Sunday, April 12, 2015

email from

Gallege De Silva

05:27 (1 hour ago)

Subject: Fwd: FW: Is this a Religion or plain thinking with a heart?

THIS IS SO TRUE!!

I do not think I ever had the opportunity of forwarding an e mail like this.

"..be encouraged for they walk amongst us..!"

What do you think of this guy?
Please read this and salute this man.

A young man in his thirties used to stand on the footpath opposite the famous Tata Cancer Hospital at Mumbai and stare at the crowd in front- fear plainly written upon the faces of the patients standing at death's door; their relatives with equally grim faces running around.. These sights disturbed him greatly..

Most of the patients were poor people from distant towns. They had no idea whom to meet, or what to do. They had no money for medicines, not even food. The young man, heavily depressed, would return home. 'Something should be done for these people', he would. think. He was haunted by the thought day and night. At last he found a way-

He rented out his own hotel that was doing good business and raised some money. From these funds he started a charitable activity right opposite Tata Cancer Hospital , on the pavement next to Kondaji Building . He himself had no idea that the activity would continue to flourish even after the passage of 27 years. The activity consisted of providing free meals for cancer patients and their relatives. Many people in the vicinity approved of this activity. Beginning with fifty, the number of beneficiaries soon rose to hundred, two hundred, three hundred. As the numbers of patients increased, so did the number of helping hands. As years rolled by, the activity continued; undeterred by the change of seasons, come winter, summer or even the dreaded monsoon of Mumbai. The number of beneficiaries soon reached 700. Mr Harakhchand Sawla, for that was the name of the pioneer, did not stop here. He started supplying free medicines for the needy. In fact, he started a medicine bank, enlisting voluntary services of three doctors and three pharmacists. A toy banks was opened for kids suffering from cancer. The 'Jeevan Jyot' trust founded by Mr Sawla now runs more than 60 humanitarian projects. Sawla, now 57 years old, works with the same vigour. A thousand salutes to his boundless energy and his monumental contribution!

There are people in this country who look upon Sachin Tendulkar as 'God'- for playing 200 test matches in 20 years, few hundred one day matches, and scoring100 centuries and 30,000 runs. But hardly anyone knows Harakhchand Sawla, leave alone call him 'God' for feeding free lunches to 10 to 12 lac cancer patients and their relatives. We owe this discrepancy to our mass media!

(A relentless hunt on Google failed to procure a photograph of Mr.Sawla.)

Crores of devotees hunting for 'God' in Vithoba temple at Pandharpur, Sai temple at Shirdi, Balaji temple at Tirupati will never find 'God'. God resides in our vicinity. But we, like mad men run after 'god-men', styled variously as Bapu, Maharaj or Baba. All Babas, Maharajs and Bapus become multi-millionnaires, but our difficulties, agonies and disasters persist unabated till death. For last 27 years, millions of cancer patients and their relatives have found 'God', in the form of Harakhchand Sawla.

As you forward interesting jokes and poems instantly, do forward this message. Mr Sawla deserves his fair share of fame.

PS
The Cancer Hospital, Maharagama, Sri Lanka, has quite a few organisations like the above 'serving in silence'.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Drinking Rum and Coca-cola.

The song was published in the United States with Amsterdam listed as the lyricist and Jeri Sullavan and Paul Baron as musical composers, the melody had been previously published as the work of Trinidadian calypso composer Lionel Belasco on a song titled "L'Année Passée," which was in turn based on a folksong from Martinique.^[2] The original lyrics to "Rum and Coca-Cola" were written by Rupert Grant, another calypso musician from Trinidad who went by the stage name of Lord Invader.^{[citation
needed]} (The true credits for music and lyrics were restored in a plagiarism lawsuit won by attorney Louis Nizer, the account of which can be read in his book, My Life in Court.)

According to Lord Invader:

Calypso is the folklore of Trinidad, a style of poetry, telling about current events in song. Back home in the West Indies, Trinidad, where I'm from, it's a small island, I'm proud of it. I was traveling on a bus, someplace they call Point Cumana, a bathing resort, and I happened to see the G.I.s in the American social invasion in the West Indies, Trinidad. You know the girls used to get the candies and stuff like that, and they go to the canteens with the boys and so on, have fun. So I noticed since the G.I.s came over there, they really generally chase with soda, ordinary soda, but their chaser was Rum and Coke. They drink rum, and they like Coca-Cola as a chaser, so I studied that as an idea of a song, and Morey Amsterdam had the nerve to say that he composed that song back here.^[3]

Andrews Sisters - Rum And Coca Cola (Rare DOT Recording)

https://youtu.be/r3ntMHk_QiM

Rum & Coca-Cola- Harry Belafonte (Vinyl)

https://youtu.be/6B4cd11SWHY

Wanda Jackson - Rum and Coca-Cola

https://youtu.be/GDPkp0Aetoc

THE ANDREWS SISTERS
"Rum And Coca-Cola"

(Words: Morey Amsterdam / Music: Jeri Sullavan, Paul Baron)

Play Music

If you ever go down Trinidad
They make you feel so very glad
Calypso sing and make up rhyme
Guarantee you one real good fine time