'Cause Pigs can Fly

 The Nation A few months ago, my Facebook account went through a few changes in the privacy settings department. Besides making certain posts visible to friends only, I also hid my birthday. There are a few reasons for this. Early last year, I decided I wasn’t going to wish people for their birthdays unless I knew these people very well. I find birthday wishes that aren’t genuine both insulting and a waste of time. And since I never wished people, they wouldn’t want to wish me either, right? So to make everything much easier for everyone, I hid my birth date from the world. People also need not wish me for the sake of wishing me. Thus by not knowing when the day is, they wouldn’t feel obliged to wish me. And so the day remained hidden from Facebook, and when I got to my birthday, very few wished me. Which I had no issue with because I now didn’t have to comment on the many posts that one’s wall is covered in like graffiti on birthdays. This is where it’s important t...

අපි ආදරය කරන අයගෙන් අපිව අත්කරන්නට ජීවිතය තැත් කරයි. බොහෝ විට එය සිදුවන්නේ අපගේ සිහින හෝ අරමුණු හරහාය. එහෙත් අපි ආදරය නිසා අපේ සිහින අමතක නොකළ යුතුය. එය ජීවිතයේ කොටසක් යයි සිතා අපි යායුතු ගමන තනියම හෝ යායුතුමය.

The Nation Poems, songs, movies and novels are dedicated to this one theme that seems to have no explanation. What exactly is love? Is it the nervousness you feel when meeting a particular person or is it the need to be with someone? Is love merely physical or is there an emotional element to it too? In a few weeks’ time the entire world will be painted red and roses and chocolates and cards will greet you at every nook and corner. And thus before we all drown in the pinks and reds, it’s important to look at what love is. One of the best explanations of love is Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love. According to the psychologist, love consists of three components, intimacy, commitment and passion and it is the presence of the components that determines the type of love. Thus there are various forms of love between people, and the one we look for the most is true love, which is when passion, commitment and intimacy are all present.   Now we have inklin...

S ometimes our biggest motivator is anger. We go great distances, we do unspeakable acts because of the anger that drives us to depths we wouldn't have thought possible. Look at provocation. We often use this defense as an excuse to do certain things, to hurt people. We say things at the spur of the moment, things we soon end up regretting. Recently, while in morning office traffic, a motorbike driver tried to creep to the other side of the road. He cut across traffic, right in front of a bus. Of course, the bus hit his leg slightly. The bike rider then parked his bike right in front of the bus, ran across the road to this building, and ran back with a long pole. His obvious intention was to either beat the bus or the bus driver. This was at around 7.30 when the stress and pressure of the day is yet to get to one. And yet, this man showed a level of anger I have never seen before. What would he have done if he had been knocked down? Or if the bus had run over his leg? How angry are...

The houses along the New Galle Road, Moratuwa are a great reminder of anithya or impermanence. they are mostly made of planks of wood, a few have walls made of cement blocks that will never be whitewashed. Very few have gardens to grow various plants, and fences seem to be a sign of some level of wealth. Some houses have attached bathrooms, while many share public washrooms. Very few have windows, and the windowed houses too, they are mostly frames, the glass long cracked, broken or removed. These houses may never pass the test of time. The road construction leaves the houses covered in a sheet of dust, and due to the raising of the road, the houses seem even more tucked away. The socializing with neighbors that once took place on the pavement, when in the evenings, families brought out plastic chairs and the kids ran around, has now been brought to a halt because of the roadwork. The houses will soon be gone, or so it seems. Finally travelers will see the great oceans an...