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Tragedy has rhythm, recovery too
BOOK REVIEW‘Rhythm of the Sea’ by Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe, published in 2007, Reviewed by Malinda Seneviratne.How can one look at the sea, the waves and spray, the ships on the horizon, sunsets and...
View ArticleVen. Uduwela Nanda makes children fly
Saturday (May 1, 2010), I was in Peradeniya. Well, Kiribathkumbura to be precise. I was with about a dozen of my batchmates from Peradeniya. We meet like this now and then, but this time it was a...
View ArticleSomethings get lost, some ‘lost-ed’
Years ago, as a young undergraduate, I was given a book by Arjuna Parakrama. It was called ‘Fire from the mountain: the making of a Sandinista’. It was the story of a rebel, the author, Omar Cabezas....
View ArticleIt is time to un-‘develop’ our minds
We are a few hours away from the year 2013. The world has not ended and the signs are it will not. Strangely, the end of the world sometime in late December was the most looked forward to event of...
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Karunaratne Abeysekera made child and childhood softer still
BOOK REVIEW‘Karuge Lamaa Gee Potha’ (Karu’s Children’s Songs) by Karunaratne Abeysekera, published by Sarasavi Prakashakayo, illustrated by Sybil Wettasinghe, designed by Sandra Mack, reviewed by...
View ArticleWhose coat are you wearing, by the way?
This was written about 2.5 years ago. These are coat-days and not just because Sri Lankan politics has got lawyers and judges swarming all over it. A re-read was nice. Hope it is to those who have...
View ArticleOccupations and their hazards
Chess players die of heart-attacks. Not all of them, of course. Still, heart attack is often mentioned as the occupational disease of chess players, or ‘wood pushers’ as my mother used to call us (my...
View ArticleOn the fallacy of infallibility
[This was written a couple of years ago, in response and appreciation of an article written by my friend Revatha Silva on Sanath Jayasuriya. In these days of oneupmanship and sabre-rattling,...
View ArticleTowards a Saadambara Sri Lankaava
Sahan Ranwala, livewire of the Ranwala Foundation which was the life-product and life of that inimitable artiste, conservationist of things national and teacher, told me one Sunday that the end of the...
View ArticleThat ‘Halal Controversy’
Certain sections of the Sinhala Buddhist population are up in arms against what they call ‘Islaamikaranaya’(Islamization) or ‘Halalkaranaya’(Halal-ism). The more virulent elements of this group have...
View ArticleThe virtues of staying within slapping distance
Twenty one years ago in a small temple in Pallimulla, Matara, a man by the name of Jayantha Silva lectured a bunch of undergraduates and young graduates. There were also two Maoists in attendance,...
View ArticleSo you want anarchy, do you?
The 1978 Constitution is not made for dictators, contrary to an oft-articulated view. It is rather made to make dictators in that it confers on the executive near dictatorial power. The objections...
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‘With the Dawn’: A love-note penned in the Sri Lankan wilds
BOOK REVIEW‘With the Dawn’, by Nihal Fernando and Herbert Keuneman, published by Studio Times Ltd., reviewed by Malinda Seneviratne.There are countless melodies that can be composed with the 12 pitches...
View ArticleReflections on foolishness, wisdom and those deserving of honour
I have been reading and reflecting on the Mangala Sutta of late, i.e. the Discourse on Blessings, and found that even the simplest line from the Buddhist scriptures inspires immensely. My wife, a...
View ArticleTowards a country called Tomorrow
‘It is better to impeach too often than too seldom; if those in positions of power cannot be virtuous, they should at least be nervous’ [after Joseph Sobran]President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised that...
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Mahagama Sekera, alive after all these years
It is not always that one reads forewords and introductions. We tend to skip what we sometimes take to be necessary frill for author/publisher but eminently skippable for reader. There is a risk. A...
View ArticleThe morning after (impeachment)
J.R. Jayewardena was president for more than 11 years. I remember a few things about him. First, the 1978 Constitution. I also remember the line with which he launched the ‘Open Economy’: ‘Let the...
View ArticleIn praise of Sumanthiran
It is natural for members of the Parliamentary Opposition to oppose whatever the ruling party proposes. Voting in Parliament is therefore predictable, whether it is for an Act of Parliament, Annual...
View ArticleLaw Entrance issue and the politics of silence
When any news on Sri Lanka in the ‘world press’ comes with a caveat such as ‘Sinhalese who are mostly Buddhist and Tamils who are mostly Hindu’, communalism becomes painted in lines bolder than...
View ArticleStudents of Nelu-Kapila Academy reap a musical harvest
Times change and with changing times tastes also change. As people get older their favorite songs get played less and less or else they are forced to listen to stations dedicated to ‘oldies’ or wait...
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