Reflections on the UNP-SLFP curse [with Sudat Pasqual]
'The Nation' started a series on what could be called the curse(s) of the SLFP and UNP. Sudat Pasqual reflects on the SLFP and the need to put it out of our misery and I pen the notes on the UNP....
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Crawl into the enemy’s brain
This is the forty ninth 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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You have loads of time, you know!
This is the forty eighth 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 ArticleMrs Liyanagama made me fall in love with Sinhala
The first day of the school year is always exciting. In the lower grades at Royal College in the early seventies the children were not mixed. That happened in Grade Five. So a new year meant you...
View ArticleSahodara Samaagam
(note the plural)Regimes acquire tags, leaders too. When they resonate with general public perception they become part of everyday usage. It was Victor Ivan who called President Chandrika Kumaratunga...
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Justice lynched!
The blame, if one is tuned into social media punditry, is on two entities: the police and the media (mainstream, of course). The police and the media not only raped and murdered a 5 year old girl...
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The long and short of politics or the Sarkozy principle
There are many ways to 'lift' oneselfThis was first published in the ‘Daily News’, September 11, 2009. That’s six years ago, but then again some people don’t grow taller with time, especially...
View ArticleNumbers are amazing, Upali Munasinghe taught me
He was known for two things. Mathematics and cricket. In the latter he graduated by and by from being Master-in-Charge of the Under 13 teams to the First XI. In that capacity I have only brief...
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The Sirisena Dictionary and other politidbits of the week
The Sirisena DictionaryHaving submitted to the dictates of the United States, Maithripala Sirisena screams, ‘Victory!’ and adds that he ‘saved the war heroes’. Did someone mutter, ‘victory my foot!’?...
View ArticleA thank-you note, naturally
This was first published in the ‘Daily News’, October 12, 2009. The following day my mother passed away. She was a giver, her students and almost everyone who was blessed to be her friend would...
View ArticleOf mothers, sons and general merit
The Dornhorst Memorial Prize for General Merit is considered by some as the most prestigious ‘trophy’ that a schoolboy at Royal College could aspire to capture. It is awarded annually to the most...
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Think of roots and wings
This is the fiftieth 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 and...
View ArticleThere are nudities that we embrace
These are days when the value of a doctorate has been considerably compromised by dubious institutions awarding such titles to persons of disrepute. The University system has not done itself any...
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It begins with the first soiled spoon you are too lazy to wash
This is the forty ninth 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 ArticleReflections on the UNP-SLFP curse III [with Sudat Pasqual]
The Nation' started a series on what could be called the curse(s) of the SLFP and UNP. Sudat Pasqual reflects on the SLFP and the need to put it out of our misery and I pen the notes on the UNP....
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The 20th Amendment: An opportunity for President Sirisena
Maithripala Sirisena needs to press the F5 key on Electoral Reform!The majority of those who cast valid votes on January 8, 2015 wanted ‘change’. The ‘change’ candidate and his supporters outlined in...
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Smile, the beautiful nation
Pic Courtesy Sunday TimesThe LTTE was militarily vanquished more than a year ago. We are a war-less nation now at least in the sense that clash of arms, blood soaked bandages and soils, wondering if...
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Bandagiriya does not exist, okaaaay?
Bandagiriya?There is no water issue in Bandagiriya. Therefore there weren’t any protests about water scarcity. And the police that did not come to control the crowds that did not come to protest did...
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When text plays with the visual: Review of කුරුළු කවි (‘Bird Song’ but...
A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. The flip is also true. A single word can a thousand images conjure. That’s what good writing is all about, especially poetry. Not all pictures have...
View ArticlePigging out on grubby finger-printing
Someone sent me a wonderful line from Nadine Gordimer recently: ‘The country of the tourist pamphlet always is another country, an embarrassing abstraction of the desirable that, thank God, does not...
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