Airport security, customs and immigration rituals are great levellers. It doesn’t matter whether you travel first or cattle class. You are at the mercies of bored officialdom and the humiliations they can inflict. Colombo Airport’S Silk Route “service” claims to spare those who can pay. The idea is you just hand your bags and documents […]
I got too many unfinished posts lounging around the drafts folder. It’s the nature of Nibble Writing. Easier to start and keep tinkering than to finish. An example : the “story” of a train delay and its possible political fall out. It has sprouted too many versions. Needing much delayed hard fisted editorial focus. On […]
Three kids meant a small family in my parents’ generation. That vast cast of aunts and uncles is unthinkable now. In my generation, that crowd of siblings is replaced by cousins. Looking back, not being siblings made friendships easier. Our relationships escaped the inevitable frictions between siblings. In its place a sense of kinship through […]
This is the season for intimate encounters with the world. It can happen anywhere. During chance meeting at Odel. At one of the season’s many presex parties. Or any social gatherings. Iresspective of the place, the best encounters occur through one portal: the eyes of visiting expats and the duller details of their daily lives. […]
This is a picture of a decaying blog. Creative statistical massage will get you the same conclusion via different paths. I used to consider it a miracle if I made two posts a month. Now one a month is a challenge. Yet the bigger miracle is that I still get traffic. Most of those who […]
Write at any moment. Wherever you are. Even for a few seconds at a time. Use the time windows between the demands of life to move words out of your head. One sentence at a time. Piling your sentences into complete pieces of writing. Let the result make you happy. It’s what Nibble Writing’s about. […]
“You dress like a P.O.W” (Prisoner of War) sighs my father. A sweeping generalisation of course. But he’s right. The accurate version is “you wear the tatters of a German P.O.W after a decade of Soviet hospitality in Siberia”. Yet this parental grumble marks an interesting experience. Which has taught me about the unspoken social […]
I painted endless variations of the same sunset at school. The powers that be approved. I was capturing the offical ideology in pretty pictures. Celebrating beliefs we kids were expected to swallow without question. The pictures themselves looked harmless. The sky was always a lush water colour gradient. Descending from a fringe of deep evening […]
This painting is going no where. So some of the voices in my head moan from their cushions. True. There are layers and layers of paint and oil pastel and gel medium. A casualty of being the Sunday painter. With an occasional peck of the brush during the lone spare minute of a week night. […]
This post covers the practical parts of mastering Secret Colombo Short Cuts (SCSC). If you don’t know what that means read the 2+ minute intro post. It will prepare you to master the Triple Swords of Colombo Traffic. These are: Geography (physical and social) Climate (political and meteorological) Whims of traffic deities Their purpose is […]
Secret Colombo Short Cuts (SCSC) are complicated curries. Used with wisdom, they will get you from A to B via Q,W,E,R,T,Y,U,I,O, and P faster than any direct route. While everyone else rots in the city’s many parking lots (the naive mistake these for roads). Yet that wisdom must to be acquired. Either by gruelling ordeals […]
It sprang at me when I snapped off the light after the bed time story. An hot intense blue sky. Ultramarine. Hints of pale pink peaking between the brush strokes. Then fading to a white haze at the low horizon. The ground spreading from it is a warm dark green plane. Its features are a […]
I loved my ultra minimal Edin wordpress.com theme while I used it. Now it’s time for a change. So I’m shifting the focus from showing the full text of the post on the front page. Instead a “magazine”. After 700+ post I feel I should give the old stuff an airing. The new theme is the […]
I added digitised drawings of traditional Sinhala designs and motifs to my Flickr account. They are licensed as public domain works. You can use them for any purpose without needing permission from me. Due to time constraints I haven’t been able to name them yet. That will be another project. So is cleaning these up…
I scrawled some thoughts on writing on paper. Don’t know when or why. It took some scratching around. But here it is. I think it sums up what I feel about “writing” after banging out a blog since 2007. It also epitomises what I feel about Nibble Writing.
Nibble Writing is a life hack for people without time to write. This post covers the essential practical how to’s. I kept them loose to fit the diverse chaos most people call life. My earlier post introducing Nibble Writing gives context to the tips in this post. Reading it will help you make better use…
I am not a photographer. Just another slob who takes the occasional photo. For centuries I have had a neglected Flickr account. I used it to hold photos illustrating blog posts. Now I have decided to put the photos I’ve taken into the public domain. What that means, to quote the Creative Commons description is…
I don’t have time to write. So I jot words on the phone in the spare seconds scattered across the day. I call it Nibble Writing. It’s a life hack typical of the time starved. Not a saviour of writing dreams squeezed off the clock by the practical demands of staying alive. Nibble Writing can…
I’m not a car buff. Yet I’m quick to drool at old cars in fine condition. This mid 20th century Mercedes Benz is a classic example. Saw if cruising through the madness of Colombo traffic. It’s dignity got my attention before I realised how well maintained it was. Worlds away from the condition of another…