THAT SMUG LOOK ON THE FACE OF THE PRESIDENT AND TEA PLUCKERS

An extraordinary product like 'Ceylon Tea' can still come from a place where the workers aren't the best paid and best looked after | Despite the present promises ,there is also a dark past where old memories exist where regimes did promise, but didn't deliver.

- Ravi Nagahawatte

Sri Lankans are used to ambling along the corridors of time during the penultimate month of the year. There could be two reasons for this. One is that they are very tired and are screaming for a break for the New Year. The second reason could be that people have already peaked once during the year and that once could have been somewhere during mid-year. Very few have the notion that they must finish the remaining two months of this calendar on a high! This scribe remembers professional body building legend, mathematics teacher and academic Frank Zane (Born on June 28, 1942) mentioning in his columns for 'Muscle & Fitness' that every physical culturist, irrespective of whether there is a show in December, must reach peak form during the last couple of days during the festive month of December.

Zane, a three time Mr. Olympia winner, was always a fitness fanatic, but his opinion carried weight because he was also an academic and had insightful knowledge on food, herbs and supplements; hence his nick name 'The Chemist'. He has a Bachelor of Science and a Doctorate in Psychology. When people with qualifications speak, people tend to listen.