Trash dished out as quality films

I see films on a selective basis. I know when a good film is screened. Thanha, Rathi, Ranga was one such, which was done by three good local actors and a knowledgeable director. I wanted to see the film Spandana because a young, new director had directed it. What I saw was similar to those early horror films I had seen in my young days and it was nothing compared to Thanha, Rathi, Ranga. I was so shocked, I came off halfway through the film.

The story is that of the ghost of an aunt who committed suicide, because she gave her heart for a transplant to her niece (main actress). Then the horror begins- indicating her presence only to the niece who goes to a lonely bungalow up in the hills,with some male and female friends, after the transplant operation.

The ghost makes various sounds (felt and heard only by the niece). Finally she appears in a large mirror, when the niece stands before it. The image of the aunt as seen by the niece gradually turns into a horrible devilish figure and starts screaming at her saying that the reason she gave her heart was mysterious and orders her (the niece) to find out the reason why she did it.

The members of the group are relentlessly pursued as to why the aunt had given it and were killed one by one and (I had come off by that time). The bungalow keeper was also strung up on a tree and killed.I do not know why our directors are so obsessed with death and coffins.

If this is the trash that new young directors have chosen to give their audience, it is a sad future for films and the film industry.

R. Wickramasinghe
Nugegoda.

Tornado season with fish rains

On many occasions in the recent past, we have experienced weather with fish rains and rain water having a different hue. There were reports in the media describing them as extraordinary phenomena . Most were accompanied by strong winds which caused damage to buildings. Hazardous events like this have taken place in short spells lasting five to 10 minutes.

Hazards caused by those windy weather systems show that they were due to mild tornadoes which are products of thunderstorm clouds - Cumulonimbus.

Tornadoes average about 100 metres across. Their destructive power is caused by tremendous wind strength, which may exceed 400 kmph, and by the great radial gradient of pressure, which causes explosive destruction of buildings in their path. Their duration is variable. They occur in many parts of the world under unstable atmospheric conditions.

Meteorologists are concerned about tornadoes because of the damage to property, life and limb. Sometimes fish, frogs or other small hydrological animals also fall with this type of rain.

Public unawareness about such effects may mislead the nation. The core of a tornado with very low pressure has a strong sucking ability. Dust, mud and loose soil are easily sucked into the system and prevailing vertical strong winds carry the sucked particles towards the mother cloud. Anything sucked up cannot stay there and these particles dissolve in cloud drops and ultimately fall with rain water. This is why these thunder-showers bring down coloured water (pink, yellow, green or red).

Tornadoes are also called Water Spouts (WS) when they develop over water bodies. WS also cause natural disasters especially when they are active over massive water bodies where navigational vehicles cruise because severe WS can easily drag the vehicles and move them to and fro before dropping them.

In cases with multiple WS, trawlers and boats are raised several times and then thrown down severely damaging them. You can guess the fate of sailors and passengers of sailing shipses caught by the WS winds. WS sucks water from the water bodies below them with vigorous sucking power. As water is sucked up, accumulating small hydrological animals (fish, frog, baby crocodiles mud and algae) into 'up going water' is unavoidable.

This characteristic of WS results in either rain with fish and frogs or rain with coloured rain-drops. The mother cloud, cumulonimbus, of a tornado or a WS consists of ice crystals and ice particles in higher levels above about five kilometres from the ground and as a result, rain accompanied by tornadoes or WS may fall with ice particles.

We are now in the First Inter Monsoon season (FIM), which usually commences in mid-March and extends till mid-May. Weather expected during the FIM usually include thunderstorms, tornadoes and waterspouts. Therefore, we will experience extraordinary phenomena along with the rains and strong winds in the days to come. The special characteristic of FIM thunderstorms is their occurrence specially in the afternoon or evening.

During the short lifetime of a tornado, it moves fast and does untold damage and dissipates energy. Those liable to face a tornado threat should take precautions to minimise the hazard. Damaging buildings and rooting out trees and other structures are common in these circumstances. It is our responsibility to take precautions in time to minimise the tornado hazard.

Even though WS are beautiful to watch, we must not forget that they are dangerous.

K.R Abhayasingha,
Visiting lecturer, Post Graduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya
(Retired Director of Meteorology).