The following is an excerpt from a short story I’m writing. It’s nowhere near complete, but the inspiration came in a dream. The dream was one of those long 3 hour epics, going through different scenes. I’ve only managed to describe the first scene, taking liberties with the story as I can’t quite recall the entirety of the dream. But ...

You’re a blank sheet of paper, A white canvas begging for colour. My imagination is boundless Within your picture-frame. Quivering hands grip your sides. Shivering, the brush meets skin. The slightest mistake and I’m sent reeling, Painfully paying meticulous attention To every detail of your being. In abstract shapes, colours fill spaces I’d rather be. Breadth, length, width and every ...

I have not eaten a proper meal in the past three days. Well that’s a lie. I have not cooked a proper meal in the past few days, and a day without food was all it took to get me back in the kitchen. All that is left in the freezer is fish and beef. Naturally, I went for the ...

So my deputy editor calls me to his desk and shows me a news feature that claimed Sri Lanka had surpassed its own population in the number of mobile phone subscriptions. I was assigned the task of finding out how these statistics were calculated, and exactly what this meant for the mobile operator market. I focused on the operator market over the ...

While Ceylon today readies herself for the dynasty that is to take hold of the country, the opposition seems to be trying to overthrow their leader. Both sides though are megalomaniacal, with one looking less threatening in his shirt, tie and pants all neatly tucked in like a good little Colpetty person. While the red-scarfed man need not worry about ...

Last Thursday, I paid a visit to the YES studio in Pannipitiya. I had a great time co-hosting the YES Home Grown Top 15 with Yazmin Yousuf. If you missed it, you can listen to the show via the podcast below:

I was born a few centuries ago, of this I’m sure. I have lived to die and be born again. I have seen stars turn to portals. I have stepped through. I am no more further than apart from you. Within every neuron is a universe. Within every universe galaxies of neurons. One door led to a field, tall yellow grass, yellow sun, and a lemon tree. The picture pattern door has been opened.

I am experiencing the molecule. I witness the atomic structure. I see multitudes, multiverses - square-ruled-grid-of-mind. I see forty six and two ahead of me.

Huzni & Sash with Larry T Hill – Simple Man *imaad majeed – second person lung Opening Act – Dush & Malin Film courtesy Yazmin Yousuf SCATCAT! was my first attempt at organizing a conscious rap gig in Colombo. Charcoal Gallery Cafe was kind enough to lend us the venue and sounds. All proceeds went direct to artists. We had ...

Tell me something. Something about the way I am. About how this will never work out. How we’re too different to be the same. We’re too difficult. Too much. Much of the same. Speak in riddles. I will answer in rhyme. Sing in verse. I will hum the line. Delicately tuned - Glued to the frequency of you. Static in ...

Over the past year I realized that there are a slew of negative mantras I use to put myself down when things aren’t going my way. I think we all do this to some extent, and its implications are dangerous. What you would think are harmless phrases can have a very real psychological impact. Take for instance phrases like: easier said ...

IndiaPost Live is a great concept, executed fairly well, but poorly received. A friend of mine from journalism college works there and has been kind enough to have me on their discussion shows. You can watch video clips below. This year, the Pakistani band Laal was banned for their controversial stance, their name meaning “red”, referring to socialist politics. During the ...

Having never having too much heaving old baggage through strained thresholds of pain, promises of gain, uncertainty of return. Why strive for what is? Why grasp what is out of reach, out of sight? Having never never having lost, our minds heaving old baggage, or dead brain cells through strains of genome, chromosome, and some other etcetera. Que? Sera, Sir, ...

It has been nearly two years since I last cut my hair. It was somewhere in January  2010 when I had it shaved off, just before dropping out of college and heading down to Hikkaduwa to work. At that point, I had no intention of growing my hair out, it just occurred. As the months went on, I traveled back and forth from ...

Finally got around to making playlists on 8tracks. I used to listen to music almost solely album by album, but over the past two years I’ve gotten out of that habit. Also, I seem to have branched out in terms of genre. Which is good! The mix below has spoken word set to music, with the voices of Charlie Chaplin, ...

Finally got around to making playlists on 8tracks. I used to listen to music almost solely album by album, but over the past two years I’ve gotten out of that habit. Also, I seem to have branched out in terms of genre. Which is good! The mix below has spoken word set to music, with the voices of Charlie Chaplin, ...

Jean Arasanayagam was schooled in Kandy and graduated from the University of Peradeniya. Her name is synonymous with English literature in Sri Lanka, and her work, which has been published internationally by Penguin India and locally by Godage Publishers, has been translated into Danish, Swedish, French and German. Jean has published over 40 books in her prolific career, and, says “I ...

Paranthan Chemicals Company Ltd So Daily Mirror reported that an explosion had taken place at the Kalutara Industrial Zone. What is actually the Fullerton Industrial Zone did experience a chlorine leak, though no such explosion had occurred. On visiting the site we were made to wait an hour until we were able to speak to officials at the Paranthan ...

So this space has been closed for a while, like Samara being shut in the well as she tries to crawl up all creepy-like in the second Ring movie. *shudder* And in the meanwhile I have been up to… well, not so much. But it’s been a pretty good not-so-much, I’m quite satisfied with being lazy. I think my definition ...

Watching the lines move across the monitor with baited breath, as his lungs were giving way to the ether. The breath of the soul that is breathed with every man’s last. His sons and daughter gathered around the hospital bed. Nasser was returning from Colombo. They held his hands, pinching his skin, hoping for a response. “Appa!”, they called ...