Galloping Inflation

Galloping Inflation, Running Bears and a lot of Bull

How a Family Game of Monopoly turned into Economic Chaos

By

Gyan C A Fernando

Illustrated by N. Senthilkumaran

Any family card game or board game that we undertake in our household has a tendency to descend into chaos. Most blame me of course and accuse me of cheating, which I don’t, but I do admit that I have a tendency to bend the rules. 

Match me against my niece Samanmalee, aka Sam (pretty, 35+), and things become totally mired. For a start, Sam has a broadband brain combined with a 100 gigahertz clock speed, plus a loud mouth. She can also turn her charm on and off rapidly to suit the circumstances.

The other day, we were all at a loose end and decided to play a game of Monopoly to pass the time.

Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe

 

The Lion King

Part 1

By 

Walt Disneynayake

It was the year 18hundred something and King Rajadi Rajasinghe got Malaria and asked for Chloroquine.

Chloroquine had not yet been discovered so they gave him Koththamalli instead.

(Even if Chloroquine had been invented the idiots in the Health Department would have had a shortage of it! The Director of Health Services and his yes men could not tell the difference between their chloroquine, arses and their elbows!)

The King died. His last words were "AaaaaaH!"

He was childless. He had at least three wives and there was considerable speculation as to what he was doing with them…or rather what he was not! By the time he got Malaria it was too late to procreate.

Tintin in Sri Lanka

TINTIN: An adventure like no other

By

Gyan C. A. Fernando

Illustrated by N. Senthilkumaran (with apologies to Herge’)

The other day I went to see the Tintin movie at the Liberty Cinema in the company of my young nephew and his lovely fiancée. I wanted to see it on the big screen but was rather reluctant to go on my own, so the young couple took pity on the old Uncle and off we went. Mind you, I did pay for the tickets!

Getambe Jones and The Lost Railway Halt

“Getambe” Jones and the Lost Railway Halt

By

Gyan C A Fernando

Illustrated by N. Senthilkumaran 

I suppose, as usual, it all started off in my childhood. As a youngster, amongst other things, I wanted to be an explorer. At that time explorers were celebrities. One of the famous, some might say notorious, explorer-archaeologist was Howard Carter. Carter discovered and plundered the late boy-King Tutankhamen’s pyramid.

Then there was Hiram Bingham who “discovered” and plundered the “Lost City” of Macchu Picchu in Peru and is now immortalised in having a touristy and expensive train named after him, the train that runs from Cuzco to Aguas Caliente in Peru.

Alberta and I

Alberta Darling,

I’m back!

By

Gyan C A Fernando

Illustrated by N. Senthilkumaran

Sigmund Freud would have had something to say about this.

O

n the 23^rd of November 2001 and living somewhere far away from Sri Lanka, I must have been in a strange and nostalgic mood or someone must have slipped a mind-mending drug into my cheap drink, because on this day I wrote a highly sentimental, cringe-worthy and embarrassingly silly article for my web page.

The article was entitled “Alberta Dahling” (sic!).