I got back to England early in May 1979, after my tour of America, to find yet another delay. But now Oxford proved positive, in making up for the delay, and I ended up having a wonderful summer, an Indian summer I suppose, unexpected joys for the last of my student days in Oxford. The picture is of Nick and ...
Back in Colombo in early April, I went ahead and introduced my proposed 23rd and 24th amendments to the Constitution. During the previous year Vasantha Senanayake and I had discussed proposing some changes, since we felt we had an obligation to make clear the need for reform. He had put forward a Bill then to reduce the size of the ...
Slowly, slowly we moved through that mellow afternoon, the light dancing on the waters of the lake. We passed few boats, for most houseboat trips were for a day, and that was now over for the most part on the lake, as the boats returned to their homes. Soon, while it was still bright, we turned into a branch of ...
Today’s pictures are from my 2015 visit to Orissa, 45 years after I had been there for the first time. Fascinatingly, a few pictures I took are of precisely what I captured then in black and white on my little box camera. I was tempted to only cover Konarak in this post, given the splendours there, but it seemed better ...
I describe here how the family of Kithsiri’s girlfriend came to our rescue when we found the Teldeniya Resthouse full late one night. In time the whole family became great friends. The pictures are from much later, 2020 when we took Kithsiri’s father-in-law back home. En route we stopped at the house in town of his younger daughter, seen here ...
An enormous step forward was taken recently by Parliament, the first with regard to Parliamentary practice since COPE decided to establish Sub-Committees so that it could try to cover all the institutions that came under its purview each year. I can take some credit for this step too, since the Secretary General kindly informed me that this followed on my ...
The request to write an article on US Policy towards Sri Lanka in 2008/2009 came at a timely moment, for I had been reflecting in some anguish on the crisis that the Sri Lankan government is now facing. I believe that this crisis is of the government’s own creation, but at the same time I believe that its root causes ...
Today I look at efforts to negotiate with the TNA which were not successful because of both lethargy and bad faith on the part of government, though I would still like to think Nimal Siripala de Silva did his best. But there was nothing he could do, with Sajin Vas Goonewardena running the show and GL putty his his hands. ...
I look again here at financial accountability, which I dealt with in terms of the new systems I introduced at the Committee on Public Enterprises in Parliament. In addition to the Chairman, and Mahinda Amaraweera whom I persuaded to chair the Committee on follow up, though I did much of the work as I had promised him to get him ...
Interestingly, though initially she did not allow either of the male dogs too close, she was more indulgent towards Toby, almost as though she is aware that he is the father. But he, though he is inquisitive about what is going on, does not push too far, and having checked on things moves away fairly quickly. Benjy however would get ...
The yellow bath tub, from the downstairs bathroom at Lakmahal, which I wrote about last week is against the east wall of my little walled garden. At right angles to it, just outside the porch which leads to my drawing room, is the second bath tub which Nirmali gave me during the time of coronavirus, a green one which is ...
I looked at two of the beds on the balcony last week. There are three others, or rather two beds and a pot. In the last are white roses, a tall plant that has not failed thus far to produce blossoms, one or two every month or so. They are perfectly formed roses, and I show first today a close ...
They say that the past comes back to haunt you. I don’t think it haunts. I think that it envelopes you like a warm blanket. Chris Hall, one of my dearest friends at Oxford, was at my 70th birthday party there. I was seeing him after ten years, for he had been at the last of my 60th birthday celebration ...
We should treat education as a means of empowerment, not simply as a tool for equipping youngsters with the capacity in join the workforce. Sri Lanka has recently emerged from a long struggle against terrorism, and is deeply conscious that measures must be taken to prevent terrorism being revived. Given what all our people suffered, we must ensure security ...
As the rest of the letter of March 16th indicates, the following terms I moved out into the country. So after that letter I include part of my introduction in A City of Aquatint to that unusual and very wonderful term. The pictures are of the Hjalsted houses in Gylsboda in Sweden and in Copenhaged, and then four opera houses ...
The election was held on August 17th, and four days later I learnt that I had not been put into Parliament. I had been on the UPFA National List, which I gathered had been with the approval of both factions of the SLFP. But it had become clear almost immediately that happened that the polarization that was taking place would ...
I describe here what I think was one of my uncomfortable trips to deliver Ena’s splendid book cupboards, with her driver Karim, who dropped me at the end at the Haputale New Resthouse which I loved. And I go on to describe my first meeting with a student with whom I worked much in the next three decades, and I ...
My sister, who has a healthy regard for Ranil Wickremesinghe, was deeply upset when I resigned from my Ministerial position and made it clear that I thought Ranil was largely responsible for the betrayal of the ideals and promises contained in the manifesto on which the President had been elected. The conclusion she came to was that I was impossible ...
Having finished the record of my travels while at Oxford, I start a new series today to alternate with my travels within Sri Lanka while I worked at the Council. I am still dealing with what I did in the eighties in those posts, but I move now to the nineties, and a new dimension to the work I was ...
After a time though I realized that I was ready to move on, and in fact I was at Windsor when I was told the thesis had been accepted. It had been a great year, but closure was necessary, though I was glad this had taken time because now I had no regrets about leaving Oxford, at last. The pictures ...
