සි0හල පොත් : 2016

2016 වසර තුල කියවු සි0හල පොත් මෙයින් නිරුපණය වේ.

(01) දවස - තල්පවිල ශිලව0ශ හිමි

ඉතාම සියුම්, සරල හා ගෑඹුරු බුද්ධ ධර්මය ප්‍රායොගිකව දක්වා ඈති කුඩා අත් පොතක් ලෙස භාවිතා කල හෑක.

(02) සිතිවිලි සියය - පියදස්සි ස්වාමින් වහන්සේ

දෘඩ සසරෙන් වෙහෙසට පත්වු මිනිසෙකුට දුන් පිරිසිදු වතුර විදුරුවක් වගේ පොතක්. කෙටි වුවත් එය ඉතාමත් වටිනා කෘතියකි.

(03) අන්දුරෙම ඉපදි අන්දුරේම මියෙමුද ? - පුජ්ය පිටිගල ගුනරතන හිමි

මෙම කෘතිය ලියන ස්වාමින් වහන්සේ ගෑඹුරු ධර්මය ඉතාමත් සරලව හා පෑහෑදිලි ව පෙන්වා තිබේ.

නමුත් එහි විස්තරය ප්‍රමානවත් ද යන්න සෑක සහිතයි.

(04) ඈබ්බෑහිකම් අත්හෑරියාම සතුටෙන් සිටින්න පුලුවන් සහ තවත් දේශන - Ajahn Brahmavanso (Translation - සමරසි0හ ගුණසේකර)

ධර්මය මිනිසාට ඉතාම පහසුවෙන් හන්දුනාගත හෑකිවන අයුරින් උපමා හා විහිලු වලින් පහදා දෙමින් බුද්ධ ධර්මය  විවරනය කරන කුඩා පොතකි.

(05) The Journey - ගමන

බුද්ධ ධර්මය හා භාවනාව ජීවිතය නම් ගමනට අවශය වටිනා මාලිමාවක් ලෙස යොදාගන්නා අයුරු මෙයින් කියවේ.

හොද හා පොඩි පොතක්.

(06) මරණින් පසු සුගතියක උපදිමු - අවබෝධයෙන් තෙරුවන් සරණ යමු : ගම්පොල ඝ්යානාලොක හිමි

අප වෙනදාට තුන් සරණයට යන්නේ මෙම ගාථා වල අවබොධයකින් තොරවය. නමුත් මෙම කුඩා පොත එම ප්‍රශ්නයට අවශ්‍ය්ය මුලික අදියර සකස් කරයි.

(07) මහ රහතුන් වෑඩි මග ඔස්සේ - සතර සතිපට්ටාන ධර්මය

සරල හා සියුම් ලෙස බුද්ධ ධර්මයේ එන "සතර සතිපට්ටානය" ධාර්මිකව  විශ්ලේශණය කරන අතර ප්‍රයෝගිකව පැහැදිලි කරයි.

(08) සිල්මාතා කායිව් - භික්ඛු ආනන්ද හිමි

ඉතාම විශ්ලේශනාත්මක හා අර්තවත් බුද්ධ ධර්මය මෙන්ම කථා පොතේ එන උන්වහන්සේගේ ජීවිතය ලේඛනගත කිරිමට සමත් සාර්ථක පොතකි.

(09) අමරණීය සොල්දාදුවන් විසි නවය - ප්‍රසාද් පොල්වත්ත

ඉතාම වෑදගත් උතුම් පොතක්.

(10) ඔමර් ඛයියාම් ගේ රුබෙයියාට් - ජි. බි. සේනානායක 

ඉතාම සුන්දරව ජීවිතය දෙස සෑහෑල්ලුවෙන් බලන්න පුරුදු කරන කුඩා නිසදැස් කවි පොතක්.

(11) පලායන්නා - ප්‍රමොද්යා අනන්තා තොර්ගේ නවකතාවේ සි0හල පරිවර්තනය පි. ජි. පු0චිහේවා

කාතාව අවේනික පරිසරයක් හා සංස්කෘතියක් තුල බිහිවුනද එහි කතා ස්වබාව්ය හා එහි ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වයේ තුල අත්දෑකිම් මද බවක් දෑනේ.

2016 : Reading Inception

2016 though one of the most toughest years of my life I managed to read several books and I would like to summarize and close it off.

(01) Strategic Reflections : Based on Hilmy Cader's column in the Daily FT

This book is a thought provoking "management and business" book that establishes on the innovation and thinking.

A unique reading experience for students and knowledge - workers to learn to apply theories in a more practical and an innovative manner.


(02) 29 Immortal Soldiers by Prasad Polwatte

This is a book written on the Sri Lankan soldiers and their heroics at the 30 year old civil war.

This book deeply analyses 29 soldiers who sacrificed there life for the benefit of the mission and the war.

This is a summarised book on the missions and the value of the book is there are lack of books on war and soldiers who sacrificed their life.

English translation is a better version of the same book in sinhala.

(03) You & Your Problems by Dr. K Sri Dhammananda

This book reflects on a more wider vision on life and how buddhism comes to help with a universal and global perspective and the writer brings it out in a much more simpler manner to the reader.

(04) Food for the thinking mind by Dr. K Sri Dhammananda

Simply put there is no originality in the book other than the writers introduction to each quotes.

But the writer has managed to bring down the best for the reader giving a refreshing take on life and philosophy.

Now these were the english books I read. There not perfect but they were good reads.

(06) The English Patient : Michael Ondaatje - ආගන්තුක රොගියා : පරිවර්තනය : කේ. එන්. ඕ. පේරේරා

මයිකල් ඔන්ඩච්චි ගේ "The English Patient" හි සි0හල පරිවර්තනය වන කේ. එන්. ඕ. පේරේරා ගේ "ආගන්තුක රෝගියා" මම වසර 3 1/2 ක් කියෙව්වෙය.

එහි ඉංග්‍රීසි සිනමා කෘතියද අතරමෑද නෑරෑබුවෙය.

මෙය "The Booker" සම්මානය දිනු කෘතියක්ය. එය ඉතාම සුන්දර ඉ0ග්‍රිසි කෘතියක් යෑයි මට සිතේ. මන්දයත් එහි සි0හල පරිවර්තනය ඉතාම හොදින් සිදුකර ඈත.

මෙය අත්තෙනම ඉතාම සියුම්ව සරලව කියවය යුතු පොතකි.

මන්දයත් කතුවරයා කතාවේ අවට පරිසරය මෙන්ම, චරිත වල අභ්යන්තර මනොභාවයන් හා සිතුවිලි ඉතාම වර්නානාත්මකව මෙන්ම ගෑඹුරින් විශ්ලේශනය කරන බෑවිනි.

මෙය  මිනිස් ජීවිතය පිලිබන්ද්ව අලුත් පෑතිකඩක් පෙන්වන සහිත්ය්‍ය කෘතියකි.

මෙම කතාවේ ජීවිතය පිලිබන්දව පවත්නා සුන්දරත්වය, දුක්බර බව හා අනාගතයේ අවිනිශ්චිතබව පරිසරයේ භෞතිකමය වර්නනය හරහා මෙන්ම ඒ ඒ චරිතයකට අවේනික සියුම් මානසික චින්තනයන් හරහා ගෑඹුරින් හා ඉතාම විශ්ලේශනාත්මකව නිරුපණය කරයි.

මෙහි තවත් වෑදගත්කමක් ලෙස මා දකින්නේ මෙහි සුන්දරව "කාලය" යන විශ්විය සාධකය ඉතාම සුන්දර අයුරින් නිරුපනය කිරිමයි. 

(05) පලමුවන ගුරුවරයා හෙවත් ගුරු ගීතය - චින්ගිස් අයිතමතව් පරිවර්තනය : දෑදිගම වි. රොද්‍රිගෝ

මෙය රුසියන් සාහිත්යයෙ එන සුන්දර කියවීම් අත්දෑකිමකි.

මම මෙය එක හුස්මට දවසින් කියෙව්වෙමි.

මා එතෑන් පටන් මෙම පොතට වශිවි සිටියෙමි. ඉතාම සුන්දර මෙන්ම ගෑඹුරු මානව සම්බ්න්දතා ඉතා ස0වේදිව කතුවරයා නිරුපනය කර ඈත.

මෙහි එන දුයිශෙන් ගේ චරිතය ඔබ තුල සදා කාලිකව රෑව්දෙනු ඈත.

එය ඉතාම සුන්දර මෙන්ම දුක්බර කතාවකි.

රුසියනු සාමාජයේ එන සහිත්‍යය හා බද්ද වු වීරත්වය ශරිරයට උණු ලේ පොම්ප කරයි. එය රුසියන් සාහිත්යයෙ එන අවෙනික ලක්ශනයකි. එසේ ඔබට හෑගෙන්නේ නෑත්නම් රුසියන් සහිත්යය නොකියවන්න.

ඉතාම මානවවාදි අත්දෑකිමක් අවශ්යනම් "ගුරු ගීතය" කදිම කෘතියකි.

(04) Unstoppable : The incredible power of faith in action By Nick Vujicic

As these readings were made in my post depression era, this is the only self-help book I read during the period.

My father personally bought me this book.

He thought of it as a guide book to achieve success against barriers of life. One of the fundamental reasons he provided me with this book was my personal depression I guess.

This book is about Nick Vujicic, the author. He was born to an ordinary family. He had a completely normal brother and a sister. But he was born without arms and legs. And luckily they loved him. With that support, he won every barrier in life against social taboos and alienation against him.

He believes in god. He is a devout catholic. And his triumphs are garnered through his limitless faith. And he currently he executes a NGO (Non Governmental Organization) that promotes faith in action and how it saved him and how it can save others in despair.

He considers his abnormalities a gift to raise hope in the world.

In this book he discusses hardships in his childhood, his suicide attempts, business failures, relationship failures, his travels and struggle globally to expand his good faith in hope.

Now as a victim of depression this book opened my eyes to see life positively.

I'm a buddhist but his vision on his religion opened my eyes to study buddhism more.

This was a really helpful book for me.

It helped me to cope with ,

(01) Personal Crises
(02) Relationship issues
(03) Career and job challenges
(04) Health and disability concerns
(05) Feeling out of control

A recommended book for everyone who seeks hope in hard times.

(03) Chucking the Dragon by Mark Wilde (Not the author's real name)

This is a very dark take on a student and a teenager from Sri Lanka, Colombo. And according to the writer it's a true story.

This is very bleak stuff. It's getting darker by the chapter. But it's a necessity in my opinion. It's eye opening. You get to see this things that happen in newspapers of Sri Lanka quite often that I thought that is not true, but this book goes deeply into these areas like Colombo Night Life, drugs, trade, sex trafficking, subcultures and NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations).

Though you first feel that the book is so unreal and emotionally flat it's deep rooted cultural and social explanations are amazing. Therefore as a reading experience for a Sri Lankan it is great, but with a serious depressive tone in writing.

I find myself in the character who is addicted to western entertainment which later opened my eyes to to slowly reduce it. ( A positive learning from the book.)

The writer or the person in the book is a child, a youth confused in cultures and people.

A misguided soul.

Just like me. I myself is in the same boat. So the novel feels mutual.

When he refers to the Sri Lankan war time incidents, it feels close to us.

For the first time when I read the book I hated the story teller. He was snobbish, arrogant and a soulless creep.

And when you slowly give time you find your heart bleeding for him.

A lost child who did not quite make it like others.

The book opens our mind to question our existence. The novel represents one of the darkest parts of a Sri Lankan youth and by this revealing it establishes a point of mind that we as a country need to change in going into the future as a nation and a society.

And it is good to see a lovely ending for the novel the story teller finding realisation in life.

Sometimes the aspects revealed by the novelist is haunting.

This revelation is a need in the current society.

A recommended read to every Sri Lankan.

Read it with an open mind.

This book feels like a homage to films like "Trainspotting (1996)" and "A clockwork Orange (1971)".

(02) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Like the (01) book this is also a novel I read, prior to the film which was released in 2013.

This novel is considered as one of the greatest novels of all time and "the american novel" by many critics and the readers.

Now why I read this book which was published in 1925 was to have better movie experience.

I was always a film fanatic.

And to say the experience was good both in the film and the book par with paying justice to the plot in a unique way.

Now as I remember the book takes place in a unique time in USA (United States of America), the roaring 20's, the jazz age where booze, partying and the industrialization is bustling in America.

And in the middle of all that, there is an age old love story linked to all social and human aspects with a more darker and a sad analysis of life.

It shown from a unique perspective of Nick Carraway, the storyteller or narrator.

"The Great Gatsby" is Jay Gatsby, a man who decided to be a billionaire for a woman.

His love was blind. He goes beyond limits to get his love and fails in front of human frailty.

The story is embedded to tragedy. The writing style is from Nick's perspective which is kind of amazing.

Though a small book it covers many social aspects of the society which is still universal.

A must read.

This novel reminds of the Sri Lankan Martin Wickramasinghe triology.

(01) Gamperiliya (1944)
(02) Yuganthaya (1956)
(03) Kaliyugaya (1957)

  

(01) Life of Pi by Yann Martel

I remember seeing the trailer for this book's film adaptation during the year 2012.

Where I realized, I should read the book before watching the film.

I ordered the book from eBay. And read it.

The memories are very low on the book, to be honest, but I remember loving the book more than the film due to its descriptive and excessive take on life, religion, survival, and philosophy.

The film was amazing too.

But it was a whole different experience.

Unlike from 2015 - 2017 where I read things seriously these years during 2013 - 2015, I may not remember the reading properly.

But I surely know this is a must read the book because it's original.

It has a new structure internally as a book.

A more personal experience into the human element from the global perspective.

Loved its quotes and theories.

They were a revelation.

And surely when you read the book and then study the film the perspective is broader.

A more like a mature fairytale of reality, fantasy and religion and a violent take on books like "The Wizard of OZ (1900)" and "Alice in Wonderland (1865)".

This book won the booker prize for 2002.

But it has some personal experience for an Asian, making the novel a greater reading experience.

In my opinion, read the book and then watch the film.

It's a magical experience.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is,



"My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition. I mock this skull. I look at it and I say, "You've got the wrong fellow. You may not believe in life, but I don't believe in death. Move on!"

Post depression era (2013 - 2015) - Introduction

Booker is about my readings and my take on it.

The whole purpose of this blog is to gather the scattered thoughts about books of mine and bring it one place.

Now these books that I'm discussing are extremely vital to my life.

They depicts some readings I did during a period which is very significant for me. As the title says these readings were made during the post - depression era. (2013 - 2015)

Post - depression era is the time when I started studying Business Management at NIBM (National Institute of Business Management) and CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) which I really loved as field of study or as the core area of my knowledge and expertise for my professional life.

But this era had a slow growth in academic and in personal life due to the addictions made in the period prior to this.

During 2011 - 2013 like I said in my previous post which is related to study of law was filled with depression. So nothing good happened in my life.

But the slow-growth started occurring in the post depression which is 2013 - 2015 and during this period I managed to read some books.

These will be discussed in my blog.

Habitual Reader

Now like we discussed in the previous article on my comeback to reading this is about the benefits I find being a "habitual reader".

Reading is basically the fundamental door to a broader perspective.

Unlike visual media where the visual creator builds on the fantasy or the reality to the audience or the spectacle, the writer on other hand describes and the mind of the reader works independently and his vision to the world is unique to him, the reader. Now this is fiction, fantasy or Nonfiction.

If you read self help books or books related to your professional or academic life it will expand on your vision on the respective professional field giving you competitive advantage against others.

Now we know the fundamental benefits, why you should be a habitual bookworm? It's simple.

The life of a modern professional is strictly busy. But it requires extreme levels of exposure in many related areas of education. And the door is reading, so building a habit of reading is a must in my opinion.

How do you build on it?

Now as a person who believes that he can't read should first should change his mindset on getting the habit right.

Build on slowly, chapter a day.

And my personal comment is to always make a review on the books.

It will expand your reading experiences.

References

·         Image: 50 most popular images on reading (2017). Format : (jpg) Available at : http://ebookfriendly.com/best-images-books-reading-libraries/ (Accessed date : 2017/01/28) Booker

Return to reading : 2016

This was one of the greatest ice breakers for me.

By the time of the year 2013 to 2015, I did not manage to read any book.

Actually I was stuck in one book which was the sinhala translation of "The English Patient" for 3 1/2 years.

But in another 1 1/2 years I almost read 20 books making a great comeback to a good hobby.

Now how I did I do it ?

I read systematically.

(01) 1 chapter a day.
(02) I write down notes.
(03) Made a list before the year and accordingly finished reading them.

So basically I covered lot of ground work for reading in the year  2016.