Suggestions

October 2020

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Pen And Ink On Paper -A Self Taught Artist

Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.      Jean-Luc Godard Since the beginning of human creativity, artists have created influential art using the line as a principle means of visual expression. As lines flow across the
October 25, 2020

Personal Struggles Are Political Struggles

The First Woman Graduate In My Family In the grand narratives of empowerment, the micro struggles often fall by the way, remaining undocumented and unacknowledged. Feminism, with its assertion of the personal as political, makes room for understanding and honouring these
October 25, 2020
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Chasing Men Around The World

I ask myself- what kind of woman did my mother raise me to be? All these millennials trying to think independent – be independent. I assumed my mother too raised me to be an independent woman of that kind Career woman;
October 25, 2020

Mushin -The Mind Of No Mind Of An Artist

All Martial Arts are Gung Fu. They’re all hard work, if not separated from the self. If the practice of Martial Arts is separate from the self, from the way in which a person lives, they’re merely a physical exercise. But if
October 25, 2020

Recovery

The events of the last few months have been too much. The world has been too much. The Virus. George Floyd. Black Lives Matter. Rio Tinto. 434 Aboriginal deaths in custody. 55 Indian journalists arrested for doing their jobs. Our
October 25, 2020

What Is In A Name?

Every time I tried to decrypt my family name, I ended up discovering more and more complex stories. Born in Sri Lanka, I used to think I have an authentic Sinhalese name. But as I grew up, I started to realise
October 25, 2020
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Aavaram Poo -The Senna Flower

Having forgotten the travails of summer, all the trees on the mountain started blooming, announcing the beginning of the monsoon. Sometime in the afternoon, Appu recalled that when he was taking the sheep for grazing in the morning,
October 25, 2020
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Colonialism In Curry

  It was an early autumn evening in early March, before COVID, when we were all allowed to be outside. And I was standing in line to the Sri Lankan food truck during the Adelaide Fringe, my cold body eagerly awaiting the
October 25, 2020
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Fallacy Of A Single Immigrant Mom

  Single mothering is tough. Being an immigrant is tough. Single immigrant mom or immigrant single mom? Yes, I know folks keep saying, “Single mothering is tough. Not good for the child. Not good for the parent. There is no father. The
October 25, 2020

I’m Not Sorry To Be Wearing My Sari

Some people call the “sari” a costume. But the typically six yards of fabric hides a long and revered history and tradition. Whether made of silk or chiffon, this “costume” can be sexy and elegant as the fanciest evening gowns. From
October 25, 2020
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Vagina Left At Home

You invited me home to discuss my poems. Before I could establish that the ‘her’ in my poem is not me, the last drop of coffee from the cup had been relished. Then, the fourth call from your wife came. You
October 25, 2020
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In A Time

There are times when I feel trapped in time. And this is one of those times, the year 2020, a time in the impossible future I expected not to be alive to see, and the month is August and August is
October 25, 2020
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The Immortal

I still had two months’ rent left to pay; I told my roommate he could take it out of the advance I’d given.  I packed up my books and clothes in two cardboard boxes. All the CDs, DVDs, and video cassettes of
October 25, 2020

My Grandfather -The Stranger

The immigrant American knows all too well the pain of losing family. Not necessarily to death, but inevitably to the isolating constraints of distance. When I was five years old, I left behind a clan of cousins, aunts, uncles, and
October 25, 2020
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The American Girl

One day she had a boyfriend. The next day she did not. He had gone his way, looking for another girl. To date, this was her third boyfriend. She didn’t seem to understand how to attract these boyfriends, leave alone how
October 25, 2020
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The Mathematics Of Mystery

Some novelists are all but born knowing they should write. Some study literature, or creative writing, become experts in the academic form of the art. Some belong to families of writers and words are their legacy.But not me.
October 25, 2020

Crisis: An Idea And A Community Forward

A series of webinars which culminated in a 17-hour ‘non stop’ LIVE webinar that brought 18 professionals from 8 countries together When Covid 19 hit and Sri Lanka went into lockdown, the first ‘budget’ to be taken out were the training
October 25, 2020
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Rainy Day Challah Haibun

It has been raining continuously for three days, but it feels like it has rained forty days and forty nights. An image of Noah’s Ark floods my mind. I want to climb into it with my family. We are four
October 25, 2020
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Flying Is Not A Fear Of It

It will regret such gentle restraint, remorse is always a day behind. It hunches, invisibly — like a sick sparrow’s releasing body, cracked beak, marble eyes, feathers spineless — but can’t be unseen. There is no flight from here, just splinters
October 25, 2020

The Plight Of Doctors In Sri Lanka

In 2017, I was in Italy for nearly three months for a medical scholarship. During that time, I met a well talented and quite humble bunch of people. This particular hospital in the city of Bergamo in Lombardia district had
October 25, 2020
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The Dawn Of Smog.

When everyone was sleeping deeply, I was lost in the dawn full of smog. The dawn was pious, but the presence of smog left me confused. Then I gradually wondered about the unusual presence of smog in that beautiful dawn. While
October 25, 2020
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Eyes That I love

Your crystalline eyes, Deepest than the seven seas Change colour From brown to blue to green From green to turquoise to grey And then to see through glass like They are deep They speak They smile They go sad… They
October 25, 2020