The Sri Lanka Airforce website has powerful photos of the current flooding. All taken from SLAF relief flights. The photos make words useless. Even the mundane ones hace a strangeness about them. The expressways standing neat and clean against the brown water. Rivers and the roads merged in the same flat colour. Each roof sticking…
I have a simple radical solution for staying cool in Sri Lanka’s “hot season”. You don’t have to flee to your summer palace. Or seek the false refuge of air conditioning. All it takes is a simple change of perspective. Conditioning if you want a one word answer. Up for it? The solution has two…
This warning against dumping rubbish is a downgraded death threat. Version 1 had far dire warnings in 3 languages. I blogged about it long time ago. The current version seems tame. Yet it harks of technology (CCTV monitoring). The threat this time is to vehicles. Which hints that the culprits are not pedestrians. I don’t…
His cologne takes your attention before you see him. Forcing your instincts to turn and notice. That his Versace, Patek Phillipe and the rest are real. That you are in the presence of a higher power. A power that does business with men who toy with the fate of nations. Over food, wine and single…
You must have heard the story countless times. A Sri Lankan builds an institution from nothing. It could be a company, government department, an organisation or a movement. Success makes it significant in its field. Then the vultures descend. Ending in a tragic collapse/demise before its time. What survives is the rubble of forgotten achievements.…
Rural Sri Lanka prospers from global high end Bondage Dominance and Sadomasochism (BDSM) culture. The link is not obvious. Yet it has gone on quietly for decades. As with anything to do with BDSM, the relationship is bound in hidden complexities. It began years before “50 Shades of Grey” mainstreamed a closeted world. When a…
Seniority is power Unaccountable brutality is the true measure of “real” power Power must be demonstrated often – by sudden acts of physical and mental cruelty The prospect of random cruelty is an essential ingredient of fear Fear is the only true form of respect Servility and obedience are the only possible expressions of respect…
This is my second typewritten blog post in six years. I think I did a better job than the first time I used a typewriter to blog. This time I got the old Lettera 22 “calibrated”. That means understanding it’s personality (quirks). I was extra nice to it. Dusted. Cleaned. Gave it a fresh ribbon.…
Pilgrimage to Kataragama is a long tradition in my family. Goes back to my grandparents’ time. Perhaps beyond that (one of them is said to have origins in the area). I was taken there countless times during my childhood. The photos in this post are from that era. A Kataragama weekend somewhere in the late…
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…
Don’t get hot under the collar by its disregard for the historical. It’s hilarious. Sri Lankan Asterix fans, will love this. Here are a 6 points to keep in mind about this impossible to find book: Image credit: Graphic by Marcos Piccin – CC Licence Oblix looks quite dignified in a Kandiyan Nilame kit. It doesn’t…
After nearly nine years of blogging I updated the “about” page of this blog. There never was a hurry. The updated page is about this blog and the experience of writing. Not about me. Or may be it is. You decide and let me know.
I avoid poetry as a survival instinct. There are a few poets that make the exception. Bukowski for one. Green Tea diaries is another. The first is dead. The second is not as prolific as she used to be. Thankfully there’s the latest member of the trinity “Life that Demands to be Noticed”. I’ve blogged…
This is day what ever of my Twitter fast. Which began when I deleted the Twitter app on my phone sometime last week. The result feels odd. The most obvious is the lack of social media “snacking”. How to fill those odd idle minute or two? The ones too long for stillness yet not enough…
Until this book came out, Sri Lanka’s spy services were vague words in defence communiques. Specifics didn’t go beyond convoluted speculations of columnists on slow news days. That era is over. All due to this book. Which flings the unseen world of Sri Lanka’s spies into the hard glare of the public stage. Confronts unhealed…
I used to model as a teenager. This photo is the only evidence left of that work. No doubt my best work. Though mistreated by sloppy photography. But that’s ok. I had great fun doing it. My parents and relatives were supportive. Most of my friends didn’t think much of it. I didn’t care. I…
This photo is a close up of Sri Lanka’s indigenous answer to “hard” drugs. Yet it’s completely legal. There are no withdrawal symptoms. The high lasts for quite a while. Cravings will not make you want to kill anyone. Taken in small doses over a long period, it is sure to kill you. So will…
Thought provoking insightful comments are one of blogging’s few real rewards. Chamira’s comment on my post about film photos is the most recent. I realised the response I was typing as practically a blog post. His points are worth while enough to put this in a post. So here it is. This post is a…