Off on a Tangent ~ හිතුමතේ හී සර

Writing a paper for a conference is no easy task. I should know - I've been trying to write one for days. On some days its just a few lines. Some days complete writers block. And some days the latex editor decides to go insane. There are also those meddlesome conference 'guidelines' to be followed ; page limit/word limit/ number of references etc. Now I understand why so many publications are so difficult to read - the authors cut down explanation to comply with the word/page limit, resulting in text and equations that sometimes seem to take quantum leaps leaving the readers with furrowed foreheads thinking 'WTF? How did that happen?!' which then leads to acute depression in the part of the reader, in the lines of 'Why can't I understand this? Am I so stupid? OMG what if my supervisor finds out??' Of course, now I understand that being at the other end of a publication is also depressing. As the deadline looms near, sleepless nights at the lab see...

Something damn funny happened yesterday...I was at a friend's wedding reception. Bride was Sri Lankan Tamil brought up in India and groom was Anglo Indian - so naturally when they started playing songs I didn't expect any Sinhalese ones. The only Sinhalese there were two others besides myself anyway. So it was bit of a shocker when the baila beats came in, and then just after Bombay mere hai, came the unmistakable lines of 'Surangani ta maalu genava'. We (me and the other two) were quite bemused and asked the groom if he knew what language 'Surangani' was or what it meant. Guy said he didn't know the meaning, but it was like a tradition to sing it in weddings and gatherings ... :D