WHY I DO WHAT I DO

Although this story few weeks old i thought i should share because many ask why i do what i do.

On a Monday morning i received a call from a school teacher who have invited me to conduct a first aid course at a school few months back. I did a one day first aid awareness program for his students and he was there during the whole program. Later after talking with him i found that he was a author who i admired during my schooldays because Samudura was my favorite magazine. He used to write to Samudura and i have collected all of his articles. His name is Dhaminda Jeewan Ranasinghe. At present he writes the Y Generation article on Ridhma of Sinhala Lakbima news paper.

As usual i wonder here and there within the story i tell you, so the call i was talking about came recently few months after the program i mentioned above. Conversation went as below.

Me : Good morning Mr Dhaminda? How are you?

Dhaminda : Chamara how can i get an ambulance, I am at Moratuwa.

Me: Why what happened?

Dhaminda : A lady fell from a bus and she is unconscious, It's raining and i want to take him to hospital.

Me: Take her to some where there is a cover, Is she breathing?

Dhaminda : Yes She is, what shall i do? I have a tuk-tuk (Three Wheeler) here, It is the only vehicle that i have close by.

Me: Take her to the hospital in the Tuk-Tuk, Keep her tilt to a side, Call me if you have any changes on the way to the hospital.

Dhaminda : OK, Chamara, Thanks.

Dhaminda was the author, the teacher i was talking about and for those who wondering why he didn't call an ambulance and called me We don't have an national EMS system and the systems that are functioning only 10% of the population, Yes we have private ambulance services which will response within one hour and only come if you can assure to pay them.

Later that afternoon i contacted Mr. Dhaminda to know more about the story. This is was our conversation.

Me: Hello Mr. Dhaminda so what happened in the morning?

Dhaminda : It raining heavily today and i was waiting for my bus, then i saw this lady falling from the bus and suddenly the question you asked at our training came to my mind.

Me : Which question?

Dhaminda : I remembered you asked from my students How much water you need to drown someone to death? Students gave different answers and you told how long is your nose? 1 inch 2 inch water of that depth can drown you if you fall face down. This is what exactly happened. She fall face down and due to heavy rain road was under water. I ran close to her and turn picked her up brought her in to the shelter of the bus stand. Then i wanted an Ambulance that's why i call you to see whether there is any near my location, But after your suggestion i took her in the Tuk-Tuk, she gained her consciousness on the way to the hospital. Few people from her office came to the hospital, they thanked me. Thank you Chamara for teaching us. I am glad i was able to help someone from the things i learn. If i was not there today she would have died, because people didn't know what to do. We should teach more people about first-aid. I will organize a program for school teacher can you support us.

I think you guys can guess what my answer was.

I was happy too because a life was saved and that's why i do what i do. For self satisfaction, isn't that why we all do what we do. For some it comes through money for me it comes through sharing what i know.

I am not a good story teller but hopefully you got the message. If you are ready to learn and help other me and my friends are ready to teach you.

Saving Lives is my passion and teaching others how to do is my hobby.

How my July 04th went

When i was a little kid i used to collect news papers and magazines. Specially the ones called "Samudura" for the scientific articles it's had in it and for the knowledge it gave me about the world and amazing things in it. I always thought these writer were fascinating people to know all these things. They were my heroes i remember i waited eagerly for seven days till then next edition comes to my hands. Some how i saved money to buy these magazines saving the pocket money i received from my parents. I would skip a brunch at school to save the money. I saved all the editions of the magazines i loved and never missed buying an edition. Few weeks back i received a phone call from a school teacher from Moratuwa Sri Lanka after seeing paper article. He wanted me to come and speak to his students on basic first aid skills. 

I accepted the invitation and we scheduled the date July 04th to volunteer and train his students. He told me that his school is a small one, Being guy who don't have driving licence or a vehicle and being a person who have faith on our public transport system and it's timing i took the bus to Moratuwa Shikshananda College at Lakshapathiya. When i say bus i had to transit for 3 buses carrying a Laptop, Multimedia Projector, 100 Triangular bandages and few other training equipment. Don't think this was a hassle, if so your imagination would be too small to think about the hassle we go thought to transport our equipment for CERT-Youth training using public transport. 

Back to the story, when i reached the school there were some children playing on the ground and as soon as they saw me they greeted say "Good morning Nuwan Chamara Ekanayaka Sir" I was surprised specially because how can they know my name and recognize me, But i didn't show it to them. I just asked where is Mr. Dhaminda, They took me to their beloved teacher who welcomed me with a smile. I had about 45 minutes to start the training so i started chatting with this school teacher. He asked me about my self and you know i am good at that story so i asked how about you. He told me he used to be journalist before becoming a teacher and joined teaching at this school because he believes in doing a difference in these children. I was bit curious about his journalist life and ask what are the papers he wrote in, i didn't believe my ears, he was a writer of Samudura, I wanted to know his full name so i asked, He is one of my favorite writers at Samudura, I was so thrilled i told his how i loved samudura and my relationship with that magazine. Yes, he is Dhaminda Jeevan Ranasinghe, one of the famous journalist and writer in Sri Lanka.  I never thought i would meet one of my favorite writers at a small under-served school in Sri Lanka. I was so thrilled to meet him and at the end of the training i received the most precious gift i ever could received by him. Three books written by him. Yes July 04th was lucky day to me.

Other than that i was so proud because being one of my mentors and heroes, he has spoken so highly about me with his students even without meeting me personally before today, Students were so eager to meet me and even knew my full name. I believe this is one of the best gifts we can ever receive from our iconic figures or Heroes. As a person i don't know why he gave me a higher value like that but i was really thrilled to hear what he thinks about the work i do and what he had spoke with his students before my arrival. I will not forget this experience for few years, may be never ever.

America in My Eyes 2

One of the best things i saw in America was that they are really depend on technology. As a Sri Lankan i am naturally talkative and would easily start a conversation with someone who sits next to me. But in America i had a hard time doing that, Yep you may think my English is really bad, and it would get confirmed after seeing the grammar mistakes on this post. But i survived 06 months so my English is not that bad.

I used public transport at America, there were two reasons one i like to be among people and second was i don't have a license.  But when ever i got in to a bus or a train i saw people are busy with their mobile phones, either  playing games, listening to music, surfing Facebook or internet. If someone starts to talk he becomes the odd character. You never make eye contact with a stranger. Making eye contact with a stranger is a suspicious behavior and smiling will be weird. This is what i have seen among younger population.

But the story about older population is different they always want to chat and when they get to know you are not from that country they want to know all about you. They are really friendly, and smiles too. But sometime i thought they are behaving like that because they are not really familiar with the current technology, If they were will they be the same? was a question i always had on my mind.

Smiling or talking with small children also make you really suspicious.

I have lot to say but i will stop with one thought cross my mind, Did America loose the element called socialism through excessive freedom and unwanted caution on security.

Book of life

Life is a story.

A book full of chapters.

But we decide which chapters will be read by which person.

Each chapter is full of characters and the author choose which characters come visible and which don't.

The complete story is known only by the author.

Every one wants it to be an open book.

But no one is willing to show the paragraphs which are hidden.

Some chapters are written not to the willingness of the author.

Some just to show that this is same as other books.

and some with invisible ink.

At the end of the day every chapter ends with making others happy.

Blaming others, because it's always their fault.

There aren't any publisher and there are many publishers.

There is a version specially written for each reader.

An there is a version which hidden for every reader.

As each and every book the chapters which are going to be visible is decided on the critiques,

Rather than the story which wanted to be told.

Although the book is author's the whole story or some chapters belongs to someone else.

There are ways to write books where everyone critique,

with the freedom of min but remember the complements comes after the end.

But readers read what they want and majority want to write what everyone wants to read.

How it can be when you are the author, the writer of your own book of life.