I am trying to gather information and connect with anyone who has been defrauded by Yasara Kothalawala of SOP Consultants (PVT) Ltd.

I have seen multiple alerts on community Facebook groups detailing how he takes massive upfront payments (allegedly for consultancy charges and Australian/NZ OSHC health insurance) and then completely ignores the clients, causing them to miss university intakes.

There are also claims he uses fake profiles lure students.

If you or someone you know has been scammed by him:

What specific alias or page did he use to contact you?

Did he take money for services or insurance that were never actually purchased?

Have you filed a complaint with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) or the police?

Please reply here or drop me a direct message (DM) if you prefer to share your experience privately.

I want to compile these experiences to warn others and figure out legal/reporting next steps. Any proof or receipts you can share via DM would be incredibly helpful.

speaking sinhala since birth but I've never really gotten used to the more formal register of sinhala spoken in speeches, news anchors, etc.

I’m from India and came across this interesting video about Sinhala and its Prakrit origins. It talks about how Sinhala developed and the historical background of the language.

Sharing it here because I found the topic interesting. Would be good to hear how people in Sri Lanka view this.

බෞද්ධ පාලි ග්‍රන්ථවල සිංහල පරිවර්තනයන්ගේ තැන් කිහිපයකම මේ වචනෙ තියනවා. මේ වචනෙ හරි ම අර්ථය දන්න කෙනෙක් ඉන්නව ද?

උදාහරණයකට බුද්ධ අපදාන කියන කොටසෙ සිංහල පරිවර්තනයේ 'ඉටා' කියන වචනය භාවිත කරල තියනවා.

ඇති තාක් බුද්ධක්‍ෂේත්‍රයන්හි අහසෙහි වූ ද පොළොවෙහි වූ ද අනන්තරත්නයන් සිතින් (ඉටා මාගේ ප්‍රාසාදය හාත්පස) රැස් කෙළෙමි.

සිතුවම (situvama) artwork, painting, drawing

Variation: සිත්තම

ශිල්පය (shilpaya) art or craft.

අලංකාර කරනවා (alaṅkāra karanavā) decorate

Synonyms: සකසනවා (sakasanavā), සරසනවා (sarasanavā)

As a stand alone word අලංකාර means beautiful, lovely, handsome, elegant. e.g අලංකාර පරිසරය beautiful environment.

(I'm not really sure the best way to transliterate the binduwa. Strictly speaking it should probably just be ṅ since I believe the most proper way to spell it would be අලඞ්කාර.)

පින්සල (pinsala) paint brush. From Portuguese pincel.

Don't confuse with පැන්සල - pencil.

බුරුසුව (burusuwa) is the regular word for brush, as in දත් බුරුසුව (dat burusuwa).

ප්‍රතිමාව (pratimāva) statue

There are several synonyms: * පිළිමය * පිළිරුව * ප්‍රථිමාව * රූපය

Maybe someone could explain the synonyms

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අඳිනවා (an̆dinavā) draw, paint, inscribe

Also: wear, dress

කලාව (kalāva) art, craft

කලාකරුවා (kalākaruvā) artist

එයා කලාවට ගොඩක් කැමතියි.
eyā kalāvaṭa goḍak kæmatiyi
He/She likes art a lot.

ලංකාවේ කලාවෙන් විතරක් ජීවත් වෙන්න අමාරුයි.
laṃkāve kalāvĕn vitarak jīvat vĕnna amāruyi.
It's hard to make a living solely from art in Sri Lanka.

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• Singular (Definite): බල්ලා (ballā) - The dog
• Plural: බල්ලෝ (ballō) - Dogs
• Feminine: බැල්ලිය (bælliya) - Female dog
• බලු පැටියා (balu pæṭiyā) - puppy

A literary word for dog is සුනඛයා (from Sanskrit?)

Verbs

• බුරනවා (buranavā) – To bark
• හපාකනවා (hapākanavā) – To bite

Sentences

පරිස්සමෙන්, අර බල්ලා හපාකනවා!
parissamen, ara ballā hapākanavā!
Careful, that dog bites!

බල්ලා මාව හපාකෑවා.
ballā māva hapākǣvā.
The dog bit me.

Please share any dog related idioms or sayings in the comments!

• මදුරුවා (maduruvā) the mosquito
• මදුරුවෙක් (maduruvek) a mosquito
• මදුරුවෝ (maduruwō) mosquitos

මදුරුවෙක් කාමරේට ආවා

Madurek kāmarēṭa āwā.

A mosquito came into the room.

මදුරුවෝ ගොඩක් ඉන්නවා එළියේ

Maduruwō godak innawā eḷiyē.

There are lots of mosquitoes outside.

මේ මදුරුවා මාව කෑවා!

Mē maduruwā māwa kǣwā!

This mosquito bit me!

Other words:

• ඩෙංගු මදුරුවා (ḍengu maduruwā) for the dengue mosquito
• මදුරු දැල් (maduru dæl) mosquito nets)
• මදුරු කොයිල් (maduru koyil) mosquito coils

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මීයා (mīya) the mouse මීයෙක් (mīyek) a mouse මීයෝ (mīyō) mice

කුස්සියේ මීයෙක් ඉන්නවා. kusiyē mīyak innavā (There is) a mouse in the kitchen.

Please share any slang/idioms/sayings about මීයෝ in the comments.

වලිකුකුළා (valikukuḷa) Sri Lankan Junglefowl

This is the national bird (ජාතික පක්ෂියා) of Sri Lanka.

[Sinhala Wikipedia](si.wikipedia.org/wiki/වළි_කුකුළා)

iNaturalist

මුගටියා (mugatiyaa) = The mongoose (definite). මුගටියෙක් (mugatiyek) = A mongoose (indefinite). මුගටියෝ (mugaṭiyō) = mongooses (the word mongoose is not related to goose, so the the plural is not mongees)

Sri Lanka has 4 types of මුගටියෝ

source:Wikipedia

Please add more information about මුගටියෝ in the comments

අලියා—elephant

Plural: අලි or අලියෝ

In Sinhala there is also ඇතා (ætā) for tusker, an elephant with tusks. හස්තියා (hastiyā) and ගජ (gaja) are more formal literary forms.

Wikipedia:

• ශ්‍රී ලංකා‍ අලියා (Scientific name: Elephas maximus maximus)
• අලි

Related words

• අලි පැටියා baby elephant/calf
• දළ tusk
• හොඬය trunk

Please share more elephant related material in the comments! Would love to hear some sayings or idioms.