GRANDPARENTS’ DAY

During the last weekend,I found a chance to have a chat with my niece who had recently returned to Sri Lanka from Germany for a vacation. While discussing about the life in Germany she declared that “Tomorrow is the grandparents’ day akki”  

Then I replied “Oh! Really. That must be really a new experience with excitement”

“Yep akki!!! In German for grandma and grandpa is oma and oppa” she added

“You know. During kindergarten we had the opportunity to listen to grandparents’ speeches on Grandparents' Day. It was infact interesting to share ideas, views and experience within two different generations. Some of them can still remember the distant times before the first space flights. Also some grandmas and grandpas still go to work and keen on sports and about their health. Many of them go jogging engage in cycling and swimming” she explained

“That’s really good. Of course, we all have a lot of things to learn from their experience.” I appreciated it

“Sure. I missed our grandma’s fairy tales a lot there.” She was worried

 Then she explained” The holiday on grandparents’ day is a lot of fun. All grandmas and grandpas look their best –they have special lovely badges, pins gifted from their grandchildren, greeting cards and invitations from various kindergartens. Once a grandmas received thirteen flowers from her grandchildren.”

Grandparents’ Day is a really good idea, don’t you think? We can visit our grandparents, greet them and help them with various things.
Hope we would be able to celebrate Grandparents' Day soon in Sri Lanka....

Touched by a guardian angel

I feel you in my breath

My life is hidden under your shadow

I pray to be there as long as I live

cos your soul in me is too deep

The invasion of flashbacked perspectives

are the mementoes of your great

spiritual bond with my heart

The intensity of your charming smile

equates the twinkling stars

lying in the Milky Way

which glow to monitor my life

even during an eclipse

Your luminous gazes

abundantly affectionate

with an imprint of a magical touch

sieve the most tender sun rays

with which I mount up the chores in my day

Your nursery rhymes echo vibrate

as a lively melody when I close my eyelids

and approach me

like a white fleecy clouds

kissing the moons face as it sales

I still cling to you

to be immersed in a silhouette

I still imbibe strength

from your scriptures

like a pilgrim resting suavely

I still wonder how to pay you back

Oh! Amma

I am touched by your naïve innocence

You are my angle

You are the queen of my heart !!!

The Night Guest

Once when I was at kindergarten, I had to stay in my room alone for the first time. With a fluttering heart I went to bed. At midnight, I was awaken by a mysterious sound and I could not understand where I was.

The moon was shining through the window making all the things look utterly strange in its silver light. The wardrobe at the corner of my bedroom seemed to be a castle in a fairy-tale. The big mirror on its door turned into another window with yet another moon. I began to sense something extraordinary and furtive. Then I happened to gaze at the chair beside my study table. What did I see? A long-bearded dwarf in a hood there staring at me. Believe me! He was shaking his head and dangling his legs. I wanted to jump out of the bed and scream as loud as I could. Will it let me go safe? Surely, it will hurt me if I scream now. I wanted to cry loud, but instead I was sobbing quietly on my bed unable to move.

Having heard my sobbing, my mother came rushing the room and turned on the light. Then I saw my clothes: a frock in a mess, the crumbled dressing-gown, and the tights hanging loosely from draught. My mother saw me crawled in bed screwing my eyes. She came to me and asked me what happened in a soothing voice to which I did not answer. The only thing I did was gazing in surprise. Then my mother put the clothes in order and then said “I’ll be there with you. Do not be afraid my dear”.

Sure the night guest comes only to those children who do not put their cloths in order. After that I always make sure that my room is tidy and organized.

Bon Appetit (Good Appetite)

“I don’t want porridge amma!”

“Come on putha, eat it up, it is really tasty”

“Oh, why was I born now and not in the future! There won’t be any horrid porridge to eat then! People will just swallow a special pill and that’ll be it”

I overhear this conversation in one morning when I visited my little cousin brother who recently recovered from cold. He was making a fuss over his breakfast making his mom run around the garden to feed him.

Aha,I thought “This chap must have been watching science fiction cartoons and has got things muddled. He thinks that in future instead of soups and porridge, all we’ll eat is powders and pills.”

Mind you, he is not the only one who is mistaken. Several decades ago even scientists thought this way. They declared how wonderful it would be: three tablets a day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, on special occasions like birthdays, we’d have a tube of vitamin paste. Then what about New Year kaum kokis, and asmi? Christmas pudding and cake?

Just imagine. You eat pills for one day, then another, then a third. To begin with, it would be alright to try and experiment. But by the end of the month? A plate of rice with sombol, dhal and dried fish prepared by mom would seem like a feast and believe me you’d begin to have dreams about your favourite milk shake, chicken curry and the desserts.

That is the whole point. For centuries man has grown used to grains, buns, salads, potatoes, sandwiches and fruit drinks. It would be no easy matter for him to start just eating pills and powders!

For sure, my brother and cousin would really miss the potato chips which they make vanish in few second while watching TV.

However, if we could artificially produce the ingredients for our food, that would be another matter. They would be cheaper and thus be more accessible which would mean everyone on the earth would have enough to eat. A good news for Arabic countries where people are starving, right?

We already know about soya meat made out of soya beans, chicken cubes which offers the taste of chicken curry and various kinds of candies such as chocolates, ice creams and drinks with the flavor of natural fruits. Infact, nowadays we consume more artificial food than the natural food.

So let us wait….what kind of food are yet to come….

   OR

The grasshopper and the ant

Once upon a time there was a grasshopper who lived happily singing and roaming around every day. One day when the grasshopper was merrily singing, she happened upon an ant who was toiling in preparation for the rainy season ahead.

She asked of the ant, “Why do you work so hard on such a pleasant day? “Why not sing and dance and sing as I do?”

The ant replied “I need to plan and prepare for the rainy weather to come”

The grasshopper laughed and danced away. When the first rains fell, the grasshopper perished.

The ant, snug and secure in her well-provisioned nest survived well. Indeed, she proposed oblivious to the tempest outside her home.

Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for days of need.

So which are you? The grasshopper or the ant 

The mother eagle and the little ones 

On the top of a high mountain lived a family of eagles. One day the mother eagle called her little ones in the nest and said “The time has come, you must learn to fly”.

“But how?” replied the young ones with a little uneasiness in their voice.

Then the mother eagle explained “You must go to the edge of the cliff and throw yourself forward into the wind”

The young ones looked at each other with anxious eyes. Then they walked to the edge of the cliff, looked down very carefully and quickly rushed back to the safety of the nest. The next day again the mother eagle reminded her little ones that the time had come for them to fly.

The little ones full of fear replied “It is far too high, we might fall. We are frightened.”

But the mother eagle again insisted “My dear little ones, come to the edge. Do not be afraid.”

She took them to the edge of the cliff and gently pushed them. As they spread their wings, the wind lifted them and they were soon flying!

Once upon a time there was a prosperous kingdom ruled by a wise king. The king had a handsome son. Unfortunately, the prince was born with a hunchback and this was obviously visible as he grew up. The king consulted the best doctors in the kingdom for his son. 

The doctors informed the king that the prince’s hunchback could be rectified with a set of exercises. The king encouraged the son to do the prescribed exercises faithfully. Moreover, in order to give the prince a self-image the king called the best sculptors to prepare a statue of the prince with a straight back. 

Whenever the prince went out into the garden he gazed at the statue and wished he could be just like the statue. So he began to spend more time by the statue along with the prescribed exercises done, with the desire and determination to achieve the goal. Then after several months,in one fine morning something remarkable and miraculous happened. The prince was standing straight looking tall just like the statue!!!