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After the exams I watched the movie Siri Raja Siri at ANU. It is a Sinhalese movie directed by Mr. Somarathna Dissanayake who is renowned for making movies targeted at family audience. Similar to his previous ones 'Suriya Arana' and 'Saroja' it was a novel kind of experience.
Before starting to write about the movie, its good to mention about Sri Lankan film industry. We dot have a huge industry compared to our neigbour's Bollywood. One reason being our culture entertainment is centred around family. Television is more dear to people coz whole family can watch a teledrama in the living room together compared to the cinema in which themes are mostly selected to cater to a particular age segment. Mostly adult themes. In this setting a new breed of directors emerged in late 90's who started to produce family movies like Saroja, Aba, Guerilla Marketting and Hiri Poda Wessa in order to make the cinema a family entertainment mode in SL.
The theme of 'Siri Raja Siri' centeres around a young boy named 'Sirimal' who is from a agrarian family in a underdeveloped village but rich in human values and environment I used the word underdeveloped in classical economic terms and perhaps the 'happyness factor' can be far better than a modern metro like New York. He passes the year five scholarship with the best results of the country and gets the opportunity to study at a national school (some people refer them as අගනුවර සුපිරි පාසල් - Super Schools in the Capital). Year five scholarship is an exam for year 10 year olds who pass the exam with high marks can gain admission to alone of the best( best in the sense most Sri Lankans perceive what is the best). The exam is very competitive but it is a golden privilege for the students whose parents do not have big bucks to spend or political power to influence to get a good scool in the country. Back to Sirimals story. The film presents Sirimal's experiences in his new school in the new environment. It shows how Sirimal faces the barriers and succeeds. Simply unlike most movies I have watched it passes a positive message to the audience.
As any work of art the script writer develops the plot through a series of conflicts. First Sirimal faces an internal conflict on whether to leave his village and loved ones. The dialogue "Sir, I dont want a good school" goes directly into the hearts of the audience. Then the story rotates around the conflict with Sirimal who symbolically represents less affluent students from village environment and the Shehan from a westernized, sophisticated siociety who has the monetary and political power. It is a conflict between the one blessed with a good IQ and the one endowed with money. It’s a conflict between two legacies.
There are few things I liked about the movie. I liked the theme. The theme was much relevant to Sri Lanka. It was a topic dear to me coz unless year 5 scholarship I will never get the opportunity to study at Ananda. If I missed that opportunity most probably I wont be writing this siting at Toad hall at ANU. More than that I have a cousin who got the second best results in the above examination coincidentally who is from Uva as the , got a younger sister and faced the same dilemma whether to move into Colombo, stayed at the hostel, did drama, and ultimately did well in school and now doing engineering. Most interestingly his name is much similar to Sirimal’s .
Secondly the cast was great. Everyone played their roles exceptionally well. My favourite is the Actor who played the role of Sirimal’s father. It was just a supporting role in the movie but the actor made it a great opportunity to showcase his acting talent.
Before starting to write about the movie, its good to mention about Sri Lankan film industry. We dot have a huge industry compared to our neigbour's Bollywood. One reason being our culture entertainment is centred around family. Television is more dear to people coz whole family can watch a teledrama in the living room together compared to the cinema in which themes are mostly selected to cater to a particular age segment. Mostly adult themes. In this setting a new breed of directors emerged in late 90's who started to produce family movies like Saroja, Aba, Guerilla Marketting and Hiri Poda Wessa in order to make the cinema a family entertainment mode in SL.
The theme of 'Siri Raja Siri' centeres around a young boy named 'Sirimal' who is from a agrarian family in a underdeveloped village but rich in human values and environment I used the word underdeveloped in classical economic terms and perhaps the 'happyness factor' can be far better than a modern metro like New York. He passes the year five scholarship with the best results of the country and gets the opportunity to study at a national school (some people refer them as අගනුවර සුපිරි පාසල් - Super Schools in the Capital). Year five scholarship is an exam for year 10 year olds who pass the exam with high marks can gain admission to alone of the best( best in the sense most Sri Lankans perceive what is the best). The exam is very competitive but it is a golden privilege for the students whose parents do not have big bucks to spend or political power to influence to get a good scool in the country. Back to Sirimals story. The film presents Sirimal's experiences in his new school in the new environment. It shows how Sirimal faces the barriers and succeeds. Simply unlike most movies I have watched it passes a positive message to the audience.
As any work of art the script writer develops the plot through a series of conflicts. First Sirimal faces an internal conflict on whether to leave his village and loved ones. The dialogue "Sir, I dont want a good school" goes directly into the hearts of the audience. Then the story rotates around the conflict with Sirimal who symbolically represents less affluent students from village environment and the Shehan from a westernized, sophisticated siociety who has the monetary and political power. It is a conflict between the one blessed with a good IQ and the one endowed with money. It’s a conflict between two legacies.
There are few things I liked about the movie. I liked the theme. The theme was much relevant to Sri Lanka. It was a topic dear to me coz unless year 5 scholarship I will never get the opportunity to study at Ananda. If I missed that opportunity most probably I wont be writing this siting at Toad hall at ANU. More than that I have a cousin who got the second best results in the above examination coincidentally who is from Uva as the , got a younger sister and faced the same dilemma whether to move into Colombo, stayed at the hostel, did drama, and ultimately did well in school and now doing engineering. Most interestingly his name is much similar to Sirimal’s .
Secondly the cast was great. Everyone played their roles exceptionally well. My favourite is the Actor who played the role of Sirimal’s father. It was just a supporting role in the movie but the actor made it a great opportunity to showcase his acting talent.
I celebrated yet another birthday…………. Third consecutive birthday away from home and most probably I have finished one third of my life. I was reflecting upon on how the world and my motherland Sri Lanka has shaped since I was born.
There are my incidents which struck my mind. The tsunami accounted for 30000 lives in Sri Lanka. And we have not experienced such a major disaster for centuries. We thought we don’t have any natural disasters but the Tsunami changed it.
How can I forget the historic moment where we won the Cricket world cup in 1996? It was a revolution for Sri Lankan cricket. I remember pre-96 most of the world cup records were against SL. Lowest score was by SL ad the highest score was against us. But after 96 most of the world cup records belong to SL team. What a difference. Malinga’s 4 wickets in four balls in the previous world cup, highest test score and Muralis being the highest wicket taker were memorable moments for SL cricket.
I have witnessed rise and fall of LTTE the ruthless terrorist organization. Sri Lanka is on the verge of achieving long lasing peace.
On the world arena there were few incidents which almost shaped modern history. September 11th was an unprecedented event. When I switched on to the TV the second plane has just struck. I was thinking CNN must be joking.
Perhaps the economic recession and the rise of China will have similar economic effects that happened after WW2 changing the economic power balance.
Last two decades were shaped by technology. Mobile and internet revolution changed every thing from the way people buy to the way people maintain relationships. There are few giants who helped to achieve this status Google, Microsoft and Apple is only a few.
Let’s see what happens next…………
Again I am closing to an end of another semester. Efffectively this is my 9th semester............ Dont get confused. I counted my seven semesters at Moratuwa where I did my undergrads and this is my 2nd sem at ANU. People say practice makes perfect. But still I have to perfect the art of managing assignments. This sem was so crazy one assignment after another. Tomorrow I have two presentations and Thusday another one. Then Friday another assignment due for 2000 words. And can I relax the weekend. No way last assignment due on Monday.
There are few golden rules in managing assignments. start early. Plan and start writing. .....draft..... then review. and try work with a collegue. I practice some but not all simultaneously. Perhaps better luck next time.
There are few golden rules in managing assignments. start early. Plan and start writing. .....draft..... then review. and try work with a collegue. I practice some but not all simultaneously. Perhaps better luck next time.
- Mood:
crushed
There are so many theories about motivation. and so many definitions. One definition I liked was "unsatisfied need which directs an individual or a group of individuals to achieve a particular objective". One characteristic of motivation is the persistence. Persistence describes how long an individual can maintain his (and obviously her. I am not a Chauvinist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) interest until the objective was achieved.
From the beginning of this semester my motivation to study was very low. I just attended the lectures. But suddenly after 8 weeks (of fourteen week semester) my motivation increased. Still I am thinking of the reason.
I hope I will have persistence for next seven weeks.................. Then its summertime.
From the beginning of this semester my motivation to study was very low. I just attended the lectures. But suddenly after 8 weeks (of fourteen week semester) my motivation increased. Still I am thinking of the reason.
I hope I will have persistence for next seven weeks.................. Then its summertime.
- Mood:accomplished
Now she is nearly one year old.............
It is interesting to wach how she was operating the laptop on her first birthday. Thanks to Supun Ayya the video has been uploaded to uTube. There is the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56a1f6xIh
While during my stay at Australian National University I met a lot of interesting people from all over the world. Most of them are very friendly and more than that they are creative. I just thought of recording interesting quotes. Just for fun and as a tribute for the original author.......
After the the first semester one of my friend commented,
"Everything I learned in this semester was rubbish...................." who was originally from a scientific background after learning management subjects for the first time in his life. Being from an engineering background I find some management theories are too simple and common sense where even a Montessori kid can understand. And I am learning them at my masters level :-). So it is no wonder that my friend found that as rubbish. I would rank this quotation as the quote during my stay.
While watching Olympics closing ceremony we were amazed by the sophisticated fireworks. It was one of the best project management examples. When the fireworks started we were saying "Wow......" to ourselves simply being surprised by the volume. Suddenly one Chinese friend goes on,
"Those are missiles aimed at Taiwan..............". He was just sarcastic. I am sure he did not mean anything bad and his comment was so spontaneous for the occasion.
If you find any interesting comments please log them as comments and do please keep the anonimity of the original author.
After the the first semester one of my friend commented,
"Everything I learned in this semester was rubbish...................." who was originally from a scientific background after learning management subjects for the first time in his life. Being from an engineering background I find some management theories are too simple and common sense where even a Montessori kid can understand. And I am learning them at my masters level :-). So it is no wonder that my friend found that as rubbish. I would rank this quotation as the quote during my stay.
While watching Olympics closing ceremony we were amazed by the sophisticated fireworks. It was one of the best project management examples. When the fireworks started we were saying "Wow......" to ourselves simply being surprised by the volume. Suddenly one Chinese friend goes on,
"Those are missiles aimed at Taiwan..............". He was just sarcastic. I am sure he did not mean anything bad and his comment was so spontaneous for the occasion.
If you find any interesting comments please log them as comments and do please keep the anonimity of the original author.
Still in traditional methods of fishing are used by Sri Lankan Fishermen especially when fishing in fresh waters. This was taken in 2006.
The first day few hours after she was born.
She is cute!!!!!!!!
Now she is more than one month old.
She is cute!!!!!!!!
Now she is more than one month old.
- Mood:
excited
The area I lived in at Maharagama was supposed to be quite residential. We had the convenience of easy access to the town but there were only households and not businesses nearby. Things got changed after an unauthorized international school started operations few blocks away from my place. 
This institute known as "Millennium Academical Institute- Maharagama " is not having any permission to have an international school in its location. How can you have an international school where you have only few square meters of land!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Children needs more space for their mental development.
Look at the photographs of the buildings which is not having any aesthetic value suitable for a school. God bless the poor children studying there............... The road has been ruined by the heavy influx of vehicles before the school time.
This institute known as "Millennium Academical Institute- Maharagama " is not having any permission to have an international school in its location. How can you have an international school where you have only few square meters of land!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Children needs more space for their mental development.
Look at the photographs of the buildings which is not having any aesthetic value suitable for a school. God bless the poor children studying there............... The road has been ruined by the heavy influx of vehicles before the school time.
- Mood:
angry
My favorite epic character. ............. There are few things in common for my favorite characters in all the three famous epics.
Karna in Mahabarata
Indrajith in Ramayana and
Hector in Iliad
All died in the war. They fought for a war for which they were not directly responsible and they fought on behalf of the others.
Karna fought because of his friend Duryodhan. Just because of friendship knowing that he is fighting against his own brothers.
Indrajith fought for his father and the country. Hector fought for his brother and the country.
Among those three I believe Karna is the best. Because he had to fight with his own brothers on behalf of friendship. More than that he was offered the throne (by his opposition) for which both sides fought for. But he did not betray his friend.
Karna in Mahabarata
Indrajith in Ramayana and
Hector in Iliad
All died in the war. They fought for a war for which they were not directly responsible and they fought on behalf of the others.
Karna fought because of his friend Duryodhan. Just because of friendship knowing that he is fighting against his own brothers.
Indrajith fought for his father and the country. Hector fought for his brother and the country.
Among those three I believe Karna is the best. Because he had to fight with his own brothers on behalf of friendship. More than that he was offered the throne (by his opposition) for which both sides fought for. But he did not betray his friend.
