'Cause Pigs can Fly

Yesterday, I read a blog post on bullying. It wasn't a shock to me since I already knew that bullying takes place in schools. Somehow it's also something a friend and I always end up talking about when we meet. 'We weren't that bad,' one would say. The other would always agree. We weren't that bad. We never are. Right? And yet, yesterday's post made me think more deeply about bullying and how bad it really was among my classmates or even batchmates. Were we really the last of the good kids? Wasn't name-calling bullying? Didn't teasing amount to bullying? Didn't laughing at another kids' inability to understand a lesson or subject bullying? Weren't we bullying kids when we excluded them from certain activities? But no... We did all that for fun. We all laughed at the end and went back to whatever it is we were doing. Or did we? Did the kid being called names laugh it off? Did the kid who was teased laugh? Did the kid who was laughed at...

 Article written for Night Owls . As a child, the concept of home is easy to define. Home is the house you live in. You’ve lived there all your life and you can get from one room to the other with your eyes closed. Home is… home. That’s enough explanation. Home is where you will spend your entire life. Home is the place you will always go back to. Home is where you know you will always find your loved ones. As you grow older, however, you begin to hate the place you call home. You think those walls that hold so many memories between them are imprisoning you. You need to get out. You scream at your loved ones, you slam doors and you stay away as much as possible. You vow to leave as soon as possible. You move away because the new place is closer to work or university. You tell your parents that but you all know why you need to leave. It’s time. All birds must leave the nest one day. Or maybe you want more distance between the people you love but also need a b...

When you are a kid, love is such a simple thing. You don’t question it, you don’t try to hide it. If you love someone, you don’t hide it from them. However, as kids, many would say, we didn’t really understand what love is. We just felt this something and called it love. During adolescence, we came to understand love more and more. We realized that love wasn’t a simple, four lettered word. We realized that you can love different people in different ways. And we learned that loving someone and being loved by them are two completely different things. We also learned that people label and categorize love. Love was no longer just love. It was love for your parents, love for your teachers, love for your pets, love for books or films or food, and romantic love. Suddenly, it wasn’t enough to just love. You also had to feel the right kind of love. Then we became adults and suddenly, love embarrassed us. Love made us afraid. Love became this thing we doubted and questioned and rej...

හාමුදුරුවන් දානය වලඳා අවසන් වූ පසු, බණ අහන්නට අපි හැමෝම පැදුරු උඩ ඉඳගෙන, නමස්කාර කරන්නට කියූ විට, සාදු යැයි කියනවා ඇරෙන්න, බණ වැඩිය අහන්නේ නැහැ. බොහෝවිට මම වුනත් කරන්නේ බඩ ගුරුගුරු ගායි කියල බයෙන් ඉන්නවා නැත්නම් බිම තියෙන වැලි කැටයක් එහෙට මෙහෙට කරන එක තමයි. ඒත් අද බණ ටිකක් අහන්න හිතුනා. පින් වල ආණිසන්ස තමයි බණ වලට මතෘකාව වුනේ. පින් එකතු කරගත්තම, මනුශ්ය ලෝකයේ හෝ දිව්ය ලෝකයේ සැප සම්පත් නොඅඩුව තියෙන ආත්මයක් අපේ සන්සාරගමනට එකතු කරගන්න පුලුවන්. ඒ නිසා වැඩි වැඩියෙන් පින් කල යුතුයි. හැබයි ඔය පින් කියන්නෙ පාරක් හදන්න ගන්න මැටි හෝ සිමෙන්ති වගේ නෙමෙයිද? අපි කොච්චර බණ ඇහුවත්, කොච්චර බණ පොත් කියෙව්වත්, පින් කරන්නේ තව තවත් සංසාර ගමන දික්කරන්න නෙමෙයිද? එතකොට සංසාර ගමන ඉවර වෙන තැනට, එනම් නිවන් සුවයට ඇති මග අපි අර පින් කියන මැටින්වලින් තව තවත් දික්කරගන්නවා මිස, කෙටි කරගැනීමට තැත්කරන්නේ නැහැ. ඔය කොයි දේ ඒවෙලාවේ හිතුනත්, පන්සලෙන් පිටත් වූ වහාම ඒ ඔක්කොම අමතක කරලා උදේට කන්න තියෙන්නේ මොන රස කෑමද ගැන හිතමින්, ඕප දූප කියවනවා මිස සන්සාර ගමන කෙටි කරගන්නේ කොහොමද කියල නම් මටවත් හිතුනේ නැහැ.