An enforced TIME OUT or Recovery from atrocity coming to an end

These past few months have been life changing, difficult and frustrating and I do see some light at the end of the tunnel as the physical healing process is noticeable . The lack of transport to go places and get things done has also meant a big financial loss to me in the agricultural field as well, and something I had not expected or bargained for.

The insurance proceeds for the loss of the vehicle finally came through nearly 3 months after the accident from my insurer, but that hardly provides 50% of the funds necessary to purchase an alternative vehicle leaving me in quite a quandary as to what to do. I will not be able to drive for a further three months rendering a further question of how to get along till that time.

I use the tuk tuk mode of transport, to take the dogs to the vet, go to the bank and the basic shopping. I have been unable to go to outside physio, being on the farm, these past few weeks. When I go to Colombo in a few days, I will have to recommence that, by either home visits or rely on some transport from family to get to the hospital for such therapy.

In the meantime, it is the IPL (Indian Premier League Twenty20 Cricket) on the local channels, as I don’t have cable to keep me occupied in the evenings and sorting out other matters during the day.

There was the Royal Wedding too, on my birthday, which surprise surprise was telecast live on Rupavahini, the main state Channel. Otherwise I would not have been able to watch as the aerial I have does not allow other channels on my set. Of course I reminisced as I was in the Mall that day 30 years ago when the grooms parents were wed and saw similar outpourings of joy and laughter. I was working in London at the time and living not too far away from the proceedings of the wedding, though the service itself was near my workplace at St Pauls Cathedral.

It is noteworthy to point out that I had made some payments some years back on some EPF/ETF contributions based on an totally unfair assessment which insisted that I have a domestic on EPF when no one in Colombo does. Now having made all the payments and penalties, they are now hassling me for the same amount saying they have not received the same. We therefore have to go and dig out check stubs and obtain copies of the cheques from the banks in order to prove that the payments were made, as there must have been some form of misappropriation of funds at the department, which they are not able to get to the bottom of. If this is one incident, I dread to think how much money has been misappropriated by those responsible in safeguarding the workers contributions of the country’s citizenry.

The forthcoming Pensions Bill therefore will again be full of anomalies, where in the end the onus will be on the employee to prove their contributions, which is really a very impractical request. In this day and age of computers it should be a matter of just logging into the database to find out one’s contribution at any moment in time, with no problem.