The crumbling remains of two forts (one Dutch, one British), an old barn once used to store arecanuts and some rare silver tokens bearing the legend Fanam are all that remain to tell the tale. They are all connected to Ruwanwella – one of the key points along the ancient road that once stretched all … Continue reading
Madhubashini Dissanayake-Ratnayaka is on the run. Her colleague is on the phone with a question related to work, her younger daughter is waiting for a ride (they’re late for chess class), her elder daughter will need to be picked up soon and her usual parking spot was taken. The mother of two wouldn’t usually expect … Continue reading
Could we have already braved the worst case scenario? It’s small consolation, but new research suggests that something along the lines of the 2004 tsunami, which left such crippling devastation in its wake, is the direst Sri Lanka could face. Using computer modelling, Dr. Janaka Wijetunga, a senior lecturer at the Department of Civil Engineering, … Continue reading
Prof. Narendra Nayak doesn’t believe in miracles. He’s manufactured too many of them himself to do so. So what if the mystic can light a lamp with water or a place a flaming ball of camphor on his tongue? It proves little if the priest can pull holy ash out of thin air or pour … Continue reading
Thrice a year, Prof. Anil Gupta goes for a very long walk – his ‘Shodh Yatras’ can take 10 days each and he and those accompanying him (sometimes as many as 100 people) will cover about 250km. Their quest is startling – unfolding as it does far from the elite university campuses and the corporate … Continue reading
Manju Kapur is quite happy to be dubbed a ‘chronicler of Indian families,’ but do feel free to choose any label that will float your boat. “My own feeling is, describe me any way you like, as long as I am relevant, as long as I am read, I don’t really care,” she says. The … Continue reading
It begins in Kotte and ends in Kanda Uda Rata. Along the way, it passes through Hanwella, Ruwanwella, Hettimula, Ganethenna and Balana. The ancient Colombo Kandy route is 13 miles longer than its modern counterpart but it is not the added miles that would have defeated modern motorists. The palanquins and elephants that moved along … Continue reading
Ananda S. Pilimatalavuva lives a quiet life in the same town where his distant ancestors were once known as ‘King Makers’. Under the Naayakkar (Vaduga) Kings of Kandy, four Pilimatalavuvas were appointed Maha Adikarams. The third held sway for two decades, and served as a Chief Adigar or Chief Minister to two kings. The story … Continue reading
At www.movingimages.asia, Sharni Jayawardena and Tarika Wickremeratne take a walk about Slave Island, Kannan Arunasalam films ‘portraits of resilience’ in Jaffna and Menika van der Poorten searches out what’s left of the planter Eurasian community. Employing photography and film, the series is modelled on one that ran in the New York Times – the Emmy award … Continue reading
The New York Times dubbed Prof. Ramachandra Guha ‘perhaps the best among India’s non-fiction writers’; Time Magazine called him ‘Indian democracy’s pre-eminent chronicler’; In 2008, the Prospect (UK) and Foreign Policy (US) magazines listed him among the world’s 100 most influential intellectuals. But had it not been for an eccentric Englishman who died in 1964, … Continue reading
Smriti Daniel 