Name: Bhathiya Ratnayake

Religion: Buddhist

School attended: Trinity College

Motto in life: “There are no failures in life, just lessons”

Ambition: I want to be a researcher on terrorism, intelligence and international security.

As a community leader at BCIS, what is the role you need to play?

We are the heart of the entire project.

What is education means to you?

Education means everything to a young person. Without education a youth of today cannot be valuable jewels.

In five years what kind of a role you would want to play in society?

I wanna be a person who makes history, not headlines.

What is community service mean to you?

Helping other people, the society you live in to make it a better place, serving the community without expecting anything in return.

What does youth mean to you?

They are part of the solution and not a part of the problem as may considered them to be. They are the future of the nation.

What are the challenges that you see youth are facing in the present society?

There are no proper opportunities for the youth in Sri Lanka. That’s why they are carried away by the sudden winds of becoming stars etc.

Even through that also the youth are being used as pawns to achieve the commercial aims leaving disappointed youths behind. We the BCIS identify this lacuna and as a solution to fill this gap we have introduced this YCL awards targeting the real youth of the society.

To be the best out of the best, name two elements.

Perseverance and commitment.

Inspiring youth

The one who leads the way to prosperity....

Name: Iiranganie Serasinghe

Motto in life: “Longed for the silence of nature”

Do you think the present youth is interested in nature?

We do have very committed youth but not enough who have the passion towards nature, especially from the city of Colombo. They don’t realise how important it is for our survival.

If you destroy one plant, that means you destroy all, and I think that’s the beginning and end of the nature. On one side some are trying hard by planting where as some multinationals are doing exactly the opposite by destroying it.

Can the films influence youth to face obstacles of the fast changing society?

I think films \ teledramas are taken as a creative art, man also has a commitment in life and he should realise they could be used in some way which can do good to the people’s way of thinking.

Most of the Indian teledramas which are telecast display scenes of hatred and vengeance. I suppose craving for power, luxuries and sex is what drives one to torture another.

Most of the Indian teledramas passes negative messages, like violence. It is the responsibility of media organisations to feed the good quality stuff to human minds. If a person can place a bomb to kill innocent people, I see no difference between such type of people and barbarians.

We say when people behave badly that they are like animals, but one should not forget that they have not been trained in any other way. I personally feel animals are far better than people.

In real life what was the role you had played as a responsible youth?

I was a rationalist, I wanted to change the country, didn’t like people to envy each other and wanted to see them getting equal rights. I always thought social methods were the answers and I still think its a great goal but I do not think it can be realised. I doubt whether people could get equal chances to get somewhere in life because when one gets matured you start seeing things in a broader aspect.

How one should think in a matured manner while they are in the age of youth?

When I was young I used to think, what older people say is not correct all the time. I wanted to show them off by proving my capabilities and may be it is a weakness during that age. Today I never go to advise the younger generation because it is always better for them to learn from their own experiences.

Sometimes you may make big mistakes or rather terrible mistakes. Just because something is in vogue one should not just follow it but should be reserved, independent, capable of taking correct decisions and the correct way of thinking.

Is it the experience which makes one mature or the way of thinking?

It is the experience.

Any concluding words to inspire the youth?

I must say one must remember, that we all have a duty to perform towards our motherland because that is where we were born and now living today. You could do it in your own way, maybe by planting a tree that would give some oxygen to the people who live in this country. The nature has gifted our country with beauty, it is our responsibility to keep it clean and tidy. I think we owe it to our country.

On Being a Prudent Person

Prudence means carefulness, being circumspect; discreet, cautious, wary. Take for instance prudence in the case of money matters. Money, whether one’s own or another’s, is valuable. Considering the fact that for the majority of us, its availability is not unlimited, often one has to decide whether a particular expense is necessary or avoidable. This applies to small as well as large expenditure.

If you cultive prudence in spending, you will have enough money for essentials. Of course, extreme prudence may end up as miserliness! Lack of it will lead to extravagance. As in most things in life, extremes are to be avoided. From an early age, youngsters should cultivate thrift as, irrespective of income, bad money management could be one’s undoing even for experienced adults.

Prudence plays an important role in interpersonal relationships. As a matter of fact, every serious transaction demands that we are prudent, i.e. discreet in speech and action. One should weigh the pros and cons. It may strike one that this weighing business involves much time and effort. Not necessarily. If one develops it from an early age, one will have an in-built ready-to-use prudence in course of time and one automatically arrives at the right decision and that too without much internal debate.

A prudent use of one’s time is an essential as in the case of money. It is said: Time is money. Prudence demands discipline in thought, word and deed. Most of the qualities that go to make one a success in life are interrelated. One should think over on how to be prudent in the different departments of life. Ultimately, prudence is wisdom, applied wisdom.