The Kandyan “Geta Bera” Drummer beats a slow pace as Kanishka and Chamila lights the oil lamps at their wedding. 19 January 2012. Photograph©Chulie de Silva.  Holidays end too fast.  Memories of moments shared, the laughter and reminisces, sadly fade. I’d often look back at my past blog posts and wished I had blogged more — even briefly, less ...

World Press Photo of the Year 2011 by Samuel Aranda The international jury of the 55th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected a picture by Samuel Aranda from Spain as the World Press Photo of the Year 2011. The picture shows a woman holding a wounded relative in her arms, inside a mosque used as a field hospital by ...

A fallen Moodilla flower at Akurela. Sri Lanka. 13 January 2012. Photograph©Chulie de Silva I had hardly given moodilla flowers a second glance before, but the way they lay delicately poised on the lush green grass at Akurela was quite something.  The white stamens with rosy red tips glistened in the morning light while the breeze over the mangroves gently ...

A fallen Moodilla flower at Akurela. Sri Lanka. 13 January 2012. Photograph©Chulie de Silva I had hardly given moodilla flowers a second glance before, but the way they lay delicately poised on the lush green grass at Akurela was quite something.  The white stamens with rosy red tips glistened in the morning light while the breeze over the mangroves gently ...

“There is a space between man’s imagination and man’s attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.” ― Khalil Gibran, Sand and Foam Everyday before I drifted off to sleep, in the waking hours as I moved into consciousness, rumbling along in a rickshaw in dusty Dhaka and often bored at office meetings, my thoughts would be on this ...

Evening glow over Sabaragamuwa hills. Ratnapura, Sri Lanka. 18 January, 2012. Photograph©Chulie de Silva. We have lost even this twilight. No one saw us this evening hand in hand while the blue night dropped on the world. I have seen from my window the fiesta of sunset in the distant mountain tops. Sometimes a piece of sun burned like a ...

For weeks this blog of mine, which has a mind of its own had been nagging me to write a piece and take stock of 2011.  The question is how do you crunch a year full of events, a stock of photo memories  into a single blog but let’s try. … Boys will be boys. A son of a doctor ...

Unlike many of the other tsunami anniversaries my heart is lighter this year.  We have moved past a threshold of pain.  Maybe be we are propelled by a natural release of energy that they say happens every seven years
 which encourages you to move forward and make changes. Seven years after the tsunami of December 2004, the Kirtisinghe family seems ...

The paper was crumbling, in the journal I had kept in my teens.  The collection of photos was damaged. But they were special and had survived among my treasured possessions despite many home moves across countries. Then it was always summer. ... Photograph copyright Aruna Kirtisinghe. The memories of the summers in Hikkaduwa can be only rebooted and read from ...

The decaying painting is supposed to depict Mahadana Sitano and wife in western dress enjoying music. The integration of western modes of dress to eastern Buddhist visual story telling of the Jataka stories is a notable feature of the Kataluwa paintings. Kataluwa Sri Lanka, September 2011. Photograph © Chulie de Silva. To get to Kataluwa we turned left near the ...

A bull tethered outside my apartment block awaits sacrificial slaughter at Eid. Lalmatia, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 6 Nov. 2011 Copyright Chulie de Silva “Oh! Look see how cute that goat is” said my friend as we bounced over dodgy roads in a rickshaw.  Yes, the goat was unusual black with speckled ears.   He and another goat were being led ...

Oil lamps at Devundara Sri Vishnu Maha Devalaya. Photograph©Chulie de Silva I am always drawn to the flickering temple lamps.  Often lit in prayer, in remembrance, the fragrant oil spills over as much as love does long after the loved ones are gone.

A flower blooms in monsoon rain. Photograph©Chulie de Silva The flower says Blessed am I Blessed am I Upon this earth… The flower says I was born from the dust Kindly kindly Let me forget it Let me forget it Let me forget. Of dust inside me there is ...

Sunset at Galle. Photograph©Chulie de Silva The sun of the first day Put the question To the new manifestations of life - Who are you? There was no answer. Years passed by The last sun of the last day Uttered the question on the shore of the western ...

Today on World Environment Day, I needed an escape from all that is gruesome about our planet, and a few questions I am asking myself for which I don’t have any answers at the moment.  Today is a “hartal” day in Dhaka and streets had emptied but my escape was away from all this too, to a virtual haunt  of ...

“The story is about forgotten events and feelings unearthed from memory. …” from the photo exhibition “Dhaka: My Dreams, My Reality,”/Chobi Mela VI, 2011, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Reproduced here with kind permission. Photograph ©Debashish Shom. I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberles

100th blog — is it significant? Not as significant as this 100 year old photo, but still a good time to bring it out. When I first saw this photo, I sat momentarily transfixed.  Here was a slice of history, frozen in a quiet gentleness, a significant moment in the lives of my ancestors, whose blood flows through my veins. ...

Rain-laden clouds at twilight. North, Sri Lanka. Photograph©Chulie de Silva You have drunk the draught of songs that I poured for you, and accepted the garland of woven dreams. My heart straying in the wilderness was ever touched by the pain that was your own touch. When my days are ...