Thrishantha

Image courtesy of Moving Images, Moving People! One day in year 2005, Ray visited the University of Moratuwa as the chancellor. I think it was an official meeting to organize an innovations exhibition showcasing the work done by the students. After the meeting, Ray wanted to visit my laboratory located in the Sumanadasa building . I was a bit scared to show it to Ray, because it was full of junk material bought to make field robots. The research lab had no windows. So it was a bit damp and smelly too. He just smiled when I warned him of such possible disappointments. No sooner he entered; he grabbed a chair, sat, and kept looking at the work in progress of a legged robot like a child being mesmerised by a favourite toy. “Why legs? Why not wheels Thrish?” he asked. I knew that he was trying to test me. I said “simply because they have to move on soft terrains in a typical abandoned minefield”. “So you thought about how legs interact with soft soil to its advanta...

COVID-19 taught us the value of proactive action against tiny things that can make widespread destruction across communities with different religious believes, tribal identities, and socio-political systems. This dawns upon us a new wisdom that will make us immune to a lot of other seemingly tiny ideas that can cause large scale destruction when there is large scale adoption. Therefore, next time we hear any of the following, pause and think: 1. My tribe is the most civilized, those in the other tribe are savages: COVID-19 exposed the inner generocity of all communities in different parts of the world ranging from cooking food for the vulnerable to volunteering in the respective health services. It also exposed how we behaved in supermarkets irrespective of tribe. It showed how much effort media had to take to teach us how to wash hands, and how to think about others even if we are not in a high risk group. Basically, none is more civilized than others, though there ...