Michelle de Kretser was eight years old when her mother saw a ghost. It’s a story she tells with great relish, conjuring up for you a dry day in Jaffna and a family of six staying in King’s House. Her father, the Supreme Court judge O.L de Kretser and his wife Peggy had frequently … Continue reading
Latest Entries
Prof. Ray Jayawardhana: The Search for Extra-Solar Earths
Prof. Ray Jayawardhanawas 27 years old when his first research paper made the cover of Newsweek. As a graduate student at Harvard, he led one of the two teams that discovered a dusty disk around an adolescent star.Their findings were published in a 1998 paper titled “A dust disk around the young A star HR … Continue reading
Suranga Ranawaka: Road to Elephant Pass
Trailing a shimmering shawl and dressed to kill, Suranga Ranawaka is a picture of glamour, something that is only emphasised by her surroundings – a newspaper office in the middle of a working week. In fact, you might be hard pressed to identify the perfectly turned out young woman as the same one who stood … Continue reading
Fatima Bhutto: ‘This is not a political factory’
By the time Benazir Bhutto met her death at the hands of a suicide bomber in 2007, she and her niece Fatima hadn’t spoken in over a decade. Still, people loved to compare them. From the length of their noses to their western educations and even on to their shared love for sugared chestnuts and … Continue reading
Bloggers / Chefs / Photographers / Writers
Pradeep Jeganathan: Savouring Fusion Flavours
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
Judge Weeramantry: Tread Lightly on the Earth
When it’s time to autograph his latest book, Judge Christopher Gregory Weeramantry is besieged. Admirers crowd around the venerable judge with copies of ‘Tread Lightly on the Earth: Religion, the Environment and the Human Future’. Silver-haired and smiling, he finds time to exchange a word with everyone. The judge who will be turning 83 in … Continue reading
Navin Weeraratne: Wargamer
Navin Weeraratne is ready for us. His trolls hidden in the woods, his infantry deployed, and his tanks lined up. Plus, with his priests already hands deep in bloody human sacrifice, our morale would have been irreversibly damaged had it not been for his welcoming grin and his readiness to sit down for a big … Continue reading
Mani Shankar Aiyar: “I consider myself a Rajivist”
Rumour has it that a CD featuring a photograph of Mani Shankar Aiyar welcoming President Mahinda Rajapaksa to his daughter’s wedding, juxtaposed with alleged atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan government during wartime, was what led to the Indian politician’s defeat in his constituency Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu in the 2009 elections. But in a … Continue reading
Shehan Karunatilaka: On Winning the Gratiaen
Shehan Karunatilaka still has the tickets for every music concert he’s ever been to; the Police, Suzanne Vega and Travis jostle for space alongside The Red Hot Chilli Peppers on a board tacked to a wall in his home. It’s also an apartment devoted to books, there are a dozen or more in every room, … Continue reading
Gamini Adikari, Dr. Arjuna Thantilage: Exploring Pre-history
The shark tooth ornament seems too small and delicate to have survived so many centuries unaltered. The two people who wore it lie beside it, but on them time has taken a heavier toll. Their bones lie scattered in the quiet cave, and are unearthed in pieces. Buried with them is the debris of their … Continue reading
Smriti Daniel 