My Karapincha

This is one of the most scariest, hair-raising, blood-curdling feelings i've ever had in the recent times. No need to quote those creepy decisions taken by the HE now, yet his silence when two political fronts with the largest followings have had key gathering on yesterday and today, with almost 3 months to the next Presidential Election (PE), should make you realize that he's gonna drop it like it's hot!  HE has been in the forefront claiming the PC elections should be held before the PE. He has been telling this since Jan this year. We saw the opposition demanding the same and eventually giving the impression it is the UNP which was holding on to it (UNP was doing it for obvious reasons).  As per the legal framework, PC elections can be held before the PE, however the Elections Commission (EC) should be notified on the same decision or otherwise.  The moment AG advises HE, followed up with the SC's viewpoint on holding the PC elections, it will not be the PE...

Facebook is facing growing government scrutiny in Europe, America, India, when allegations came out last week (the third week of March 2018), by a whistle-blower stating that 'Cambridge Analytica' - a British consultancy, had improperly accessed user data, to build profiles on American voters, which were later used to help elect Donald Trump in 2016. Since last week's allegations, Facebook has lost close to $ 60 Bn in market value to-date in 2018, alone. After few rounds of 'daring' responses, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Elliot Zuckerberg had finally opted to admit stating, "I'm sorry that we didn't do much at the time", and interestingly his much awaited response to the issue (which came in the form of an apology) came out following the staggering hit on the stock value.  Facebook was looking to buy out many press spaces in European and American newspapers and the largest social media network in the world has ...

Why would Emirates send their crew to a football field - to do a demo in front of 65K Benfica fans? It's one of those usual stunts (by sponsors) you could see in a football game, but this time it's awesome, simply coz the activation blends in with Football - in this case, with S.L. Benfica of course, its enthusiastic fan-base and Emirates!  We are talking about a football club of Portugal, which has been in existence for 111 years, with an estimated 5.8 million+ fans in Portugal, and a total fan-base of roughly 14 million+ worldwide. In May 2015, Emirates struck a 3-year shirt sponsorship deal with the Lisbon-based football club and Emirates would be adding a second daily flight to Lisbon from January 1, 2016. Since July 2012 Emirates has carried 500K passengers on the Dubai-Lisbon' route, and the second daily flight will lift capacity on the route to 10,000 seats each week! As per the stats from Emirates, since flights were launched in July 2012, a signifi...

L - Bhathiya Jayakody -  R - Santhush Weeraman Not definitely with a quest to build an entire 'Entertainment Empire', these two youngsters embarked on a journey, something catchy but dubbed with actions that attracted a lot of criticism from many corners in the society. They were singing/communicating to them Sri Lankans who were 'sandwiched' in the society, between those elite groups & hard- line extremists (in every aspect).  Their products were unique & different, the impact was slow but steady, mesmerized some of the industry giants who believed the duo has a future ahead. A lot of sweat, tears and hard work went in, hours and hours wasted waiting to meet the big guns in media stations and record labels, to present their case.. one thing was obvious, with a bit of luck in their hands of course, they had a unique product on offer, backed by undying passion coupled with creativity, which meant "the future" for potential investors.  As...

Following an interview with PM  Ranil Wickremasinghe, India's NDTV had tweeted (mis)quoting the PM "In principle, we have agreed to full autonomy to Tamil areas, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe tells NDTV". Interestingly such statement has neither been recorded in the video clip nor mentioned in the article published in their website. Amidst the continuous requests on NDTV to clarify the tweet, some did a simple look back on the things.  Sri Lanka's 'The Republic Square' had transcribed the full interview (with SL's PM) as appeared on NDTV's 18+ minute documentary "Truth vs Hype: Sri Lanka - Hope or Illusion?" and there remains a clear blunder as NDTV tweeted something extra-ordinary as opposed to what's been told by Ranil Wickremasinghe.  courtesy -  @ mhmhisham courtesy -  @ mhmhisham While many, by now have concluded that NDTV has "sensationalized" the interview with PM Ranil Wickremasinghe...

Arvind Gupta, head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT division / IT Cell, a key figure in installing the former Gujarat Chief Minister Narenda Modi as India's 15th (Current) Prime Minister, has been hired by the Sri Lankan Government, in steering & strengthening President Mahinda Rajapakse's social media strategy.  The nerve centre: Arvind Gupta inspecting his team in BJP's digital war room, located within the party's headquarters at Ashoka Road in Delhi. A team of 40 people, mostly professionals from IITs and IIMs, keeps a vigil on the latest voting trends and the mood of voters Arvind Gupta was a master-mind behind the PM Modi's Election machinery, especially its Social Media strategy and campaign execution. According to Indian media "If you see a shot of a pensive Modi in Varanasi — with a maze of buildings behind him — or looking natty in a blue linen kurta while leading foreign dignitaries, you probably have to thank Gupta for it." ...

F or the food, especially for Burger lovers, this has been the most amazing news besides all the somewhat great dining deals that are offered by Pubs, star-graded establishments, restaurants, tea lounges to coffee shops and other fast food joints, during this Christmas season.  Burger King; which was teasing the Sri Lankans' taste buds for a pretty long time with their announcements of opening its Sri Lankan Franchise was made possible via Softlogic Holdings PLC's new business unit which was set up as 'Softlogic Restaurants (Pvt) Ltd'. The official announcement was released in September 2, 2013, highlighting Softlogic Restaurants (Pvt) Ltd as the master franchisee, which entered into a Master Franchise and Development Agreement with BK AsiaPac Pte Ltd - a subsidiary of Burger King Worldwide, Inc (NYSE: BKW), and the master franchisor for the Burger King® System in the Asia Pacific Region. Accordingly,  Softlogic Restaurants (Pvt) Ltd would be developing, oper...

According to O'Leary; Short of committing murder, negative publicity sells more seats than positive publicity. Charging for toilets contin ues to be the number one story that resurfaces in the press and it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Although this radical CEO + Marketing Director claims that they’d never done it, he claims it keeps coming up on social networks every three or four months, the media picks up on it and then someone writes a story on it. Negative publicity generates so much more free publicity that it sells more tickets.  Ryanair had 12 of its cabin crew, posing in bikinis to a calendar that is intended to raise up to £100,000 for Polish charity TVN; known as 2013 Ryanair girls charity calendar!

IIHE's team of ICT students: Club ICT have made arrangements to celebrate The Software Freedom Day, on Saturday the 17th, at the university premises.  According to the organizers, the event will comprise of four major lecture sessions. The lectures are to cover the following areas: Why Free and Open Source software and Why people should care about it Install GNU / Linux with a demonstration done via Hanthana Linux Making use of Linux in a productive way These lectures are to be delivered by well-regarded personalities in the industry such as Mr. Buddhika Siddhisena, Mr. Suchetha Wijenayake and Mr. Gaveen Prabhasara.  The organizers will also be opening up an on location Open Source Game Zone on Saturday coupled with many more interesting stuff to be discussed, shared and learnt.  The Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide event organized by the Software Freedom International (SFI). SFD Wiki has already registered three organizers in Sri L...

Emmanuel Kelly auditioning at X  Factor  Pic Courtesy: Channel 7  Supplied TGIF! Yeah.. and I'm more than happy that I didn't worry myself too much, even I was told to come home via the most hectic bus routes. Simply, I managed to catch the bus :) and that "Langama" bus was awesome which made me to tweet couple of times, with the hashtag #langamarox.  As soon as I got home, I had this article to put up about the SSC Open Badminton C'ships. As usual, I opened my word doc, parallely signing into my gmail and FB. Saw a link on one of my friend's wall, with no thumbnail, but something triggered me to click on that. I was redirected to a Facebook video, one of those uploaded by an artist based in the Middle East. An 'X-Factor' video clip, showing a guy named Emmanuel Kelly, who's just another victim of these bloody wars, specifically at Iraqi blood sheds. 

The Common room, or "Students' area" in my uni (as branded by the students themselves, lecturers and even the minor staff), accommodates all the half-broken computer chairs, tables, the legendary Table Tennis gear and some tennis balls with bats.  Also, this got a wooden floor for those dance geeks who are willing to move themselves into the tunes of Salsa, Jive, ChaCha or whatever they call it. The maroon colour sofa which lies on a corner of this wooden floor, does add some colour to the whole brown spread and most probably gathers guys and girls in numbers. Then, the gossiping, stories, conspiracies and what not are slowly shot at each other :) 

Sri Lanka Cricket’s Interim Committee members appeared before the media today (20). Sujeewa Rajapakse, Treasurer to the SLC, Nishantha Ranathunga, Secretary to the SLC, Eshana De Silva, Acting Chairman of the SLC and Ajith Jayasekara, the Chief Executive Officer of SLC were present at the head table. In today’s media briefing, Secretary to the SLC (Sri Lanka Cricket), Mr. Nishantha Ranathunga revealed that it was none other than the Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee Chairman D. S. de Silva, who granted approval for the distribution of over 14 million Sri Lankan Rupees, among the staff of SLC, irrespective of their involvement at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Ranathunga was responding to a question raised by the journalists gathered at the media briefing which was held this afternoon at the SLC headquarters. READ THE REST OF THE ENTRY

Hashan Tillakaratne, who was acclaimed as a defensive batsman in the then Sri Lankan batting line-up, is keeping onto his ‘signature batting style’ though he had retired from one-day cricket in 2003! The cricketer turned politician of the opposition, Tillakaratne claimed that match-fixing had been rampant in Sri Lanka since 1992. He also said that he was determined to reveal the names of those who were involved in fixing and he would do it in the due course, at the most appropriate time. Despite this startling revelation done by a former Sri Lankan skipper, many started pouring in comments, both in support of Tillakaratne’s attempt to expose those who were involved in this ‘criminal activity’ and against his approach, arguing it’s ‘fishy’ as to why he waited this long to make such a statement. READ THE REST

Sri Lanka's Number one sports website: ThePapare.com is at the verge of throwing out a campaign, in recruiting new reporters, writers, photographers, videographers, producers, production co-ordinators and aspiring marketers.  The campaign titled, "The Hunt is on for 'Paparites'" will go online, in the coming weekend and may be around next week. The main objective of the campaign would be to expand the number of reporters and personnel involved in carrying out its operations. The website would be seeking, any individual (despite the gender), who carry the passion for sport, with the ability of working effectively with given deadlines as a writer, reporter, photographer, etc. 

'Tesco', has already planned to build up an advisory board, made up of school children, aged between nine years to 12 years, in helping with the supermarket chain's 'Tesco for Schools & Clubs programme'.  The said advisory board will include six 'young entrepreneurs', as they prove they have a talent in making decisions, and sensory vision towards the future.

World's number one Cola company, Coca Cola is yet again planning on revolutionizing its marketing communications strategies, as they touch upon their consumers' love for music! The company also uses its 'love for music' on par with its 'Open Happiness' campaign, that has strategically being launched in over 200 global markets.

With much intensified hopes and expectations, a 109 strong Sri Lankan delegation flew to Guangzhou to take part in the 16th Asian Games on the 11th of November. The same number returned to the island with shattered hopes and neither a single medal nor record breaking performances, in their respective events.  The Sri Lankan delegation which took part in the Asian Games with 44 other Asian countries is wedged into this ‘sorry’ situation, perhaps acting as an eye-opener for the Sport Authorities in the island nation.  'Hope', 'Shattered Hopes', The Biggest 'Dilemma in Sri Lanka Cricket' and many more... READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

If you are a regular online enthusiast, you may come across various characters, stuff and many interesting topics to discuss and share upon.  Now I'm gonna share one of those 'believable' set of information, I received via email, just two hours ago.  It is recommended to share this amongst your loved ones and spread the message whenever possible.  A s received Importance: High Worth Passing On! Sad, especially if you are inclined to 'help' people... While driving on a rural end of the roadway on Thursday morning, I saw an infant car seat on the side of the road with a blanket draped over it. For whatever reason, I did not stop, even though I had all kinds of thoughts running through my head. But when I got to my destination, I called the Police and they were going to check it out. But, this is what the Police advised even before they went out there to check.... "There are several things to be aware of ... gangs and thieves are now pl...

The year 2010 started off by giving the incumbent president HE Mahinda Rajapakse a landslide victory over his former Army commander Gen. (Rtd.) Sarath Fonseka. At the aftermath of this Presidential Election came the General Election for which almost half of the registered voters, were boozed out and had almost forgotten to cast their votes! Then came the price hikes on oil prices, bread, gas, essential items, etc, those branded as ‘colloquial affairs’ for a typical Sri Lankan. Experts panels were appointed, Death fasts were laid down (and laid off), protests and ‘work to rule’ programs had been flooding the Sri Lankans’ mindsets, not allowing them to have a proper sleep, sometimes. Amidst all these complicated issues. Our dear Murali said goodbye to the game through which he was made the golden factor of the Sri Lankan spin battalion, after adding just one more wicket which totaled upto 800 test wickets, a spot one should think harder of reaching. Complications Interestingly, this ...

Almost after two months, I was thinking of writing a post on the 'much anticipated' Bradby Train & the Second Leg of the Bradby. However, thanks to the load of presentations, mid terms and assignments I not only missed the golden opportunity to get into the Bradby Train which was railed after 20+ years, but missed the Bradby at Bogambara. Despite all these hardships, I managed to take my grandma to the temple on June 25 (Friday), marking the Poson day. The temple was a popular one among the pilgrims all around the island. On the way to the temple we had to buy the necessary stuff such as ‘handunkooru’ and ‘pahanthira’. (I seriously don’t know the English terms for these, I have heard some calling handunkooru’s as ‘some’ sticks).   There was this grocery which had a massive queue, mostly due to a 'Manioc dansala' being underway at its immediate next door. With the greatest difficulty, I crept through the crowd and managed to stand at the 5 th place in the queue....