Words of Amaruwan

Women are like Books

2009-09-30T07:28:00.000+05:30

Women are like books
So my friend said.
If you see one you like,
Pick it up,
Or someone else will,

So many books,
Of so many kinds,
Worthless most,
Of pink garish hues,
And inane shallow news.

Some dark as night,
With innocent smiles bright,
Upon their covers,
Beckon you within,
To daggers and poisonous delight.

Some so long, heavy and tedious,
Some must be kept so fastidious,
While the ones with the jacket-less covers,
Are always stolen away by others.

Some books are to see, they do not speak,
And to try and read that other one,
Would take many a fruitless week.
And while that lovely book beckons too,
It's someone else's and it's not for you.

Then you see it.
Your book.
Just there.
Just for you.
About no other do you care,
As you wait stop and stare,
At the one you take home.

You hold in your hands,
Gently,
As the scent ensnares and takes you away.
As you run your hands over,
The back,
The spine,
Ever so lightly.
Feeling the smooth skin,
As you part the halves,
Hands gliding down the insides,
Feeling,
Then holding,
Then you devour whats within
With your eyes,
As your finger follows the patterns,
Line by line.
You plunge within,
Deeper and deeper,
Faster and faster
Till to the waking world,
You are no more
And then...
You return
Excited.
Rushed.
Satiated.

Leaving your hands for the present time,
But you cannot help but break a smile,
For pleasures now past and to come in time.

I always liked reading in bed.

Mr Francy and his Beetles

2009-09-23T20:52:00.003+05:30

Image by The Brucer via Flickr

When I was a little we lived in a small village/town just outside Gampaha. Those were great times growing up in the village air with nice, kind people. Happy days.... I was only 3,4 years old. Anyhow there was this one shop called Francy Tarders (yep, I spelled it right :) ) which stocked these little plastic VW Beetle models. Nothing too fancy, just the body and 4 wheels in plastic (Made in China). They were cheap too so I'd always ask & Mom and Dad would always buy me 1 every time they went out. They were so colourful. They didnt just have regular blue, green and red. They were a rainbow of psychedelic colours. These had pastel shades of orange, pink, aquamarine, purple, turquoise and even luminous shades of yellow, lime, and many others. I didnt know all those big words then, but those little cars are still fresh in my mind after all these years.

I still remember walking into that lovely shop which had all sorts of knick-knacks, just like those magical-like shops you get in books. I'd always go with Dad. The owner knew me by name, I had come in so many times, and Dad was known a little as well as 1 of the Docs at the Textile Mill. The shop had these waist high glass display cases like in the textile shops, and the top rack was entirely filled with dozens and dozens of these little pieces of rainbow. Id gaze and pick and choose while Dad and "Mr Francy" talked (mostly about my lunatic antics I guess.)

In the end I had at least a 100 give or take. Thats not counting the ones that got broken over the years. It was a real sight to see, whether they were lined up at an imaginary parking lot, or running races around the Chair-Leg Forest and the Table-Top Flats. I think it was Herbie that got me hooked on Beetles back then. I loved that old film.

After Dad retired of course we had to move. And by that time our house was built here closer to Colombo. I was going to school too and I wasnt playing with the Beetles that much anymore. Mom was a teacher at the village school and she knew of a lot of small kids from poor families. So we ended up giving away all those toy cars. After all it was dead weight to bring along and this way someone ended up happy. A kind of going away gift.

We went back there recently after almost 10 years to settle some things. The town had changed a lot. It had lost the village charm. But some people remembered us. Mr Francy was no more, and neither were his cars. But the shop was still there. We didnt go in, and I dont know who runs it now, but it had the same old board proudly saying - "Francy Tarders".

And of course, I'll always have my memories....

(P.S just reposting something I deleted once)

My Life According to Jim Reeves

2009-09-07T09:55:00.002+05:30

Jim Reeves via last.fm

Facebook tag. This was pretty cool. Open tag for anyone wanting to join in. I'll be linking the songs in future when I can, if I find them :D

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 10 people including me. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat song titles. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "My Life According to (BAND NAME)"

Pick Your Artist:
Jim Reeves

Are you a male or female?
"Danny Boy"

Describe yourself:
"Now and Then There's a Fool Such as I"

How do you feel:
"How Can I Write On Paper What I'm Feeling in My Heart"

Describe where you currently live:
"The Fool's Paradise "

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
"Where Does a Broken Heart Go?"

Your favourite form of transportation:
"I'm Waiting For Ships That Never Come in"

Your best friend(s) is/are:
"Señor Santa Claus"

Your favourite colour is:
"That's When I See the Blues"

What's the weather like?
"Just Walking In The Rain"

Favourite time of day:
"Silent Night"

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
"Waltzing on Top of the World"

What is life to you:
"Highway To Nowhere"

Your current relationship:
"You'll Never Know"

Breaking up:
"I've Enjoyed As Much Of This As I Can Stand"

Looking for:
"My Missing Angel"

Wouldn’t mind:
"Beatin' on the Ding Dong"

Your fear:
"Two Shadows on Your Window"

What is the best advice you have to give:
"Give Me One More Kiss"

If you could change your name, you would change it to:
"Mexican Joe"

Thought for the Day:
"Its Hard To Love Just One"

How I would like to die:
"When Two Worlds Collide"

My motto:
"According to My Heart"

the trouble with Love is..

2009-09-06T07:53:00.003+05:30

that it's so many different things .... like,

* Sending roses to office as a surprise, but she figured it out beforehand somehow

* That comfortable silence

* THAT smile

* Ditching the party for a party of few

* Ditching the party for a party of two

* Walking from Liberty to Odel with 4 amazing people and having the most amazing time

* Webchats almost every night with the raving lunatics that you now can't imagine living without

* Hugs

* Walking in the rain

* The walk from Galle Rd. to Highlevel Rd after classes where laughter and insanity was never out of place

* Ruffling and messing up the girls's hair as you get off the bus to go home

* The pinches the girls give you when you never fail to fall asleep in the middle of a lecture

* Your BFF jabbing you every 10 minutes even when you're wide awake because you never fail to fall asleep in the middle of a lecture

* Cutting lectures to play Carrom and Cards in the canteen

* Cutting lectures to play Carrom and Cards in the canteen with the lecturer included

* All the people and all the things we did instead of and including Maths, from 8pm to 2am and more

* Being asked to write about the good times by a bestest friend, but you keep putting it off in the face of her curses because you're afraid to ruin the memory

* BB in the interval

* Listening to your pals awesome guitar strumming

* Cricket in the old staff room and getting nabbed

* 20 questions with an awesome friend

* Knowing you're there for them and you do care, even if they dont and you know they dont.

* She doesn't read, but suffered the crowds at the book fair with you because you do

* When @ class while everyones having lunch your friends buy ice cream for everyone because thats the one thing you wont refuse to eat.

* When you're the only person he/she is ok with getting advice from

* When your school-teacher slaps you and makes you kneel because you got caught walking out to jump school, and then lets you go fully knowing the window of opportunity hasnt closed and you still can/will jump school

* When in school exams you keep a carbon paper underneath your answer sheet and write and then distribute the copy just cos your friend asked you to

* School Daze

* When you're the only person that is told the happy news

* When you want to be there but you cant, and it tears you up inside even when the time has long gone and everythings ok.

* when you were little and your cuz who's 5 years younger to you tries to whack your mom with a broom cos she scolded you

* All times that your the 70 yr old adoring grandfather bussed it to your place with at least 20-30kilos of goodies and little you locked all the doors so he couldn't go back

* When despite all the "dont-waste-money-we're-not-rich" lectures, Dad runs after you to catch you at the busstop when Mom tells him mischief you really had planned, and HE knew you'd need more money

* Mom checking to see if the suns shining so she can put out the wash, or who that suspicious beggar on the road is, or the squirrels in the garden etc.. all from my bedroom window, when really she's checking if i'm ok .... @ least once every friggin hour =P

* When Mom waits for you on the porch for the entire 3 hours that you got late, and then proceeds to blast any semblance of a smile from you because "Putha, you shouldn't tire yourself out like this"

* When you find that for those 3 hours it was cool-calm-I-dont-care-attitude Dad that was paranoid and running disaster simulations past Mom.

* Dad lifting 3 year old you halfway up to the playground slide over and over again just because you were too scared to climb to the top.

* The squirrel family that has permanent residency inside our house.

* The Mother and baby monkey the monkey troop that never fail to melt my Mom's heart and get a bunch of scraped Coconut shells to eat

* When you bear-hug your sis-from-another-mother in public even after you realise that the other mother is disapprovingly watching from 10 feet away

* the amazement to find that your sis-from-another-mother's mother actually approves of your company

* When a best friend and the life of the party @ Uni flies off to lands far away and you try to figure out a way to send a Sponge Spongebob just cos thats the love of her life

* what you have for all the times you had to make time and go to uni with your mates on normal days to figure out how to write damned assingments.

* Poetry and Drama at lectures, both what learned and what we made ourselves

* The bookcovers that a friend never fails to put on her lecture notes

* Your brother-from-another-mother's paranoia

* Being happy to be, and always will be brothers-from-different-mothers even though you dont' know how you positively affect his life

* getting tagged by GG =)

* tagging Black Rose, Sabby, aerondight, Rannalee, Gutterflower, Scrumpy, සුදාරක and Ding

p.s. : Yes, i know this is effing hell long, it just kept on going and going and going and going....

:D

Fractalled

2009-09-03T21:20:00.005+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

"What suddenly inspired you to plunge into graphical representations of mathematical functions?" is what I asked Fallen when he was delving into Fractal art. The irony was that he in turn inspired me.

"Fractal" is a term coined by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot which for all layman practical purposes mean a rough geometric figure that repeats its structure as you zoom more and more into it. You really wont get what this means until you actually generate one and see the "infinite" detail in a fractal. The best descriptions I've seen about Fractals was in Arthur C. Clarke's novel "The Ghost from the Grand Banks" which incidentally included insanity due to Fractals. So if you want more details go read that or Wikipedia or some other Fractal related book.

As for me I intend to keep indulging in these, and here's the previews of first 4 , hence the crap quality. Click on them to see the full proper image. If you're interested get on my twitpic rss feed so you'll keep getting these =D

Enjoy

flowers in chaos

adolescent lotus

female revisted

Black Dahlia

Sucking Dust

2009-08-16T18:37:00.001+05:30

Look if you really must,

Upon the shelf gathering dust.

Stacked up high one by one,

Are what's left of times long done.

Hey, about the wear I DO care,

i know things of beauty are still there.

i must organise i must put in order,

i must do but i’ve done neither,

To all of them or to any one thing,

Like the once-glowing golden ring,

Or the myriad voices of circles that sing,

Or the books with pages that do bring,

Memories of old and pesky eyes that sting.

So time to clean up your act you fuck,

Before all that dust goes and turns to muck

Get that vacuum and let it suck suck suck

It was THEN that I said “Oh Fuck!”

Because it was then I saw…

It was because of dust inside

That eyes did sting and made me blind,

To all those things I had to find,

Like the bulb and teddy and the pen and paper,

And the knife I saved from that dusty vapour.

You see the dust that clouded my eyes,

Was one of sorrow, anger and despise.

Without all that to cloud my eyes,

There were things of beauty I realise.

The shelf is also beautiful I realise.

Again I will never leave my shelf to that dust,

Blind me again never it must,

My lovely shelf I will again trust,

As safe for what matters, and never to be lost.

~Dili

Me+Twitter+Wordle

2009-08-11T19:34:00.007+05:30

Tagged by the one who apparently had a great big fall (perhaps lost his sanity in the process?) :)

(click on imag for the full image)

i tag ...... noone ... im just considerate like that :D

Robinson Crusoe

2009-07-31T00:20:00.006+05:30

Old poem I wrote, got thrown out by mistake, so reposting

..........................................................

Robinson Crusoe,
On a little island,
Never a care at all,
Though he’d dream at night,
Of lands out of sight,
His world was his island small.

Then suddenly one day,
The waters fell away,
He didnt understand why,though he tried with all his might.
But then he found,
Some solid ground,
That led to a land out of sight.

He started slow,
He was scared you know,
He didnt know where to go.
But then he ran,
As fast as he can,
To where,
Even he didnt know.

When he got there,
He didnt really care,
About what he left behind.
Cos the land that was out of sight,
Was a like a dream alright,
With sandy beaches and sunny skies,
And all da girls with big blue eyes,
It was a tropical paradise.

And so he stayed on,
Merrily singing his song,
Even the land that was out of sight,
Wanted him there noon and night.
And happily he’d say,
I could never go away,
His island seemed so far away.

Then a storm came with a roar,
And washed a cruise ship on to the shore.
Out came monsters in suits and ties,
And scared poor Robinson so much he wanted to cry.
The land that was out of sight didnt want him anymore,
Cos there was no room for him like before,
And poor old Robinson crying in pain,
Ran backwards,back the way he came,
And the waters rose with the rain that came.

Back in his island,
He felt safe and secure,
But his heart wasn’t at rest anymore.
So he jumped in the sea,
Cos he wanted to be free,
And he swam for the mainland shore.
Where he hoped to find,
A friend so kind,
To take him on a journey long,
To make he’d be tall n strong,
Also he’d learn to shoot,
Monsters in a tie and suit,
And find sunnier skies,
And brighter blue eyes,

But do you think he’ll be back,
Or is he on a one way track?
Will he make it and survive,
Or never come back alive?
Or Will the wonders of his journey great,
And his new found mate,
Take him to his fate?

He was Robinson Crusoe,
Who he is now,do you know?
Would he know?

Ye...

2009-05-02T17:48:00.003+05:30

Ye that has done me wrong,

I will not hate thee.

Why?

For hating you,

Is a bond to you,

That is too strong.

It grows on tears,

And unfounded fears,

From which I wish to be free.

From you I will be free.

~Dili

Sir Arthur C. Clarke - A Prophet of the Space Age Dies at 90

2008-03-19T06:56:00.001+05:30

Sir Arthur C. Clarke one of Sri Lankas most respected and loved citizens, and science fiction legend passed away at 1.30 AM due to breathing complications. He was suffering from post polio syndrome for some time. He was 90.

Sir Arthur is the reason I started loving science fiction. When I was 10 years old I first got my hands on his famous short story: The Sentinel. Ever since then I was hooked. And I couldnt wait to get my hands on more of his work. Which was by no means easy. Sir Arthur was a prolific writer with more than a 100 books to his credit along with numerous essays and short stories. Even wikipedia can only put up a partial bibliography. What made him so appealing was that although the science in his science fiction was of the highest levels his writing was very simple, very entertaining and very powerful. And his stories were more about the story than the science.

Sir Arthur was a well learned individual and quite the bright spark. He was a prominent chairman of the British Interplanetary Society and had a few debates with C.S. Lewis on Science fiction and Space Travel. He held a first class degree in physics and mathematics from Kings College London and was a radar specialist far the RAF in World War 2 with the rank of flight lieutenant. It was around this time, in 1945, he published his most famous achievement: The concept of a geostationary satellite for global communications.

"Clarke's work, which led to the global satellite systems in use today, brought him numerous honors including the 1982 Marconi International Fellowship, a gold medal of the Franklin Institute, the Vikram Sarabhai Professorship of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, the Lindbergh Award and a Fellowship of King's College, London. Today, the geostationary orbit at 36,000 kilometers above the equator is named The Clarke Orbit by the International Astronomical Union." - The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation [List of Awards]

Not satisfied with the heights he was also an explorer of the depths. After Scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef Sir Arthur was hooked. He even ran a diving company here in Sri Lanka. Writing many novels on underwater wonders, including those of Sri Lanka, from as far back as the 1950's.

His prophetic status never dimmed. His predictions both amazingly wonderful and insanely funny have warmed the hearts of many in the science world. Noted are his belief that space elevators will one day be the method of travel to low earth orbit (It doesnt sound loony at all when you read his proposals in detail), Domesticated apes as household servants and a global library by 2005. All of these culminated in Profiles of the Future - a collection of his predictions. He was quite the debunker of myths too. Some might remember the TV show Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. But he professed interest in research into real paranormal phenomena. Sir Arthur's Three Laws of Prediction will always be fondly remembered.

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

But to me he will always be remembered as a writer. One of my most precious volumes is "The Collected Stories" - a collection of all of Sir Arthur's short stories from his very first (Travel by Wire) from 1937 to his last at the time of publishing in 2001 (Improving the Neighborhood - 1999). More than a hundred in all, and all I've read at least a dozen times. Some of them are so darn freaking funny... LOL, others are moving and breathtaking. Some of his most famous ones are The Sentinel, The Star, Loophole, The Nine Billion Names of God and many others.

His best remembered novel would be 2001: A Space Odyssey which was written simultaneously as a book and a screenplay which was used by Stanley Kubrick far his film. But thats only the tip of the iceberg. The Rama Quadrilogy, Against the fall of Night, The Deep Range, Childhoods End, Cradle and my all time favourite - The Songs of Distant Earth are some of his more well known novels which in total number more than 70. His novels are so amazing they can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of their take on science fiction. He's touched subjects ranging from empowerment through science, to exploration, religion, decadence and transcendence.

He was a real nice funny dude. At his 90th birthday party he's made not one but three wishes: The end of Sri Lanka's civil war, the world adopting cleaner sources of energy and for evidence of extraterrestrial beings to be discovered. He's told Associated Press that his DNA will be sent to space.

"One day, some super civilization may encounter this relic from the vanished species and I may exist in another time," he said. "Move over, Stephen King." - Associated Press

Sorely missed, and always loved - Goodbye Sir Arthur.

Sir Arthur C Clarke: 90th Birthday Reflections

The Clarke Foundation, AP article, Some Short Stories by Sir Arthur

Arthur C Clarke on wikipedia - on mininova

Monkey hanging from a broken branch

2008-02-27T00:04:00.002+05:30

Monkey hanging from a broken branch

Reaches for the water below.

Do Monkeys need to swim?

Nothing is Perfect

2008-01-29T14:38:00.001+05:30

“You are Nothing, You are Imperfect! You must become Perfect.”

Nothing, no thing, a void, an emptiness…

The absence of something.

To be imperfect you must be something.

But nothing has no something,

Nothing to be imperfect.

If theres nothing imperfect,

It is perfect.

Nothing is Perfect.

Your words make me empty,

Your words make me nothing,

If I am nothing,

And Nothing is Perfect,

Then I am Perfect,

In my nothing-ness .

Dawn is now broken, a flower blooms....

2008-01-14T18:28:00.001+05:30

It was darkness but I did not know.
Candlelight had blinded me so.
Its dance seduced me so.
It was for sunlight I ought have waited so.

It was sunlight I ought have waited for,
Walked with care through the darkness for,
Follow did I, the candlelight more,
Betrayeth me thee fickle candlelight whore.

Later times spent in darkness,
Were not spent in emptyness.
Rather, in the wonder-ness,
Of seeing a stars tenderness.

Dawn is now broken, no more is the gloom.
Yonder I see, beauteous flower bloom.