Banu's Corner

What is wrong with SL cricket? Who should take the blame?

Chinthaka Palliyahguru — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:28:41 +0000

For the third time, Pakistan won four matches in an ODI series of five matches against Sri Lanka. The previous such victory came in the ODI series in Sri Lanka in 1994 (Source: espncricinfo)

Another very painful series is ended. I know that it was a hard period for both fans and players. The thing that I can’t understand is why nothing has changed after England or Australia tournaments?

As most of us, even I could see from the faces of the players something’s drastically wrong. The captain lacked application. Experience means nothing if this kind of display continues. SL team should practice harder and get their mental strength: that will be the only way to win. Currently our team is lacking both of them when compared with other international squads.

Let’s take a step back see what are the major changes done after the World cup 2011.

We have change our selection team
Selected Marvan to our batting coach role
Made Dilshan as the captain

Have all of these worked for us? My answer is NO. I think all these changes made the situation even worse.

I can’t understand why everything goes wrong with SL cricket? Few years ago I felt that SL team was da luckiest team in the world. But today I feel that I’m wrong. Other teams use young players and they success every time. But we? Better to play a new young team and get them experienced to match situations. What are we waiting for? To be all out 50?

So many excuses from Dilshan fingering to junior players without talking about his poor batting, and captaincy, I’m looking forward to see Dilshan on Friday night (T20), Our team mates must win T20 match and keep the ranking in 2nd position.

With the current form of SL cricketers, simply SL deserves the bottom most position in both the Test and the ODI Ranking Tables in the world. It seems they are going to get there sooner!!

Come on guys, as a real cricket lover in Sri Lanka I hope our team will come back their natural form from upcoming SA tournament. I am banking on Sanga stepping up big time in the upcoming series and carrying the side like he did v Pak.

Practical Project Management – Tip Number #1 (NAAA)

Chinthaka Palliyahguru — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:30:23 +0000

Okay, after quite some time I want to share some of my experience in project management. I have seen many sites and books which talk about project management and how to become a successful project manager, etc. But what I want to do here is to more focus on practical project management.

So, going forward, I will be writing short blog posts with my day to day experiences. Hope it will help for all fresh PMs out there.

So what is this rule number 1 (NAAA)?

Never Assume Always Ask

It is common mistakes to ‘assume’ you know what the other party thinks. You don’t! Stop looking for evidence you were right from the beginning. Listen to their story and hear what they are really saying. Repeat what you have understood to make sure you got the message.

VERY Important: Ask each stakeholder which other persons or parties they think should be contacted. This way, you will minimize the possibility of forgetting a target group.

How I became a PMP® and way to get through the exam

Chinthaka Palliyahguru — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:20:00 +0000

I am happy to announce that on last June 2011 I obtained the Project Management Professional (PMP) credentials which I was waited most and valued most. So here I am as PMP.

So I thought of write something after quite some time (better late than never) on Why I chose to become a PMP What I did to prepare for the exam and how long it took me What sections of the exam I felt were especially difficult What I would do differently if I were to take the exam over again And finally, how I believe being a PMP will help me at my current job.

So, why I chose to become a PMP? Honestly, the very first insight towards the PMP has given by one of my good friend. After that I found it quite interesting and becoming a PMP is enabling us to advance our career.

Well I approached my PMP test from a bizarre angle, but it worked as I passed it in a Proficient level. I took my 40 hours of professional learning from “PMS – Kirulapona, Sri Lanka”. Well it was a great help as I’m not a person who is good at remembering books (Trust me remembering book will not help you to get the exam questions right). I only studied PMBOK (skimmed through the book) and PMP Exam Prep (Rita Mulcahy) in detail level. I specifically never looked at any other books. After finish studying the books I did 4 mock exams (where exam questions were offered online were extremely helpful as well) in PMstudy. So I can tell you that you have to do following three steps as must dos before the exam.

1. Read the PMBOK at least once (Skim through the book if you participated to the classes actively)

2. Read PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy

3. 4 mock exams (time it, don’t look at the answers or refer books while doing it, juts note down questions that you think difficult or cannot attend)

Hope this helps to all the people out there who is willing to become PMP certified. Good Luck

If a star is a 1000 light years away, sky we seeing now can be an Illusion of time

Chinthaka Palliyahguru — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:50:53 +0000

I observed that the sky is pretty clear last night after a continuous rain which was there from the morning. From nowhere I suddenly wanted to set up my good old telescope (which I got as a gift from my father about 8 years back) just for fun. So I set it up in my balcony and started to stare at the sky. Well there were few clouds but I can still see the stars.

As I stared at the sky (rather stars) I had this very strange an funny question which has no direct answer, I asked myself, if we are looking at a star 1000 light years away is it possible that the star no longer exists? Is it possible that the billions of stars we are seeing in the night sky may have died long ago? There is pretty good possibility of sky being just an illusion for us.

Most of the stars in the universe are more than 1000 light years away from us. So actually the stars that we see now might not even exist at this time but we can still see it due to fact of the speed of light. Since the light we see from distant stars and galaxies took many years to get here, we have no timely data to know whether those objects still exist. The distances are just too vast. The conventional thinking is that stars can exist for billions of years before they consume all their available fuel and finally blow up or collapse so it’s reasonable to assume that they are still there but we can never really know for sure.

For example, a star called Betelgeuse might have already gone supernova, but we might not see it for the next few hundreds of years.

Is this reasonably accurate? If this is accurate night sky is just an illusion for human beings. Too bad.

Why did I become a project manager? Why do I remain as a project manager?

Chinthaka Palliyahguru — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 06:49:33 +0000

Today I woke up with a terrible cold and bit of a flue for my American friends. Running out to my car 15 minutes earlier than the normal time that I’m leaving usually, just to get some quick medicine on the way, and asking myself, “Why am I doing this?”. Well that answer is quite simple. I have a client who needs my help today and have to submit a draft proposal for a potential project.

Becoming a project manager was an evolution for me; evolution in that I kept falling into scenarios that leave me managing people temporarily from various departments and working to build human workflows between the fortress of IT and the ever changing landscape of the business in various types of clients including fortune 500 companies.

I started my career (right after the first degree) as a business analyst and I found that it’s not my type of job. So I requested from my management to assign me a small scale project. But at that time there was no such position called project manager in the organization. But they gave me a project to start work on and I got a perfect superior (who was my line manager) who has extraordinary skills in organizing. He always ensured to direct me in the correct path. He never made my life easier and due to that I did learn a lot from him.

I continue to be a project manager because it is my chosen profession. I choose to continue. I choose to seek out new clients who need my teams help and support. I choose to get scolded form my loved ones and family members for doing work all the time. I choose to work 12 hours per day even in the holidays. But believe me; I really like this work and start digging further towards the end goal.

I guess the bigger question now is “Why do I remain as a project manager?” You see, project management gives me the variety that my personality type desires in the workplace. No single day is ever the same to me. Very challenging and I find it very interesting too. I know there are plenty of opportunities out there that also give you that same variety, but there are plenty of ones that don’t. I recognize in myself that I am the type of person that would get bored easily in other roles.

Being a project manager also helps me because it is the perfect role to leverage my natural strengths: Organizational skills, people skills, communication skills, ability to deal effectively in ambiguous situations, and it just happens I like having the responsibility and control to make a difference. The challenges that come with Project Management keeps the work interesting, and let’s face it, not everybody can do it. I take pride in my profession, and enjoy the opportunity to continuously learn and lead.

Last but not least I must tell that all the teams and each individual was in the team that I’ve managed so far is simply great and awesome.

Cricket world cup 2011

Chinthaka Palliyahguru — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:05:51 +0000

Like every Cricket Fan, I am also delighted and thrilled to welcome ICC Cricket World Cup. I did not prepare myself to watch this edition of the World Cup with any hopes of INDIA lifting the coveted trophy. But better team wins.

India, the new cricket world cup champions!!! Great job.. They became world champions after 28 years (FYI: back in 1983 when they won the world cup for the first time it was 60 Overs match). Sri Lanka has became runner up again (Sri Lanka was the runner up in 2007 as well). As far as I believe both the teams have done their job well towards their country. As a Sri Lankan I would rather say that we Won and lost at the same time.

It was the first time in the history where two Asian teams came to the final and also it was the first time that a team won the world championship in their motherland.

To play in the world cup for their team is the dream of every cricketer and to fulfill that dream they prepare throughout the 4 years period. People of every cricket loving nation crazily follow the tournament and support their team as some wins, some lose but the fever continues till the last ball is bowled.

Let’s have quick turn back at the whole tournament. There were lots of astonishments during the tournament including Australia (won the world cup three times 1999, 2003 and 2007 in a row) had to go back home after the quarter final match. Also Englad had to face much unexpected defeat from Ireland (A team which not accepted to play Test matches) and from Sri Lanka. I can highlight that the South Africa not even getting close to the 222 they needed to beat New Zealand in the quarter-final and losing by 49 runs as the worst run chase.

There have been far too few interesting matches, the majority of the 49 ending in predictably huge margins, and far too much travelling for all concerned, in far too long a period. The ICC president Sharad Pawar may say this World Cup has been a triumph, and it has been less sterile than the last one in the West Indies, but what I think is it has again failed to give the sport’s finest talent the right stage often enough.

Anyway I love cricket and undoubtedly World Cup is the greatest show on earth for avid cricket fans. Wishing all the very best and good luck to Sri Lankan team to bring the cup back to SL in 2015….

Some new captions….

Chinthaka Palliyahguru — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:23:43 +0000

Thank you all for understanding about my need to just talk on this blog. When I started this blog I really didn’t worry about what I talked about on here. It was my place to let it all out and to share what my life is like as an expat. I would sit down each day without any real blog post in mind. I would start typing and the post would grow from word to word. However, I am going to go back to the style of writing I had when I began this blog. Meaning there is no style. ..

So I decided put up some of my photos as I have always done from the recent past. Lat two months actually i did not have time much time for roaming. But somehow i managed my time to go to Yala Sanctuary and Pollonnaruwa. Also I went to Kithulgala last week.

Changeable Hawk Eagle – Showing up the prestige of being a bird

Rose Ringed Parakeet – Wait till I comes to you……

White Breasted Waterhen – Nice pose…..

Peahen – trying to hide her self in bush….

Crested Serpent Eagle

Date & Time: 16/01/2010 10:58 AM | Venue: Yala National Park
Camera Model: Canon EOS 1000D | F-stop: f/5 | Exposure Time: 1/100 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-100
Focal Length: 190mm | Max Aperture: 4.64

Green Bee Eater

Daimler Sovereign

Daimler Sovereign was a name applied by British manufacturer Jaguar Cars to a sequence of luxury automobiles built by it but carrying the Daimler badge between 1966 and 1983. This was parked in the Plantation Hotel @ Kithulgala, Sri Lanka.

Date & Time: 27/02/2010 2:53 PM | Venue: Plantation Holiday Resort, Kithulgala, Sri Lanka.
Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D (REBEL T1i) | F-stop: f/4 | Exposure Time: 1/30 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-200
Focal Length: 55mm

Fresh Tomatoes

Usually sprawling plant in the nightshade family that is typically cultivated for its edible fruit. Savory in flavor (and accordingly termed a vegetable;), the fruit of most varieties ripens to a distinctive red color.

Serenity Village

Date & Time: 27/02/2010 6:16 PM | Venue: Serenity Village, Thummodara, Sri Lanka.
Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D (REBEL T1i) | F-stop: f/5.6 | Exposure Time: 1/8 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-200
Focal Length: 55mm

Renovated Ceiling of the “Thiwanka Pilimageya”

Bent at three places is the meaning of the word ‘thiwanka’, as such an image is housed here this Image House is said to have got its name. the Thiwanka Image House which, at its longest, measures 133 ft externally and has a breadth of 67 ft. 6 in. at the Cella, 51 ft 6 in. for the vestibule and 29 ft. 6 in. at the portico, measures internally 29 ft. 6 in. square in the vestibule and 44 ft. square for the cella, as originally designed. These dimensions, however, have been considerably reduced by a later lining to the interior of the walls. The largest cycle of painting of the 2 period is preserved in the Thiwanka Image House.

Gal Vihara (The Rock Temple)

The Gal Vihara at Polonnaruwa represents the pinnacle of Sinhalese rock carving. The four great Buddha statues herein with the serene facial expressions & liquid flow of the robes, all carved from the same massive slab of granite, originally formed part of King Parakrambahu’s northern monastery complex. As the sockets cut into rock behind the statues indicate, each statue would originally have been housed in its own enclosure.

Standing Buddha Statue – The seven meter tall standing Buddha statue next to the reclining Buddha statue is the most unusual of the group of four Buddha statues: his arms folded & his eyes half-closed. It’s a sorrowful expression. Dark strata in the rock sweep contour lines across the delicately carved features of his face like the slipstream from a dream.

Seated Buddha Statue -Seated Buddha is framed by Sanchi-style arch, with tiny bodhisattavas looking down on him from their celestial dwellings-perhaps showing a touch of Mahayana Buddhist influence, with its belief in Bodhisattvas.

Raja Sabha Mandapaya (Nissanga Malla Audience Hall)

The council chamber of king Nissankamalla is also located close to the Island Park and to the west of the Parakrama-Samudra. It has been built in three receding tiers. It still preserves on its stone pillars inscriptions denoting the positions taken up by its members when the council was in session. The colossal figure of a lion in the round which served as the throne of the king has been removed to the Colombo museum from this building.

Date & Time: 30/01/2010 10:45 AM | Venue: Raja Sabha Mandapa, Pollonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.
Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D (REBEL T1i) | F-stop: f/8 | Exposure Time: 1/100 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-100
Focal Length: 32mm

Gal Vihara – Near Temple

Date & Time: 30/01/2010 11:34 AM | Venue: Gal Vihara (The Rock Temple), Pollonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.
Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D (REBEL T1i) | F-stop: f/4 | Exposure Time: 1/80 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-125
Focal Length: 65mm

Sri Lanka Legge’s Flowerpecker

All alone….

Date & Time: 29/01/2010 4:41 PM | Venue: Pollonnaruwa
Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D (REBEL T1i) | F-stop: f/5.6 | Exposure Time: 1/80 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-100
Focal Length: 55mm

Scarecrow….

Date & Time: 29/01/2010 4:29 PM | Venue: Pollonnaruwa
Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D (REBEL T1i) | F-stop: f/5.6 | Exposure Time: 1/320 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-200
Focal Length: 250mm

The real tree house

Date & Time: 29/01/2010 4:24 PM | Venue: Pollonnaruwa
Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D (REBEL T1i) | F-stop: f/5.6 | Exposure Time: 1/250 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-250
Focal Length: 250mm

Sharpness @ its best

Date & Time: 29/01/2010 4:21 PM | Venue: Pollonnaruwa
Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D (REBEL T1i) | F-stop: f/5.6 | Exposure Time: 1/80 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-100
Focal Length: 48mm

Colorfulness @ its best….

Date & Time: 29/01/2010 4:19 PM | Venue: Pollonnaruwa
Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D (REBEL T1i) | F-stop: f/5.6 | Exposure Time: 1/125 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-100
Focal Length: 55mm

Getting some rest….

Date & Time: 29/01/2010 3:44 PM | Venue: Pollonnaruwa
Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D (REBEL T1i) | F-stop: f/9 | Exposure Time: 1/200 sec. | ISO Speed: ISO-400
Focal Length: 55mm

Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium Entrance

Canon EOS REBEL T1i

Caught to My Eyes……

Chinthaka Palliyahguru — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:22:21 +0000

I bid farewell to year 2009 by going on a trip.. … What wonderful year it was. And also, I was able to capture some nice sceneries of Mother Nature… Thought of sharing some of these snaps with you guys since those were nice memories.

Mother and Daughter……

Here I come…..

Respecting…….

Taking a break after long day……

You can find more photos here… …

FastOrder.lk

Chinthaka Palliyahguru — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:59:23 +0000

There is no fun like sitting on your sofa and with a remote in your hand enjoying the game of cricket or your favorite movie show. Suddenly an urge to eat something arises and you don’t have anything to eat at home. You want to order your favorite pizza or pasta but don’t want to move out. What to do then? Simply login into your computer and place an online order with the online ordering service. Within a few minutes of you placing the order, the outlet owner will deliver the food at your doorstep. Such is the ease with the online services.

Online food Ordering is now in Sri Lanka! We all might say wow. Anyway online food ordering is not that new to Sri Lankan industry. As we all know some of the Food chains have their own website which enables customers to order their food online. But the issue was we didn’t have much variation. If its pizza it was only pizza variations. So how many of us were looking for some solid online solution in order to make our life easier.
Up until last week there was no such online mechanism was in placed. But guys, girls…. Now you can order whatever you want from well reputed restaurants in Sri Lanka. . I know this will be such great news for all you people out there. So quickly visit Fastorder.lk. It has collaborations with large number of restaurants chains in Sri Lanka.
It provides your favorite restaurant an Internet presence on our portal(s) to display information regarding your favorite menus, food and ordering capabilities. All you can go to Fastorder.lk to find your restaurant review the menu, make menu selections, place and pay for orders. Fastorder then automatically send you’r food order via email, fax, or phone call to the relevant restaurants.

I don’t want to write so much about the fast order. Just visit the site and feel the difference. Do not forget to the experience the online ordering feeling.

Happy Ordering….

Company Outing @ Ranweli Beach Hotel

Chinthaka Palliyahguru — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:34:33 +0000

After planning for weeks, we somehow managed to take our nerdy and busy bees on day out on last Sunday (Sunday 20th December 2009). We all wanted to go to down south but unfortunately all the places has been booked due to the season. So when we were wondering where to go, our CEO suggested on this placed called Ranweli Beach Hotel. Since none of us have ever been to this place prior to this and we haven’t experienced the hospitality and the facilities they have, we all had some second thoughts of the place.

Anyway trip was scheduled and vehicles for the trip have been booked and all set. But all the guys wanted to go by train since this was kind of good opportunity to everyone to fell the train journey. So we all came to the railway station early morning. Unfortunately two guys couldn’t make it on the time and therefore they missed the train fun. We had great fun in the train. But I happened to be near the door (I know its not a good habit though) because none of us know the station which we should get down. So have to look for the station name at each and every stop.
Finally got down from “Waikkal”, luckily it was the correct station too. Anyway then we didn’t know which direction we should take in order to reach to the hotel. So we have been guided by a villager (we named him as Asterix). Even though he gave the correct guidance a board miss lead us and ended up by going about 1 KM in a wrong road.
At the time we got into the hotel all others have arrived. We had short company presentation before start any activity. Then we started boozing. Since it was family outing, people who came with their families went to the pool and rest of us went to the beach. .. Played Tap Rugger, had awesome sea bath, TT and there were many more games. Food, dessert and specially the bites were great.
Each individual had the fun in their own way as well like a team and all of us enjoyed the outing to the max. Hope to go again to this particular hotel wince all the facilities and the service they maintained throughout the day was really surprising.

Happy Holiday guys!