Serendipity is walking into a used bookstore and finding a few gems for giveaway prices. Most visitors to the Colombo International Book Faircram themselves into shops runs by the big boys. They are crowded beyond belief and nearly all of them have the same content, low priced Indian Editions of books published in the US, UK and sometimes low priced Indian books. Ask any of the sales assitants (assuming you can find one) to show you where the Mike Hammers are and they will probably bring you a hammer from their tool box. Ask them for a Louis L’Amour and you will probably not get anything more than a blank stare.

They firmly believe that novels are like pop music, you need to keep up with the latest trends and the charts. I was never a fan of pop music. I’ve always been a rocker not much of a fan of classical music either. Perhaps that explains why I like Raphael Sabatini and Leon Uris but not quite into Dan Brown. Though I respect Shaken Bacesphere (or is it Christopher Marlow?) I would always prefer reading a CS Forester or a Hemmingway. To find that sort of book, used bookshops are where you should head to. That is what I did and this is what I picked up today going back on Wednesday for another lot.

Sorry folks there’s been an error, this is not the photo I intended to shoot.

There is a Dengue fever epidemic going around. Every year, as soon as the monsoon starts the dengue menance raises it’s ugly head, but it dies down during the dry season.  This has lead health officials to mistakenly believe that dengue is caused by Mosquitoes. Finally they have now realized that Dengue is really caused by Parrots and have ordered people to cut down all trees on which Parrots reside in. These instructions are music to the ears of a nation of tree haters and they are gleefully complying. And in doing so they are helping the country’s economy as well. Lots of unemployed persons are finding new work, as wood cutters.

Parrots build their nests by digging holes in tree trunks

There were three Cashew trees on this plot of land, home to at least 20 parrots.

Parrots often fight with Kingfishers, Mynas, Barbets and Redbacks over the same nests. Now they are all being left homeless and hopefully they will all be eliminated. After all Kingfishers might be the real cause of Aids and flamebacks are said to be responsible for Malaria. Rumour has it that Barbets might be carriers of Swine flu. A positive side effect is that we will no longer have to put up with the rackets caused by birds in the mornings.

Sign seen at an Automobile repair shop (or more simply a Garage). The photo hasn’t been desaturate, that was done by the sun