliminate the root causes for
such behaviour generating such incidents as far as possible.
Tommy Wanigesinghe - Kurunegala
It is high time that the Municipality and Government learnt of some
other way of disposing the garbage rather than dumping it.
Why cannot the authorities learn from another country such as the UK
or Australia how their garbage is disposed of?
A public place like the Kollupitiya Post office is the latest place
where hundreds of bags of garbage are dumped and it’s stinking as a
result.
What are the Health and Environmental Ministries doing?
NEDAE - Colombo
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