The Train Halt with No Name

The Train Halt with No Name

A Most Curiously Named Railway Halt in Sri Lanka 

or 

Train Halt No 1

 

by

Gyan C A Fernando

Cartoon by N. Senthilkumaran

Many crowded trains pass through this station daily on the busy Coast Line of Sri Lanka to and from the capital, Colombo. Of the thousands of passengers who pass this rail halt not many know how it got its curious name.

Not many trains stop here anyway.

MORE

I Can’t Hear Myself saying Hiss to a Cat now!

I Can’t Hear Myself saying Hiss to a Cat now!

By

Gyan C A Fernando

Illustrated by N Senthilkumaran

In my very, very young and idiotic days I would creep up behind sleeping cats for the express purpose of saying “hiss” and scaring them out of their fur. It never worked. Normally, they would hear me at 50yards range and would walk away calmly with their supercilious attitude intact and with their tails still at full mast.  

Cats always had a head start on us kids.

My three younger sisters would remember my activities in this particular field of scientific research.

Sri Lanka was very quiet sound-wise then. One could hear birds singing and even hear Geckos making their disapproving “chack chack” noises. You could even hear a coconut deciding not to fall off a tree!

Having returned to the good Old Republic after a lapse of what seemed to be a too long a time, (opinions do differ on this in our household), I was delighted to find out that this activity, that of scaring cats, is now possible and with good dividends! 

Think Plastic or Swim

Think Plastic or Swim

 My Efforts to Counter Global Warming

By

 Gyan C A Fernando

With illustrations by N. Senthilkumaran

Drastic events need drastic action! That is what I always say when I’ve had a beer, or two. They have been sinking for years, not the beers; and no one has done anything for them except generate a lot of hot air in Geneva and in New York.

Unlike them, I am a Man of Action, a sort of a Superman or a Minor Deity!  You know what I mean, don’t you?  No?

STSpectator

STSPECTATOR

A Blog about books and reading by a Sri Lankan: http://stspectator.wordpress.com/author/stspectator/

Go Easy on the Confetti, Please!

Go Easy on the Confetti, Please!

By

Gyan C A Fernando

Illustrated by N. Senthilkumaran

Life sometimes brings up pleasant little surprises!

Take this morning, for instance: I discovered that I could get married for just Rs30! Not that I want get married again, but isn’t that a pleasant little surprise?

Stamps and Philately

The Sticky World of Stamps and Philately

By

Gyan C A Fernando

Illustrated by N. Senthilkumaran

The other day I was extolling the virtues of stamp collecting, in particular the aesthetics, the tranquil and genteel aspects of this hobby etc. for the benefit of a very young and impressionable son of a friend of mine, when my grown up niece Samanmalie, aka “Sam”, butted in. 

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!).