Contradictions

This silence is deafening

This darkness is blinding

This tranquility is disturbing

This void is overwhelming

American Visa - All the fuss.

Recently I had to obtain business visa to travel to USA. Unlike the other countries I've traveled- mostly Asian- this particular visa process included an interview with a visa consulate. So there was a little fuss about getting things ready. So I thought about writing it down for future references. The US embassy Sri Lankan web site doesn't have much info about visa application process, but it does refer the global sites which have everything one needs for the process. Once I was at the embassy this morning, I couldn't believe how many people came to the place not having a clue about the process.

This Link has all the steps one needs to follow starting from determining correct visa type. At the end of these steps one will have an appointment with a visa consulate at the US Embassy located at Colombo 03, near Cinnamon Grand. After having completed online application, applicants MUST have with them, on the day of the interview, the appointment confirmation letter, visa application fee payment receipt- a yellow bank slip, and a valid passport. There are some additional documents necessary to support their case which are described here. Basic idea is, one has to convince the visa consulates that they can support their stay in US and they have enough ties here in SL and will return back to SL.

So this morning I had my appointment on 7.45 am. I was at the gate by 7.30. There were guys who had 8.30 appointments already queued up which was really a waste of time. Because security won't let anybody in before scheduled time. Being late I think is somewhat ok, because I heard a guy asking a security guard about a friend who was coming late. One other important thing is electronics are not allowed in. You can leave phones at the gate, but not big bags and laptops. Again these info is on the website, so I traveled light only with my phone and docs.

I was asked to show my passport and appointment confirmation letter at the counter. Then, like in the airport, I had to empty my pockets, remove my shoes and belt and walk trough a metal detector TWICE. Once I was inside, nice security guards showed me where to go. Inside, I met another security guard at the second metal detector who gave me a token number and told me to join the queue for counter number one. Then began the long wait!!!

At the first counter, I had to hand in my passport, appointment letter, bank receipt and other documents which are addressed to the visa officer. I handed my employment confirmation letter and invitation letter. The officer bundled them up and pointer me to next counter. Lady at the next counter took my finger prints, all ten of 'em, and surprisingly, mine worked the first time!! (My fingers are not very photogenic - just like the rest of me, so usually I have to try multiple times to get them right)

Then I had to sit in chairs (plural because I had to keep jumping chairs as the queue moved) until it was my turn for the interview. It wasn't boring at all sitting their for one and half hours- see it doesn't take that long usually, but with my luck, the visa officers had to have a little meeting for about an hour. So I watched as many people struggle to submit their papers to officer at counter one.

Their were these three guys- I think they were actors, because I saw some magazine covers and drama references with them. They had a fourth traveler who are travelling with them but coming in for interview the next day. It took a long time to process their documents, and I heard the officer advising them to ask their institute to arrange a single interview if they are travelling together in the future. There was another couple- I thought at first, but turned out to be some kind of business partners, who had individual interview appointments but had only one copy of  employment statement. Whoever went second were asked to tell the visa consulate that the first one had the letter and they were cleared to go. There was a Spanish girl who didn't know enough English, and was allowed have her husband come in and translate for her. Good thing her husband had American Visa. I wandered what would've happened if he didn't. Finally there was this mother and two kids who didn't have the appointment letter somehow and hadn't paid the fee. Their was a cashier at a counter and I'm not so sure how things worked out for her.

Another thing I learned was that people who are not good with English can ask for a translator and many did today. Because of the meeting, the place was a bit crowded. They had a water filter their and of course toilets- American style.

At around 10 am the officers returned. I was called in around 10.20. It was a short interview. Although I had my salary statements, bank statements and even my car registration to prove that I have stuff here to come back to(good thing I didn't bother to translate my property deeds) the visa officer didn't ask for any of such documents. He wanted to know, why am I travelling to USA, do I have relatives or know anybody in USA and who's gonna pay for my stay there. And just like that, I got my visa approval.

I didn't get my visa and passport right away. I will have to go back tomorrow around 3.30pm with that token and my ID, to collect my passport. And that'll be it.

Unfamiliar Sensations

Eyes kept noticing a smile
                          they shouldn't notice
Ears kept listening for a voice
                          they shouldn't listen
Heart kept skipping beats
                          it shouldn't skip
Mind kept wondering about someone
                          it shouldn't wonder about

නෑසුණු වදන්

කවර නොදැමූ පොත
දැක කෝප වූ ගුරු සිත
ගෙන්වා අයිති කාරිය
අසයි නොදැමූ කාරිය

දෙමවුපියො නොබලුවෙද
දරුවො පොත ගරු නොකළෙද
දැරිය නිරුත්තර
බලයි බිම හිස පහත් කර

නැත මට මවුපියන්
සදා දෙන රස බොජුන්
පෙර පැය විසි හතර
මදි විය දමන්නට කවර

දෙනතුරු දැරිය පිළිතුරු
ඉවසා නොසිටි තැන ගුරු
පොත ගියේ ගුවනට
කඳුළු දී දැරි දෙනෙතට

සිර කර සියලු දුක්
හෙළා දුක් සුසුමක්
විඳගෙන රුදුරු දඬුවම
ඉවත ගියෙ ඈ නිහඬවම

Rainbow

She made it rain,

          when she was happy

He made it sunny,

          when he was happy

Together they were so happy,

          that they made a rainbow…

පන්සලේ වග

හැම පෝයටම පන්සල් නොගියත් අද ආච්චි පන්සල පැත්තට ඇද්දුවෙ ඇගට  සනීපයක් දැනුන හින්ද. සිල් ගන්න ආපු උපාසක උපාසිකාවන්ගෙන් පිරිල තිබුණු ධර්ම ශාලාවේ ආච්චිත් කොනක් බලල වාඩි උනේ අහල පහල සිල් ඇත්තන්ගේ කතාවට ඇහුන් කන් දෙන ගමන්. සාකච්චාව යන්නෙ දන් දෙන හැටියි පින් කරන හැටියි ගැන. සමහරු කියනව මලක් පානක් පූජ කරනවට වඩා පින් සිද්ධ වෙනවලු පාරෙ යන හිඟන්නෙක්ට කීයක් හරි දුන්නම. ඊට වඩා පින්ලු හාමුදුරු නමකට දන් දුන්නම. හැබැයි පිංවන්ත හාමුදුරු  නමක් වෙන්න ඕනෙලු. සාංඝික කරලා ලොකුවට දානයක් දුන්නම ආත්ම ගානකට ඇති වෙන්න පින් රැස් කර ගත්තහැකිලු. යන දාක අරන් යන්න තියෙන්නේ ඔය පින් ටික විතරයිලු.
සල්ලි දීල දේපල වස්තුව රැස් කොරන එකෙයි දන් දීල පින් රැස් කොරන එකෙයි වෙනස මොකද්ද කියල කල්පනා කර කර ආච්චි උන්නු තැනින් නැගිටල බුලත් විටක් ගන්න කියල හිමින් සැරේ පාර පැත්තට අදුන. පන්සලේ ගේට්ටුව ලග උන්න උපාසක පින්වත්තු  පාර අයිනෙ උන්න හිඟන්නෙක් පෙන්නල කියපු කතාවක් ආච්චිගේ කනට වැටුනේ ඒ යද්දි. "ඔය මිනිස්සුන්ට  දෙන්න හොඳ නෑ, හැන්දෑවට ගිහින් ඔය සල්ලි වලින් බොනව". ආච්චි කල්පනා කළේ මිනිස්සු කොච්චර තදින් අල්ලන් ඉන්නවද කිව්වොත් දෙන දේ දුන්නට පස්සේ ඒකට වෙන දේ ගැනත් වද වෙන තරම ගැන. විට ගන්න තිබුන සල්ලි ටික හිඟන්නට දීල ආච්චි බෝ මලුව පැත්තට ගියා.
බොහොම උගත් පෙනුමක් තිබුන මහත්තුරු දෙන්නෙක් බරපතල ධර්ම කරුණු ගැන ලොකු විවාදෙක. දෙන්නම තමන්ගේ මතේ තදින් අල්ලාගෙන බොහොම සැරෙන් කතා කරනව. ලේන් තැටියෙන් කන්න ආපු ලේනෙකුත් සද්දෙට බයේ පැනල දිව්ව. ධර්මය උනත් තදින් අල්ලගත්තහම නිවන දුරට යන බව ලේනට උනත් තේරෙන්න ඇතිය කියලා ආච්චිට හිතුන. සුපුරුදු නිස්කලංක කම නැති හින්ද ආච්චිත් වැඩිය එතන රැඳුනේ නෑ.
පන්සලේ ඉස්සර තිබුණ නිස්කලංක කම දැන් නැතෙයි කියල කවුදෝ කියපු කතාවෙ ඇත්තක් නැත්තෙමත් නෑ කියල ආච්චිට හිතුන. ආච්චි නම් කිසිම දෙයක් හිතට ගන්නෙ නැති හින්ද, එහෙමයි කියල හිතේ නිස්කලංකෙ අඩුවක් උනේ නෑ. සුදුම සුදු පාට චෛත්යයි , කොළ පාටින් දළු හෙලවෙන බෝධියයි ඇස් දෙකට දෙන සුවයයි, කපුරු, හඳුන් කූරු, පහන් වැටි වල සුවදින් නහයට දැනෙන සුවයයි, සිනිදු වැල්ලෙන් දෙපතුලට දැනෙන සුවයයි ඒ නිස්කලංක බව තව ටිකක් වැඩි කළා විතරයි.
ආයෙ වතාවක් පන්සලට එන්න වාරු තියේවිද කියල සැක හින්ද අන්තිම වතාවටත් පන්සල දිහාට හැරිලා වන්දනා  කරපු ආච්චි සුපුරුදු ගමනින් පාරට බැහැල  ගෙදර යන්න පිටත් උනා.

Living the Dreams

By the time she realized

      what they meant to her

               they were gone…

All she could do was

       living their DREAMS….