30km South West of Colombo port, the S.S Worcestershire lies some 60m deep – one of an estimated 200 wrecks that garland the island of Sri Lanka. Fascinated by its history, eager to rise to the challenge of a technical dive, Dharshana Jayawardena would later recall his descent to the ship, writing: ‘As always, a … Continue reading
Metamorphoses, writes Shehan Karunatilaka in his introduction to the Sri Lankan issue of PIX, “is the past becoming now; the broken becoming the whole as Sri Lanka is transforming, from war porn to tourist brochure; from third world mess to Asian hopeful. It is the dark ages before our renaissance, the difficult puberty that we’re … Continue reading
91 days will teach you a lot about a country. Since they moved here in early February, Jürgen Horn and Michael Powell have found that the quickest way to gather a group of Sri Lankans is to get into a car wreck. They’ve become addicted to kottu and thambili, learnt that baby elephants sometimes like … Continue reading
In Kannan Arunasalam’s ‘I Am’ series every one of the narrators is given a title, a designation if you will. Retired school principal S. Thoradeniya is dubbed ‘The Reader,’ Bala Tampoe is ‘The Union Leader,’ Helga de Silva is ‘The Warrior Queen,’ The Venerable Walatara Sobhita Nayaka Thera is ‘The Chief Monk.’ If one were … 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
In 1976, a young anthropologist named Sharon Bell travelled to Sri Lanka to begin work on her thesis. She learnt Sinhala in three months and settled down in the village of Kanewala for two years. She became friends with local families there and in Pelpitigoda and Duwa as well, following the fishermen from the latter … Continue reading
Dr. Pradeep Jeganathan likes to turn on the oldies station when he’s cooking. As Van Morrison echoes around his book lined, airy apartment and the breeze carries in the scent of the distant sea, he putters around in the kitchen. He stops to stir some fruit pulp bubbling in a small pot on the stove. … Continue reading
Smriti Daniel 