Bradbdy Weekend - Kandy

Well the title says it all, I would say. The annual pilgrimage to the hill capital was a success this year as well. The ride was faster, compared to last year. Probably because we left much earlier. Apart from a small de-tour to get our tickets from “aney-watte” or “aneee-watte”, we were in time for the lunch buffet this year. The food was nothing much to write home about, featuring mostly Sri Lankan and less Continental. But then for 2300 bucks per person on FB basis you hardly can complain with the rising cost of everything.

The Match

By far the most thrilling match in the season (school boy that is… CR Kandy game was better) for me. Not that our Boys played brilliantly. The same mistakes kept happening and handling errors were more than a few, specially at crucial stages and 5 meters away from the try line. However they seemed to stick to a game plan and it worked for the majority of the game.

IMO the ball should have been kept with the boiler house boys, as the line was standing way too deep, and by passing it to them, we just kept taking it back rather than forward. The Trinity scrum-half and flank had a good game spoiling the ball many a time, but was dangerously offside and finally got penalized by the ref.

Bilal

Some were of the opinion that it was Bilal vs Trinity. Well it looked like that during certain parts of the game, but there were other play makers who were worth a mention. There is also some debate about him being a selfish player. Well if anyone saw that run he made, taking on about 4 tacklers along. Where was the support? Here you got a chap playing in the pack, taking the ball up a good 20-30 meters sucking up defense, and what the hell is the point of having a 3/4 line, if they cant keep up to him? So, obviously this boy has issues trusting others to give out the ball, so he keeps on trying to take the entire team on, on his own. Like one of my friends said, he can take on 14 men, but by the 15th he’s burnt out. I’m sure there’ll be clubs eying this lad next year. It’ll be nice to see him perform in a properly functioning team.

The Knock-on

Who saw it? who didn’t? The much debated topic. Those who saw it on TV, are of the view that there wasn’t a knock-on and it was a mere interception by Shylendra. Even the replays have supposedly provided evidence to back it up. Those who saw the match from close quarters (including the Ref Dilroy Fernando), admit it being a knock-on. I for one was neither. I was struggling behind the goal post on the far corner. straining my eyes to make out what the Dilo (Ref) was signaling half the time. Yes, as you can see I have good eye sight, powered by the opticians in Liberty Plaza.

Move-on

While it feels right to harp on “what-if’s” it’s better to just move on. Our chaps played a good game, and the Trinitians would have pissed all over their pants, fearing the “Biggest Come Back” in the series. So although we don’t have that title, we always can harp on “Beating the Shits out of the Lions in their own Den”. So guys lets move on, we could have won it if not for some handling errors, more support given to the play makers etc. But we didn’t so shape. Now where’s my Drink.

Friends

Speaking of which, guess who I bumped into at the Match…

Ok ok… moving on.. post match, jumped into the pool.. to relax and re-wind. Now that was a nice stress reliever. Specially since we didn’t have time to get-in in the afternoon. The relax part was soon to be over, as the chaps decided to take on the sport of water polo, which turned out to be water rugby in the dark. I must say, that I played a decent blind goalie, in bad light conditions.

Wasted

The game plan was to stay in-doors and get wasted murdering every possible song we could think of. Away from the monkeys wanting to steal our clothes and crash the party, I might add. With a few scares, of the heavy hitters of the side pulling fast one’s that their too sleepy/tired, the innings got off to a rather slow start. The surface was definitely not suitable since we were testing out the new “Absolut Mango”. After many leading batsman folded due to the after taste of the dreaded mango, the wicket was moved to a more familiar knick of the woods.. “Absolut Apeach”. Yours truly having requested the Mango, found him self with half a bottle to finish and a few more apeach, far too much for his comfort, but the music helped him stagger on.

If your lucky enough to see our rendition of “When I Need You”, you will know what I’m talking about. Amongst many other things discovered, a new way to switch a light off was the highlight of the night’s discoveries. Using a Rubber slipper mind you. All things said and done, with the middle order providing able support the night was pro-longed till 4.30am, for yours truly at which point I had to retire hurt. I hear the last two had stood their ground, albeit a wee bit wobbly, here and there… till 6am.

The Curse

Some of you might know I suffer from the curse. While I was abducted by aliens (yes, the truth is out there) they had probably done all the experiments in their Understanding Humans Better Tests list, and thought “lets insert an alarm clock in this one.. just for the fun of it you know..”

So as you might have figured it by now, I’m up by 6.30am on the Sunday morning of a Bradby weekend. Burping away that Mango shit. Please may this serve you as a warning, the aftertaste is definitely not for the faint hearted. So what do I occupy my self with, besides wondering how I ended up tucked-in in the corner of the double bed, when all I can recall is passing out in the middle of it? Well clean up the mess till 7.30. Grab my IPod head to the pool and listen to some tunes, at which point I realise I need to have something to overpower the crappy after taste. So to the Breakfast buffet to grab some coffee, where I get stared at by all the patrons there. So I ask you was it just me? Or was it the gal-shorts and t-shirt saying “Me So Horny”? I would have changed into something more appropriate, just that I was locked out of my room. There was some good talent that, I had missed during lunch and dinner. Good good. I’m gonna get kicked in the nether regions for this now. Ouch.

Back to Royal.. Happy land, happy land.

After a brief re-cap of the nights highlights to those who retired early, and a good breakfast, some more water polo rugby, it was time to make the journey, back home. Back to the polution in the air, back to the insane traffic, back to people with problems looking to take it out on you.. back to the real world.

There are two Game Plans…

1. For the team

Well if a picture can speak a thousand words.. this one speaks a freaking million.

I’m no CP, nor Viraj, nor Jamaldeen but I have offered my 2 sense right through the season, so it’s pointless to keep uttering the same over and over, despite the fact that it doesn’t seem to go anywhere.

2. For the Royalists traveling up to Kandy

More interestingly our set. Well folks all seems to be set, apart from the last min glitches that will surely come. The mighty effort to obtain 20 grand tickets, was in vain. A worthless suck up to the Principal and the SDS, or some Big Old Royalist in the annals of hierarchy in the  RCU, might be happily gazing at their tickets that just dropped into their hands. I mean out of 500 tickets issued to CMB, only 50 or so were sold. WTF? A similar thing has happened in Kandy I’m told, where most of the tickets have been bought by one batch of people.

Anyways, the only time hill capital comes alive, is during the Perahara and the Bradby. Both for different reasons. Although there are a few parties/balls happening, looks like we wont be able to afford them, besides IMO it’s too much of an inconvenience to be dressing up. So I guess the game plan for our sorry bunch, would be stay in-doors and get wasted. Besides why would you want to go out when you have all these people (pictured below) coming to the Party.

(Pic Taken from Last Year)

PS : Did I mention how excited I am.. it’s going to be my first drink in over 2 months.. man the wait has been too long.. and right now the urge is kicking in for a nice cold one.. but I’m trying my best to hold on for tmrw.. Hopefully I don’t binge… too much… and for those of you who think/call me annoying when I’m drunk.. FUCK OFF!!

This was left as a Comment on my previous post by Ned, I thought I’d just post it here so that Ned gets a say, and my post on Rugger matches and Thora is not sandwitched with a post on Buddhism, or rather the other way around, as I respect the religion more than rugger, all though I follow that too like a religion.

I don’t think Sri Lanka, is as bad as they say it is, and is more of the case in the world in general. After all the Bhikku’s in Sri Lanka have fought against this kind of thing, including and the Late Soma Thero. But it still could be used as an eye-opener for what could happen to Sri Lanka, specially since now a days many bhikkus have being taken for granted (in certain cases the downfall was brought about by themselves, joining in political movements and other activities). In any case, this clearly shows the importance of the Sangha as a part of the “Thrivida Rathnaya” for the survival of Buddhism. Another fact is that, Buddhism are taught to tolerate and be patient with other religions, there by opening up a door, to be abused and taken advantge of.

Anyways, enough of my rant, read the article for your self and make up your mind. The comments section is always open for your views.

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Planning the Demise of Buddhism

Peoples of the Buddhist World by Paul Hattaway, Piquant Editions, Carlisle, 2004.

Reviewed by Allen Carr

Some Western drug companies spend millions of dollars developing and marketing a new drug only to have the health authorities later discover that it has dangerous side-effects and then ban it. Needing to recover their investment and unable to sell their drug in the West some of these companies try to market their dangerous products in the Third World where public awareness of health issues is low and indifferent governments can be brought off. Some might say that Christianity is a bit like this.

Having lost much of their following in the West, churches are now beginning to look for opportunities elsewhere. Of course the Islamic world is out of the question. Even the most optimistic evangelist knows that the chance of spreading the Gospel amongst Muslims is nil. The obvious targets are Africa, India and the Buddhist countries of Asia. There are now several evangelical organizations dedicated just to evangelizing Buddhists. The Asia Pacific Institute of Buddhist Studies in the Philippines offers missionaries in depth courses in Buddhist doctrine, the languages of Buddhist countries and the sociology of various Buddhist communities – the better to know the enemy.

The Central Asia Fellowship is geared specifically to spreading the Gospel amongst Tibetans. The Overseas Missionary Fellowship is ‘an acknowledged authority on Buddhism’ and ‘is available to conduct training sessions and seminars, give presentations and speak on how Christians can work effectively in the Buddhist world.’ The Sonrise Centre for Buddhist Studies and the South Asia Network are both online communities providing missionaries with detailed, accurate and up to date information useful for evangelizing Buddhists. Make no mistake, these are not small ad-hock groups. They are large, well-financed, superbly run organizations staffed by highly motivated and totally dedicated people and they are in it for the long haul.

A book called “Peoples of the Buddhist World” has recently been published by one of the leaders of this new evangelical assault on Buddhism. The book’s 453 pages offer missionaries and interested Christians a complete profile of 316 Buddhist ethnic and linguistic groups in Asia, from the Nyenpa of central Bhutan to the Kui of northern Cambodia, from the Buriats of the Russian Far East to the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka.

There is a detailed breakdown of the size of each group, how many call themselves Buddhists and how many actually know and practice it, which languages they speak, their strengths and how to overcome them, their weaknesses and how to take advantage of them, an overview of their history, their culture and the best ways to evangelize them.

The book is filled with fascinating and beautiful color photos of all of these peoples, many of them little-known. It makes one very sad to think that these gentle, smiling, innocent folk are in now in the sights of worldly-wise missionaries determined to undermine their faith and destroy their ancient cultures. However, Hattaway book is also interesting for the lurid glimpse it gives into the bizarre mentality and the equally bizarre theology of the evangelical Christians. In the preface Hattaway asks, “Does it break God’s heart today that hundreds of millions of Buddhists are marching to hell with little or no gospel witness? Does it break the Savior’s heart that millions worship lifeless idols instead of the true, glorious Heavenly Father?”

No wonder the evangelicals are always so angry and defensive, so self-conscious and full of nervous energy. Every day they live with the contradictory belief that their God is full of love and yet throws people into eternal hell-fire, even people who have never heard of him. That must be a real strain. Like a man who has to continually pump air into a leaking balloon to keep it inflated, they have to keep insisting that Buddhism is just an empty worthless idolatry when they know very well that this is not true. That must be a real strain too. Throughout his book Hattaway repeats all the old lies, slanders and half-truths that missionaries peddled in the 19th century but which mainline Christians gave up on a hundred years ago.

Hattaway claims that Buddhists, like other non-Christians, are leading empty meaningless lives and are actually just waiting to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not surprisingly, the statistics he presents to his readers do not always bare this out. He shows that some Buddhist groups have been subjected to quite intense evangelization for years and yet have chosen to keep their faith. For example 32% of Kyerung of Nepal have heard the Gospel but ‘few have understood the heart of the message.’ Hattaway tells us that ‘the American Baptists worked in the Tovyan area (of Burma) for many decades, but most of the converts they made were among the Karen people. They found the Tovyan people ’slow to respond to the gospel – a pattern that continues to this day.’ Dedicated and self-sacrificing missionaries have labored in Thailand for over 140 years but have made only miniscule numbers of converts. According to Hattaway there are 2000 foreign missionaries operating in Chiangmai - more than
the actual number of Christians in the city.

It is hearting to know that amongst evangelicals Thailand has been dubbed ‘the graveyard of missionaries.’ Twenty one percent of Lao Ga people have been evangelized but ‘Christianity has yet to make any impact on this people group.’ Forty two percent of the Lemo have been told about Jesus but their ’strong belief in Buddhism and their isolated cultural mindset have prevented them from accepting the Gospel.’ Of course Hattaway’s ‘isolated cultural mindset’ prevents him from even considering that these people might have decided not to become Christians because Buddhism gives them the emotional, intellectual and spiritual sustenance they need. So he has to explain why so many Buddhists remain what he calls ‘resistant peoples’ some other way. To him it is because of fear (p.217), intellectual laziness (p.149), greed and blindness (p.172) and or course ‘demonic opposition’ (p.190). Another cause is delusion, as for example amongst the Palaung of northern Burma, who are so completely
deluded that ‘they believe they have the truth in Buddhism’(p.217).

Of course, Hattaway is also crafty enough to know that the stability and cultural integrity of traditional Buddhist societies is a major hindrance to their evangelization. Civil wars such as in Sri Lanka and Cambodia are literally a god-send for the missionaries. Hatthaway calls the disruption and displacement of the Loba people of Nepal by several huge floods ‘a God-given opportunity’ (p.168). Like blowflies to a dying animal evangelical missionaries swarm around communities in need so they can win converts while disguising their efforts as ‘aid work’ and ‘humanitarian relief.’

Unfortunately, many genuine and decent Christians in the West, unaware of this hidden agenda, give money to World Vision and similar organizations that use aid as a conversion technique. But while many Buddhists have rejected the missionaries’ message others have succumbed to it. Thirty one percent of the Tamangs of Nepal have now become Christians. The first missionaries arrived in Mongolia in 1990 and within a few years they had made thousands of converts, mainly among the young. This phenomenal growth has now slowed considerably but the number of evangelical agencies operating within the country has grown enormously and there are still almost no books on Buddhism in Mongolian.

In China today Christianity is growing so fast that they can hardly build the churches quick enough to hold all the new converts. The gentle hill tribes people of Thailand and Laos are falling prey to the missionaries one by one. These and the numerous other successes are not just because the missionaries have been so unscrupulous and persistent but because Buddhists have been so indifferent, so slow to see the danger and even more slow to respond to it in any effective manner.

In Thailand millions are spent on glittering ceremonies, huge Buddha statues and gold leaf for covering stupas but almost nothing on Buddhist literature, religious education and social services for the hill tribes. Another ‘God-given opportunity’ for the missionaries is the general lackadaisical attitude within the much of the Sangha. In one of the most revealing (about the mentality of both missionaries and the bhikkhus) and troubling parts of this book is Bryan Lurry’s account of the four months he stayed in a monastery in the Shan states in north-eastern Burma. He was there to assess the prospects of converting Buddhist bhikkhus and he went away full of optimism. I fear that his optimism was not entirely misplaced. The abbot where Lurry stayed allowed him to teach the bhikkhus English (using the Bible as a text of course), show a film on the life of Christ and later even conduct regular Bible classes for the bhikkhus. Uninformed Western Buddhists might laud this as yet another
example of Buddhist tolerance, albeit misplaced tolerance. I suspect that it was actually due to ignorance and to that indifference to everything that does not rock the boat or contravene traditional patterns of behavior that is so prevalent in much of the Sangha.

As a part of his strategy to understand their thinking, Lurry asked his ‘friends’ a series of questions. To the question ‘What is the most difficult Buddhist teaching to follow?’ some bhikkhus answered not eating after noon, not being able to drink alcohol and one said to attain nirvana. To the question ‘If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?’ The replies included to be stronger, taller, to change the shape of the nose and to have more pale skin. When asked why they had joined the monastery not one of the bhikkhus mentioned an interest in the Dhamma, in meditation or in the religious life in general. As is usual in much of the Buddhist world they had probably ordained simply because it is the tradition to do so. When Lurry asked the bhikkhus if they would ever disrobe for any reason ‘my students expressed their desire to leave the temple in order to be soldiers in the Shan Independence army…They did not see a contradiction in the fact that, as monks, they
are literally not supposed to kill a mosquito, much less another human being.’ Lurry admits that he was really surprised that so few of the replies he got suggested any deep knowledge of Buddhism or an apparent genuine religiosity.

Having lived in Thai monasteries for eight years I am sad to say that none of the bhikkhus’ replies surprised me in the least. All too often today the Buddhist monastic life consists of little more than rote learning, unthinking acceptance of traditional beliefs, an endless round of mind-numbing rituals, going to danas and having long naps. Fortunately, many Buddhist communities are holding out against missionary efforts but with poor religious education and little leadership from a sedate Sangha how long will they continue to be able to continue to do so? Something has to be done and it has to be done soon.

Another old missionary calumny repeated throughout Hattaway’s book is that Buddhists live in constant terror of devils and demons. This accusation is rather amusing coming from the evangelical Christians who see almost everything they don’t like as the machinations of Satan and his minions. Lurry says of his experience, ‘I must admit that the temples intimidated me. I saw many items that discouraged me from entering. At some temples, fierce-looking statues of creatures with long fangs and sharp claws guard the entrance. Guarding the main hall of many temples are two large statues of dragons with multiple heads on either side of the staircase…If such images were on the outside of the temple, what would I find on the inside? I half imagined that these creatures would somehow come to life and attempt to harm me’ (p.234).

I can understand how simple, often illiterate hill tribesmen in the backblocks of Burma could be frightened of malevolent spirits. But Mr. Lurry is a graduate of the University of North Texas and he is frightened of bits of painted cement and plaster used to decorate Buddhist temples. How easy it is to scare evangelical Christians!

Nine pages in Peoples of the Buddhist World are devoted to the Sinhalese, the native people of Sri Lanka, long a target of missionary endeavors. Despite nearly 500 years of close contact with Christianity only 4% of Sinhalese are Christian and this is despite periods when their religion was severely disadvantaged and even actively persecuted. It both perplexes and infuriates the evangelists that they have had so little success in this staunchly Buddhist island.

Since the late 1950’s the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has tacitly accepted its minority status and for the most part adapted a live and let live attitude towards Buddhism. It has continued its conversion efforts but in a low-key and respectful way. But starting in the 1990’s evangelical organizations have literally swamped Sri Lanka and they have a ‘no quarter asked for, none given’ attitude. So far most of their converts have been amongst Catholics, to the consternation of the Catholic Church, but of course the real target is the Buddhists. Buddhist bhikkhus are calling on the government to enact laws against conversion. But is this really the best solution?

It is quite understandable that the Sinhalese do not like their religion being referred to as ‘Satanic devil worship’ especially by foreigners, which is what most of the missionaries in the country are. Some years ago a deeply respected Sinhalese bhikkhu died and there was a veritable outpouring of grief among the Buddhist public. At the very time of this bhikkhu’s funeral the leader of a house church in an outer suburb of Colombo, let off fireworks, the usual way people express delight or celebration in Sri Lanka. Naturally, the Buddhists around this church were deeply offended and although no violence occurred some very angry words were exchanged. I happened to witness the locals’ confrontation with this church leader. He insisted that his crackers had nothing to do with the bhikkhu’s funeral but was unable to give a convincing reason why he had ignited them. Throughout his encounter with his neighbors he was brazen, unapologetic about his actions and dismissive of the peoples’
hurt feelings. I can only say that he gave me the distinct impression that he would have welcomed being manhandled or beaten so that he could claim for himself the title that evangelicals so long to have – that of martyr for their Lord.

Hattaway’s book highlights incidents of violence against Christians in Sri Lanka and elsewhere which have unfortunately started to become all too common. Of course, what he fails to mention is that it is only the evangelicals, not Catholics or mainline Christians, who attract such negative reactions. And of course he fails to mention why people sometimes get so angry at the evangelicals. The fact is that it is their bad-mannered pushiness and their complete insensitivity to the religious feelings of others that is the cause of such violence. This is not to excuse the violence but only to explain why it happens.

It is also true that some of the more extreme evangelists even sometimes deliberately provoke confrontations. I have two evangelical tracts from Sri Lanka – one insists that villages must become ‘a battlefield for souls’ and the other says that Christians must ‘confront the unsaved, yes even forcibly confront them, and compel them to make a decision.’ And it is not just Buddhists who are offended by the evangelicals’ rude aggressive behavior. A Chinese Thai born-again Christian once informed me that the Pope is actually ‘the prostitute of the Anti-Christ’ and showed me the Bible passage that proved it. I could only laugh at his half-baked hermeneutics. But how would a devout Catholic have felt being told such a thing?

The section on Sri Lanka in Hattaway’s book is written by Tilak Rupasinghe and Vijaya Karunaratna, two well-known evangelical preachers. They gleefully highlight Sri Lanka’s many woes – civil war, high suicide rate, corruption, insurrection – and of course present this as just more evidence that Buddhism is false. Then they make the bold claim, ‘In Christ there can be healing from the wounds of injustice, oppression and ethnic hatred…In Christ there can be hope for the redemption of the nation, its land, its language, its culture and its people.’ This is a seductive promise and one that some people might be willing to listen to. But of course it is the same old spurious and empty promise missionaries have always made in the lands they try to evangelize; ‘What a mess your country is in! Your gods have failed. Accept Jesus Christ and everything will be wonderful.’

But does Christianity really do a better job of solving social problems? The evidence that it does is very thin. Christianity failed miserably to bring peace to northern Ireland, in fact, it was the main cause of the problem. Germany’s long tradition of Catholicism and Protestantism did not prevent Nazism taking root there. South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church was an ardent supporter of apartheid and all its oppression and cruelty. The prevalence of evangelical Christianity in the southern United States, the so-called ‘Bible Belt,’ has not prevented it being the poorest and most racist part of that country. And the racial segregation in the south is never more obvious than on Sunday morning when black and white people still go to separate churches; ‘Hallelujha and praise the Lord but worship him in your own church!’

Hattaway’s book is or at least should be a wake-up call for we Buddhists. Unless we reform the Sangha, better organize ourselves and make more of an effort to both know and apply our religion the Light of Asia may be snuffed out.

Amazon Link to the Book and CD, which is more interesting.

That doesn’t mean Royal played brilliant Rugby. Just that Thomians weren’t good enough and Royal stuck to the game plan, unlike last week at the Bradby. Just chose the title to spite my old pal Shanaka, who was rather bemused when Naren Dhason told him they will crush the Thomians in an Interview on his weekly show “The Score” on YesFM.

Well like I said, most of the same mistakes still kept happening, and I lost count of the tackles mist this time too. Under the post penalties were missed. We should have managed to put atleast 30 points on the board. That said the Thora fly-half had a pretty bad game too, kept slicing his kicks and was way too late off the blocks with his passes. If I’m not mistaken, I think he was trying to imitate us

That said, I’m not complaining much given the fact that we were playing against 17 including the two linesman. After all they seemed to turn a blind eye to the straight throw-in’s at the line-outs. Straight to the scrum-half that is.

After all is said and done, what counts is we end up with the Gooneratne Trophy, and have some braggin rights although we go down in the Bradby. Yes, my hopes aren’t that high, I mean this win will boost our confidence, but can we over come a 12 point defficit in Kandy? I doubt it’s ever been done, except for in the U-17 version. So my only hope is that we can atleast WIN the Kandy leg, in Kandy.. It will give something for us to talk about, specially when the Trinitians are still hurting after their loss to Kingswood in the title match up of the season. Congrats Gayan Rathnage & Kingswood Boys and Mr. Nilufer Ibrahim proving him self once again as the coach.

PS - Now that my rugby rant is over… I also thought I might add how annoying it was to have the freaking President and the Mrs attend the god damn match. We had to stand out for hours to get inside and then once inside, had to wait again to be fondled and groped by the people will love the most.. PSD! In this sense I pity the Thora fans, after all I had to go through it only once, imagine them having to go through it for every match. On the bright side, it’s their last year right?

As predicted from the first time I saw them take to the field, the inevitable has happened. What hurts the most is, if it was a keenly contested game where by no quarter was asked nor given. If the same continues in Kandy I stand to gain a 1000. Yes, I have committed the unholy act of betting on the enemy. It was done purely on my confidence in our team rather than the Trinity. The confidence I had that they’d manage to keep on doing the same mistakes right through out the season. I’d trade the 1000 for the lost pride, any day. But since I cant. it’ll come in handy for drowning my sorrows.

This is all crap, you wanted to know what happened right? Well points wise.. we lost.. 24 to 12. Game wise.. they out played us most of the time. There were more than a few occasions where we had the ball in our hands and looked to threaten, but that was all. Talk the talk only. When it comes to walking. we suck. This despite the putting early points on the board, and putting preasure on the Trininy. I suppose that’s what good sides do. Convert preasurre to their advantage. From leading 7-0, we ended up trailing 14-7 at lemons.

Rather than getting into a detailed analysis, why not read the ones that have already been printed. But you all know i’m too much of a Rugby buff to keep my mouth shut?.. So I just need to mention that, apart from the obvious fact of we missed soo many tackles, and the line lacked numbers, the cover defence didn’t come in, so obviously the Trinity wingers had a brilliant game coz they kept breaching our first line and basically only line of defence. Also we were depending on Bilal way too much, and he was obviously marked. Although we had a good 3rd row, in the past few games they didn’t come were sleeping during this game, and were late at the breakdowns, as opposed to the Trinity 3rd row, which managed to turn over quite a few rucks. If our chaps were on their feet, we could have easily made more 2nd and 3rd phase moves of the good ball that was being set up by Bilal.

While all the papers mention the brilliance of the three quarter line of Trinity, their halves combination also should get a special word, as if not for them, the back line would have been starved. There were some amazing punts down the field, well picked up by the charging centers, and the scrum half’s quick thinking kept the game in their control.

That being said, I hope the coaches CP, Viraj and Jamaldeen can knock some sense it our boys. Although I have doubts of a come back win in Kandy (after all this is not Shanaka Perera’s team), a good match is all I ask for where no quarter is given nor asked. Maybe take some pointers from the CR-Kandy game.

Do you think of something and then think to your self, hey this is a good material for my blog? Or are constantly thinking of material for your blog?

In simpler terms.. does your blog revolve around you? Or do you revolve around your blog? Be honest!

Not the age old question, ok maybe close to it. I was feeling bored, uneasy and grumpy. Then got this email, and got me thinking of something else rather than my impending state of affairs. So thought the bloggers out there might appreciate taking a break out of what ever problems they might have, and let their creativity take over my comments section. (I must admit I was thinking of converting this to a “tag-ur-it” post, but thought there was way too much tag-lurve spreading for our own good).

So here goes :

Q : Why did the Chicken Cross the Raod?

A : He was tempted by the dark side.

Now your turn.

Ok, I don’t know whether it’s the ultimate feminine experience coz I’m not female. But by the excitement of the fairer sex, I would rate it pretty close to the top, if not the top. So why am I harping about it? Well your truly had the honour and privilege to get dragged on one. (ok ok.. truth be told, I invited my self in, just to see what it was like. what can I say. I’m open to new things).

With less that 3 months to go for the big day, Cindy and mom had conquered  the streets of Pettah, scrummaging through countless piles of sarees, searching for the pink elephant of the perfect bridal saree. Luckily I was not involved in that. I tagged along for the Orchard street expedition. It was obvious to say we covered all the shops there, in fairly quick time mind you. Under 3 hours. Going by previous shopping experiences, I was expecting to spend an hour at a shop. But luckily, the ladies were on a mission. So rather than going through every single saree the shop had to offer, they looked at only Bridal and Home-coming sarees. Further narrowed down to Ivory and Silver and Red and Silver. Hence the pink elephant.

Since the experience I can happily say I have added more than a few words (or saree material types) to my vocabulary (that I use to drop a few words here and there.. to impress the ladies.. ).

• Shot Chiffon
• Crepe Silk
• Lazer
• Net

Also I am changed man, now that I know that it’s not simply black and white any more, it’s black, off white, sugar white and white not to mention Ivory.. Just like salmon pink, strawberry pink and baby pink. Oooh did I forget Cherry Red?

For those of you who are wondering… luckily for us, the proverbial pink elephant has been located and duly purchased. Now she remains to be worn. Oh wait, it’s not that simple. There’s lining or net to be added along the borders to protect it or something of that nature. I think.

Life goes on… along with the prices of everything… stay tuned for more updates.

• You were a constant pain. Nagging us not to do this and that. Throwing us out the moment the clock struck 10.
• No amount of whining and sad faces could convince you to give us a break.
• You were a big snitch. There is absolutely nothing you kept from Aunty.

Despite all this, we’re still going to miss you, the next time we walk in to the home we love soo much. The familiar faces of Rupe, Wijey and co will still be there. But the keeper of the home, will not be there to be seen, in his white sarong and white shirt. The grim look on the face. Almost a very few words uttered, only if spoken too (in stark contrast to the others who constantly entertain us with useless jabberings).

Oh well. I hope you get to spend the rest of your days in peace. Without us meddlesome teenagers (ok ok.. so I’ve grown a bit older since then) to bother you.. while wondering where they can find a replacement who can show soo much love to the place as you did.

Good Bye, Good luck and Kudos to you Methelis Uncle.

A better written tribute to the old codger (than my ramblings) can be found here.

I’m a-walking in the rain
tears are falling, and I feel the pain
wishing you were here by me
to end this misery
and I wonder
wa-wa-wa-wa-wonder
why
wa-wa-wa-wa-why
you ran away
and I wonder where you will stay…

… where ever you are, I miss you! It’s been a looong 5 years…