Why we are proud to be Sri Lankan

©sakshatoonsrilanka

It's been almost a year and a half since I last wrote a blog post. I thought today would be a good day to start over as it's the 66th Independence Day of my beloved mother Sri Lanka. First I started writing this in Sinhala, then I changed my mind and decided it's better if this could be read by the visitors from other countries too. (as they are the majority of my small audience ;) )

Sri Lanka is a country with a recorded history that spans over 3000 years. Over the years our small island has gone through a lot; and yet we've managed to come this far because of the sacrifices of our brave national heroes and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. So on this Independence Day I thought it's better if we can remind ourselves the real reasons behind the pride of being a Sri Lankan.

1.  LEGACY : Today marks the 66th anniversary of the victory of hundred thousands of national heroes who rose against the British empire to free our motherland.

2. STRENGTH : The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the home to a brave nation that defeated the LTTE terrorists: who were named as the Most Dangerous Terrorist Outfit in the World by FBI at that time.
Many heroes of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces sacrificed their lives to save this "land of the lions" and we are forever grateful towards them.

3. PEACE AND HARMONY : We are not ready to destroy the legacy and the identity of our nation under the pressure of extremists! But we respect equality more than anything. From the ancient times, our island has been the home of people belonging to various religions and races. We lived in harmony: and most importantly, we lived happily with each other. The blend of cultures increased the value of our country. We learned to respect the differences and the diversity of each ethnicity. Sri Lankan lifestyle has a different rhythm that allow the Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims and people belonging to many other religions to co-exist. Many of the

4. HERITAGE : Our country is peppered with ruins of ancient glory, which are still capable of providing lessons for modern engineering. Among them, eight places have been declared as UNESCO World Heritage sites. (Namely, the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, the ancient city of Sigiriya, the Golden Temple of Dambulla, the old town of Galle and its fortifications, the sacred city of Anuradhapura, the sacred city of Kandy, Sinharaja Forest Reserve and the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka.)


5. ACHIEVEMENTS : Being Sri Lankan, I cannot end a list without a Cricket reference! ;)  Our national cricket team is one of the best teams in the whole world. Sri Lanka has blessed the world with many veteran cricket players and I must mention the victories and the fame they've bought home over the past few decades.




sources : www.defence.lk , en.wikipedia.org

Samanala Sandhawaniya/සමනල සනධ්වනිය - Butterfly Symphony බලන්න හේතු 6ක් :D

I should be the last person to do a movie review. But it's already been done, so now u have to read it (else ignore) :D

Samanala Sandhawaniya/සමනල සනධ්වනිය - Butterfly Symphony බලන්න හේතු 6ක් ;

1. "මගේ නොවෙන දේකට, මගේම දෙයක් " වගේ සලකන අය චිත්‍රපටියකින් හරි දකින එක හොද නිසා.

2. බොළද දෙබස්, මෝඩ fights, ගස් වටේ නටන සිංදු නැතුව පැය 2ක් දිග ලස්සන කතාවක් ගොතන්න හැමෝටම බැරි නිසා.

3. අඩ නිරුවත් / අසභ්‍ය දර්ශන නැති නිසා සහ ඒවා නැතුව හොද චිත්‍රපටි හදන්න පුළුවන් බව ඔප්පු කරන චිත්‍රපටියක් නිසාත්.

4. ප්‍රබල චරිත කිහිපයකටම ඇත්තේ දෙබස් 0ක් හෝ දෙක තුනක් පමණක් නිසා (හැගීම් ප්‍රකාශනය අති විශිෂ්ටයි!)

5. චිත්‍රපටියේ ගීත සියල්ලටම තේරුමක් ඇති තේරුමක් තියෙන නිසා.

6. කතාව හිතට දැනෙන්නෙ නැතිනම්, සංගීත ඛන්ඩ ටික අහල ආවත් ටිකට් එකේ ගානට(ත් වඩා) වටින නිසා.

“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.”
― P. B. Shelley

‘‘ එකකට එකක් සම්බන්ධ එකක් පස්සෙ එකක් ගමන් කරන දේකට මිනිස්සු කියන්නෙ ජීවිතය කියල.... එකකට එකක් සම්බන්ධ නැති මෙන්න මේකයි කියන්න හේතුවක් ද නැති දේට මිනිස්සු කියන්නෙ ආදරය කියල... ”

~සමනල සනධ්වනිය~

♫♪♫
ඉකි ගසා හඩන අතීතයක ...
කදුලු එක්ක ගනු දෙනු කරනා ....
මට මගේ නොවන මගේම ආදරයක් තිබුනා ....
♫♪♫
හීනෙන් හිනෑහී තුන්යම මා රවටා ....
මැදියම් මහ රෑ අදටත් හිත ඉගිලෙනවා .....
නින්දෙන් ඈහෑරී කලුවරේම යලි සොයනා .....
මට මගේ නොවන මගේම ආදරයක් තිබුනා ...
♫♪♫
රිදුමක් වාගේ කිසිදා සුව නොවෙනා ......
සුසුමෙන් විතරක් නිරතුරුවම පිරි මදිනා .....
උහුලනු බෑරිතෑන උනු කදුලුම වගුරුවනා .......
මට මගේ නොවන මගේම ආදරයක් තිබුනා ...

Artist : Amarasiri Peris
Music : Darshana Ruwan Disanayake
Lyrics : Amila Thenuwara
Music Video Edit : Susith Prasanna Andradi
Movie Edit - TVT/Ravindra Guruge
DOP : Ruwan Costa

Cast
Yashoda Wimaladharma ,Uddika Premarathna , Pubudu Chathuranga , Wilson Gunarathne , Punsiri Dayaruwan , Buddhadasa Withanachchi ,
Roger Seneviratne , Chathurika Peiris , Damitha Aberathna, Sandun Bandara , Dimuthu Chinthaka, Uditha Gunaratna

Produced by
Palitha Gunawardane,Ruwan Jayasingha (Ruoo Cinema )

IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2456330/

Six minutes to save the earth - This is like the greatest speech I've ever heard from a child.

In 1992, 12-year-old Canadian Severn Cullis-Suzuki spoke at the Earth Summit in Rio. With eloquence and passion, she appealed to world leaders not as politicians but as parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, reminding them they were there not to protect Earth for the sake of economics or politics, but for those we love. Severn moved her audience to tears and shot to fame as an icon of the environmental movement. Now known as "The Girl Who Silenced the World for 6 Minutes”, the video clip of the speech is still making rounds on YouTube, continuing to inspire youth all over the world – many of whom don’t realize it’s two decades old.

Here's the full speech of Severn Suzuki;watch the video if you can. It sounds  better when you hear her speaking in-front of all the world leaders :) 

Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Children's Organisation. We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future. 

Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard. I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to not be heard.

I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what chemicals are in it. I used to go fishing in Vancouver with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals and plants going extinct every day - vanishing forever. In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see. Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age? All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. I'm only a child and I don't have all the solutions, but I want you to realise, neither do you! 

You don't know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer. You don't know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream. You don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct. And you can't bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert. If you don't know how to fix it, please stop breaking it! 

Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organisers, reporters or politicians - but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles - and all of you are somebody's child. I'm only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong and we all share the same air, water and soil - borders and governments will never change that. I'm only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal. In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid of telling the world how I feel. 

In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to share, we are afraid to let go of some of our wealth. In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water and shelter - we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets. The list could go on for two days.

Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. And this is what one child told us: "I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and affection." If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everything still so greedy? 

I can't stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favelas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India. I'm only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this earth would be! 

At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us how to behave in the world. You teach us: not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures to share - not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do? Do not forget why you're attending these conferences, who you're doing this for - we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we are growing up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying "everything's going to be alright', "we're doing the best we can" and "it's not the end of the world". 

But I don't think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father always says "You are what you do, not what you say." Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown ups say you love us. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you for listening.

source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Cullis-Suzuki

Top 10 Daily Habits That Can Damage Your Brain.

This list was too important not to share...

1.Skipping Breakfast or No Breakfast at all.

People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration. 

2.Over eating.

It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power. 

3.Smoking

It does not only harm the lungs however also the brain. The nicotine in cigarettes also contain some substances that causes multiple brain shrinkage. If this may continue, you might even get an Alzheimer’s disease.

4.High sugar consumption

Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Exposure in air pollution

The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency. 

6. Lack of sleep or Sleep deprivation

Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells. 

7. Head covered while sleeping

Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness

Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain. 

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts

Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely

Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain. 

source : http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2012/08/top-10-daily-habits-that-cam-damage.html

Happy B'day dear Google!

Larry Page(39) & Sergey Brin(39) : Founders of  Google

Today is the 14th birthday of Google! Over the years Google has become a must have for the net surfers & It's roughly estimated that about 300million people use Google per a day. I, of course is a huge fan of many of the Google products as they are free, user-friendly, up-to-date and super cooool :)  Alexa lists the Google.com site as number 1 in their "internet's most visited websites" listing while many other Google owned sites are within the top 100 of it. So let's take a peek into the interesting success story behind this massive multinational enterprise.

Overcoming Challenges

There is no Challenge more challenging than the challenge to improve yourself...   ~Michael F. Staley~

The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges.   ~Martin Luther King Jr~

Challenges are unavoidable when you live in a society. They come in various forms; everyday...every second. Mainly, the challenges fall under two categories; as the ones you should accept, and the ones you shouldn't ! Most important thing is identifying them and understanding the way you should face them.

Why I hate Chemistry, though it's an interesting field of Science

[this is just another personal opinion :)]

When it comes to ALs, chances of obtaining an A or a B pass for Chemistry entirely depends on how well one can by-heart all the books and notes. I'm not telling this only because I'm so sure that I'm going to get a 'F' for Chemistry this time :P, but because I really sense that there's something terribly wrong with the Chemistry paper... at least for those who follow Maths subjects ;)