Neville Uncle and Swarna Aunty for me were an exemplary couple, who apparently had a roaring love affair before they tied the knot, juicy details of which we used to hear as kids from my mother and grandmother, who had supposedly supported their romance discreetly! While there are many kudos and achievements credited to him, for me, he embodied the ...
March was clearly a ‘month of mayhem’. Priyath and I arrived after a lovely relaxed holiday and stepped into a country engulfed in fear, uncertainty, confusion, anger and many more bursting emotions and rabid anger all around us as never experienced before. The unexpected lock down created a pandemonium and people started running helter-skelter trying to stock food for the ...
We got an SOS call from the home for the elders that our family and friends manage. The caller informed us that a resident; Jane, 89 years old, tried to commit suicide by setting herself a blaze. She had carefully managed to smuggle a bottle of kerosene and a box of matches before attempting this ‘fete’! Thankfully her hands ...
One of the most illustrious sons of Panadura, akin to the ‘last of the Mohicans’ of his era, passed away last week having lived a fulfilling ninety four years. Rajendra Tissa Salgado, better and aptly known as ‘Rajah’, was born literally a ‘prince’ to one of the well-known families in Panadura, as the only son of Richard and Bella ...
The agony of eighteen days of waiting ended in euphoria, when all twelve ‘Thai Football Heroes’ and their young coach were rescued unscathed, from one of the most grueling real life dramas that the world watched in disbelief. Their safe return was never a confirmed outcome due to the unthinkable challenges that lay ahead of the rescue mission. But the ...
I don’t get it. Seriously. For years this conversation has taken place in our boardrooms, cocktail parties, corporate circles, media platforms, professional fora… you name it. The last one I listened to, last week, was the same as the previous two plus decades; same arguments, same views, same issues, with the addition being, ‘do women need a quota system ...
That illusive dream It is three years since that euphoric day of change the country woke up to: the illusive ‘Yahapaalana Dream’. A dream never to dream again, and a day never to experience again either. At least not in my lifetime, for sure. The defeated sulked, the sceptics smirked and the victors rejoiced, while the majority of the ...
For some reason, this word ‘strategy’ has begun to irk me a no end and I find it being used loosely ever so often. As a result it has totally lost its value for me. The irony is that I am known to be ‘strategic’ in my thinking, and I am saying the exact opposite, or am I? Here’s the ...
Dear Mr President, It is one year since I woke up to an ‘aha!’ moment in my life… A long awaited sense of freedom, not just freedom from terror, but also freedom of speech, freedom of living a life devoid of constant fear of being ‘watched and listened to’, a violation of basic human rights, stolen from us for over ...
Yesterday at the AK Lit Fest I was listening to a self obsessed ad person making a public mockery, with inaccurate facts about how Sri Lankan ad agencies, prior to the advent of his infamous one, had burger eating, beer drinking creative people who only thought in English and looked down upon the Sinhala speaking, බත් පැකට් eating Sinhala Creative ...
I wasn’t sure what I was entering into… was it a rehabilitated ancient monastery or a modern day resort that had captured the unique design and architecture of a by-gone era? Whichever it was, I was truly fascinated by what I saw and was determined to see every inch of it and hear every detail of its creation from ...
A forty minute flight from Yangon in Myanmar took me to a place I would never imagine existed, until I saw it with my own eyes. Hambantota, our famous sanctuary for white elephants, simply pales in comparison to Nay Pyi Taw, a city the Myanmar Government built as its administrative capital, ten plus years ago. “We didn’t have a ...
lifeisabeach:excellent write up, simple and easy to read… Originally posted on Thisuri Wanniarachchi : I’m so sorry life has been so hard for you lately. I’m sorry about your horses and all those unlicensed elephants now astray on the streets of Colombo. I’m sorry you had to say goodbye to all those Ferraris, Audis and Bugattis you bought with your ...
The launch of CSR Sri Lanka initiative last week filled me with a heavy dose of theories, principles, discussions and debates on the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). These lively discussions have given me food for thought on where we are as a nation on this subject. One thing is crystal clear. And that is, that there is ...
