When religious rituals involve people piercing their bodies, being suspended by hooks, or rolling along the ground for long distances, where should we draw the line between religious freedom and physical harm?
And when children are involved, can we really say it is meaningful consent?
Disclaimer: I want to say this very clearly before I write anything else: I have immense respect for all religions and religious practices, and I have absolutely no intention of hurting anyone’s religious sentiments. This is not an attack on Buddhism, Sri Lanka, or the Tooth Relic Temple. I am only sharing what I personally witnessed and how deeply it affected me. Please bear with me as I write this with tears in my eyes.
As I entered the Tooth Relic Temple, I was filled with a genuine sense of devotion. I was taking in the atmosphere and the spirituality of the place.
That feeling didn’t last very long.
Another two minutes of walking, and I saw elephants who had been chained for the ceremony.
And when I say chained, I don’t mean with long chains that allowed them to move around. These chains appeared to be barely two feet long, leaving the elephants almost completely unable to move. Their legs and necks were chained.
They had clearly been standing there for hours under the freakishly hot sun. I saw a few scattered leaves for them to eat. I didn’t see any water.
At one point, a man was “watering” an elephant. He had a small pipe and was spraying water over it to cool it down.
What a fucking joke.
I stood there looking at these magnificent animals, restrained and unable to move, and something in me just broke. I walked out of the temple crying. And I didn’t stop until I had managed to get completely out of the area and into a tuk-tuk back to my hostel.
Later, I watched videos and realised that the elephants are also kept chained while walking during the ceremonies.
I genuinely cannot understand how we have normalised this. Humans are so fucking entitled.
I know this is a sensitive subject. I know there are cultural and religious contexts that I may not fully understand as an outsider.
But I also cannot pretend that what I saw did not hurt me deeply.
Maybe I am overreacting. Maybe there is context I am missing. I am open to learning.
Because those elephants didn’t look royal or sacred or whatever you want to call it. They were in pain.
Sri Lanka Government has crack down several illegal and Unauthorized constructions in Ahangama, including several foreign owned businesses which have violated the laws as beach is public property in Sri Lanka.
Cactus, Ceylon Sliders, Crust Ahangama illegal construction are demolished.
I’ve been wondering about something and would like to hear different perspectives.
Why does it sometimes seem that men show more obvious interest or attention toward women than women show toward men?
For example, you often hear about men staring at women, approaching them repeatedly, following them, or sending unwanted messages online. These situations seem much less commonly reported in the opposite direction.
I’m not saying women have no interest in men. Obviously, both men and women can be attracted to each other. I’m asking whether there is actually a biological or psychological difference in how strongly men and women experience attraction and how they express it.
If men generally experience stronger impulses or attraction, is that mainly biological, or can people learn to control and manage those feelings better?
I’m interested in hearing what both men and women think, especially from personal experience.
I’m an atheist who was born into a Christian home but went my own way at 15 and found my partner at 23 who was initially a very nice person. He comes from a Muslim family, Indian background which is known to be memon. I didn’t know much about the background. I thought Muslim is Muslim because my best friend is one and her family is so sweet down to earth and the men in that family are very calm and love their wives so much. They give off the provider energy. That was the kind of love I wished for. However, my partner treated with me utmost love, he didn’t mind my beliefs and gave me everything. He was so in love with me. He barely spoke about his family too so I thought he was on his own?
He did engage in alcohol and had a history of being with non Muslim women. Everything was so unislamic in his life and he would tell me how he badly wanted to be a “good Muslim”. I’m not going to convert into any religion but I respected Islam and its teaching but he was far from it.
He is financially well off spends money without a thought. He would spend so much on our dates, buy gifts for me etc etc (not sure if he wanted to impress me)
He asked me to leave my job because there were men who worked with me.. I was taking care of my mother.. but thought he was just jealous but apparently not, but I found him talking to women at his office. His excuse was he sees both genders equally but doesn’t his religion say not to be close to the opposite gender?
During the wedding time he expected my family to do a few things saying it’s in his culture.. like kiss his parents hands, his aunts hands, his grandma’s hand which I found to be very weird.
To buy furnitures for the house since it’s very much the brides side responsibility. We did give half of it.
We did an engagement from our side and I was told to cover my head during the registration, which I didn’t mind honestly. The hijab was cute. He expected my family to do the mehendi and invited a big crowd from his side since he was like a mehendi is a must in his culture. My mum and I funded it with a bit of help from my relatives. When we booked the venue he kept saying it’s such an ugly venue and to do it in a hotel which was out of our budget.
We did the wedding grandly (from my side) I spent every cent I had. He demanded a big wedding. His family expected a royal treatment from my family which I didnt like.
He only did a home coming ceremony and kept bragging about it. This time they forced me to cover my head saying it’s a memon thing and I hated the way I looked in it.
Things started to change, right after our homecoming we had to go to his place and his sisters were really such a show off and expected me to respect them I found it really upsetting. He ignored me and was very much with them. He spends his whole time with his sisters and his mother and yes that’s been my life so far. I was forced to wear covered clothes cos his mother and sisters didn’t like it. I was forced to stop wearing makeup.
Now that I gave birth he tells me his culture expects my side to do everything for our child. Hospital , furnitures, gifts, clothing etc. he said that the maternal side must do everything for the first child and I feel so much in pain because I currently don’t have a job and my mother doesn’t have enough money and all I see is him spending money on others and his family.
He kept putting my family down saying that we are poor and how he’s rich and my mum cannot afford a thing etc.
I just hate the decision I made and this memon nonsense.
I do not need comments backlashing the religion, backlash the culture. I respect the religion and its teaching so your hatred towards the religion doesn’t add value this.
Hey Guys!!
I am A/L student from Sri Lanka (Commerce Stream)
I generated this quiz to practise myself for the MCQ of ICT.
I am sharing this because i followed the same method for Business Studies and i was kinda able to tackle the paper.
So i thought of sharing with you guys too thinking it will be benefiting someone!
So yeahh here you goo!!
Disclaimer! : Since even me myself built this during last moment with the help of claude don't expect it to be well organized and neat it just helped so i just sent you guys
Would love to hear some feedback!
If you feel like it helped you a lot drop some thoughts in the comment.
All the best guys!!
This covers all 13 chapters of ICT in quiz format
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/9c50dd59-69f4-4784-a4ab-053a942d1adb
How do you even declare yourself as anti-rag?? How bad is the ragging in Science and engineering faculties
I’m 26 and have never really been interested in casual dating or getting involved with someone just for the sake of it. I’d rather meet someone, actually get to know them, and see if something meaningful develops.
But sometimes I wonder if that’s becoming unrealistic, especially here in Sri Lanka. 😅 Maybe it’s just my experience, but it sometimes feels like finding a Sri Lankan guy who genuinely wants to get to know someone and build something serious - rather than keeping things casual or expecting things to move way too quickly - is harder than it should be.
So I’m genuinely curious: do genuine relationships still happen naturally, or do you kind of have to actively look for them now?
And for those of you who are in serious relationships, how did you actually meet your person?
I'm 22 years old and weigh around 100 kg. I want to start going to the gym to lose fat, but I'm honestly scared because of my first experience.
I went to a gym once after O/L, and the trainer immediately asked me to do push-ups and exercises on the pull-up bar. I couldn't do any of them because it was literally my first time ever going to a gym. I felt really embarrassed and uncomfortable.
Because of that experience, I've been afraid to go back. Now I'm worried that every gym trainer will expect me to be able to do exercises like push ups and pull ups from the beginning.
Is this normal for a complete beginner? What should I expect when starting at the gym for the first time? And how can I find a trainer who is willing to work with someone who has absolutely no gym experience?
Okay I’m kinda stuck.
I want to do Information Technology or Cyber Security after A/Ls and I’m trying to choose between NSBM (VU Degree) and SLIIT (Bachelor of Information Technology majoring in Cyber Security).
From what I’ve seen so far:
Main things I’m trying to figure out:
Also:
Hi guys
I need advice regarding my shoulder dislocation.
My shoulder dislocated for the first time in 2022, and after that I was admitted to the Accident Ward, and doctors relocated my shoulder properly. After that, my shoulder dislocated a second time in like 2024. The first time and the second time, doctors said to do exercise and attend the clinic, but I couldn't do it properly. After years without any proper exercise or clinic, my shoulder dislocated a third time in April 2026. This time, I was able to relocate my shoulder by myself, and I didn't do any exercises either. For the fourth time, my shoulder dislocated the day before, and I wasn't able to relocate it by myself. This time, I felt more pain, so I was admitted to the accident ward, and the doctors relocated it properly. So I need advice on how I can prevent future dislocation, and has anyone faced this? Please be kind enough to drop a message because now I am a little bit scared about what will happen in the future, and how I will know if I need surgery or not? If I do surgery, will it prevent future dislocation? Also, I hope to go to the gym as well, so guys don't hesitate to share your opinions and thoughts about my situation. I would love to hear from youra side.
I was checking 5starhotels.lk and it lists only 33 five-star hotels in Sri Lanka.
That actually surprised me. I always thought we had somewhere close to 100, especially with how many luxury hotels there are around Colombo and the tourist areas.
Is 33 actually correct?
Just wondering where all the fellow hardcore nerds are hiding 😭
Board games/ Video games, D&D/ TTRPGs, Pokémon/ TCGs, anime, sci-fi, coding, whatever. I wanna know I'm not the only one lmao.
I am a foreigner planning to come to Sri Lanka soon. I have activated a Dialog eSIM. Is it possible to buy a regular local Dialog package, or do I need to buy a tourist package? Are there any restrictions for foreigners?
I'm 19 and currently in my 2nd year of a Software Engineering BSc (I started my degree early at 17). I'm based in Sri Lanka, and lately, my dad has been heavily pressuring me because he keeps hearing that "IT jobs are hard to find."
His solution is for me to do something parallel to my SE degree, specifically a commerce qualification like CIMA. The problem is, I absolutely hate commerce subjects. On the flip side, I love coding. I build software projects for fun all the time in my free time (mostly full-stack stuff using PHP, Laravel, Java, etc).
My dad's comments are starting to get in my head. I have a few questions for those already in the industry:
Should I actually be worried about landing a job with just my SE degree and a strong portfolio of personal projects?
Is it worth forcing myself to do a parallel qualification in a completely different field like commerce just for "safety"?
If I do need to diversify my skills, would it make more sense to finish my BSc first and then do an MSc in a different field, rather than burning myself out with parallel studies right now?
My girlfriend is very affectionate and wanted a lot of love. She also grew up in Cambodia and doesn’t understand Sri Lankan culture.
While I am introverted, I want to make her feel loved but I feel the Sri Lankan aunties and uncle’s judgement.
I also notic that they stare at her in a funny way when she shows skin. Is it like that for people who grew up abroa and came back here? I can’t punish my girlfriend by withholding affection and telling her what to wear but the Sri Lankan aunty system makes it impossible.
As the title says I failed all 3 times (1st: 3F, 2nd: 2S, 3rd: 2S) and I had depression and anxiety issues since O/Ls and some other issues ever since 5th grade (which are not even resolved even now🥲) My whole family calls me a failure and they have a good reason to do so cuz my 2nd eldest brother got into Moratuwa and I was one of the brightest in the primary school and finished O/Ls with 8As. I went to a popular school in Colombo too and the kids even the teachers sometimes teased and bullied me cuz of my issues.
When the time came to do the 3rd shy I tried to skip it but my family especially my Mom wouldn't let me and said to do a course after A/Ls...Which I do now cuz I have no choice and we had financial problems since even before I was born🥲. Also my late father worked a great job in a factory before that. I kind of feel like I brought the bad luck to our family.
Now I do a course in engineering related subject and it's going a bit of a bad way cuz I can't stand the Teachers and kids there cuz they are so rude to me like all the time.
Now I'm doing the course cuz I absolutely have to. There doesn't seem to be another path for me. And I take a large dose of meds for my depression and that causes a lot of sleepiness even after sleeping like 10 hours a night. I can't lower my meds cuz it increases my issues and my doctors say they don't know what's up with me cuz I get a bucket load of meds and still don't improve at least a bit. Don't get me wrong I'm a lot better than me without meds but I'm stuck at this point and doesn't seem to improve. I got meds consistently for two years if that matters. Also I started meds on 2019 a year after O/Ls. I managed to pass in a great way in O/Ls cuz no matter how I felt I knew future me wouldn't forgive me if I failed that exam and I told myself that. I couldn't pull that off in the A/Ls tho🥲.
So my question is: is it ok to fail at A/Ls like this? Is it even okey cuz I had those issues? I never even had a girlfriend to talk about things like this and it hurts cuz I probably will never have one either😓What do I do now?
Yesterday around 9:30 PM, I was in a hurry to get home, so I booked a PickMe bike.
The pickup location was automatically shown as my current location, so I didn't think twice about checking it. About 3 minutes later, the rider arrived in the area and called me through PickMe to let me know that he had arrived.
That's when I realized something was wrong.
The pickup location was actually showing a place where I had been around 5 hours earlier. Somehow I hadn't noticed it when I booked the ride.
I wasn't sure what to do since I was already in a hurry, so I cancelled the ride and booked another one to get home.
The part I feel really bad about is that I didn't explain anything to the rider before cancelling. He had already arrived, and I suddenly cancelled without giving him any explanation.
I've honestly been feeling guilty about it since then.
I still have the bike number and all the trip details in my PickMe history, including the approximate time and fare.
I'd really like to explain the situation to him properly and then compensate him with the amount that was shown for the ride, if possible.
Does anyone know if PickMe support can help me with this?