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Monday, 31 August 2009

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Anandian journalists

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.


Ten golden rules to success

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.


Traffic accidents

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.


Holiday bungalows

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.


The jak tree

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.


Has ‘Udarata Menike’ derailed at Pattipola?

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.


Mob rule

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.


Garbage dumping

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?

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