Ball of Choas

It is no secret that the requirements to gain entrance into a higher educational institutions is becoming stringent by the day and in a bid to get better education students often spend considerable time of their day trying to cram in studies to ensure they have the ideal scores. Disappointment hits when students realize that sometime their best is just isn't good enough, specially when it come to the more competitive schools in which they seek admission. This often lead to a deterioration in their self confidence specially in a scenario where a student has applied to top schools and having been rejected by all of them, while the student's scores would still be deemed to be very good. Obviously this high level of competition lead to rise of the number of students who have extremely good results which in turn means that universities and schools alike have to increase the admission requirements as there is only a limited number of places available. It is economics at its most ...

Many of us fear difference, many of us don't like change or change in others and this is the simple truth that exists today. No matter where you go in this world you will find racism be it in America, Europe, Africa or Asia - it is a deadly disease with no escape. I've lived in a country whose fabrics were torn apart by racism, with scars that are deeply engraved in the psyche of the country after long years of war. But even after the making it through the grim years of the war and destruction we still allow years of mistrust to continue when in all reality we should be abandoning all suspicion. Some blame the government and others blame the conspiracy that's a plan to resurrect the terrorist group that once brought hell onto this country. I'm not sure I believe in the conspiracy and I'm not easily swayed by government promises as I see all governments to be egocentric beings that wish to do themselves good. However, I do believe in people, I believe in their ...

The monsoon season has come back around for us and it is flexing its arms, quite strongly in fact. With almost daily rains and winds which seems to sweep you off your feet. I am a rain lover, I would take rain over the scorching sun any given day, specially when you live in a tropical country where you sweat profusely even if you step outdoors for a few seconds. While I do love the rains in this little tea drop of a nation, it does sometimes causes inconvenience like for example unable to walk outside because doing so would cause you to get drenched in water. This is far worse when you use public transport to travel because getting wet in inevitable, in such situations you have 3 options; 1. Stay indoors till the rain passes over to go outside 2. Bring an umbrella so that you seek its safe heaven when the sky breaks loose  3. Or my personal favorite, say rain be damned and make a run for it Option one is attractive if you still have a lot of work or friends to keep ...

The future is a very scary place to imagine, with the increase in demands for raw materials which outweighs the supply rate we are in an inevitable collision course to our own sealed destruction. This  Article provides a very real projection of what will happen within the next 2-4 decades, supported by the factual data present today, with the eventual climate change, which takes a severe turn to the worst, to the overpopulation and deforestation of the remaining forest cover in the world. It has been a prediction since the beginning of the 21st century that the current life style of the world cannot be sustained for the prolonged future. With the advancement of technology, international politics of the world the crime rate, pollution, overpopulation is a resultant effect with the years to come. There is no doubt that by the mid 21st century more than half of the world's population would be middle income and with the elevation of the status the more money people will have to spe...

Euthanasia. The act of helping someone to take their own life, or more commonly known as mercy killing. This has been an ongoing debate since modern times, trying to argue whether if it is justifiable or not but yielding no results. Only a few countries in the world has allowed for euthanasia take place whilst a large majority of it remains very much against it. Often the reasons cited by countries for not allowing euthanasia ranges from the fundamental right to live to the more unsubstantiated argument that it would encourage suicide, and all the while letting people who desperately need it to suffer mercilessly. One of the Universal rights that is recognized is  that of the right to life, where no one can kill another and is enshrined in almost every constitution and the universal declaration of human rights. However strangely no one ever thought of the right to die, the right for a person to choose their own death when they want to. Of course this does not mean that the righ...

No one really tells you how mundane it can be not doing anything, with no purpose and waiting for something to happen but it doesn't. This is exactly what I do when I go to work. My current daily life follows something of this sort; 6.00 a.m : wake up with a grouchy feeling, hating the fact that I have to get up so early, reminiscing the days gone by when I could wake up at 10 in the morning. 6.30 a.m : have a bath, brush teeth, get dressed and then onto breakfast. 6.45 a.m : start heading off to work and get on the bus 6.50 - 8.00 : contemplate the greater meaning in life and what I have planned out for my future and things to get done, whilst all the time taking in the ambiance of the morning life where the buses are jam packed and the morning unfolds. 8.15 am : get to work prompt and early so as to make sure that my measly salary is not deducted further. 8.15 a.m - 12.30 p.m : browse through the internet for random things that momentarily interests me such as what ...

I remember trying to memorize the multiplication tables when I was small, trying my hardest to remember it all but when it eventually fails I opt for the next best method, by cheating. I used to be a below average student, often not being interested in the homework or studies that I had to do. Since I didn't do it by myself my mother became my tutor, over the weekend she will make sure that I got my homework done, which included remembering my multiplication tables. Having always been bad at anything to do with numbers I opted to write the multiplications in the palm of my hand and recite the whole thing to her while she was busy ironing the clothes. I would quickly recite what was written on my hand in fear that she would turn around and catch me reading from the palm of my hand. While at the time I always thought that I was clever and stealthy, my mother happened to be cleverer. She would immediately know when I was pulling a fast one on her. She would turn around and then tel...

Junko Furuta was just another teenager living an ordinary life, worrying about exams, dates, boys etc. However, she faced one of the most gruesome, inhumane deaths in the fall of 1989. In the fall of 1989 Junko was abducted by four boys of her age and held captive in the house of one of the abductors. In order to avoid suspicion the captors made her call her parents and inform them that she had run away and was staying over at a friends place. Her days held as a captive before her death were even termed as 44 days of hell, during this time period she underwent unfathomable methods of torture and rape. Junko Furuta Her days of hell started off with: DAY 1: November 22, 1988: Kidnapped Kept captive in house, and posed as one of boy’s girlfriend Raped (over 400 times in total) Forced to call her parents and tell them she had run away Starved and malnutrition Fed cockroaches to eat and urine to drink Forced to masturbate Forced to strip in front of others B...

It is often fascinating to watch international politics play out, the method by which countries trying to act as saints when they are the devils that run rampant, and yet at the end of the day world order wins, the country with the mightiest muscles win to dictate to weaklings how they should behave. While these big countries try to let time heal the catastrophes they have committed in hopes that it would soon be forgotten from history books, more often than not it catches up to them, like waking sleeping dogs. This was the case in the wake of Malaysia Airline flight MH17, which was shot down either by Russian or separatist rebels  in Ukraine. In midst of this there have been calls into a full investigation in to what transpired in that doomsday attack. However, this brought back events which happened almost 2 decades ago when the Iranian Air flight 665 was shot down by the U.S Navy guide missile cruiser back in 3rd July 1988. The flight took off from the airport at 10:27 a.m I...

Embarking on doing an internship right after the graduation seemed like an excellent idea, I figured that by the end of the day I would be exhausted from working the usual hours from 8-5. I even figured that I was probably going to hate working just from the sheer exhaustion I was going to experience. Two days into the job and I am happy to say that I was wrong. While people around me seems to be running around making important documents, getting them signed and the routine office chaos, here I am, just starring up at the ceiling admiring it's well thought designs. Yes this is perhaps the ideal way to work where you get paid even though you do not work. It is perfect except for the occasional hunger pangs that I seem to experience. Literally doing nothing can really work up a guy's appetite, but at least they serve tea to counter the effect, so it really is not that bad. I do however feel bad for the people around me since they seem to be working really hard to achieve ...

Sinhalese, as a race, is very proud. Proud of their heritage, culture and of their identity but sometimes we become so enthralled in our identity as Sinhalese that we often forget that  there are other races that occupy this pearl of the Indian Ocean which is trying to put its mark on the map as the wonder of Asia. Our history repeatedly shows that we allow the ugly head of racism to be raised, from the very inception of our independence, as a nation we have over and over again exacerbated racial differences that exist resulting in people preaching and practicing racism. My mother for example is a racist, not the extreme kind of racist where she goes and perform malicious acts on other races. No, she is not that extreme in fact, she is very friendly to everyone of all races and religions and even welcomes my friends and treats them as equals. But she does say things that can often be categorized as racism, be it by comparing the increasing population of Muslims or about Tamil pol...

Well it is safe to say that I'm done with law school and after a much deserved vacation in the misty mountains of Dumbulla, I am back in Colombo. And by god isn't it hot. But it is now the time to reflect on the past three years of shackles that I wore in the form of law school. For the most part I'm quite happy that it has come to an end, specially of the hectic schedule of lectures and assignments. The daunting mornings in which I had to drag myself out of the bed just to get to lectures on time (even though I always get to my lecture 15 minutes late), the mammoth reading that had to be done. A law students life is not easy but it does provide you with a great set of skills, which I have no doubt will come in handy. While I'm glad for all these reasons and more there is still a part of me that is a bit sad. End of law school means I meet the friends that I made on a daily basis and I have to say that I think I met my true friends in college rather than school. I...

I'm not the biggest fan of cricket, if you asked me about all the great players of recent history of cricket I really wouldn't know. I don't even know how to properly play the game but that doesn't stop me from watching my home team playing in the different world cups. But beyond the joy of watching your national team win, cricket has a magic of its own, a magic that simply seems to amaze me every time there is a major match. Cricket has the power to bring people together, it allows people to forget their cast, creed, problems and allow people to be together, to be known as one country supporting their national team. It heals the wounds that are let to fester and this is exactly what needs to happen in a country which has undergone a 3 decade civil war. It is absolutely heartening to watch a tiny nation in the Indian ocean erupt into jubilation when a world cup is won. The cheers that follow when we get a wicket or a six and also the sadness that follows when one ...

One of the best motivational speeches made by a man who is known for being a comedian but less known for being an inspirationist. We can change only if we try....

It's quite funny how, as children we always dream what we want to be when we grow up. How we are always impatient to grow up and do "grown up things" but more often than not. we find lose sight, we morph into something quite different from what we wanted to become and along with it anything that we wanted to do. As a child I had different ambitions, often changing it quite frequently. At first I wanted to be a pilot, traverse across the skies into the never ending horizon, then it changed to an actor, I wanted to be in the limelight with a billion dollar income, a mansion, and stardom. Then just before leaving high school I wanted to save endangered animal, work for a good cause. Then I settled for doing law and now I want to work for a multinational company, even this may very well change along the way. I still haven't met anyone who has stuck to their first ambition, it maybe because it is hard to forge your own path in this chaotic world, having to consider fin...

It is something that you hear all the time: the rise in the cost of higher education. We gasp in horror when we see how much an undergraduate degree costs, let alone a postgraduate one. But there is a steady rise each year in the number of graduates who enter the workforce, especially with the more affordable options such as transfer programs or even affiliated institutes with recognized universities. But the question still remains: does it reflect the job market?? I'm no expert in economics. Hell, I wouldn't know the first thing about it but I do know this (in fact any idiot will understand it) that just cause you get a degree it does not garantee you a job. The simple reason is the fact that the number of graduates are increasing each year and those who are in older generations refuse to leave their jobs even though they are well past their retirement age. This in turn causes the food chain to be horded in one level or the other. See, the point is when someone retires anot...

I've always heard the saying "Failure are the pillars of success" and I thought it to be a very motivating saying at the time. But the part that they missed out, the part which is of greater significance that is kept under the raps is how you are going to feel after failure. No one really prepares you for that. Well, let me tell you it not a very good feeling, the self doubt that follows after you have failed at something or another. That incessant voice in your head, perhaps the ugly side of you, that keeps on saying that you failed and that you are never going to be anything better than a failure. It's interesting how when you want yourself to be the strongest is often when you find yourself to be the weakest. Yes, yes self doubt is a bitch and it very well does play its fair share of havoc. I, for one, am a victim of this "illness" and I find it hard sometimes to ignore that nagging voice in my head and the sense of feeling helpless. This is made fa...

I often commute here in Sri Lanka by bus, no matter where it is, I find myself going to the required destination by bus.  In Sri Lanka, you don't get fancy machines where you can purchase a ticket nor do we get till boxes in the front of the bus where we have to insert money for the journey. Oh no! What we have is perhaps a bit more primitive than that, we have a conductor who takes the cash for the journey and hands you a ticket. While most people look at the prospect of traveling in the bus disdainfully, I, on the other hand find it to be an adventure, it is where you can actually see life at work. You meet people from different walks of life, from a  banker to a housemaid,  the stories which are written on each passenger's face cannot be witnessed anywhere else. When I travel in the morning what I see are students who are in a rush to go to school, having woken up late, their only concern is to make it to  the doorway of the classroom before the first bell ...