{"id":101675,"date":"2020-04-28T16:08:14","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T23:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101675"},"modified":"2020-04-28T16:08:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T23:08:14","slug":"the-dream-and-the-doodlebug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/28\/the-dream-and-the-doodlebug\/","title":{"rendered":"The dream and the doodlebug"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The other day I was having a nice snooze in my reclining chair, my mind wandering around in a no man\u2019s land, now and then crossing over to my childhood-past, which lay on one side and then to the other, my adulthood-present. It was a balmy afternoon, and I found it hard not to fall asleep. Finally, I did and then I dreamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0I was kneeling down with a couple of my childhood friends around me all looking down intently at the little funnel-shaped pit on the sand, my right index finger going around the rim of it in circles, while I kept on chanting \u2018bin kundo, bin kundo\u2026.\u2019 I can\u2019t remember the rest of the rhyme. And suddenly there it was. It popped out from the basement of its sandy castle, hung around there for a minute or so and seemingly disappointed that it was not something, which would fit into its menu hurriedly dived back into the sand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, I came back to the present regrettably leaving my childhood past and this thought suddenly jumped into my mind the only god knows from where: a striking behavioural similarity between that doodlebug and our present-day politician, particularly the ones, some of whom are now out and about more or less, criticizing, demanding and becoming more and more verbose and vociferous.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up until now almost all of them were in hiding except the\nPresident and a very few. They knew that the \u2018Corona\u2019 sees nothing except \u2018ha\nha here is one from that species called human, let me be your guest please\u2019.\nAnd they heeded the advice of the health officials to the letter, which was\nexemplary, though not exactly synonymous with their general behaviour and\nconduct. But they knew very well that the Corona is made of different and\nsterner stuff unlike the public. So many of them did not want to take any\nchances and stayed put behind the closed doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And suddenly they felt the tremors like my childhood acquaintance,\nbut of another kind: the election tremors. Sometimes greed can be so\noverwhelming that it can make one forget all around him, the mind focussed only\non how to get there and grab. So now we can see some of them are already\npopping out, sliding into the right mood, talking to the media pointing at this\nand that in their customary eloquence and tone with probes, promises and\nproposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like my tiny childhood acquaintance, they are also predators,\nthough of a different make and mould. And instead of ants, they prey on the\ngullible public, who keep falling into their pits every five years or so to be\nmercilessly devoured by them lying in wait behind a wall of promises as loose\nas the sand of my doodlebugs\u2019 castle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw some endearing examples of true patriotism coming from few\nforeign leaders, who decided to cut down their own salaries. Then some of\nour own doodlebug-politicians probably taking their cue from those foreign\nleaders were also asking for a cut-down too, but alas, of an altogether\ndifferent kind. They were requesting to consider cutting down the minimum\nnumber of years required for them to be eligible for a lifelong pension. We all know\nthat these predators are master fishermen too\n(my sincere apologies to the real ones), who are well versed in the art of\nfishing in troubled waters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then going by the fact that the election will have to be held\nsooner or later, the requested cut-down would surely be welcome and supported\nby the rest of their kind too irrespective of what colour they wear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it looks like the election-tremors are getting weaker though\ntemporarily for sure, losing the fight to Corona-tremors, which might prompt\nmany of those doodlebug-politicians to dive back into their dens. But I am sure\nit won\u2019t be too long before they will feel those election-tremors again. Then\nthey will be ready and eagerly waiting for you down there in their pits to\ndevour you. Don\u2019t fall for the dazzling lights of several colours (you can\nguess what they are) decorating the tops of their pits beckoning you to \u2018please\ncome and have a closer look\u2019. Don\u2019t go near them and be their prey. Let them\nstarve till cows come home. Many of them have been on a feeding-frenzy, far too\nlong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laksiri Warnakula<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula The other day I was having a nice snooze in my reclining chair, my mind wandering around in a no man\u2019s land, now and then crossing over to my childhood-past, which lay on one side and then to the other, my adulthood-present. It was a balmy afternoon, and I found it hard not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laksiri-warnakula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}