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Pity the all-knowing and naïve as they stutter grandiose alibis!
Aimé Césaire I first came across the Francophone Martinician poet, author and politician Aimé Césaire (1913 to 2008) while reading Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth. Since then I’ve always looked...
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The residences of Refaat Al Areer
Where is Refaat Al Areer, do you know? It’s quite alright to say ‘no,’ for no one is holding a gun at your head demanding that you answer ‘yes,’ only to insist, again at gunpoint, that you show the way...
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Semitism: unadulterated, unclothed and unvarnished
Words have meanings. Names have meanings too. Words and names have values. Words have definitions. Not always is there agreement on what they mean. String words together and you get sentences....
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Gauze-kites in intemperate skies
A single kite way above the tree-line seemingly adrift against rain-threatening clouds is a sight to behold. If there is lightning and thunder promising a torrential downpour it is even more...
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Herculaneum of the 21st Century
Herculaneum, buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1973, was discovered in 1709. Pompeii, the better known Vesuvius city was discovered 39 years later and identified...
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In the delirium of my insomnia
In The Book of Embraces Eduardo Galeano wrote,‘I can't sleep. There is a woman stuck between my eyelids. I would tell her to get out if I could. But there is a woman stuck in my throat.’Reading it, I...
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Sarath Karunaratne can't stop teaching
More than twenty years ago, around 15 students, all senior scouts, spent almost a week at the Naval Dockyard. The logbook entry, written by President’s Scout Kanishka Goonewardena, the designated...
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Anthony Courseault’s tryst with grapes
Anthony Courseault (Snr)Grapes make me think of Eduardo Galeano’s Book of Embraces which is full of thought provoking reflections on everyday things. This:'On his deathbed, a man of the vineyards spoke...
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The IDF and Rules of Engagement
IDF affirms 'rules of engagement' by killing over 18,000 unarmed Palestinian civiliansMore than 20 years ago, Mutaamba Maasha, then an undergraduate at Cornell University, contributed a column titled...
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Calling Kapila Bandaranayake, wherever he may be!
Kapila Bandaranayake wowed teachers and fellow students while at Royal CollegeMost students have favourite teachers. Some teachers are liked by many, but it is hard to think of anyone who was loved by...
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Of masks, skins and the best poetry in the world
Clockwise from top left: Udayasiri Wickramaratne, Vajira Mahakanumulla, Chaaminda Rathnasuriya, Irvin Weerackody, Harith Gunawardena, Kapila Kumara Kalinga and Athula KaldemullaAlmost twenty years...
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Passwords to unimaginable grace
A few months ago I wrote about Colleen Kinder’s Letters to a Stranger: essays to the ones who haunt us. This is how I described the book: ‘Letter to a stranger is a book of fissures where contributors...
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Three hundred two-way mirrors
I took a slow road in another lifetime, in another century and a different continent. When I started, there were things I knew or thought I did. I carried with me notions of roads. I kept notes. I...
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