The definitive Sri Lankan road film (“movie” for American speakers) has finally arrived. “Yamu!” is a critical and box office success because it manages the impossible. It lets the viewer experience the layered contradictions of being Sri Lankan in a very entertaining way. The “local” audience, irrespective of their language will “get it”. So will […] ...
These film photographs are hard won victories from my non digital photography days. A time of despairing struggle. Trying to understand the voodoo of F-stop and aperture. Recorded by piles of over or under exposed disasters. Took me years to realise the cause. Technical incompatibilities between my ancient Nikon’s “semi automatic” settings and its Sigma…
This aerial view lapse video shows how the Meethotamulla rubbish mountain grew over time. It looks like the spread of a malignant growth. Here’s the video for the impatient.: It went from this in 2004: to this in February 2017: I put this video together using screen grabs from Google Earth. Which has a large […]
Independence Arcade is the hottest thing in Colombo when it opened. I finally got around to going there in October 2014. It felt like visiting another white elephant. A wound from one more politically connected racket. Its a nasty of me to say. I don’t have any evidence to verify evidence of illegalities. Its just…
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 […]
The encounter I am about to describe happened long before the Dambulla mosque incident in 2012. Years later it still sits on me. The weight growing with the current decent of Sri Lankan politics. I began writing this as a way of dealing with it. It led me to realise a few things about my […]
A take on what Sri Lanka’s constitutional crisis (circa late 2018) says about an inner Sri Lankan cultural psychological make up. This post is my attempt to make sense of it all in under three minutes.
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…
I bet you have NEVER read one THIS self centred. I certainly haven’t. I don’t write such blog posts. But this “issue” is at the point where someone MUST say something. That someone is not me. So I end up writing this. So what’s the fuss? If you ask me, “The Problem” is a silly … Continue reading Most self ...
I’m over halfway into close reading two fascinating books. ‘Close’ means ‘slow’ reading. With highlighting, notes, comments. Asides into looking up references of cited texts. Wikipediaing , Googling other works and backgrounds of cited authors. In the wings are the next two books. Evaluated by close reading a quarter of the way in to confirm … Continue reading Surprise gift →
We all have artefacts that have weird effects on out inner selves. Pictured in this post is a personal artefact that has become a mental equivalent of a ball and chain. It’s a detail of a heavily hand edited printout of a story. Too long to be “short”, too brief to be called anything else. [...]
I was an emergency bird sitter over the weekend. Delighted offspring units told me my new status when I staggered home from work. The cage with it’s chirping prisoner was already on the living room floor. I was not delighted at all. As a vegetarian I don’t like animals. Beyond that, I feel that life […]
The voices in the head have been busy. Yet the holidays haven’t granted a breather to output the thoughts into words. The best I have managed are jottings in spare seconds scattered across the days. As usual what started as a single post keeps breeding more. The common theme dances around the foundational perceptions in … Continue reading Evidence based ...
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…
I posted my first post on this blog a ten years ago today. Since then I managed to squeeze out posts on a regular basis. Twenty in month when I was time rich. One a month at my current ebb. Ten years of regular practice should improve any activity. The only improvement I admit to […]
They built Sri Lanka’s bridges, roads, power grid, dams and other infrastructure we take for granted. You may have heard a few names – Wimalasurendra, Kularathne – in passing. The rest never got the recognition required to be forgotten. Yet their work still stands. Despite a decaying state bureaucracy poisoned by Sri Lanka’s feudal politics. This […]