Mud Ghecko

- Chandrika Gadiewasam From human birth to death, in a maddening cyclical pattern of infancy, childhood, education, graduation, marriage,  reproduction, aging and continuous drudgery  to survive, through a whirlwind of meaningless traditions and festivals, milestones, new years, birthdays,  weddings, and  funerals, sickness and health... The human creature constantly seeks happiness and fulfilment and that SOMETHING…. But…. are we ever content with what we get ? Are there moments when TIME suddenly stands still near a lake, with just the wind in the trees, and the moon above, where we suddenly stop to think and wonder about the m eaning of life? Where is this happiness or satisfaction that humans search for? How long does it last and how do you make sure that you can hold on to it? Haven't you actually tried until you cried ? Wouldn't life be just perfect IF ONLY, if only you had that promotion/partner/child/ property/vehicle/ recognition/or appreciation  that y...

Life after Rape: Stay away from  the Second Arrow.   In Buddhism we are told that the mind is the forerunner of all conditioned things. A lot of pain is caused by our minds- which is indeed strange considering how many millennia we homo erectus spent trying to evolve a bigger and more intelligent brain. Have you seen a dog with TVT? It's a disease where the animals private parts become cancerous and end up becoming a bleeding, jellied, skinless, formless mass, you can google TVT dogs , if you want the visuals.  I sometimes think that if we are to believe in reincarnation TVT may be the punishment meted out to reborn rapists. And I think of them with definite compassion. But have another look and you will realize that many of these animals don't seem affected by this horror, not even as badly as we are as onlookers. This probably isn't because they don't feel pain. But it could be because animals, way lower though they are in terms of intelligence, ha...

Fifteen years of messing with proposals and deadlines and an uncoordinated head office- and this was officially the last straw that broke the camel's back. This cartoon is from  Morten Morland Times So last week my team told me they were all working feverishly on a deadline to submit a bid to the United Nations supplier portal. Y ou just have to upload it , they said. It will be ready very soon and we still have a day more , they said. Only you can do this techy part , they wheedled.  Well, I do know a thing or two about USAID and EU submission portals online, so I was suitably uncomfortable. The previous year a colleague and I had been struggling till 4 am in the morning ( which was a more reasonable time in New York) fighting with dodgy broadband and the tedious UN Atlas portal but we had had about a week to get familiar with that. Even then I had vowed I would not do this again.  Now the bad news was ATLAS had been shut down and QUANTUM had taken its place and I h...

The housewives guide to competing for freelance work Chandrika Gadiewasam for Kathru.com How to actually find rewarding work from home?  Be available. Be dependable. And deliver on time!  You know who they are, they sidle up to you at various functions and say that they are looking for work, and giggle bashfully and say can you send some work their way.  Comfortable looking, slightly frumpy stay-at-home moms, previously smart, professional,  gainfully occupied women, now stuck at home with a kid, a dog or more challenging- a husband. Suddenly they want work, they want the money, but they are simply incapable of understanding that dread word " deadlines ." Well, deadlines are deadlines whoever you are, and companies have to work with deadlines. That's how they make the money with which you are paid. You have to understand this. Frankly I've personally had it with employing housewives to do my sub-contracts. Here's why. As an employer I'm completely fed up with ...

WAY TO GO, ROVER   written and illustrated by Sakuntala Sachithanandan – 2023.… Book review by Chandrika Gadiewasam Rover arrives at Gamini's house unexpectedly, bundled out of a bag – much to innocent Gamini's delight but to the intense annoyance of granny Siriyawathie. He is a very small puppy ,found on the street  by an uncle. He is very small, lonely and terrified and he pees uncontrollably when he gets scared which is quite often…Many things scare him including the huge angry broom-wielding Siriyawathie.  Sriyawathie thinks Rover is a filthy cur because  - simply because he is  a dog and she did not wish to spend her valuable time on looking after dogs. True enough, somehow, her grandson has brought him to stay, but  she mistreats him, screams continuously at him and generally starves him. Quoting Zelda, the clever lizard watching it all from next door and creeping over to Gamini's garden now and then , "she absolutely hates anything that walks on four legs or m...

WHERE ANGELS FEAR  PROLOGUE  "I remember the mountains in the morning. They caught the sunlight when it first appeared. The tips would become orange and then red and I would shiver because I remembered the meaning of life. The location was somewhere in Central Asia – I cant tell you exactly where, arid , heart-rendingly beautiful and cruel. It won't be any use trying to name it you won't find that name on your map .I warrant you cannot even pronounce the name . I remember the smells of early dawn, there were smells of small herbs that were growing on the side of the mountains  the wild weeds which Babushka used to make into her concoctions ``…I call her Babushka but i'm not sure that she was Russian .She was a blend of so many races , her ancestors must have come from all corners of that continent .She prayed many times a day to Allah but her blue eyes were slightly Mongolian and her hair  the color of the Steppes. Her skin was indeterminate, darker than really beautif...

     Happier times in Sri Lanka  As I start typing there is something like a dead body trying to fight its way out of my freezer, and my house smells very much like the scene of a homicide where the murderer has tried to hide the evidence but failed. But as far as I'm concerned this is one of my good days. Im Sri Lankan. This is 2022. We are going through a nightmare. Imagine waking up poor, in a third world country? I was what was called middle income. After 30 years of white-collar work, I was planning to retire in 2022 and buy myself a small car. But this was not to be. I'm now stuck in a reality where I can think twice before buying food for my cats, because a kilo of the scrawny bony fish they used to eat those days is now more expensive than a kilo of turkey or lamb or whatever you think is expensive meat. And as for a car, perish the thought. For the last month practically everything I have done has been commuting on my two feet. This shouldn't be a...