['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 209th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below] I am not much of a movie buff. I tend to re-watch movies ...

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 208th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below] Dawn and dusk are thresholds. Markers that define a before and after. Words, ...

The popular romcom ‘When Harry met Sally’ ends a classic recognition and declaration of love with the traditional song heralding the new year being played in the background. Harry, played by Billy Crystal, and Sally, played by Meg Ryan briefly discuss the meaning of the song, ‘Auld Lang Syne’. Sally concludes, ‘anyway, it’s about old friends.’ And they kiss.I watched ...

When I was around 10 years old my father told two stories related to ageing. One was about Dorian Gray, the highly acclaimed novel by Oscar Wilde. He offered a to-a-ten-year-old version.‘Dorian Gray was a beautiful young man. Someone paints his portrait. Dorian sells his soul so that while the portrait aged, he would not. Years later he sees the ...

On Monday the 21st of August, 2023, Sha’Carri Richardson won the 100m gold at the 2023 World Championship in Budapest. Her 10.65 second run is a new championship record. It equalled the mark for the 5th fastest 100m dash in the world which she now shares with Shericka Jackson of Jamaica (set in July 2023) and Marion Jones of the ...

Years ago I made an observation: open wounds are for blood-letting, open words are for love-letting. Word play, nothing more, one might say, but probably a victim of the timeless trap of writers falling in love with their words, I used it as the title of a collection of poetry published in 2014: ‘Open words are for love-letting…’Six years ago ...

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 203rd article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below] Big shoes to fill. That’s a phrase we hear when a great retires ...

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 202nd article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below] 'Love is…’ is a syndicated cartoon written and drawn by Bill Asprey since ...

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 201st article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below] As I write, Arjun Erigaisi, the 19 year old Indian Grand Master (GM) ...

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 200th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below] All things natural, one may argue, are works of art. Of course if ...

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is 199th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below] It is a name that lends itself to multiple truncation. Daya Sahabandu was Daya ...

Pic courtesy www.backofbeyond.lk['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is 198th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below] Pristine ecologies there very well may have been. Maybe there still are ...

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is 197th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below] After a hard fought political battle in an institution was lost, a soldier noticing ...

Longevity alone can make legends for people are made of stories and the years invariably produce voluminous content. Making it to 98 is itself legendary. People who live that long are libraries, for their lives are made of innumerable stories and they are veritable repositories of history. Summa Navaratnam turned 98 recently. Survived only by a younger brother with most ...

Around six or seven years ago, a first year student of the Faculty of Art, University of Peradeniya, wrote to me seeking some advice on writing poetry. It so happened that I was planning to visit Kandy and therefore I arranged to meet him. It was late one evening when I got to Peradeniya. He was waiting for me on ...

This year in the Northern Hemisphere the autumnal equinox falls on the 23rd of September. That would be the first day of Autumn, but in the USA they would say ‘Fall.’ The Fall, quite in contrast to the Biblical allusion of innocence-loss and all associated negativity, is beautiful. Before the leaves actually fall, they perform an almost ritualistic dance of ...

Apoorva Mudgal and Ria ModakSouth Asia is a region. It is a region made of countries and therefore a territory parcelled by lines. Borders. It wasn’t always like that and maybe in time to come it won’t be like how it is today. Maps are made. They are amended. The work of cartographers never ends. Not too long ago, there ...

I do not know how Galgamuwe Chandi earned his nickname. Maybe he was aggressive by nature or due to circumstances; a creature inclined to be playful but who was sometimes or even frequently over enthusiastic, perhaps. Who renamed him 'Chandi,' for he was first known as 'Eka Danthaya' or ‘Single Tusked One’? Is he a rogue elephant? Was he always ...

Pic by Thilina KaluthotageA wewa, Peter Wise once insisted, is not a tank or a reservoir for those terms don’t capture the true social, cultural and ecological weight of this particular kind of water-body. People in Sri Lanka know what a wewa is. Children learn about the great bodies of water built by their ancestors, the Kala Wewa, the Tisa ...

Rajiv Gandhi and Narendra Modi, united in hegemonic intent ‘This is the beginning of the Bhutanization of Sri Lanka’ — Rajiv GandhiPresident Ranil Wickremesinghe has called on all political parties to submit their views on the 13th Amendment. He, more than anyone else, should understand that right now the legitimacy of all political parties (including his) and all politicians (including ...