The Sleeping Dictionary: Forbidden fruit

Writer-director Guy Jenkin does nothing to revolutionize a familiar tale in The Sleeping Dictionary. The story is the stereotyped tale of forbidden love between two individuals from diverse backgrounds. It is about John Trescott, a young, uptight British officer, who is sent to Sarawak from Britain. He is interested in native customs and vies to teach the locals how to excel in knowledge. However to communicate with them he has to know their language. He is introduced to the custom of the sleeping dictionary where a native woman becomes his guide to learning the language as well as his personal concubine.

John embodies strong conservative values. Therefore instead of taking advantage of the situation he rejects the idea. As a result of this there is plenty of tension and bad blood between him and Selima, the beautiful native woman who had been assigned to live with him. However as time passes they become slowly accustomed to each other and fall in love.

Marriage is off limits with the natives though Englishmen are allowed to bed their women. Even though John tries to legalize their relationship duty send him abroad to be married to a British girl. He returns after a year with Cecilia, his wife. Selima and he set eyes on each other again but both have different partners. They are able to rekindle their love in these circumstances and John makes the shocking discovery that he has a son by her. Just when he is about to start a new life again, the tables turn. Cecilia too is pregnant. John is faced with two choices: to continued with his marriage or to lead a life of exile with Selima.

දූ ගේ තාත්තා එන්නේ නෑ ගෙදර

පවුලේ අඬදබර බත් හැළිය ඉදෙන තුරු ය. අපේ ගැමියන් කීවේ එහෙම ය. ඒ ලාංකීය සමාජ සංස්කෘතියේ අතීත දායාදයකි. කුඩා බහින් බස් වීමක් දික්කසාදය තෙක් දික් ගැසෙන්නේ බටහිර සමාජයේ ය. පිරිමියා කෙසේ වුවත් පෙරදිග ගැහැනිය තම පවුල් ඒකකය රැක ගැනීමට මහත් වීරියක් දරන්නී ය. යශෝදරාවත වැනි ජනකාව්‍යයක් තුළින් වුව ද පෙරදිග ගැහැනියගේ ඉවසීම සහ පරිත්‍යාගශීලී ගුණය මනා ව අත්විඳිය හැකි ය.

“කැලේ තිබෙන කොයි දේවත්

රසවේවා

මලේ බමරු මෙන් පිරිවර

වැඩිවේවා

අව්වේ තිබෙන රැස් මාලා

අඩුවේවා

ගව්වෙන් ගව්ව දිව මාලිග

සෑදේවා

පෙරදිග පවුල් ඒකක පහසුවෙන් බිඳී නොයාමට තවත් හේතුවක් වන්නේ පැරණි සමාජයේ උපයන්නා පුරුෂයා වීමයි. ගැහැනිය යැපෙන්නියකු වීම නිසා ඇයට ඉවසීම ප්‍රගුණ කරන්නට සිදුවෙයි. අනෙක් සාධකය වන්නේ දරු සෙනෙහස පිළිබඳ සාධකයයි. බටහිර සමාජයට වඩා සංවේදී වූ මාපිය දූ දරු සබඳතාවක් පෙරදිග සමාජයේ පවතී. ඒ නිසා වැඩිහිටියන් අතර ගැටලු පැන නැඟුණ ද දූ දරුවන් නිසා ඔවුහු ඉවසා වදාරති. මේ සියලු පසුබිම් ප්‍රතිනිර්මාණය වන සංවේදී ගීතයක් ලෙසින් මේ ගීතය නම් කළ හැකි ය.

“මා එක්කලා අමනාපව

Best Thing About Being In Love?

And the results are in…

An online poll conducted by the world’s biggest online dating website Match.com has revealed that Australians rank sex and intimacy at the top of their relationship checklists.

The online poll of 779 Australian men and women showed that second to regular sex and intimacy is the ability to rely on your partner when times are tough followed closely in third with being in love. 

But what does this really mean?

According to the International Match.com relationship expect and Biological Anthropologist Dr Helen Fisher, intimacy comes down to trust. She claims that trusting a partner emotionally and sexually is “an essential component of a modern-day relationship,” which explains its ranking above traditional notions of love and partnership.

“Many around the world now regard their relationship with a partner as more important than any familial relationship”. She added, “Sex and intimacy is the glue that holds this partnership together.”

Interested in the rest of our relationship checklist? The results are as follows:

What’s the best part about being in a relationship? 

What’s the best part about being in a relationship? 

- Enjoying regular sex and intimacy – 30% 

- Being able to rely on your partner when times are tough – 24% 

- Being in love – 23% 

- Having someone to spend down time with – 18% 

- Having a busier social schedule – 3% 

- Sharing the bills, cooking and washing – 2% 

For more information, visit - http://www.lifestyle.com.au

Kusa Paba

Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne's film Kusa Paba, now running in local cinemas is the latest endeavour by this veteran director to take on a well known Buddhist Jataka story (Buddhist birth stories) in which the screen play has been done by the late Tissa Abeysekara another veteran in the Sinhala cinema. The experienced cast, consisting of Ravindra Randeniya, Veena Jayakody, Jackson Anthony, Kusum Renu, Palitha Silva and others contribute positively to the film. Special mention must be made of Puja Uma Shankar who adds to the exquisiteness of the film. All in all, Kusa Paba is a film that is a more than average Sinhala film and a bold attempt by some of the best available artists and it is a film, as commonly claimed, "for the entire family". This Jataka story is one of the well-liked stories of the Pansiya Panas Jataka Buddhist tales. Every Sri Lankan Buddhist gets to know this story in their childhood about King Kusa, who was born with a warped nose whose love for Pabawathi, the stunning princess who despise the very sight of him. It is a story close to the hearts of most Sri Lankans.

Having seen the film at Savoy, where the sound is so painfully high to the normal ear, my thoughts about Kusa Paba in its entirety were not as satisfied as some films which had brought me better satisfaction as an average film goer. I feel that it lacks the poignancy and audience involvement unlike many good epic films I have seen in the past. May be my bias is because of the number of such Hollywood and Bollywood films I have seen over the years. It's a costume drama lacking in any attempt to convey forcefully the human aspects of the story true to original Jataka story.

Do you want to be happy in your life?

A popular greeting card attributes this quote: “Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”

Two decades ago a colleague of mine told me, “Lal! You are, like, the happiest person I know! How come you are so happy all the time?” He knows very well that in salary wise, I was drawing a very low salary as compared to others who were on par with my status. Still I was the happiest person whom he had ever seen. How can that be?

It was probably a surprising question, but I had a very long answer to give. See, I was unhappy for most of my life, I had even considered to give up my employments many a times.

Then I spent a couple of years following the series of training sessions of happiness. Now, happiness is my natural state. I cannot remember any time I felt unhappy for longer than 20 minutes.

All humans want to be happy, and happiness is useful for other things, too.

Who’s teaching the teachers?

Courtesy - The Island By Douglas King

The 22nd annual Jayasuriya Memorial Lecture this year was presented by Narada Warnasuriya, former Vice Chancellor University of Sri Jayawardenapura. His topic, ‘Some reflections on Pre-school Education in Sri Lanka’ was far reaching as this essential component in education has not received the attention that it deserves. "The years from 3-5 are especially important for the achievement of key milestones in language acquisition, socialization and personality development." The National Survey of Child Development (2010) estimated that there were over 12,353 preschools with over half a million children. Three northern district were not included and it is likely that a number of schools were not registered for various reasons. Allowing for 15,000 schools and an average of three teachers at each school, this might indicate around 40-50 thousand teachers working in these centres. No accurate figures can be given as to the qualifications or experience of these teachers, but it can be assumed that a large number have no training or very minimum qualifications. Allowing for an attrition rate of only 5% would imply that at least 2000 new teachers are required each year. Where are these new teachers coming from?

In the main urban centres there are many private colleges offering courses and qualifications in Early Childhood Education. The majority of these are part time requiring attendance only for 1 or 2 days at weekends over a period ranging from 3 months to one year. This enables employed teachers to pursue a qualification, as well as giving teacher/lecturers from other institutions extra income through weekend work. Students completing these courses receive diplomas, but as to the quality of study and achievement there is little or no regulation. Failures are minimal and many such courses are financially very advantageous for the institutions which are essentially businesses. Another popular way to achieve a qualification is through the network of Montessori schools affiliated to the recognised Australian, British or American Montessori institutes. To obtain the qualification students usually work as assistant teachers while at the same time studying the formal aspects of Montessori education. This arrangement gives the school not only free teachers, but also a considerable income from the "course" fees. Only a minority of pre-schools in the country follow strict Montessori guidelines, so many of the graduates of these courses do not possess the broader and more useful Early Childhood Education content. No reliable figures are available as to the number of courses or students attending these courses.

Early Childhood Education

The meaning of spoken words understood by 6-9-month-olds

At an age when "ba-ba" and "da-da" may be their only utterances, infants nevertheless comprehend words for many common objects, according to a new study.

In research focused on 6-to-9-month-old babies, psychologists Elika Bergelson and Daniel Swingley demonstrated that the infants learned the meanings of words for foods and body parts through their daily experience with language.

These findings unseat a previously held consensus about infant learning.

It was widely believed that infants between six and nine months, while able to perceive and understand elements of the sounds of their native language, did not yet possess the ability to grasp the meanings Comprehension though speech.

Most psychologists believed word comprehension didn't emerge until closer to a child's first birthday.

In fact, infants are often referred to as "pre-linguistic," according to Bergelson. But there have been few attempts to determine just when infants begin understanding what is meant by specific words. The belief that infants do not comprehend language for most of the first year is easy to understand, given that infants do not often speak in words, or even gesture meaningfully, before 10 or 11 months.

දෑස වැසුන හැම මොහොතෙම ඔබමයි මට පෙනෙන්නේ...

ආදරවන්තයා ළඟ ඉන්නවා නම් ආදරවන්තියට වෙන කිසිම දෙයක්‌ ඕනෑ නැහැ. ආදරවන්තයටත් එහෙමයි. ඇය නිතරම තමන් සමීපයේ සිටිනවා නම් මුළු ලෝකෙම නැතත් කමක්‌ නැහැ. 

ලෙන්ගතුකම වැඩි හින්දයි

උදේ හවා ඔබ සිහි වෙන්නේ...

නොදැක ඉන්න බැරි හින්දයි

නෙතු අද්දර කඳුළු පිරෙන්නේ...

අනන්තයට සිත දිව්වත්

ඔබ ළඟමයි සිත නවතින්නේ...

උන්මාදව ඔබෙ නාමය

මගේ තොල් අග ඇයි මිමිනෙන්නේ...

මගේ හිතේ ඔයා ගැන තියෙන ආදරේ... මහා සාගරේටත් වඩා විශාලයි. ඒ හින්දම වෙන්නැති මට ඔයාව හැම වෙලාවෙම මතක්‌ වෙන්නෙ. මට ඔයාව නොදැක ඉන්න බැහැ. දවසක්‌ හරි ඔයාව දැක්‌කෙ නැත්නම්... මගේ ඇස්‌ දෙක කඳුළින් බොඳ වෙනවා. හදවත ඉකිබිඳිනවා. කොච්චර ඈතකට හිත ගියත්... අන්තිමේදී හිත නවතින්නෙ ඔයා ළඟයි. සමහරු හිතනව මට පිස්‌සු කියලා. මම හැම තිස්‌සෙම මුමුණන්නේ ඔයාගේ නමයි. 

ඇය උපරිමයෙන් ආදරය විඳින පෙම්වතියක්‌. පෙම්වතාට පිස්‌සු වැටිලා. යෞවනයේ උන්මාද වූ ආදරයක.a මේ ගීය ලියුවේ ළහිරු සඳවින්න. තනු නිර්මාණයත් ඔහුගේ... ප්‍රේමණීය හඬකින් ගීය ගයන්නේ මංජුලා දිල්රුක්‌ෂි.

මේක මගේ අත්දැකීමක්‌. පාසල් යන කාලෙදි තිබූ ආදරයක සැමරුමක්‌. පසුව ගීයකට ලියෑවුණා. ඒත් මේ ගීයට කලිනුත් මම ගීත කීපයක්‌ම ලියා තිබෙනවා. මංජුලාටම සඳේ සිසිල මට එපා, චාමරට මදුනාගල අහසේ.... ඇතුළු ගීත රැසක්‌ම ලියුවා. මංජුලාට සිංදු හතක්‌ විතර ලියලා තියෙනවා. 

Every one should respect other's love

A poor boy loved a rich girl.

One day the boy proposed her.

Then the girl said, "listen! your

monthly salary is my daily hand

expenses. Should I be involved

with you? How could you thought

that? I will never love you. So,

forget me 'n get engaged with

someone else of your level."

But somehow the boy could not

forget her so easily.

10 years later.

One day they became face to face

in a shopping center. The lady

said, "Hey! you! How are you?

Now I'm married. Do you know

how much is my husband's

salary? Rs. 2 lac per month! Can

you imagine? 'n he is also very

smart."

The guy's eyes got wet with tear

by hearing those words.

After few minutes her husband

came before the lady could say

something to the guy, her

husband started to say by seeing

the guy.

"Sir! You here? Meet my wife."

Then he said to her wife, "I'm

going to assist a project of sir,

which is of Rs. 200 crore. 'n do u

know a fact? Sir loved a girl but he

didn't get her. That's why still he

is unmarried. How much lucky the

girl was. Isn't it? Now a days who

can love like that way?"

Moral: Life is not so short. So,

don't be so proud of yourself and

damn others. ..

Situations change with time. Every

one should respect other's love.

Headaches… When to take them seriously

Courtesy - The Island By Dr. R. A. R. Perera

Although headaches are painful and annoying, the vast majority of headaches do not indicate a serious disorder. Tension headaches and migraine account 90% of all headaches. One approach in categorsing headaches is to distinguish ‘urgent headaches’ (those that may be life threatening) from others that may be ‘less urgent.’

‘Urgent’ headaches may be life threatening and should be treated promptly.

Patients typically describe a headache, which is related to a brain haemorrhage, as a sudden "thunderclap" headache; often the ‘worst headache’ of life. After this sudden onset, the pain may persist at a high or low intensity for days. Abnormal neurological symptoms may occur, including brief loss of consciousness at the onset of the headache and a stiff neck or eye-movement abnormalities.

Such a headache mandates prompt evaluation by a physician since a missed brain haemorrhage can result in a stroke or death. A scan of the brain and a spinal tap will show abnormalities and sometimes brain surgery is an essential part of treatment.

Headaches could be due to some inflammation of the medium sized arteries in people over 50 years. Chewing aggravates this headache and there are aches and pains all over the body. This could cause weakening and sometimes loss of vision. Medical treatment can reduce this type of headache.