RIFLE RANGE BOY: Correct gauge of happiness?

Dambulla Golden Temple

They say they had great powers and wisdom. Legend has it that one of their kings, Ravana, had literally brought Lord Shiva to his knees when the king had conquered the Indian subcontinent all the way to what they thought was edge of heaven - Mount Kailash. Only when the mighty Lord thumbed his big guy did he plead for clemency and hence was born the Shiva Thandava stotram which is still muttered by His devotees till today.

The island has so much of history and feats in engineering and architecture but what has it become? A third world country with chaotic traffic system filled by traffic etiquette wanting horn blaring drivers and three wheeler 'tut-tut' taxis who treat the road as a war zone where only the fittest and lion hearted survives!

A nation with such a long high culture is now wallowed in poverty and has to
play dance monkey to the tunes of tourists from supposedly developed nation to conjure out foreign exchange for their livelihood.

King of the Road?

Perhaps we are all looking at contentment of life all wrong. Their meaning and purpose of life which sustained their existence all these while took a turn at turn of the late 19th century with the new world order in global economics. Suddenly all their social equilibrium crumpled and could not keep up with the demand of the new world needs. Maybe their definition of bliss is far different from the 'modern' world.
Of course every now and then, a dynamic leader would spring from nowhere and take the nation to great heights and Sri Lanka too had their time in the limelight.

Even though Sri Lanka got a free hand to run their own affairs from their colonial masters almost a decade before Malaysia, the economic distribution seem patchy. Even tourists spots with drones of visitors with tourists dollars fail to show proportionate aesthestic change. In this religious land which encourages moderation in daily life, this kind of encouragement is just nice but what happens to the coffers is another question! You do not want too much of commercialisation, do you?
If you had a nation brimming with money worshipping individuals, they would monetise anything and everything worth or not worth showcasing to the world to propagate more economic activity.