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Avurudu in the time of Covid-19
It is a harvest festival, agreed. Source, however, is not the only giver of meaning. ‘Avurudu’ or rather the ‘Aluth Avurudda’ has acquired a lot of meaning over centuries of celebration to the point...
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Vulnerability, fear and the legitimizing of prejudice
Sudat Pasqual, former Sri Lankan cricketer now resident in Canada, recently wrote to Rachel Notley, Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister of Alberta, in response to the ‘stay home, stay...
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Melodies in and out of the 64 squares
A submission by Zaara Zayan‘Victory will come like an exquisite combination shattering the chess squares with its poetry.’A combination, in chess, is a sequence of moves which includes capture and/or...
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Gunnepana -- Planet Earth's new name
A long, long time ago, before the bheeshanaya and those other periods of de-facto lock downs, six undergraduates took up residence in a ‘chummery.’ It was located in a small hamlet called Gunnepana,...
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Eyes that watch the world and can’t be forgotten
It must have been more than thirty years ago. Ravin Gooneratne, then an architecture student at Moratuwa University, introduced me to Don McLean through ‘Vincent.’ Ravin was a man of many talents. He...
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Gota, Parliament and the Question of Representation
Long before the 2019 Presidential Election, stalwarts of the United National Party (UNP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and of course their closet lackeys painted Gotabaya Rajapaksa as a...
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Potters, named and nameless
My daughters grew up reading Harry Potter. They read. They watched the movies and one of them even indulged in fan fiction for a while. The younger one insisted that I read Harry Potter. I struggled...
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Rishard Bathiudeen’s angst unwrapped
Rishard Bathiudeen, leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) is aggrieved. His grief is understandable. It would be unfair to expect anyone to be thrilled if his/her brother was arrested. He is...
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Use the BBC — the BS tells a story
Those who are old enough to have been young enough back in the late nineties or those who have taken the trouble to delve into the details of the relevant politics would know a lot about things like...
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The underside of sequestering
You can't just suit up and keep deprivation away Curfews, lockdowns, quarantining and other forms of sequestering are not all bad. There are positives. There are signs that limited human activity is...
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The story of an aththamma and an aththa
Dane Street. Somerville. Cambrige. Massachusetts. The United States of America. It was in the Spring of 1991. There were several Sri Lankans living in that apartment. None of us were very good at...
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Locked down sports people, read!
Chess players, in these Covid-19 times have the option of honing skills and maintaining match-practice. It’s almost as if the internet was made for the development of chess. There are online courses,...
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The resurrection and the life
Illustration courtesy Aysha Maryam CassimIt’s been just a year since the Easter Sunday attacks shocked the nation and took the lives of over 300 Sri Lankans. It was a rude awakening for a nation that...
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The Theory of Three Chillie Plants
I have a friend. Let me call him Nadesan. Now Nadesan left Sri Lanka more than 25 years ago when he was just five years old. The LTTE had robbed his family of the only asset they owned, a tractor. They...
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‘Avurudu’ in enhanced circumstances
I did hear a few crackers when the Aluth Avurudda arrived. Just for a few second. There’s something to say for the various avurudu uthsava held across the country throughout the month of April, but we...
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Being in the Republic of Fear
Pic, courtesy www.dailymirror.lkJust over a year ago terrorists adhering to the Islamic faith (as interpreted by them), i.e. the National Thowheeth Jama'ath or ‘National Monotheism Organization,’...
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Thinking and out-thinking in sports
Mahendra Singhe Dhoni was a rare thinking skipperThere was a time when knowing the rules or having been a keen spectator was qualification enough to have a decent enough shot at making a varsity team...
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The virtues of risk-free generosity
The first book of the Asterix series that I read was ‘Asterix and the Olympic Games.’ That was the beginning of a life long fascination with the work of Goscinny and Uderzo. I have my favorites and of...
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The dignity of a kos kola otunna
‘Api okkoma rajavaru’ (we are all kings) is one of the more popular songs of Victor Ratnayake. An idealistic song obviously, for the assertion that we are all kings and queens, all equal citizens, is...
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Stay safe Ms Bachelet, wherever you may be
I have no idea where the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet is right now. Her missives have a Geneva address, but that could be on account of the location of her...
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