COVID-19 takes Yudhanjaya Wijeratne’s unnerving Numbercaste to another level of frightening. This quote from the book (pictured below) gives an indication of its uncanny ability to hint at future realities. The future Sri Lanka is shown as having a population of 15 million. The reason: ..Sri Lanka once was home to over twenty five million … Continue reading Pandemic in ...

Armoured Trishaws are the defining image of the Sri Lankan wars. Culminating is the central feature on the national flag of the People’s Republic of Dehiwala. The Sri Lankan wars, in general, and the siege of Colombo, in particular, saw a profusion of models and variants. This post contains a small sample of the most … Continue reading Armoured Trishaws ...

Took this as the war was ending. He should be an adult or in his late teens now. The current economic mess doesn’t offer him much explicit hope. At least the pre-pandemic era offered the promises of hope. The same poison that each generation feeds the next. I didn’t make hopeful promises then. It’s harder to … Continue reading What would ...

No one knows but you. And you don’t want to admit it. The “In the dark” pun is overused. But it’s an apt metaphor. Any attempt to autopsy the issue descends into the usual inconclusive accusation shoot out. As with most things in Sri Lanka, there is no one cause. Or if there is, it’s … Continue reading Cause of Sri Lanka’s power cuts →

I started listening by accident in 2016. In small steps, it changed me over the years. Like greying hair, the changes took time to notice. When I trace those changes to a trigger, an influence, I’m led to this podcast. The first signs were physical. I started feeling refreshed, energised, focused. Free from the chains … Continue reading How a podcast changed my life →

Sri Lankan politicians have refused to return billions of dollars they have stolen over 50 years. These funds are believed to be scattered across countries with confidential banking. The money is the fruit of bribes, kickbacks and misuse of public funds that is the default of Sri Lankan politics. The combination of foreign aid, the … Continue reading Sri Lanka ...

I left Italy when I was sixteen. It was just after the war. There was nothing to eat. Everything was damaged, broken. Our ship stopped in Ceylon. A place call Gorl. There was this fellow loading pineapples onto the ship. It was the first time I saw one. I asked him what it was. He … Continue reading Migrant’s Pineapples →

I’ve been suspicious of rituals that permeate Sri Lankan life. It stems from a powerful lifelong inner conviction I’ve had since I was a child. The rituals around me – from dinner dances to school assemblies to pujas – were false, contrived, and manipulative. Deep down, I wanted nothing to do with them. So there … Continue reading Suspicious rituals →

Elections in Sri Lanka are the ritual of the looted appointing the next set of looters. If tradition has its ways, it’s the previous set of looters with a few new faces sprinkled about. I’ve never been able to shake that perception. The core fact is that irrespective of the person on the throne, the … Continue reading Sri Lanka’s Election Brutalities →

I’ve made it a habit to write at least 106 words every day. Usually before dawn. I started on 24th December 2019. As of this writing, I’ve managed to spit out 7935 words in the last 37 days. There are a few rules. Avoid padding the word count. Short sentences. Simple words. Thoughts focused towards … Continue reading Writing 106 Words daily →

Mine is a green WW2 era American machine gun. His is a Mauser ‘machine pistol’. I remember its box magazine and the ‘broom handle’ pistol grip. We are pointing the barrels into the camera lens. About them, our ten year old grins. The photo’s colours are a mix of faded oranges and black green shadows. … Continue reading Childhood Guns →

Here we go again – another role of the dice. My unfortunate habit of reading history and eavesdropping made me a cynic. A kind I’m trying to un-become. It’s not working. Resulting in words that sneer and despair while failing to sound detached and wise. Thoughts that won’t send anything positive into the world. The … Continue reading Pre Election Post →

I took up David Blacker’s prompt to create AI images of armoured trishaws. It turned out to be a bigger challenge than I thought. Multiple Generative AI (GenAI) platforms had a hard time creating an image that matched the armoured trishaw I look I had in mind. The first GenAI I tried was mid-journey (last year). It … Continue reading AI visualised ...

In the last 711 days, I’ve written 268628 words. The quota is a minimum of 106 words a day. It started in December 2019. Despite gaps, the writing activity is one of the few anchors to my routine. I never expected to create such a word pile. Little of that output is for public consumption. … Continue reading The first 268628 Words →

Sri Lankans worship obedience. Obedience is dressed up as respect (for the unrespectable). We are conditioned to make it the default reaction to authority. It’s an instinctive conditioning in any hierarchical society. Realising the stupidity of that mindset is critical to success in Sri Lankan society. The sooner you realise it, the better placed you … Continue reading Obedience trap ...

Started this blog 15 years ago. Here’s the traditional link to my first post from 6th Feb 2007. It’s the longest thing I’ve done consistently. It’s older than my marriage, kids and current career. I’m not thrilled about the frequency, but it’s one of the constraints of life. The majority of my writing’s moved offline. … Continue reading 15 Years ...

Sri Lanka’s professional politicians are the cause, not the solution, to the country’s current catastrophe. They must ALL resign from politics. We must end the idea of politics as a profession. All of which might be harder to swallow than we think. As a group, they made politics into a lucrative form of organised crime … Continue reading Sri Lanka’s ...

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…

This is the second book recommendation post for Yudhanjaya Wijeratne. The first post makes the necessary excuses about the motive for writing this. In the interest of keeping each post under three minutes of reading, I broke up what I wrote in to thirds. The Dwarf by Pär Lagerkvist This is first person narration that … Continue reading Reader’s book ...

Do you have an “official photograph” ? Not the proposal photos that your parents sent around. I’m referring to the well lit one. Shot with you in business garb and professional confident smile. It will hang in your LinkedIn, company about page, Slack profile and heaven forbid, your email signature. When I meet people in … Continue reading Your official photograph →