---

Think twice before agreeing to appear on the cover of a business magazine.  A cautionary notice (need it be enlarged to the extent of a ghastly warning on a pack of cigarette) as the perilous rate of casualties of the introduced icons is phenomenal.  Those who zoom to the maximum and strike cover page, often end in a free fall to crash land on the buttocks.

 In the streets of Colombo, in its halls of infamy-rather than call it loosely, city’s rouge galleries -- history keeps repeating itself in perpetuity. Supposedly good guys are notionally made outlaws whereas purported crooks pass off as winsome cowboys carrying the badge of sheriff in the rotating cover pages.

"Nominees of every government, once they plunge from giddy heights to rock bottom, try to cross the great barrier to the other side knowing of the shelters provided with hedged funds and exclusive favours given as a safety measure, in the event of a change of administration. In the gamblers jargon it’s placing bets on a win or a place. Such fall only to rise from the other side"

Featured celebrities have become fugitives running abroad on the night of the elections; holders of passports including diplomatic red been impounded by state authorities; became inmates at the Merchants Ward or a Prison Hospital when they were ordered by court to spend time in remand or in jail; were faulted by the Supreme Court for acts of wrong-doings on Fundamental Rights relating to shady deals; were adjudged as fallen judges allegedly for not been properly appointed/removed; internationally humiliated for serious allegations of misconduct or questioned intensively by the local law enforcement authorities for serious crime and removed from office unceremoniously. Indeed the tumbled idols were in full flight at the time of the photogenic presentation before falling from the sky.

 Are the Front Covers an open warrant for the long arm of the law to send sniffing dogs on trail after gaining fame and fortune? Among those that struck front-pages are judges, financiers, businessmen, bureaucrats, sports administrators (fortunately not sportsmen), heads of state institutions and famed politicians. What a lovely bunch of bananas they were - day previous to the fall? Bottom line is their linkage to politicians; unlike men in business for business alone – the genuine purebreds: such rarely seek the front cover.

 

"In the streets of Colombo, in its halls of infamy-rather than call it loosely, city’s rouge galleries -- history keeps repeating itself in perpetuity. Supposedly good guys are notionally made outlaws whereas purported crooks pass off as winsome cowboys carrying the badge of sheriff in the rotating cover pages"

This applies more to journals that ride cuddly with characters in the inner fringe of politics that helps circulation to reach dizzy heights and raise biz barons to social acceptability to hobnob in star class. A word for the genial publishers - the political spectrum is covered across the board in its full splendor, democratically distributed to incur the wrath of none and become every body’s darling or in pithy Sinhala a ‘kageth sundari’.

Such are the numbers of displaced luminaries whose mugs were made presentable for the photo shot with brush and paint of a make up artist: may be prudent on past performance to search for an insurance cover before taking again a photo plunge and launching on a discourse on creative wisdom? Some of the featured characters-down the ages have being made to hang their heads in shame especially after being serenaded while holding office.  To be deflated after being inflated is hard to bear.

There are a few names that hold untarnished images irrespective of being in dubious company on the front covers -- those non-buddies of politicians -- the self-made men standing on their own feet – great men that ride to their true potential on skills and talents. Wise are they to remain low profile wherever possible without mounting the grand stand. Falling from a pedestal is hard rock when ground is struck.

Biz magazines are in the minscule on the newsstand while the fallen guys in the front - pages sulk at home in silent nights. It’s a Man’s World with a peep hole for the local Barbie dolls’-notwithstanding liberal use of make up are unlikely to make the grade on the covers of business journals’ as much as the same undressed men would not attract a playboy calendar.

Yesterday’s financial wizards, heroes of the Grecian bonds rightfully under investigation are unwarrantedly in the dog-house, spanked by their own master’s chain and by the voters for wrecking the economy on their misplaced guidance. Yet, when the biz pages splashed their worldly wisdom it made good reading in happier days to the strains of : “These are the jolly good fellows” often heard at seminars of many pretexts. Has the mood shifted or shifty shifted or sense regained? Why crow now if you failed to cry foul in the jolly old days!

The replaced mandarins sit pretty on a friendly mini budget that places them in a transitional superman grade, make wisecracks of their betterment of the previous; gems eagerly sought by the fickle business community that claps at every sentence, keeps the unread biz periodicals gathering dust in the lounges that welcome guests. Mind you, master, your day of reckoning will come some day too? That is not a comfort zone for sure. Watch your steps in your interest and be smarter by learning lessons from the bunglers of the past.

Nominees of every government, once they plunge from giddy heights to rock bottom, try to cross the great barrier to the other side knowing of the shelters provided with hedged funds and exclusive favours given as a safety measure, in the event of a change of administration. In the gamblers jargon it’s placing bets on a win or a place. Such fall only to rise from the other side.

Flipping through the covers of prime local business journals featuring the great people of contemporary times, an intriguing question that came to mind was whether they were Colombians or Mahindians? Truth lies in between, as Mahindians became Colombians and the Colombians become Mahindians.

Such is Sri Lanka’s creative editors of rich pages, will shun for a while those lauded luminaries during times of imposed disgrace; once the wheel turns around: a second coming is possible on another cover page and thankfully cosmetics can bridge the interlude between the two epochs; to recreate the aged as youthful looking smiling dudes reappear on the front covers. Who said ‘Punch’ is extinct?

To most on the covers of the last few years –excluding one who worked like a eager beaver- the military triumph over the terrorism-miracle of 2009-went in to their silly heads to think stupid in terms of astrologically that it had lasting powers enabling them to be arrogant, corrupt and lazy and hit by the eternal travel bug at state expense  – never thought the carnival will ever end; Biz Magazines glossed over it many becoming part of the entourage in the kingdom of fun.
No fear – new faces will appear in old places in the magazines in between the same advertising spaces.