Suggestions

January 2020

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Crayons

In trees, in crayon leaves, a box of autumn with a sharpener of birds. How my eyes flew to them. How flocks of big-horned clouds were un-shepherded like hope and went everywhere they shouldn’t be able to: my hands, my
January 25, 2020
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Vanni: A Graphic Novel To Remember

Vanni: A Family’s Struggle Through the Sri Lankan Conflict – A Novel by Benjamin Dix and Lindsay Pollock “The full story of the 2009 war in Sri Lanka has largely been ignored by the global press and international society. This
January 25, 2020
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The End Of The Affair

So the cat untwists in midair beneath the apple tree, a blackbird fluttering backwards from her paws as she lands eyes vivid with desire, crouches, wriggles, deliberates, blinks. So, too, an apple springs unbitten from your hand to its twig, unripens
January 25, 2020
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The Self-Appointed Friends Of History

Discuss on Facebook the coordinates of the graves of the lost children repeat the knowledge we have of no place, of no name oblivious to the visceral sadness that still abides in living memories. Stillborn silence — the historic trope from the
January 25, 2020
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My Funeral Directors

Like corner shops to estate agencies to grocery stores, they have “funeral directors” in almost every street, road or shopping mall. And, it is considered a part of living to plan for death, that shouldn’t become a burden on relatives or
January 25, 2020
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Pieta C.1989

Warm, soft, brown soil of mine No shipped cold hard white marble Parched, tired fingers – also mine Michelangelo’s discarded chisel Does not suffice Beautified, refined you need not be In death, in memory, in life You were sun scorched black-brown Tired, forgotten,
January 25, 2020
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Ariel’s Song

Tent flaps flutter in the breeze. Dust stirs and lingers in the air, in the mouth. Another day—and I’m still here. The queue grows longer every morning. By the time our water container is filled, I’ve at least sweated away half that
January 25, 2020
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A Closet Sanctuary.

I’m a closet smoker, a closet drinker, a closet abuser. I destroy the precious purpose of a closet. I shall now forge a new purpose. A closet sanctuary. No clothes could hide my insecurities.  No lipstick or eyeliner could hide
January 25, 2020
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Cherry Blossom

春の風桜の花を連れていく… Cold winter had long passed. The snow had begun to slowly melt away, also taking the sorrows of the villagers along with it, giving way to the fragrant spring odours, and new hopes that kindled in the women’s hearts. The
January 25, 2020
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Whispers

Don’t go to the river mother whispers last days of harvest under the molten sun air is still, breathless waves of heat distort the view beneath boundary trees this drowsy afternoon my toes cooling in the trickle don’t go
January 25, 2020
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Aiyo  

This word comes as the voice of the well;   A thousand children— A hundred artists, drunk, lost their way— those who fell  while crossing over the woven coconut fence, clandestinely, in the ecstasy of desire— I know the chapter of
January 25, 2020

Want To Step Off The Hedonic Treadmill?

Hedonic Treadmill- An ironically unusual euphemism for humankind’s persistent preoccupation with happiness. The renewed continuously search for increased levels of happiness and the invariable adaptation to new-found happiness is a psychological phenomenon termed Hedonic Adaptation or Hedonic Treadmill. We aim at
January 25, 2020
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The Sunken Boat

She’s gone! Moved out of sight. Consumed by a wave of might. The mystery caused a little stir, Until life resumed without her.  Lost at sea without a trace, Her sail was up when she went down in haste.
January 25, 2020

Unfolding

Joseph, my friend in Vancouver, sent me some old black and white pictures. They depict scenes in Sri Lanka when the country was known as Ceylon, the Paradise Island. These pictures are interesting, provoking a variety of emotions within me. 
January 25, 2020

Reasonably Dangerous To Be Safe?

  The first semester of my PhD studies ended smoothly, and I treated myself with a short trip to Jwaladevi,  one among 51 Shakti Peethas in Hindu mythology.  Scriptures hold that Goddess Parvati persuaded her husband, Lord Shankar, to attend
January 25, 2020
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In the Tibetan Autonomous Region

མིའི་རིགས་ཀྱི་མུན་ནག་དེ་  རང་ཁྱིམ་གྱི་མུན་ནག་ཏུ་གྱུར  The darkness of humanity  has become the darkness of my home.  —Kyabchen Deydrol སྐྱབས་ཆེན་བདེ་གྲོལ, translation by Lowell Cook and the author    A Tibetan professor sneaks us home   to share a meal with his family.   He does
January 25, 2020
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A Quintet Of Comfort Food

Food which brings us consolation need not be full of sugar and carbohydrates. It can nurture us in a more subtle and long-term way. Apricot Chicken This is something rare in my experience: a recipe that cannot fail.
January 25, 2020
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Gangaramaya 2019

Highly embellished, in the heart of the capital, crammed within its walls, Gangaramaya Temple is infested with exhibits – chandeliers, Buddha statues, sculptures, coins, carvings, collectibles… High-end, ostentatious Buddhist culture from around the world. It looks grand, yet cosy
January 25, 2020

Woman Of Vision- Bakes By Bella

Entrepreneurs are disruptors by nature: progressive thinkers, impatient with limitations, people who go their own way – and not on the roads generally travelled. Melissa Dharmadasa, the creator of BakesByBella, highlights this when she says: ‘The mind is a
January 25, 2020
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Apology

I left  Thinking the sun was safely  wrapped up  in a bundle of clothes  at the bottom of my bag but leaving in such a hurry I didn’t realize I left  the sun  in your chest your palms pressed against the
January 25, 2020
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Rebels

Lawanya Wijesekara  A flower’s life on earth is shortened, as it’s plucked from the ground it’s born Yet its death is celebrated in a glass coffin of a vase… Death becomes melodramatic A sight, news, a story to tell A movie
January 25, 2020