The English language and why I am not so against at the (past) occupation of Sri Lanka

 

The English language, I was thinking earlier this week, is a bit of the pariah tongue, it’s a mix and mash of everything out together and nothing remotely original, sometimes no means yes and yes means no, and sometimes questions are statements when they really are not.

So I genuinely like the English language but it’s a bit of a bastard tongue, I have no problems with it, maybe at one point there was an original language. But then the invaders and defenders and then the conquerors and the conquered all became part of the early British or pre-British empire, which means it was influenced by the Anglo-Saxons, Germanic and Latin languages. Until it has become what it was today.

It is quite interesting to know the history of the language and how it became what it is, or what the basic language from all was, until it was further influenced after the British empire went on conquering and trading with the other countries and then developed certain words that were integrated into it, though some of the root words from old English remain most are now warped or developed according to the time and the use.

What brought my contemplation, who knows, I've been known to pursue strange interests as they strike my fancy, nothing in particular to be sure.

Perhaps because of the history of Sri Lanka, we have a history of occupation by different countries, and how they may have affected us and them alike. The Portuguese, the Dutch and the British had a hand in all that.

So many people would be a tad bitter for the white man who may have come and taken over our lands, all that. I am..strangely enough, not so bitter about the whole thing.

For one, while our little country was in some parts advanced (the magnificent architecture and kingdom building) it was also an Island , that is both the best and the worst part, because while the isolation would have made the country grow and develop, it would still be far behind, if we didn’t have outside influence, maybe I’m a bit of a novice when explaining this, so I will try my best.

Sri Lanka does have a caste system, though it is very much forgotten by the younger generations and not much thought given, these were referred to as Kula. These had more power during the feudal years when the different kingdoms were still in strength, in present times, it is the older generation or the more traditional crowd, mostly from the central province (Kandy and such) and the southern provinces who give a lot of thought to it, I don’t know much about the Northern provinces though I wish I did, as the Kingdom of Jaffna was once a power onto itself, and the eastern provinces too. A list of castes can be found here.

And I have a slight hunch that should we have been allowed to flourish alone and without outside influence that these caste systems might have gotten a tad bit out of hand and the country made more like India and its hopelessness and inability to develop die to its adherence to the caste system and being unable to break free from the rote.

So the invaders did good as well as bad, with their incursions, we learned much, more culture, knowledge, literature, technology, many would say this might also have stunted our growth, but you see Sri Lanka of old wasn’t really a sea-faring exploration happy people, they were content like they are now, maybe its just me, but I would say that Lankans are very much a very relaxed people, who don’t usually go out looking for adventure, except a select few. The furthest we may have gone would be India, Bangladesh, Malaysia/Singapore, etc.…the more closer countries. The trade route helped of course, affectionately termed The Monsoon Marketplace by John Green in one of his crash course episodes.

This is why I’m not very much against the whole thing, there are pros and cons of the whole she-bang, but I’m a glass half-full kind of person, so this is what I think of the whole.

Not that I think that Sri Lankan is useless, my country is a gold mine of culture and marvelous things if you know what you are searching for, we have several literary geniuses, architects, engineers, doctors and all that, I was merely stating, as I will say again..and opinion, my opinion.

Its an interesting topic to be sure, now I feel like I should read up on it more.

I’d like it if my readers left me a comment or their own ideas about their views, its always nice to know what everyone else thinks too.

Till Next Time,

M

IS it done, really? is it?

So I find myself free for the lack of a better word, maybe jobless, but I cant quite say that either, I do have a job, yet it leaves me with a clear schedule most of the time.

I finished my finals, all is done, and there is one presentation then all clear, well as long as I don’t have any resit, Blessed Moon, may I not have any resits, though I am not 100% confident in my first class marks, I know I have a damn good chance of passing.

Its been a melancholy couple of days, I need to find a better paying, better working job, and now that my degree is over I might have way more chances. Sometimes I wonder how people survive, with only saturdays and sundays free, I know I really miss all the free time I had before.

Now I have a crap load of books, anime and movies to catch up on, and not to mention the tv shows.

One of my oldest friends have come down from the UK, so was chatting with him and discovered, how much and how little we had changed. September seems to be the month for meet ups, I’ve got plans for this weekend and the next.

For some reason I feel like I lost something these days, I find myself wondering my room, or back tracking thinking, I know I forgot something, way too many times, I’m going to chalk it up to my mojo. Its all been used up with these past weeks of deadlines, exams and droughts of inspiration. SO I’ve got to build it up. Get some coffee or tea or just get some sun.

I need to go now,

so goodbye for now

M

Ode to the pretty boy in the red shorts

 

It was this wednesday as I got on the 101 bus, a bunch of guys (possibly schooling, I don’t know, they all look very made, with tight shirts and nice shoulders, I saw this one guy in little red shirts, they were not short enough to be short shorts, or long enough to come to the knee, and tight across him bottom, which made my inner girl, purrr, so I need to write this down, you’ll find out why.

When I saw you first you were laughing with your friends,

Snickering and smiling.

School holidays at end.

From the corner of my eye I peeked at your form.

Tight black T-shirt, and those devilish red shorts.

When you got on the bus, I praised my luck.

I really, really, really.

wanted to see your butt.

And so I sidled my sight down,

as you reached up to the railing, your T-shirt slid up.

It was all I could do, to shut my groan up.

Young nubile boys, how you make me blush,

Wide shoulders, nice posteriors and those Adams apple

I just want a touch.

Yet it wasn’t meant to be,

As my bus stop came up.

I choked out excuse me.

And I got the hell out.

Yet you remain in my thoughts,

My sylph in red,

So to you I write this,

Please get out of my head.

I must study for my finals, yet you weave naughty thoughts,

Now shoo you handsome devil,

Red shorts and all.

~M

Self impose Hiatus and control

 

So the last few weeks, I put most everything on hold, movies, anime (well except SnK), new music, books (YES, IT IS TORTURE). With the ultimate goal of studying my bottom off, so far, its working to a certain extent. So I won’t put up a long post today, you can expect a long one next week or so, I am still completing my Gagra story, for anyone who even reads it, you can find the chapters so far on the right side of the blog.

And this is September so I have a lot of things planned, I just hope it does stay on plan, free time ahead and after this Fridays exam and a viva on Sunday I am home free from any studies, WOOHOO. And I can start job hunting, while the current post is okay, I need something with a bit more action and actual work, September will have me baking (oh sweet sugar cakes the things I could make), hanging out with friends, watching a back log of anime and tv series, art-ing, sleeping, and generally sitting in front of my laptop with a cup of tea  :3, I am also going to the Logos Book-ship , yes book ship, it’s a ship with books. Haven't decided when though, and the book fair.

So much to do so little time.

So I leave you with this, Happy september and may the odds be ever in your favour.

M

P.S. Have some art I scribbled yesterday

Of Dancers and Drama

 

My first final was yesterday, it was an okay paper I’m not terribly happy with how I did it but cant really help, as far as I know, its dead and buried, so I shant speak of it.

I also noticed that I use a lot of mixed English, when I mean mixed English I mean the different slang terms, pronunciations, and wordings, for instance, I wrote something recently on reddit and happened to mention a bus halt, someone asked me if we say bus halt rather than bus to here in SL, yes we do, is it british, is it American, not really sure. This is what you call Sri Lankan English, its completely legitimate.

Topic change ;)

I ended up drawing a sketch of Roldolf Nureyev, for those who are not in the know he is one of the best male ballet dancers of all time second only to Vaslav Nijinsky (in my opinion anyway.

Here he is pictured with the most beautiful and talented Julie Andrews.

and him alone here:

This reminds me of the golden era of performers, the ones who had the purest of talent untouched by special effects, auto-tune or voiceovers. By the way this was not really oh look hot guy, now I like the olden days things, I do truly treasure those golden years, the early 1900’s particularly was a magnificent age of art and dance and the consecutive years showed the fruits through the artists of the time, through dance and music, to art and pop culture.

Sure history is written by the victors of wars, remembered through the battles won, lands gained and lost. But it is civilizations’ advancement through the invention, and innovation of man that is the evaluator , is not Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bellini , Van Gogh, Picasso, down in history, what about Plato, Socrates, Descartes, Yan Xishan( Came across him when I was helping my sister revise) , Neruda, Keats, Shakespeare. Wars may be what tells us what happened when one man and another butted heads, but it is the art and beauty of that age that is remembered dearly, no one wants to remember bloody fields and death counts, (maybe some would but that’s not the point).

The creativity of the human race must be celebrated think of the person who came by the wheel, bless his face, whoever he is , if not for him where would we be?

I find myself going off topic so much these days, actually everyday.

I ended up skyping with some really old school friends, one who I hadn't spoken t in like 4 years, we ended up talking nonsense, making fun of each other and generally having a good time. I also ended up giving them my tumblr url then burning in shame that they see how advance I am in my education of the world…also the fact that I drew pr0n, seemed to to affect them too much.

Sometimes I think of how I have changed, people say change comes gradually, I think for me its comes like those old cartoons where Wile E. Coyote is running, and ends up off a cliff and falls only when he looks down, that’s how I view the change in my life, it hits me all at once with the world falling out beneath my feet. And I end up banging my head on the wall and going, I cant believe I was that stupid.

I also want to say sorry for that last post if it was too depressing, all I can say it, I was on that time of the month XD.

I seriously cant wait for my exams to end, my mother is taking me saree shopping, I’m not much of a fan, not really easy to walk or run in, and by the heavens, going to the ladies room is a task in itself.

I’m supposed to be studying for my thermodynamics paper on Tuesday, not too fond of the subject, but I do like some areas of it, the theoretical parts anyway. I ended up studying in the morning, then reading ‘The Dragon Reborn’, the third book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, I wont even try to explain it to anyone, it is an epic, its has the cliché thing about the the chosen one vs. evil, but nothing about this story is cliché, just reading one book puts a heavy burden on you like you are one of characters and you are yourself deeply embroiled in the heavy business going around. Unlike the ASOIF series (Game of thrones, book series, for the tv series fans) you can actually imagine yourself as a character in the universe, now in the GoT universe you don’t want that with everyone dying, you’d have a fraction of a chance to survive past lunch.

jeez gotta go,

Later Gator,

M

A post about me.

As I stated before, I find myself bored yet again, so I am blogging, I feel a headache creeping in, the point behind my eyes ache and my shoulders feel knotted, I feel strange about putting up my problems here but, then again, this is my blog and for once people, just listen.

Sometimes I feel that even when I am in a crowd people tend to not hear my words, literally, either they ignore me or just forget my presence. I’ve long grown used to it; maybe there is an air of something about me. The same something that makes people talk to me and tell me things they wouldn’t usually tell, and I listen and keep those whispered, laughing spoken, tearfully confessed tidbits to myself, because they are precious, should they be colorful pieces of cloth, I’d store them in tiny glass bottles and hide them in a treasure chest, because the human condition fascinates me, it is an enigma, the beautiful dark blots, the glaring whites and the multitude of grays in between. I would gladly be your scribe and your chronicler, let me embrace your mind and your memories, what these ears hear or eyes see, this mouth will not speak, nor this hand write.

For all those beautiful people who have confided in me, thank you, you are all precious to be, thank you for giving me your voices.

But this comes at a price, there are so many things that I yearn to speak to tell, sometimes even I wish that there is someone to hear my words when I fall into those bouts of sudden depression, no one really knows about them except once person, one really close friend who I managed to confess to. I am eternally grateful for her; she is one of those people whose existence saves mine. For she is the only one my tongue will loosen, not my parents nor my siblings.

For those who know me close and are my good friends, even those who just hang around me would never know me being depressed to such an extent. I’m always laughing and smiling, and making awkward jokes, even when I want to cry or just fall to the floor and hug my knees, I might get angry occasionally, maybe pissed off sometimes, sometimes nervous and confused, but no one ever sees when I am depressed, I’m too good at hiding it, but there is a book that I keep, one that I write in when I feel like the dirt beneath my feet. It is filled with a story of a man, trapped in a dark room, starving and drowning in the darkness. The story starts and stops over the various periods of depression, I feel like I should burn it sometimes, it is a memoir to the darkest parts of my life. But then again I keep it, it is the truest part of me that I can think of, and I do not want to lose that.

I can say without any hesitation, I am like a leaf in the wind sometimes, yet sometimes this wind is a gale that threatens to tear me apart. Responsibilities and Expectations, I want to groan and turn away but they catch me, responsibilities hold me to a path made for me, studies and jobs, where I am today, and expectations hold me to my word, expected to hold on when the path is not what you want, expected to get good grades and become the provider. Expected to smile and get on with my life when I want to scream and cry. I am expected to hold back my tears and swallow my cries of pain and just move on.

It just gets hard to move on, but the thing is I do, people rely on me to not break to hold their hand and to high five them and to tell them it gets better,  so I do, because I genuinely care about you, and I know the importance of have someone to be your soundboard, this is why no matter how much I am sick inside, and tired, I will always be there to answer your calls, to give you the pat on your back and the hug. It is the reason why I hand make each birthday card, anniversary card and just strange cards for my friends and family, because to me you are all special and you deserve to be differentiated from the masses on that one day, you are special to yourself.

I am not asking for special treatment, I am not asking for anything, for once, just listen and keep my secret, bottle it up and hide it away in some secret place.

This is my confession, this is my story.

Thank you, dear reader.

For listening or rather reading my words.

Forever yours,

The melancholic M

The usual mismash, exam prepping and thoughts in the evening

So I’ve been recovering from a horrid cough/sneeze fest from last week, still a tad sniffy, but recovering well. Also with my finals coming up, so I’m studying and prepping all in all. I’m bored that’s for sure, studies were never the thing that held my interest, maybe a random topic, but never for long. I’ve tried many many times to study some subjects but I find myself unable to concentrate. Work is far more boring than I thought, and my laptop just died on me, there is something wrong with my charger or something, and I have no way to confirm till I get home.
So here I am blogging, yawning periodically and sighing. I’m taking the day off tomorrow anyway to study; I have an exam on Thursday. I find myself thinking on things long past and things that may be, I’m not usually this contemplative, but I think any girl on her period is allowed to be a tad moody,[sorry gents if that made you cringe, but that’s a fact of life] thoughtful is a mood I often find myself in, at other times its just mad at the world and craving tea.
I found myself in the bus yesterday somewhere around 6.25 and 6.30 in the evening, I had gotten a window seat and my hair banglets were blowing behind me, and realised that this was now one of my favourite times of the day. It is not quite dusk and not the night, but darkness has fallen but it still has the aftertaste of sun in its mouth, the wind that blows though the window has a hint of relief in it, cool and comforting as if to say, come on buddy let’s get you home. Not that I don’t like the day, while it is sometimes very warm the best part of the day is when the first rays of the day strike your face, not the hot, sweaty kind of warmth, but like the warm of freshly buttered toast or the feeling of peppermint facewash when you wash it off.
My cat Cleo seems to be pregnant again, so we’re trying to keep her healthy and not try to kill her periodically by smushing her with hugs, she lost her kittens last time because she wasn’t able to feed them properly, the only person more distraught than her was probably me, since I was the one who sat with her while she gave birth and moved around the kittens so she wouldn’t accidently sleep on them.
I mourn the time I don’t have, I wish I had some extra time to go eat ice cream with my friends, or just bake weird things, but as the year comes to an end I realize things might just get better. Because sometimes it seems that it cant get worse, yet it does, it grows darker and darker, bu then the sun shines and continues to shine though, so I wait for my sunshine for now, and it will come I am sure of it.
Oh also yesterday I saw a bus conductor who looked like Bruce Willis, so those who travel on the 101 Moratuwa-Pitakotuwa bus just keep an eye out, you might just meet the guy.
I’m bored and so I might put up another post today, or not, I feel restless…and now I am craving something chocolaty.
But I’ll have to wait, its lunch now. So I’m off .
Till next time dear readers.
M
P.S. *NSYNC did a comeback am totally psyched.