A newspaper article on the toilet facilities available at the International Space Station: “මූත්රා පිටකිරීම සඳහා එක් එක් ගගනගාමියාට වෙන වෙනම බට ලබා දී ඇති අතර මූත්ර මාර්ගයට ඉතා සමීප වන ආකාරයෙන් එම බටය අල්ලාගෙන මූත්රා පිට කිරීම කළ යතුයි. එවිට පන්කා ආධාර්යෙන් එම මූත්රා ඇදගනු ලබනවා. ගැහැණුන්ට මේ සඳහා වෙනම ආකාරයේ උපකරණයක් සැපයෙනවා.” [“For urinating purposes, each astronaut is given a tube which he needs to hold close to the ‘urine path’ when urinating. (Once the urine is passed) the urine is absorbed using fans. A different equipment is provided for women for the same purpose.”]
A ‘forward’ that I received on What’s App, which is a story intended to be a joke: Three husbands die and go to heaven. At the entrance to heaven, they are informed that they would be given vehicles, and that the quality of the vehicle that one gets depends upon the extent to which he had been faithful to his spouse. The first husband gets a very old car; the second gets a used car of considerable quality, and the third gets a brand new car of the highest quality. The third husband becomes happy and proud of his achievement. After a couple of days, the other two husbands bump into the third one, and they find him in a sad mood. Asked why he was sad, he says, “Today I saw my wife here, and she was riding a bicycle.”
Ramya, myself, and a friend (female) of ours in a casual/non-serious conversation.
Friend: දැන් පුතෙක් හදාගත්තනම් හරි. [It would be great if you (two) had a son now (as the third child)]
Me: [shaking my head to indicate disagreement] ඒ මොකටද? [Why?/For what?]
Friend: ඇයි, ඔයාගෙ නම ගෙනියන්ඩ. [Why, to carry on your name.]
Me: [pointing to our two daughters] දෙන්නෙක්ම ඉන්නව ඒක කරන්ඩ. [I already have not one but two to do that.]
A video shared on Facebook where a person in the traditional Arabic costume addresses some sort of a gathering (the video shared by a father of a daughter): “You have a father; he becomes a father-in-law. You have a son; he becomes a son-in-law. You have a daughter; she becomes a daughter-in-law. You have a mother; she becomes a mother-in-law. You have a wife; what does she become? [audible laughter in the audience] She is THE law. [intense laughter in the audience]”
A high-ranking personality of the University, in a speech at the inaugural ceremony of a conference: “The gender shift in the professional world/world of work--women taking up jobs that are traditionally done by men--is an issue. Take for instance late-night security service [the speaker laughs] ... or the fishing industry. ... Not to belittle women, but women can't do everything that men can do. It's up to the Social Sciences to find solutions to this problem.”
A conversation between two fellow academics at Peradeniya: one female, in a promising field of study, in her late 30's, with two kinds; and one male, in an equally promising field of study, in his mid 30’s. The female academic congratulated her male counterpart on a foreign training programme (in a European country) that he had been selected for, and she said something to the effect “Enjoy the beautiful sunrise in [country name] which I'm not in a position to experience.” Then only that I found out that she too had been selected for the same programme but that she was not going. Asked why she was not going, she said, with a smile, “Didn’t get visa.” I asked, “How come he got it and you didn't?” and she said, again with a smile, “I got visa from the embassy but not from my husband.” She further added, “He doesn't like me going,” and said that he showed his stance by maintaining the famous silence coupled with an elongated face. Once she had given up the option, he had concluded the conversation with the rhetorical question “So, you are not going?”
A ‘forward’ that I received on What’s App, which is a story intended to be a joke: Three husbands die and go to heaven. At the entrance to heaven, they are informed that they would be given vehicles, and that the quality of the vehicle that one gets depends upon the extent to which he had been faithful to his spouse. The first husband gets a very old car; the second gets a used car of considerable quality, and the third gets a brand new car of the highest quality. The third husband becomes happy and proud of his achievement. After a couple of days, the other two husbands bump into the third one, and they find him in a sad mood. Asked why he was sad, he says, “Today I saw my wife here, and she was riding a bicycle.”
Ramya, myself, and a friend (female) of ours in a casual/non-serious conversation.
Friend: දැන් පුතෙක් හදාගත්තනම් හරි. [It would be great if you (two) had a son now (as the third child)]
Me: [shaking my head to indicate disagreement] ඒ මොකටද? [Why?/For what?]
Friend: ඇයි, ඔයාගෙ නම ගෙනියන්ඩ. [Why, to carry on your name.]
Me: [pointing to our two daughters] දෙන්නෙක්ම ඉන්නව ඒක කරන්ඩ. [I already have not one but two to do that.]
A video shared on Facebook where a person in the traditional Arabic costume addresses some sort of a gathering (the video shared by a father of a daughter): “You have a father; he becomes a father-in-law. You have a son; he becomes a son-in-law. You have a daughter; she becomes a daughter-in-law. You have a mother; she becomes a mother-in-law. You have a wife; what does she become? [audible laughter in the audience] She is THE law. [intense laughter in the audience]”
A high-ranking personality of the University, in a speech at the inaugural ceremony of a conference: “The gender shift in the professional world/world of work--women taking up jobs that are traditionally done by men--is an issue. Take for instance late-night security service [the speaker laughs] ... or the fishing industry. ... Not to belittle women, but women can't do everything that men can do. It's up to the Social Sciences to find solutions to this problem.”
A conversation between two fellow academics at Peradeniya: one female, in a promising field of study, in her late 30's, with two kinds; and one male, in an equally promising field of study, in his mid 30’s. The female academic congratulated her male counterpart on a foreign training programme (in a European country) that he had been selected for, and she said something to the effect “Enjoy the beautiful sunrise in [country name] which I'm not in a position to experience.” Then only that I found out that she too had been selected for the same programme but that she was not going. Asked why she was not going, she said, with a smile, “Didn’t get visa.” I asked, “How come he got it and you didn't?” and she said, again with a smile, “I got visa from the embassy but not from my husband.” She further added, “He doesn't like me going,” and said that he showed his stance by maintaining the famous silence coupled with an elongated face. Once she had given up the option, he had concluded the conversation with the rhetorical question “So, you are not going?”