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Sanjeew Lonliyes: rawness unplugged and unlimited
When many covers are made of a song it indicates a degree of popularity. When it is hummed or sung by people who do not consider themselves artists, that’s popularity at a different level altogether....
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Precept and practice
More than twenty years ago, a group of young men spent four to five days at an aranyaya, a retreat designed for study and meditation. They were guided in this by a haamuduruwo well versed in the...
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Manufacturing passivity and obedience
Noam Chomsky, considered by some as the ‘Father of Modern Linguistics,’ and perhaps better known for being a public intellectual for his relentless activism, wrote and spoke extensively on the...
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Every mountain, every rock is sacred
Sketch by Tharindu AmunugamaThere’s controversy brewing over the building of a temple atop Bathalegala. Environmentalists claim that such constructions will have a detrimental impact on flora and...
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The clothes we wear and the clothes that wear us (down)
More than 40 years ago, a student around 15 or 16 years of age, made a rather unkind observation about a cricket coach. The said coach, referred to as ‘Colonel,’ was a no-nonsense, expressionless man...
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The insomnial dreams of Kapila Kumara Kalinga
Kapila Kumara Kalinga is best known for his highly acclaimed work in theatre and television. Brevity is his strongest suit and this fact is best exemplified by the sobriquet he earned for himself,...
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The Edelweiss of Mirissa
I might have come across the name ‘Edelweiss’ and learned that it is the national flower of Switzerland sometime in my life, but thanks to the movie ‘Sound of Music’ and the song by that name (written...
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Alex Carey and the (small) matter of legacy
The Australian wicketkeeper across all formats and the vice-captain of the ODI side Alex Tyson Carey has a lot of cricket left in him. Just 31 years old, he has scored almost 1,000 runs in 22 tests at...
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The 52nd state of Amnesia
Not too long ago, I tried to remember all the states of the United States of America. I missed Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. A well-informed and well-read friend of mine, a citizen of the...
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Seeing, unseeing and seeing again
Illustration by Sumudu AthukoralaTime passes over events, personalities and outcomes. In that passing truth bends or is made to bend. Time is the password that lets in the lie. And so we have stories....
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Revolutionary unburdening
Ernesto Che Guevara's ‘Bolivian Diary' and ‘Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War’ are perennial favourites among those who are convinced that peaceful social transformation is impossible and...
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Saji Coomaraswamy and rewards that matter
There are always rewarding moments in life. Rewards of the tangible kind and feel-good rewards that don’t arrive with a label. High points, one way or another. They tend to be the most resistant to the...
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Faces dripping with time
Line drawing by Gamini AbeykoonAll ages are written upon the face. Of this I am convinced. And I think that conviction, before it surfaced like a lotus, had gestated for years (yes, time again) in the...
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A degree in people
Mike Brearley's stats (66 innings, 39 tests, 1442 runs, average of 22.88, strike rate of 29.79 with a highest score of 91) wouldn’t turn any heads in these Bazball days of English cricket. Weren’t...
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Innocence
Looking back, I realise that my father was largely indulgent of my youthful arrogance (maybe one day my daughters might come to the same conclusion!). I have on occasion argued with him and expressed...
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Character theft and the perennial question 'Who am I?'
There’s a classic scene in the popular mob movie ‘Analyze this’ where Billy Crystal, playing Ben Sobel, a psychiatrist forced into treating the mafia boss Paul Vitti (played by Robert De Niro), is...
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Subverting the indecency of the mind
'When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.’ That’s a quote from Milan Kundera’s celebrated novel, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being.’ I came across it while reading about Kundera...
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The Loku Ayya of all ‘Paththara Mallis’
Just the other day, while having a cup of plain tea outside Nihal Aiya’s ‘kade’ down 27th Lane with my good friend Daminda WIjewardana when a bearded man just walking by recognized and approached me....
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Wordaholic, trynasty and other portmanteaus
This Sunday morning, as I write, Novak Djokovic (36) is yet to play for the Wimbledon men’s tennis title against 20-year old Carlos Alcaraz. The experts are backing Novak and rightly so, but they do...
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Who is afraid of the Mahawamsa?
A few weeks ago UNESCO inscribed the Mahavamsa onto its ‘Memory of the World (MoW) International Register for 2023. It was not exactly a declaration of the extensive chronicle as a ‘world heritage,’...
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