BIRD OF PASSAGE Of the staggering protests, fasts, self-immolations, assaults, arrests, claims, counter-claims, travel claims, per diem claims, grandstanding, dillydallying, diplomatic duplicity, horse trading and other activities that accompanied the watered-down US resolution on/against Sri Lanka in the UNHRC in distant Geneva, the event that disturbed me most was this one. DNA India of 20th March 2013 reported under the ...
Shanaka’s defence of Lasith Malinga is well-written and is a balanced critical perspective on the “wedak balagena yanawa manussayo yanna” incident. Vitriol lives ok. Whether it is showered on Natalie and Nadiya Twins who say silly things in the USA or Lasith Malinga or an Author who published her recollection of time spent in the LTTE the quality of vitriol ...
GAYA World Outside Your Window: An entry in the diary of an iSrilankan. It’s Sunday and my German husband needs one or two hours on his mountain bike before the day fully begins. I need one hour with my New Yorker and cuppa tea, which routine break of day activity has kept me sane and energised to face the world, for months ...
No one trusts politicians and no one’s fooled by election promises really. Yet there’s been too many sad mornings after, after the riots, after the bomb, after the funeral, after the tsunamis, after the end of the war. Now the voters are voting and the band’s playing in August as it did in January. It’s amazing! It’s a reason to celebrate. It sets ...
GAYA FERNANDO Image credit: Asudev Humanity Uprooted Reading two articles on Guantanamo Bay and Australian asylum law black-holes this morning, I scanned these terms with fresh eyes: “Manipulative Self-Injurious Behaviours” By May 2011 there had been at least six suicides in Guantánamo that have been reported. During August 2003, there were 23 suicide attempts. The U.S. officials did not say why they ...
Ok, so it’s Mother’s Day. I’ve duly forwarded the poetic messages I received from my lovely friends to ten other mothers and acknowledged the hot pink roses and gift stickers on viber that another mum-friend sent me. My own mother passed away a week or so ago. However, when she did pass away, I had to do my duty to another lady ...
Thirty Year Remembrance July 23,1983 I was only 11. I didn’t know much about that day or how it began. The sun shone I am sure cos it wasn’t raining. My school shoes were not wet or soaking. I guess I was being told that morning that they hoped that I would have done well at the Shishyathwaya or ...
HELLO to all my friends made on this website and on FB during the past year or so. It’s my birthday week and this day is dedicated to kick starting a lapsed engagement: my website has been simmering on the backburner too long and am back stirring the Sri Lankan cauldron and give thanks for a patient readership and friendships ...
Despite a life that got derailed, being a victim of a lay-off and other hardship, Sugathapala has improvised a way of ‘coping’ that puts a smile on your face and keeps the smile on his. These colourful characters you meet always have a story of survival and this is his. For all the Sugathapalas out there ! When you next ...
BY IMTIYAZ RAZAK January 14, 2014 marks 70th birthday of my beloved late mom–Sithy Fowzia Razak, simple woman who was born in Sri Lanka and gave her best to her kids after her husband [my beloved dad, Razak] passed away at Mecca while he was performing Umrah in Saudi Arabia. Generally speaking, studies on parenthood suggest some interesting links between ...
GAYA FERNANDO Far away from Sri Lanka I gaze at the swallows with underbellies golden-glazed in the evening sun dip and swirl in abandon. I watch a white giant magnolia unfold. And then I think of all that is grief, all that is not now anymore but has gone before and wonder how in a hundred years someone will say ...
BY SHARNI JAYAWARDENA & MALATHI DE ALWIS “In a context where Sri Lanka is slowly emerging from three decades of civil war, and attempting to stitch together a social fabric tragically bifurcated into triumphant Sinhalese and defeated Tamils, it seems timely to reflect on the shared history and traditions of Sinhalese and Tamils, Buddhists and Hindus. As a sorrowing yet ...
Natalie Soysa: A Mother’s tribute to her CMB Community from iSrilankan on Vimeo NATALIE SOYSA I’ve often complained about everybody knowing everybody’s business in too-small Colombo. Today, I’m ready to eat my words. I am bringing up my son in what you would call a single-parent household. But there’s never really been just a single parent in my home. ...
“The setting sun flames up the sky. The sea is like molten lava. The people frolic in carefree abandon. It’s 2015 signing off.” Lilamani Benson Lilamani Benson is known for being herself: Lilamani. Yes, there aren’t many successful icons who will not be defined by being the CEO of a leading advertising agency but by being a lady who brings to her art, ...
DUSHIYANTHINI Via DushiYanthini’s Twitterfeed From USA to Jaffna to be used as a fire holder at Jaffna Music Festival. DushiYanthini in her own words is a Multi Media Journalist|PhotoJournalist|Correspondent by PASSION.Covered conflict&covering conflict related issues. Classical singer&swimmer.Wanna be challenged!
Photo by Thisara Nishad Kegalle (Galigamuwa) Thamil community celebrating Thai Pongal Day January 14, 2014. Gaya: I love this image captured casually by Thisara in Kegalle as the posture and gait of the different participants young and old somehow give it a movement very natural and captivating. The colour, detail and the aura of peaceful purpose and carefree composure ...
If you say what you feel about politics you could be labelled a traitor so I don’t write about politics. Leave that to M A Sumanthiran whom I still have a great deal of respect for, DBS Jeyaraj, Colombo Telegraph (when they don’t post tabloid-style stuff), Malinda Seneviratne (When he is not being facetious) and professional news agencies whose business ...
You wanna do something on the social media network? Do it. Sign it. And do more… ! Here’s the Petition. ONCE you’ve signed the petition, read on…not before AM sick to the teeth with the BBS. And then I saw this on FB : “My brother is a Christian, my best friend since kindergarten is a Muslim and one of ...
