Who says business is at a low ebb amidst such profligacy ? Queue of selfish gourmandizing millionaires in SL– each meal Rs. 21000

(Lanka-e-News - 23.April.2018, 6.45PM)   Are there citizens in this country who can spend Rs. 21000.00 just for a single meal  ? Let us assume  there are. But are there  wealthy individuals in this country who spend Rs. 16, 800,000.00 (Rs. 16.8 million!) on 800 such meals (800 X 21000.00) just on one occasion?  Fortunately or unfortunately the answer is again yes. However the shocking part of this monumental  profligacy is the revelation that owing to this queue of such  wasteful wealthy individuals , an order placed  even  for such expensive   luxurious meals has to wait until after November to be executed. 

Surprisingly it is in this climate of obscene ostentation and luxurious living of millionaire businessmen many traders  say , ‘there is no business’ as they open their mouths while an  ordinary man also  talks about the price of a coconut. Perhaps we cannot  blame them because what is manifested by the opulent wasteful life style of the selfish millionaires is unjust enrichment and how they thrive on it. 

The factual situation disclosed in the foregoing paragraph is only a tip of the iceberg  of the actual atrocious profligacy .

Recently , in order to meet a friend, I visited the recently opened  super luxury Shangri La Hotel .My friend is an employee in  this hotel. In the Shangri La Ballroom hall was a wedding function of somebody  . Out of curiosity I inquired from my friend whose wedding it was ?.

He told me it was the wedding of the daughter of a businessman involved in  tea business in Sri Lanka .The price of a single plate of meal the business tycoon  had chosen for the guests  was Rs. 21000.00 ! and he had paid for 800 such  meals for the guests attending the wedding. The cost of the meal bill alone was Rs. 16.8 million !! There were also a host of other expenses too. Yet the most rudely shocking part of this obscene ostentation  and monumental profligacy is , as a rule if such an expensive wedding is to be booked in that hotel , the one who is booking has to wait for until after November for the hotel has already been booked for the weddings that long. Mind you , all those bookings have been made  by Sri Lankans  !

In the circumstances , certainly  this is  not just  an exceptional wedding  of wasteful extravagance in a  super luxury hotel ? 

If a hotel in SL which is among the chain of most expensive luxury hotels in the world is being run on the expenditures of Lanka’s  wealthy businessmen , how can anybody say business activity in SL has plummeted?

Of course not that there  aren’t businesses which have crashed. But if the crash is as bad as is portrayed , surely the Shangrila business should be moving in a different direction.

I of course  had an orange juice drink with my friend , and returned after discussing the subject over  which I met him. In any case  I don’t know  the price of the drink because it is my friend who met the bill. 

-Shrimal-
-Translated by Jeff-

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by     (2018-04-23 13:49:34)