Book Review 4: The Color Purple

The Color Purple is an epistolary novel written in the Southern American dialect. The story has constructed around a fourteen year old young black girl, the main character, Celie. The first series of letters are written to God by Celie, probably because she was completely alone, helpless and no body was there to understand her sorrow and protect the little girl. How many Celies live among us?

The poor young girl was continuously abused and raped by her step father. "He never had a kine word to say to me, Just say you gonna do what your mammy wouldn't". Celie was pregnant with her second child when her mother died cursing her. The miserable girl had no happiness except the time she spent with her loving sister Nettie. 

The 20 year old Celie was passed to Mr___, just another man, an anonymous being. He accepted her as his wife only because of the dowry of a cow and to abuse her as a slave... never treated her passionately.

Celie always loved and admired women, specially the strong females; her sister Nettie, then she meets Mr___'s mistress Shug, the only person who made Celie feels special, the only relief decorated Celie's lonely world. Nettie had to run away to save herself from Mr___ and he never revealed the letters from Nettie to Celie.

Then the turning point in the story, Shug decides to protect Celie! Their intimate relationship grows fast and Mr___ gradually moves away from these women's lives. The compassion between two souls encourage Celie to stand on her feet, empower to save herself. Nettie returns with the Celie's disappeared offspring. 

A great literary masterpiece, no wonder Alice Walker won the Pulitzer prize and the National Book award. I've read the book and watched the movie several years ago. Whoopi Goldberg's and Oprah Winfrey's acting skills are mesmerizing. 

The Color Purple novel is too good to ignore, here I'm reading again....

Books Review 3: Magam Soliya, Loveena, Adaraneeya Victoria and Thrimana Kiyaweemak

I hardly find time to read books these days but some how managed to read these three books written by Mohan Raj Madawala. These four books are written in Sinhala. The language, writing style, storyline are quite unexpected, bold and beyond the accepted norms.

I began reading from 'Adaraneeya Victoria', then 'Loveena' and 'Magam soliya' before reading the critic reviews book, 'Thrimana kiyaweemak'. My reading order is not same as the publishing order, the three books are not a series or related to each other. However, the first publication was 'Magam soliya', then 'Loveena' and the latest is 'Adaraneeya Victoria'. The critic reviews book has been composed by another three contributors with the extracted comments from the Facebook. 

These three books contain three different flavors and story lines. The similarities between each other are; Every book based on an historical event but still a fiction (I think to make the story sound more realistic and develop the reader's curiosity he has used this trick), The most influencing characters are women (seduction evangelists), comprises erotic literature.

Even though I read these three books recently, the books were published in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Honestly , I discouraged myself to invest on these books after listening to other readers' suggestions and comments. If you have children, specially the immature teenagers.. I strongly recommend you to hide these books. The content may confuse someone at the door of adolescence. So that, until they reach the stage of identifying the difference between Black and White, please hide the books. To enjoy and understand these type of stories, an individual needs to have a developed , controlled mind and  wit!

Out of the three books, 'Adaraneeya Victoria' is the most successful compilation. 'Loveena' is better than 'Magam soliya' but 'Magam soliya' is a kind of a mental twirl and screw up your sanity if you don't pause a little to breath!

Fading Youth...

Mixed Feelings!... I was younger last night. Only biologically or maybe not at all, I don't feel like a 30 something year old, one of the biggest technical errors with me (according to the smart people around, enjoying judging me)

I bought sarees and long skirts instead the usual 'cheeky and chic' options this week. I can feel something huge changing me right now, to look and behave more feminine, to be that silent, twinkling diva! Am I getting old?

I've been processing many questions inside my little head during the last couple of days. Mostly work related. I'll talk about (Later) how hard and easy can it be for an IT professional to revive the dead (in my case purposely killed) career life, specially when you are 'female' :).

This time my B'day was kind of less exciting, calm, disappointing and unexpected one. But that doesn't mean I'm unhappy, thanks to the finger few adorable, great people in my life, doing their best to maintain a genuine relationship with me... <3 So, dedicating this post for them. Thank you for loving me, thank you for always being there for me! Without all of you I'd have transformed into a 'tombstone'.

To all the misfits like me...


“Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine.
They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
are the ones who do…”
― Rob Siltanen



HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Queen

Transition from one book to another... 2.08 a.m. and my plan is to finish another book before getting a nap :) How many of you have watched the movie Queen, yes it's quite old but still my favorite. If you haven't watched the movie, better try because this's really good!

I purchased the DVD twice, because the first DVD still going around (It's all right girls, please pass it around, I need every woman to watch this movie) and I never feel tired watching the movie, listening to the songs repeatedly.

The story is about a simple Indian girl called Ranie (In Hindi Ranie means Queen) coming from a very conservative background, how she handle things while going through an emotional breakdown. Instead teaching women to commit suicide thinking it's the end of the world, this movie teaches to fight back, stay strong, discovering and value of loving yourself.

I like Ranie, she's my kind of girl, a Phoenix! I wasn't a big fan of Kangana Ranaut before watching this movie. She acted very well in the movie 'Fashion', I hated the role she played :). After Queen, Kangana is my favorite. More than the beauty I see the talent in her eyes <3

The hands behind the blog...

The people who knows me knows that I love to read, talk, eat, experiment and travel. The idea of sharing my knowledge and experiences was there from the beginning but I was hesitant. So last week I decided to be more brave and started working on my brain child.
There're places that I've already visited but I am not planning to write about the past experiences. Instead, I may visit those places again and relate the past experiences with the fresh article whenever necessary.
I am not a professional writer but writing was and is one of my favorite ways to spend my time. So, if you find any error in my writing or quality of the content, I am always ready to listen and correct.
This blog has no commercial intention or will not be using as a marketing tool.
If anyone has any plan of using this blog and it's content for any commercial purpose, by extracting the original content to sell, promote any brand/ product/ service, to publish in another media, etc... I strongly advice you to refrain from doing that and please contact me if you need to re-use the content of this blog.
As I said before, the original concept of this blog to share my travel experiences, book reviews with like minded people. I appreciate if viewers share their suggestions/ comments but I do not entertain the telemarketers, viewers who will post inappropriate content.
If your posts are violating our ethics, remember your post will be immediately deleted and will take necessary actions to inform the authorities.
I invite all of you to read "Thilini", this is who I am, what I am and what I made of. Let's share our stories, experiences and information :) Happy reading! Enjoy "Thilini", my gift for you.

Book Review 2: 'Senkottan'

I've finished reading this book few weeks back and have to say, one of the best novels I've read. This's the story of Victor Soorathissa, a profound businessman born to a poor family in the Sabaragamuwa province. They were not only poor, heavily suffered and badly neglected, because of the caste system dominated the country those days. The biological father of Victor aka 'Kuda baba henaya' was a Govigama caste person born to a respectable family and the biological mother who raised him alone was from Dhobi caste. Dhobi/ Hena/ Rajaka/ Rada was accepted as a lower caste and all of us know how good we are, South Asians looking down, denouncing others :).

The author, Mahinda Prasad Masimbula has created a masterpiece around this and the language, writing style are very impressive.

The price of this book is only Rs.300/=. I recommend this book to any reader above 16 years. If you're a parent, first read the book and then decide the correct time to allow your child to read the book, because you're the only person who knows about your kid's emotional intelligence level :).

Question - What is Senkottan? 

I need to thank the person who raised this question in a Facebook group, "Poth Kiyawana Ayata". 

You can google "Marking Nut Tree" to find more about this fruit, it looks same as a cashew nut. Marking Nuts (Senkottan) is actually a herb, botanical name is Semecarpus anacardium. As the fruit is bitter, I don't think you can enjoy eating it. However, the seeds, mature fruits, gum and oil of this tree are used for many different purposes. I learnt this herb is using for Leprosy and Elephantiasis.

For the curious minds, have a look at this wiki page to learn more about the 'Senkottan' tree.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semecarpus_anacardium

In here I've extracted few of my favorite paragraphs and the cover page of the book:

Book Review 1: Biography of Rev.Fr. Mercelline Jayakody, "Malpale Upan Pansale Piyatuma"

Until my camera comes alive once the battery is charged, to upload the Logos Hope pictures I thought of sharing few book reviews. Let me start with the Biography of Rev.Fr. Mercelline Jayakody, "Malpale Upan Pansale Piyatuma". The book is written in Sinhala by a Buddhist monk, Dr. Ittepana Dhammalankara Thero. I'm not sure any English translation is available of this book, if possible and if I've time in the future, will try to translate the whole book with the author's permission.

Rev.Fr. Mercelline Jayakody - I'm very happy as I met father Mercelline once, during my school days when I was about 10 years, but it was just a brief meeting limited to exchange greetings. Not as a born Buddhist, as a primary kid I didn't know how to continue the conversation or what to say next. The most important thing I noticed was the kindness in those eyes, in his face.

We see many nuns, monks, priests representing different religions, but we rarely see them in the correct way they need to look like because most of them own a face of a businessman or a woman than someone very religious and spiritual. I hope you'll agree with me.

The book is only about LKR.200/= but the content is involved with a lot more valuable research work and effort to capture father Mercelline's life story.

Rev.Fr. Mercelline Jayakody wrote not only many books, also many famous songs (you will find lyrics of few in the last few pages of the book), he was a beautiful mind, a gifted soul, a visionary and a good priest.

I have no idea, why he was never appreciated and acknowledged properly for his tremendous service?

The cover of the book and few of my favorite pages from the book:

Last King's Jail

Just after my lunch at Steaurt Hotel in Chatham street I walked out of the back door (yes, after paying for my lunch) next to the Police building as it was quicker to reach the Galadari hotel from there.

Several times I’ve seen this monument before when coming out of the Dutch hospital, but never spent quality time inspecting carefully. I think that I’m not the only person who lost this spot. Believe or not, this was the jail cell of the last king in Sri Lanka and his queen (I’m working on a long article of history of Sri Lanka, once I publish it you will be able to learn more about what happened to the king and the queen).

By looking at the size of the cell, you can realize the royal treatment he and his beloved wife received. The king, Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe was prisoned in this until deported to Vellore in India.

This’s not bigger than a public toilet and you cannot see inside properly without a torch. Inside, on the walls you can see the portraits and the original national flag. I’m not sure this monument receives proper protection and consideration from the authorities. I had the same feeling during the time I lived near the Kotte rampart, because these monuments are in public places and the majority has no idea about the value of these, likely damage intentionally or unintentionally.

Note: The photographs were originally taken by the author, please do not copy the original content and the pictures without my permission.

Front side of the jail cell - the iron gate is locked

Only my hands and camera inside the cell, tried hard to capture the details :( not satisfied

The portraits of the King and Queen

The back view of the cell

The statue of the king

MV Logos Hope

Logos Hope, the floating library arrived Colombo, Sri Lanka on 21st October 2015. I’m not sure how many times they have visited Sri Lanka before, this was my first visit to the famous book fair on a ship and I really enjoyed the experience and planning to start reading the books that I’ve bought from them, right after I publish this on Facebook.

We were at the entrance of the harbor around 10 a.m. on Chaithya road, Colombo 01 waiting for the shuttle. As you can see in the pictures, a diverse crowd was waiting in the line impatiently. You can see the excitement and joy in kids’ faces. Yes, I’m also excited, my first visit to this vessel J.

Little bit about Logos Hope before getting into the ship; as I learnt from http://www.gbaships.org, MV Logos Hope is the fourth ship in the mission, launched in February 2009 to take over the work of Logos II. The ship reached the Colombo harbor from Myanmar, will start the journey again on 13^th November to their next destination, Seychelles.

There are nine decks in Logos Hope and you will find the book fair happening in the fourth deck. Thank you Yasmin Henry from Australia for showing us around J, it was a great pleasure to meet you and others in the crew. The unity and dedication we noticed in the crew is truly impressive and amazing. I saw the ship as a global village. I think the love for God and faith have created the immense bond with each other.

You will find a huge collection of good books, music in many genres and kids’ toys in the book fair. The crew is very friendly and helpful. You can buy souvenirs of Logos Hope such as key rings, pens, world maps, mugs, jewelry, etc. Don’t forget to say ‘Hi’ to the wonderful crew members.

The beauty of the crew is, everyone from the Captain to the cleaning team (The cleaning team also called as ‘Angels’) work as Volunteers. There are some volunteers serving in the ship with their children. So that, they run a school in the ship for those nearly thirty number of children. Marvelous, isn’t it? I guess they love the idea of learning Geography as they wake up every day in a different location.

They have a separate cafeteria for the book fair visitors in the same deck. If I’m not mistaken in the sixth deck they have a large cafeteria for the ship crew. I went inside the kitchen as I was curious to know from where my Turkey sandwich came and the smell inside the bakery made me more hungry.

The crew members start their day by gathering in the cinema area (which used to be a vehicle yard when the mission bought the ship) to pray and then they concentrate on their duties and tasks throughout the day. No one commands another or act bossy, everyone contributes and perform their duties willingly. The meals are served thrice a day, but if any crew member feels hungry, the cereals, milk and bread are readily available anytime.

If you join as a volunteer, you’ll be starting by doing the angels’ work; cleaning and cooking. I’ve to say the current angels are very efficient. It was very clean inside the ship and the food they served was delicious. Tip: Try their Chocolate/ Vanilla mix Ice cream at least, worth the price. J

About Yasmin Henry, our kind and generous friend offered us a tour inside the ship; Yasmin is indeed a beautiful soul. A music teacher from Brisbane, Australia. She has joined as a volunteer about one month back when the Logos Hope was in Malaysia. Currently, she helps back office work on the ship and before joining Logos Hope, she has volunteered few charities as Pyjama foundation (I wish if we have something like Pyjama foundation http://www.thepyjamafoundation.com in Sri Lanka) Yasmin loves the idea, bringing knowledge with books and share the love of Jesus. Her natural friendly personality and listening her experiences in the ship will make your visit more enjoyable.

So everyone, I recommend you to visit Logos Hope with your kids. It’ll be a good experience for them spending few hours inside a ship. I find the books, comparatively cheap and affordable, they really have an impressive collection of children’s books and toys.

Yasmin and all the crew members, I wish you good luck and a safe journey. Hope we will meet again J Bon Voyage!

Note: The photographs were originally taken by the author, please do not copy the original content and the pictures without my permission.

You can get the shuttle from here. Remember to wait for your turn in the line

Random shots :)

Ticket price Rs.100/= per head. Children less than 12 and senior citizens above 65 walk in Free!

Another line... wait for your turn :)

A young volunteer

A brief explanation about the book fair, ship and the crew

Aha, the book ocean :)

Enthusiastic volunteers

You can sit on a bench for a break and go through the purchased books in here

Turkey Sandwiches

Stay in the line to buy your snacks

The little pianist

I may visit the ship for one more ice cream ;)

Kids area

This picture shows how different decks are occupied

Cheerful kids dancing

The Diesel Engine

Collecting our visitor passes

 

      

On our way to the cabin

 

Busy crew
    

 

                                      

                                      
      

The conference area

The Kitchen

Yasmin Henry - Hello Yasmin! :)

                                      

To the staff cabins

The Staff dining area

This was taken in the last Christmas

Cinema area

Bye, bye Logos...