Best Poem Ever
This is a poem by my Punchi Amma, Roni, while she was at Musaeus. One thing I love about Achchi’s house is the archival reading material. There are issues of Life and Readers Digest from the 50s, which are really fun to read. Was reading a 90s one about Japan taking over. This poem is from a Musaeus journal that we found.
But I Didn’t Have Money To Pay
I went in a car to London
I saw a milk bar
I went in to the milk bar
I drank a bottle of milk
But my stomach was not yet full
And I ate a piece of chocolate cake
Yet my stomach was not full
So I ate a big bun
At last my stomach was full
I put my hand in my pocket
Alas there was no money
I had eaten a lot of things
But I didn’t have money to pay
Everybody loved it. Specially reading now that Punchi is grown up and gots little Anouka running around. I honestly like poetry that is simple and not self-conscious, written by kids or not. One of the values I see in art is that it shows you what life is like for other people, and sometimes it’s good to just say it. This might be pushing it, but the poem reminds me of the Third World experience. We can see all this good stuff, and sometimes we help ourselves, but we got no money to pay.
I started off not really liking General Sarath Fonseka, him being part of the aggressive war effort. I didn’t support the war (largely cause I thought it would fail), and I thought Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Fonseka were gleefully stomping everything. Fonseka even came out and said “I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people,” in 2008 (
General Sarath Fonseka was arrested on a bunch of trumped up charges, but mainly for daring to threaten Mahinda in a Presidential election. Despite his poor health, Fonseka was arrested in February 2010 and sentence to three years. Word on the street now, however, is that he’ll be released soon. Like any day now. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told
I’ve been testing a lot of apps. A very interesting one is iPlayboy, from Playboy magazine. It’s bad porn but a good magazine, especially since you can read issues from its cultural heyday – the Mad Men era of the 60s.
I’m going to get back to blogging. I buy a shitload of stuff on my iPad. Not that I like spending money, and the exchange rate terrifies me, but it’s just so easy, and so good. For example, I’ve been reading comics again. Spiderman, and 
I must agree. It is amazing, when we are kids we don’t really worry about the big picture, it is what is important at that moment that matters. Children really live in a wonderful space and time which makes life so much more simple.
Enter adulthood and all the simple aspects of life just leave us I guess that is why it is best to always keep the child inside us alive.
And yes, simple poetry really is a good read!