Geronimo

Quotes from Geronimo
'I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes. I was living peaceably when people began to speak bad of me. Now I can eat well, sleep well and be glad. I can go everywhere with a good feeling. The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of the Indians. We took an oath not to do any wrong to each other or to scheme against each other.
I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.
When a child, my mother taught me to kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom and protection. Sometimes we prayed in silence, sometimes each one prayed aloud; sometimes an aged person prayed for all of us... and to Usen.
I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures.'

My brother and the best friend Lalith
Told me something about you long ago.
Your name in short Nimo
And I am Nimal.
(DNA) Nucleic Acid would proves that we're far realatives or not?
I search a bit of the proud History
And You're born to the Bedonkohe
Band of the Apache, near Turkey Creek
A Tributary of the Gila river in the modern day
State of New Mexico!
In February 1909, Geranimo was thrown from his Horse
While riding home.
He died of Pneumonia on February 17,1909 as a Prisoner.
On his deathbed, he confessed to his nephew that he regretted

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poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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And let the oil flow cheaply!

Heads of state or government of 25 nations met in Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia at the first Summit of Non-Aligned Nations on 1st September 1961. Sri Lanka was a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement which consisted mainly of developing countries that preferred to stay away from any power blocks. These nations were not aligned to any superpower – either USA (America) or USSR (Russia) .Sri Lanka’s newly elected Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike attended the inaugural Summit, stepping on to the world stage as the world’s first woman Prime Minister. She attended the second Summit held in Cairo in 1964 and in 1976 hosted the fifth Summit in Colombo. Thereafter Sri Lanka occupied the chair for three years.The origin of the movement dates back to 1954, when the Prime Minister of India, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru had coined the term “non-alignment” during his speech at the Asian Prime Ministers Conference in Colombo. In this speech, Nehru described the five pillars to be used as a guide for Sino-Indian relations. Called ‘Panchaseela’ (five restraints) , these principles would later serve as the basis of the Non-Aligned Movement.The five principles were: Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereigntyMutual non-aggression
Mutual non-interference in domestic affairsEquality and mutual benefit
Peaceful co-existence

I hear a sad Bedouin song of an aging Dictator
Who sung with his deep voice for a long period!
Yes, let others to sing and get rid of the power.
Bring the lute and leave the wealth.
Like your younger days remember
You touched the Sri Lankan soil once
As Omar Mukthar the Hero!
At the 5th Non-Alignment Summit, Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1976.
We're old now and leave aside the burden
Watch how they sing with the different pitch?
Companion Camel too old now
And no more desert crossing
Stop at an Oasis!
Take the lute out and sing the oldest song;
'Where we've come from
And where do we go? '

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poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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The Windmill

'The Windmills of Your Mind' ('Les moulins de mon cœur') is a song performed by Noel Harrison, with music by Michel Legrand and English lyrics by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman, from the 1968 film, The Thomas Crown Affair.[1] The French lyrics were penned by Eddy Marnay.Noel Harrison took the song to #8 in the UK Singles Chart, and it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1968.[1] Remarkably, Harrison's father, the British actor Rex Harrison, had performed the previous year's Oscar winning 'Talk to the Animals'.[1]The opening two melodic sentences were borrowed from Mozart's second movement from his Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra.Dusty Springfield's version of the song from her album Dusty in Memphis is also well known; this version reached #31 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and #3 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart in 1969.[2] This recording also appeared on the soundtrack to Breakfast on Pluto (2006) .Other artists who have covered the song include Tina Arena, Petula Clark, Barbara Lewis, Alison Moyet, The Colourfield, Swing Out Sister, Edward Woodward, Parenthetical Girls, Esthero, Anne Clark, Sting (whose version was used in the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair) and Sharleen Spiteri on her The Movie Songbook album. The French rendering: 'Les moulins de mon couer', has been recorded by a number of artists including Richard Anthony, Johnny Mathis (with Toots Thielemans) , Patricia Kaas, Vicky Leandros, Nana Mouskouri, Jessye Norman and Caterina Valente. The song has also been rendered in Finnish as 'Samamlainen onni' recorded by Petri Salminen and also by Marita Taavitsainen; in German as 'Wie sich Mühlen dreh'n im Wind' recorded by Katja Ebstein and also by Vicky Leandros, and in Swedish as 'Vinden I Min Själ' recorded by Lill-Babs.

Under the Windmill a country lassie with a cane basket
She picks wild flowers hurriedly in the thicket
And a willet flies towards the marsh for her nest.
Far away cattle along the meadow
And a Red fox hoots on a hilltop willow.
Flock of cranes in the twilight sky.
It's getting darker and if I come to the Windmill
With my book of poetry,
Is it possible to get permission from your parents
To borrow a lantern for me,
Then I could have finished my reading early in the morning
And I promise you to return the Aladdin's wonderful lamp at your threshold
With a small chit saying thanks and my whereabouts before I leave?

for ShakespearesWaste Bin in gratitude!

*[First comment from my beloved; 'Hey! My old boy are you trying to be the Pied Piper of Hamelin? ']

poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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Laundress

Dhobis usually operate from door to door collecting dirty linen from households. After a day or two, they return the linen washed, sometimes starched and ironed. Dhobis were the forerunners on the Indian subcontinent to modern professional dry cleaners. Since the dhobi charges are much lower than those of dry cleaners, they are popular with most households.Each dhobi marks a unique symbol or character on garments belonging to a particular household. This is marked in black indelible ink to prevent it from being washed off. Dhobis may wash the clothes themselves or outsource it to dhobis who only wash clothes. In Andhra Pradesh this caste is known as Rajaka (Chakali) and they make up 6% of the Andhra Pradesh population.This group is known as Madvala or Rajaka in the state of Goa.In Mumbai, dhobis are an integral feature of the city.All the dhobis wash their linen in the Mahalaxmi area known as Dhobi Ghat. This area is strangely popular with foreign tourists looking for a piece of quintessential Indianness. Another region in South Mumbai, Dhobitalao, used to be a lake where British soldiers used to have their uniforms washed about 120 years ago.There are also streets called Dhobi (or Dhoby) Ghaut in Singapore and Penang (Malaysia) , where Indian dhobis used to carry out their ancestral business.Dhobi remains British Armed Forces slang for washing (i.e. 'doing your dhobi') . In addition, washing powder is known as 'dhobi dust'.
Sometimes, a colloquial verb 'to dhobi' is used. The sentence 'My clothes were stinking, so I took them off and dhobied them native fashion by bashing them on a wet rock' from The Gold of Malabar by Berkely Mather, an author who had spent many years in India.The word 'dhobi' has been absorbed into the Malay language as 'dobi' to mean 'laundry'. So 'kedai dobi' means 'laundry shop'. A laundry shop in Malaysia may be owned by any race, not only Indian.Dhobi itch is an alternative name for jock itch. In Sri Lanka too the rheumatoid culture is same and they treat them as low caste and offer a small chair to sit! What a ridiculous World is this?

What are you doing my little Angel at this Twilight by the River bank?
I thought you're a Goddess and I am a Buffalo boy
To my stingy Master's herd!
Please do not run like a reindeer
I am your faithful brother.
If you wait for a while I play the flute
And if you are interested the tune
I spend my whole life to teach you,
Why you wash others dirt and their sins?
If I have a tiny World of my own
Definitely I give you a Buffalo ride
But I am only a Buffalo boy
And not a seasonal Jockey!

poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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Queen of Spades

Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The entrance to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, the site where Diana was fatally injured.On August 31,1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died as a result of injuries sustained in a car collision in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Fayed's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor. Although early on the media pinned the blame on the paparazzi, the crash was ultimately found to be caused by the reckless actions of the chauffeur, who was the head of security at the Ritz and had earlier goaded the paparazzi waiting outside the hotel. An eighteen-month French judicial investigation concluded in 1999 that the crash was caused by Henri Paul, who lost control of the car at high speed while under the influence of alcohol, which may have been made worse by the simultaneous presence of an antidepressant and traces of a tranquilizer in his body Since February 1998, Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed (the owner of the Hôtel Ritz, for which Paul worked) has claimed that the crash was a result of a conspiracy, and later contended that the crash was orchestrated by MI6 on the instructions of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.His claims that the crash was a result of a conspiracy were dismissed by a French judicial investigation and by Operation Paget, a Metropolitan police inquiry that concluded in 2006.An inquest headed by LJ Scott Baker into the deaths of Diana and Dodi began at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, on October 2 2007 and was a continuation of the original inquest that began in 2004.On 7 April 2008, the jury released an official statement that Diana and Dodi were unlawfully killed by the grossly negligent driving of chauffeur Henri Paul and the paparazzi.Though the official verdict implicated the pursuing vehicles, the jury also named the intoxication of the driver and the victims' decisions to not wear seat-belts as contributing factors to their deaths. Additionally, the Mercedes had been traveling at over twice the legal speed limit of that particular section of road and had long since left the paparazzi vehicles far behind by the time the accident occurred.

Old *Cambrians play cards
On a Mahogany table,
And the trump Queen of Spades's missing
A sober one of the players
Found the Queen's hiding under the table
And she mutters; ' I didn't kill Princess Diana! '

* Cambrians; Those who studied at Prince of Wale's College, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

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My lifelong friend

[Sri Lanka raids office of pro-opposition news websites
Posted by Karthiyayini on June 30,2012 in Exclusive, Headlines, News, Sri Lanka · 0 Comments
Colombo, June 30 (TruthDive) : Media freedom has always been a huge concern in Sri Lanka. The country shows its ugly face yet again by showcasing it as one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists.
An independently running and pro-opposition office of two news websites have been raided by Sri Lankan Police. The Police have arrested nine workers including the editor of one of the websites, searched the premises for about three hours on Friday and seized computers and documents.
A statement from government stated that the police officers had acted on a court order, searched and sealed off the office on Friday. The websites were said to be publishing flawed information and had put a ‘blot on Sri Lanka's image.'
The Opposition United National Party member Mangala Samaraweera said that the office had operated two websites - www.srilankamirror.com and www.srilankaxnews.com that belong to the party. He added that the nine arrested employees were released on bail after an appearance before a magistrate.
Samaraweera said that Friday's raid had been initiated as his party's website had uncovered corruption and other unlawful activity by the government.
Gnanasiri Kottigoda, who heads Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, stated that the police action showed that the government has not ceased to harass and intimidate independent media institutions and journalists in Sri Lanka. He also opined that it is a step towards silencing the independent media groups in Sri Lanka.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said, in the year 2010, Sri Lanka was ranked as the fourth most dangerous country for journalists. Since the beginning of year 2006, at least 14 Sri Lankan media employees were said to have been killed, according to Amnesty International.
www.srilankamirror.com and four other websites were blocked by authorities last year over so-called character assassination, and the action is still in effect for four others.
www.srilankamirror.com went on to file a case in the Supreme Court after which the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority agreed to unblock the website on condition that it would not provide links to blocked or unregistered sites. Several media rights groups and other countries, including the United States had severely criticized the blocking of the websites by the Sri Lankan government.
To top it all, attacks on media men and media institutions either fail to get properly investigated or blocked, according to Reporters without Borders.]

I was born with you and since in the cradle
We crawled together.
It's not a bed of roses,
My bare-feet very familiar with the thorny painful streets.
Sometimes you hide in my eyes as tears
And often remain as a hug in my weeping heart.
You too starved in my difficult times

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Maa Durga

In Hinduism, Durga (Sanskrit: द ु र ् ग ा , Durgā , meaning 'the inaccessible'[1] or 'the invincible'; Bengali: দ ু র ্ গ া , durga) or Maa Durga (Bengali: ম া দ ু র ্ গ া , ma durga, meaning 'Mother Durga') 'one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress' is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having ten arms, riding a lion or a tiger, carrying weapons and a lotus flower, maintaining a meditative smile, and practicing mudras, or symbolic hand gestures.An embodiment of creative feminine force (Shakti) , Durga exists in a state of svā tantrya (independence from the universe and anything/anybody else, i.e., self-sufficiency) and fierce compassion. Kali is considered by Hindus to be an aspect of Durga. Durga is also the mother of Ganesha and Kartikeya.She is thus considered the fiercer, demon-fighting form of Shiva's wife, goddess Parvati. Durga manifests fearlessness and patience, and never loses her sense of humor, even during spiritual battles of epic proportion

'Durga' love that name,
I remember the character in one of Sathyajit Ray's film Trilogy! 'Pather Panchali '
Apu and Durga share an affectionate brother-sister relationship. Durga, as the elder sister, cares for Apu with motherly affection, although she does not spare any opportunity to tease him. They share the simple joys of sitting quietly under a tree, running after the candy man who passes by ringing bells, viewing pictures in a bioscope shown by a travelling vendor, and watching a play by a travelling troupe of actors. In the evenings, they can hear the whistles of trains far away. One day they run away from home to catch a glimpse of the train. The scene depicting Apu and Durga running through Kaash fields to see the train is one of the memorable sequences in the film.While playing one day in the bushes, they discover their Aunt Indir lying dead there.Harihar, unable to earn adequately in the village, decides to travel to nearby cities to search for a better job. He promises Sarbajaya that he will return with enough money to repair their derelict house. During his absence, the family sinks even deeper into poverty. Sarbajaya grows increasingly lonely and embittered. The monsoon season approaches and storm clouds gather. One day, Durga dances playfully in the downpour for a long time. Soon she catches cold, and develops a fever. With scarce medical care available, her fever continues and eventually on a night of incessant rain and gusty winds, she dies. Harihar finally returns home and starts to show Sarbajaya what he has brought from the city. But Sarbajaya, who remains silent at first, breaks down at the feet of her husband, and Harihar screams as he discovers that he has lost his only daughter. The family decides to leave the village and their ancestral home. As they start packing, Apu finds the necklace that Durga had earlier denied having stolen. He throws it into a pond. The film ends with Apu and his parents riding a slow ox-cart to their new destination.

*Quoted; 'Wikipedia'

poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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