Walt Whitman, the great grandfather of North American poetry, writing about strangers, noting the pleasure offered in passing of eyes, face and flesh and the fact that he in return gave his beard, breast and hands, was convinced that the unknown individuals ‘was the he or the she’ he was seeking. And he made a mental note and inserted it ...
Until a few years ago I had never heard of sea glass. I probably had seen sea glass before but had never thought twice about these glass shards. I was more interested in shells. A friend from another century who makes ornamental jewellery as a pastime, not for sale but for gifting, told me that she picked up sea glass ...
At the Galle Literary Festival, in 2008, I believe the late Sunila Abeysekera pleaded that ‘LTTE’ and ‘Tamil people’ not be conflated. She was pointing fingers at Sinhala nationalists. The following question was put to her: ‘Is there no conflation when the LTTE insists it is the sole representative of the Tamil people and others either agree or remain silent?’ ...
Lakdasa or Lakdas Wikkramasinha? A collection of his poems edited by Aparna Halpe and Michael Ondaatje, published by New York Review Books (NYRB) and just recently released, has it as ‘Lakdas.’ His gravestone insists, ‘Lakdasa.’ What is in a name, though? He wrote and what he wrote now writes him. Rewrites, inevitably. Re-rewritten if you toss in translation. But where ...
Pic courtesy www.sierraclub.comDuring a rare but typical gathering of siblings, the eldest, in the thick of a relationship conundrum, declared, ‘I just want these people out of my hair so I can sit under a tree and meditate.’ His brother said wryly, ‘you need to get out of your hair.’ And the sister added (or was it the brother?) a ...
A couple of years ago when the country, like the rest of the world, was battling the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw a surge of volunteerism that is not uncommon in times of trouble. No one died of hunger during this time. People got together to make sure that those who were most needy in the neighbourhood had basic needs met. ...
I am not sure if Ghare Baire (The Home and the World) was the first Satyajit Ray movie I watched. It may have been Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder), based on the novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, where Ray graphically presents the political economy of famine and hunger, focusing on entitlements and lack thereof, as or more powerfully than the (later?) theoretical ...
Wissahickon Creek is a tributary of the Schuylkill River, flowing through the Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties of Pennsylvania. For Edgar Allen Poe, writing in the middle of the 19th Century, it was a river. Maybe it was, before development arrived, villages became townships, townships became cities and cities were turned into grand metropoles. In Poe’s time the name was Wissahiccon, ...
Pic by Kasun De SilvaA quote greeted me this morning from one of the walls of my sister’s house in Bala Cynwyd, a suburb of Pennsylvania. The walls of her house are decorated with quotes, paintings and photographs, each related to the lives and characters of the residents. This one was from ‘The Painted Drum,’ a novel by Karen Louise ...
Nanda Malini’s album ‘Pahan Kanda’ includes a song, written of course by her principal lyrical collaborator Sunil Ariyaratne, titled ‘බෝ මැඩ වගුරන.’ It doesn’t exactly ridicule Buddhist lay practices but it laments them. Adopting the voice of a poor mother, the song addresses the Buddhist devotee, who is urged to desist from pouring so many pots of milk to a ...
The late Jayalath Manoratne was arguably one of the finest actors this country has seen, on stage and on screen. He made each character he portrayed utterly memorable. Among all of them, perhaps the strangest character he had to play was ‘history.’ Let me explain.‘History’ was one of a trio of characters featured in Udayasiri Wickramaratne’s ‘Suddek Oba Amathai (A ...
In the year 1992, a subcommittee, perhaps, of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), devoted to ‘human rights’ undertook to file a fundamental rights application on behalf of a group of activists, mostly undergraduates and young graduates as well as a couple of ‘old’ activists, 50 and 60 years of age. There were 14 in total. They had been ...
All great writers have one thing in common. They all began with a first publication. All great writers develop their craft by voracious reading, continuous writing and agonising over words and phrases. They can, if they so wish, look back to the early days, the first manuscript and the maiden publication. If they were to peruse through those pages, they ...
A few weeks ago UNESCO inscribed the Mahavamsa onto its ‘Memory of the World (MoW) International Register for 2023. It was not exactly a declaration of the extensive chronicle as a ‘world heritage,’ although some history buffs and, let’s say, Mahavama-fixated social media enthusiasts announced it as such. Responsible students of history, who were aware of the relevant distinctions and ...
This Sunday morning, as I write, Novak Djokovic (36) is yet to play for the Wimbledon men’s tennis title against 20-year old Carlos Alcaraz. The experts are backing Novak and rightly so, but they do not rule out an upset. By the time this article is published, we will know if Novak has tied Roger Federer’s record for eight Wimbledon ...
Just the other day, while having a cup of plain tea outside Nihal Aiya’s ‘kade’ down 27th Lane with my good friend Daminda WIjewardana when a bearded man just walking by recognized and approached me. He said he had been looking for my number. My friend interjected, ‘Paththara Malli neda (‘Aren’t you the ‘Paper Boy’ — we’ll come to that ...
'When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.’ That’s a quote from Milan Kundera’s celebrated novel, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being.’ I came across it while reading about Kundera having just learned that the Czech-born writer had passed away at the age of 94 in Paris, France. And I asked myself, ‘how often does the heart speak?’ ...
There’s a classic scene in the popular mob movie ‘Analyze this’ where Billy Crystal, playing Ben Sobel, a psychiatrist forced into treating the mafia boss Paul Vitti (played by Robert De Niro), is arm-twisted into representing Vitti at a gathering of all major mafia outfits. Out of place and out of sorts, he spouts out drivel absolutely unrelated to the ...
Looking back, I realise that my father was largely indulgent of my youthful arrogance (maybe one day my daughters might come to the same conclusion!). I have on occasion argued with him and expressed the view that he was showing signs on delayed adolescence. At least on one occasion I went further, insisting that he was suffering from delayed childhood. ...
Mike Brearley's stats (66 innings, 39 tests, 1442 runs, average of 22.88, strike rate of 29.79 with a highest score of 91) wouldn’t turn any heads in these Bazball days of English cricket. Weren’t startling during the time he played (1976-1981) either. Indeed, if Tony Greig’s surreptitious work for World Series Cricket had not come to light, Brearley may have ...
