The Executive Presidency has a chuckle
Maithripala Sirisena is the Executive President of Sri Lanka. He's not the first. He claims he will be the last. Claims are cheap. It is best to believe it when one sees it or sees it gone, as in...
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Saatakakaranaya: the right and wrong way
Five years ago, a few days after Mahinda Rajapaksa was re-elected President, the following article was published in the 'Daily News' (February 5, 2010). It refers to another article on the same lines...
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Spare us the sliced-bread nightmares Ravi
The 'rot' hasn't got as far as Paan-Paan but it might, horror of horrors!Kolombians are a distinct people from Colombo who know much -- so much that they are wont to think that others don't know and...
View ArticleHave you heard of the ‘Baltagiya’?
There's the 'underworld' and if there is such a thing there has to be an 'overworld' as well. Indeed, we live in times when the distinction is blurred and not only because Ranjan Ramanayake likes to...
View ArticleHow Keppetipola framed Independence Day
Some people celebrate independence, some freedom. Some lament the absence of both, others say there will only be degrees of one or the other. Someone pointed out that what we call ‘independence’ in...
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Read the enemy’s Bibles
Many years ago, a left-leaning professor somewhere in the USA quite innocently gave his students an assignment. The students were for the most part ‘progressive’. The task was to research...
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Have you thought of forgiving?
This is the twentieth article in a series I am writing for the JEANS section of 'The Nation'. The series is for children. Adults consider yourselves warned...you might re-discover a child within you!...
View ArticleRemembering the lessons taught by the cockroach
Eduardo Galeano has some pertinent things to say about history, in particularly the makings of history. People tend to think that "history" is about event and personality, about things that happened...
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Extracting 'scent' from Bora Diya Pokuna ('Scent of the Lotus')
Three reasons made me accept the invitation extended to me by Satyajit Maitipe to view his debut film, ‘Bora Diya Pokuna’ (‘Scent of the Lotus,’ he calls it in English) at the Goethe Institute. It is a...
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Sri Lankan textures, colors and diversity
A question was put to a chef at lunch recently: ‘What is uniquely Sri Lankan when it comes to cuisine?’ The person who asked the question responded himself: ‘colour and texture’. Even in the most...
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An ode to dimensionality
Christina Glaves, friend, photographer and a healer who had that rare gift of absorbing the pain around her and thereby delivering relief and peace, once told me that people don’t look at the sky...
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Mahinda Rajapaksa is loved and 'loved'
Those who love him are not concerned about 'comeback' but 'comeback' is a survival 'must' for those who 'love' himA group of essentially one-man parties have organized a rally. They’ve invited the 5.8...
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Irish cricket 'arrived' some years ago!
'Ireland has arrived!' is the title of an article I wrote for the Daily News on March 4, 2011. That's almost four years ago. Right now, as I re-post, Ireland is about to beat the once mighty West...
View ArticleIs it cricket or is it not?
I remember reading in a TrinityCollegesouvenir put out for the Bradby some decades ago an interesting comparison of cricket and rugby football: ‘Cricket is a gentlemen’s game played by rowdies; rugger...
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Resolving to hate
C.V. Wigneswaran just another Appapillai Amirthalingam?The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) has passed a resolution charging successive governments of perpetrating genocide on Tamils in Sri Lanka....
View ArticleTorture, summary execution and war crimes in ‘nasty places’
The 'leniency' shown by the UNHRC with respect to investigations of alleged war crimes shows that violations as well as violation-investigation are framed by considerations of political expediency....
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Siri Gunasinghe, Pioneer of Sinhala Free Verse
Described as a Sanskritist, an art historian, poet, novelist and film maker, Siri Gunasinghe turns 90 on February 18, 2015. The following article, based on an interview with the legendary literary...
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If rice is too expensive, eat cake yako!
Pic courtesy www.justasiam.wordpress.com Those who thought that lunacy was defeated along with Mahinda need to think again. The other day someone forwarded me a complaint of sorts posted on Facebook,...
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Poetry, love and revolutions
This is the twenty first in a series of articles on rebels and rebellion written for the FREE section of 'The Nation'. Scroll to the end for other articles in this series. 'FREE' is dedicated to youth...
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Wallflowers are pretty, aren’t they?
In case you are wondering, yes, there is a flower by that name. Wallflowers are fragrant and come in clusters of yellow, orange, brown, red or purple. They are grown or have become ‘naturalized’ on...
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