When scanning the ocean floor with basic sonar equipment, usually all Darshana Jayawardena will see is a straight line on his screen. Then abruptly, the line rises sharply, its vertical ascent indicating that there is now something looming below, something big. While it could be a rock, Darshana is betting it’s what he’s come looking … Continue reading
Michael Mendis’ has never been interviewed before, if anything as a former journalist he’s used to being the interviewer. (“Hi Mum,” he says chirpily, when I switch the recorder on.) This month, the 23-year- old law student came out of nowhere to claim the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the Asia Region and is now … Continue reading
As the opening of Chandraguptha Thenuwara’s latest exhibition draws near, he seems to relish the thought of putting his viewers to work. “When you enter the exhibition you won’t see many paintings,” says the artist. “You’ll have to find them.” It’s a clever twist on his theme, ‘Beautification’. The space made clean and pristine, so … Continue reading
It’s a Thursday and Elinor Galapitage has been up since 5 a.m. baking cakes to bring to the Good Food Market in Battaramulla. Working together, she and her husband Yohan have also prepared quiches and crumbles; pies, tarts and little clay pots ready for takeaway, the creamy homemade yoghurt inside laced through with a swirl … Continue reading
Sitting in her garden, Nihara Fernando resembles nothing so much as a bird of paradise. Her toenails are pink, her fingernails are green. Big rings adorn her slender fingers; one wrist is bracketed in several bangles of varying sizes and shades of green. Her pants are red but the thin shirt she’s paired them with … Continue reading
Floating on her back, for a moment all Sonali Deraniyagala could see was a perfectly blue sky. Overhead, a flock of storks flew in formation. Later she would write, ‘Painted storks, I thought. A flight of painted storks across a Yala sky, I’d seen this thousands of times.’ A beat and then Sonali was swept … Continue reading
When Lal Medawattegedara asks me for a pen and paper, it isn’t to write. Instead, the winner of the Gratiaen Prize for 2012 intends to try his hand at drawing. Outlined on my pad is the MGK of his title, a mountain known as the Maha Geeni Kanda for how its silhouette resembles the shape … Continue reading
Michelle de Kretser Before she ever puts pen to paper, Michelle de Krester knows how her book will end. What she’s more uncertain off is whether there will be a book at all. If ‘Questions of Travel’ were her last novel, it would be a pity, for its clear that here is an author at … Continue reading
Just days before he sat down for this interview, the Ven. Karma Jiga felt something in his chest flutter. The sensation was a familiar one, recognizable from years spent struggling with a heart ailment. Only this time he was up in the hills in Nuwara Eliya and it was late at night. Ven Karma Jiga: … Continue reading
It’s a Thursday night at Qbaa, and there’s barely standing room. Usually, there’s no quieting the din, but when Umaria Sinhawansa takes the mike everyone stops to listen. She’s only 22 years old but the young singer claims the spotlight with complete assurance, her lovely voice running up and down the scale with an easy … Continue reading
Smriti Daniel 