The Two Men And The Bear

The Two Men And The Bear

or

Minisün Dedena Saha Walaha

 

by

Gyan Fernando

Origin of this story: This was an original goody-goody story which appeared in the "Kumaraodaya", a Sinhala text for grade 1 in the 1950s. Our version has a goody-goody ending as well but the ending may be unsuitable for adults.

Once upon a time two men from a remote village in the Mahiyangana area were ambling along a jungle road talking of this and that (occasionally scratching their backsides) chewing Betel and spitting red betel juice all over the place whilst the women folk were busy working in the fields. This is rather typical of Srilankan villagers.

The two men were friends by the way.

The Gamarala Who Never Went To The Temple

 

The Gamarala Who Never Went To The Temple

or

Gamarala Sil Gath Heti

by Gyan Fernando

Illustrated by Kumaran

Technical details: This is another classic Srilankan folk story. 

We recently came across a new Sinhala version of the story in a pulp book called "Sabé Gamarala" (The Real Gamarala) written by some prat calling himself Jayatissa Boralugoda (ISBN 955-652-097-X), who attempts to sanitise and politically correct the Gamarala stories with pathetic results.

Any Srilankan who remembers the original story will agree that the new version is totally sanitised, a travesty and has very little resemblance to the original which appeared in the book "Ran Kekira Saha Thavath Katha" in the 1950s.

The MadPage version is closer to the original. In fact the original was so hilarious that the Mad Page didn't really have to jazz it up as such…

As usual memories were jogged by our MadSister Babs..

Once upon a time there was a Gamarala (village elder) who never went to the temple.

He had better things to do such as drinking arrack. This activity of course required a lot of advanced planning since liquor is not sold on Poya (full moon) days and the moon of course follows the Lunar Calendar.

The Gamarala and the Ash Gourd

The Gamarala and the Ash Gourd

or

Puhul Hora

by Gyan Fernando

Illustrated by Kumaran

Intro: This is another classic Srilankan folk story but spoilt by the rather tame and goody-goody ending. So we jazzed it up and in keeping with present violent times in the old republic have added a bit of violence! But don't worry: No one gets killed and so it has a U certificate and is therefore suitable for family viewing!

Once upon a time there was a Gamarala (village elder). This is the same Gamarala who appears in previous stories so read them first. He was a cultivator by day time and an Arrakku soak by night but he never was a violent man. 

With a dozen or so assorted kids the only solace he could find was of the bottled form.

Classics Up To Date: How the Gamarala (nearly!) went to Heaven

How the Gamarala (nearly!) went to Heaven

or

Gamarala Devlova Giya Hatti

A classic Srilankan sinhala folk story given the MadPagetm treatment!

Illustrated by Kumaran

Explanatory note: This story is based, rather loosely, on a very old classic Srilankan folk story. A Gamarala is best described as a village elder/farmer. As usual the story has been given the MadPage tm treatment and modernised with a very slight political/social commentary slant...

Once upon a time......

or Ekamuth Eka Rataka...

Sri Lanka Classics up to date: Nari Bena

Nari Béna or Hivala Saha Gama Duwa

Honey! Our son-in-law is a Jackal!

Another Srilankan folk tale updated!

by

Gyan Fernando

Illustrated by Kumaran

 Introduction: This story appeared in the Kumarodaya 5, a Sinhala text for the sixth grade in 1952 and can be found in later editions (Gunasena Publishers). It has been made into a play ("Nari Béna"). Our version has been modernised and jazzed up! The Gamarala in this story is a different one from the one that appears in other stories...

Once upon a time in a village just off Avissawella (in Sri Lanka) lived a family consisting of an elderly Gamarala (village elder), Mrs Gamarala and their teenage tearaway daughter.

McMalupaan: We took on the Big Mac!

The McMalupaan Corp

On the 22nd of April 2001, feeling rather militant and anti-American, we decided to take the mickey out of McDonalds and launch our own McMalupaan Corporation. This was largely to make fun out the Colombo 7 types who queued up for miles to get into the first McDonalds in Srilanka, mostly just to be seen. 

So we said:

"The philosophy of McDonald's is simple.....

Serve food that can be eaten with fingers. Cook fast and serve fast. (The food itself is only of minor importance). Bung it in an attractive wrapper with an eye-catching logo. Make your employees wear backward facing baseball caps. 

Teach them how to say "Can I Help You". Diversify into ethnic foods, especially when people go off traditional beefburgers because of Mad Cow Disease.

Thinking on the same lines, the Mad PageTM decided to introduce McMALUPAAN before our competition (i.e. The McDonald's Corporation) thinks of it!"

We gave our location as Punchi Borella and a lot of people fell for it! 

View the original article 

We went on to market McMalupaan, McMalupaan with Cheese Big McMalupaan McDelfries McVaddai and McPortello

We stopped short of marketing McKoththuroti 

For example we said: 

The Daily Ranil

The Daily Ranil

At the height (or bottom) of his career, we ran a one-off spoof newspaper titled "The Daily Ranil", making fun of Ranil Wickremesinghe, then the Prime Minister (or Pry Minister, as we called him) of the crazy republic.

            Have a look.

The Daily Ranil 

The Daily Ranil Features 

We also wrote "Ranil's Diary" for him. Have a look!

Ranil's Diary

Archives: Ranil's Diary