Category Archives: pulling the leg

Heavy traffic in Lanka … and a South African who likes a laugh

HEAVY TRAFFIC IN LANKA

Lungani Zama, courtesy of Daily News and Sunday Tribune

Everywhere you turn in Sri Lanka there is a cricket “match” on the go. They have an insatiable appetite for the game and the locals couldn’t wait for the opening ODI against South Africa played recently. In hindsight, I should have known better than to think that the sledging that the likes of Kumar Sangakarra and Co occasionally engage in is confined to the middle. Yours truly briefly joined an impromptu street game this week, and they certainly didn’t hold back in the slip cordon.

One bright spark told me that I used the same salon as Lasith Malinga – but shared a chef with the unmistakeable Arjuna Ranatunga! Suffice to say, he won’t be on my souvenir-receiving list. Continue reading

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August 9, 2013 · 11:52 pm

Island-hopping: from Lanka to Cocos to Christmas and thence to Manus perhaps

sl -asylum-seekers-colin murty Sri  Lankan asylum-seekers arrive at Christmas Island airport after being flown from the Cocos  Islands yesterday. Picture: Colin Murty  Source: The Australian… ALSO SEE Rowan Callick: “Airlift to Manus swings into action,”  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/airlift-to-extend-manus-swings-into-action/story-fn9qr68y-1226687190919 AND

Kamal Wickremasinghe, “Bogus refugees are making waves in Australia,” Daily News, 29 July 2013, http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/bogus-refugees-are-making-waves-australia

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Filed under asylum-seekers, australian media, authoritarian regimes, life stories, people smugglers, politIcal discourse, pulling the leg, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes

Undying Enmity in Pantomime at India Pakistan Border

SEE http://www.wimp.com/indiapakistan/

i-p border pantomimehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC9NeJh1NhI

border p“Every day at dusk, Indian and Pakistani border guards put on a show of one-upmanship at the Wagah border crossing near Amritsar, Punjab. The two countries are not on the best terms, but instead of a boring stare down, there is plenty of humour and acrobatic extravaganza to be found as the soldiers try to outdo the other side by marching and parading in hilariously exaggerated fashion. Thousands show up to watch from the stands everyday, and we thoroughly enjoyed the crazy uniforms, impressively HIGH leg kicks, and the longest bellowing contest we have ever heard. Gotta say, the Pakistani bellower was a bit better that day.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPpiQTAC__s

PS: There is some parade on NOW in Sri Lanka is there not?

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Filed under nationalism, performance, power politics, pulling the leg, unusual people, world affairs, zealotry

Peacocks in full flight near Mattala

PEACOCK IN FLIGHT P-COCK FLT P-COCK FLT-22 PCOKC FLT Courtesy of LALIN Fernando

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Filed under life stories, patriotism, pulling the leg, sri lankan society, taking the piss, truth as casualty of war, wikileaks, world affairs

A Bawdy Tale … Fifty Shades of Grey

Anonymous of course … and directed at gents of a certain age … and all readers who are  mentally constipated

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY – (a husbands point of view)

The missus bought a Paperback,
down Shepton Mallet way,

I had a look inside her bag;

   …  T’was “fifty shades of grey”

  Well I just left her to it,

    And at ten I went to bed.

     An hour later she appeared;

    The sight filled me with dread…

          In her left she held a rope;

          And in her right a whip!

          She threw them down upon the floor,

          And then began to strip..

          Well fifty years or so ago;

          I might have had a peek;

          But Mabel hasn’t weathered well;

          She’s eighty four next week!!

          Watching Mabel bump and grind;

          Could not have been much grimmer.

          And things then went from bad to worse;

          She toppled off her Zimmer!

          She struggled back upon her feet;

          A couple minutes later;

          She put her teeth back in and said

          I am a dominater !!

          Now if you knew our Mabel,

          You’d see just why I spluttered,

          I’d spent two months in traction

          For the last complaint I’d uttered.

          She stood there nude and naked

          Bent forward just a bit

          I went to hold her, sensual like

          and stood on her left t*t!

          Mabel screamed, her teeth shot out;

          My god what had I done!?

          She moaned and groaned then shouted out:

          “Step on the other one”!!

          Well readers, I can’t tell no more;

          About what occurred that day.

          Suffice to say my jet black hair,

          Turned fifty shades of grey.

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Filed under cultural transmission, female empowerment, pulling the leg, unusual people, world affairs

Twenty Väddas and Thuppahies deported to Sri Lanka from Australia?

Michael Roberts

AUSSIES CHECK A-S Hon Brendan O'ConnorAt a press conference today in Perth the Immigration Minister, Brendan O’Connor, announced that 20 (twenty) “Sri Lankans” had been placed on a plane and deported back to Sri Lanka. This despatch meant that a total of 963 “Sri Lankans” had been sent back to Sri Lanka since August 2012, for the most part “involuntarily.” This  would, said O’Connor, send a clear message to would-be asylum seekers and people smugglers. It would save people from “dangerous journeys.”

None of the media personnel asked O’Connor for an ethnic breakdown of the 20 or 963 deportees or questioned the premise of inevitably dangerous voyages. So much for acumen and background nous. For my part speaking as a Thuppahi [mongrel], I wondered if all TWENTY were either Väddas orThuppahi. That would please me no end. Sri Lanka needs more thuppahi in order to reduce the scourge of Sinhala extremism and Tamil extremism. The pukka Burghers left long ago so that problem no longer exists as a major force. Continue reading

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Filed under asylum-seekers, australian media, life stories, patriotism, people smugglers, politIcal discourse, pulling the leg, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, taking the piss, tolerance, unusual people, world events & processes

The Original Cave Man at PUNYELROO in Outback Australia

 Cave1 … captured by Alan Marriage

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Filed under accountability, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, immigration, law of armed conflict, life stories, news fabrication, people smugglers, photography, pulling the leg, racist thinking, trauma, truth as casualty of war, wikileaks

Pukerangi !! A quaint little railway station in South Island, New Zealand

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The Taieri Gorge railway run is presented as one of the the world’s “great train trips” and apart from the striking ‘gorgic’ scenery one meets several little railway stations of yesteryear that are as charming as extraordinary. For Sri Lankans with a penchant for awkward phonetic connotaiiosns when one crosses language divides, of course, Pukey-Ran-Gi will draw a laugh.

This is one of the other stations:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Continue reading

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Filed under cultural transmission, heritage, life stories, pulling the leg

Halal logo withdrawn! Hurrah! Hurrah! Harihara!

Rasika Somarathna, in the Daily News, 12 March 2013

halal agreement

The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) which has been issuing the Halal certification to businesses, said yesterday it decided to withdraw the Halal logo from all local products. However, companies may continue to obtain the Halal certification for their products on a voluntary basis to facilitate exports etc, and such certifiction will be issued free of charge by the ACJU, according to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC). Continue reading

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Filed under accountability, communal relations, cultural transmission, fundamentalism, patriotism, power politics, power sharing, pulling the leg, reconciliation, sri lankan society, tolerance, world affairs

A Koala at a Waterhole

Michael Roberts

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA  There is a saying that “one can take a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink” — applied soemtimes to dogmatic or stubborn people… and also in other ways. But I believe it is unusual to see a koala in daytime drinking water and doing so over a long period of time. As for the reasons, who knows? may be some wild life expert or lcoal know-all can tell us. Continue reading

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Filed under photography, pulling the leg, taking the piss, tolerance