Clik here to view.
Shyam Selvadurai, Jean Arasanayagam, Nayomi Munaweera: Writing the 1983 riots
The ethnic riots of 1983 were not the first in Sri Lanka. Nor were they the last. But Black July was indisputably a seismic event in this country’s history. Its echoes are everywhere, but some of my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Asha de Vos: Explorer at large
Asha de Vos knew what to expect before the big announcement. “The hardest part was keeping it secret,” she tells The Sunday Times. The only Sri Lankan so far to have a Ph.D. in marine-mammal-related...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chandraguptha Thenuwara: The End of Fear
It was 33 years ago, but Chandraguptha Thenuwara still remembers the group of men stopping the bus and clambering on. They had a seemingly bizarre demand, going from passenger to passenger, insisting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Highrise
Let me begin with this apartment, where a grocery store and six people are all crammed into 400 square feet in the Methsara Uyana high-rise. The people fit themselves around the groceries, which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nayomi Munaweera: ‘I couldn’t have written those hard scenes if I’d had a...
Though she had been to many book clubs since the publication of her novel What Lies Between Us, Nayomi Munaweera found her heart sinking when faced with the newest group. Sitting around in a circle,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A slightly bitter breakfast is a labour of love
My mother-in-law has never told me she loves me; unlike her son, I wouldn’t take it for granted. But I am always reassured by what I taste in her food. I go grocery shopping with her sometimes,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Playing with fire in Sri Lanka’s fireworks village
The heavy, metal apparatus standing in R. Lorrence’s garage seems out of place. Its design is simple enough – a pneumatic pump helps pack a mix of explosive chemicals into a slender plastic tube,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ena de Silva’s moving house
If you know where to look, you can find the numbers all over Ena de Silva’s house. Faded yet still legible, the white scribbles mark each tile in the parquet floor, each pebble and boulder in the sunny...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Disappearing Bawa
The Jayakody House, Colombo. Pictures courtesy Sebastian Posingis It might seem to the world that Geoffrey Bawa’s legacy is assured, but a new book by his most well-known biographer asks whether...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In Sri Lanka, Muslim women are fighting back against unfair marriage laws
Since 2014, Hasanah Cegu Isadeen has met with and interviewed some 700 Sri Lankan Muslim women. A lawyer, independent researcher and activist, Cegu is haunted by the stories she has heard. She has met...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sri Lanka: Ancient innovations combat water woes
Puhudiwula, Sri Lanka – In the district of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, Puhudiwula is a village of abandoned wells. Though new and well-built, these wells can be found in every garden, costing around...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A dance festival in Colombo celebrates the Shakti of the solo performer
I could not remember the last time I sat in darkness so absolute. With every door and window barricaded in the room at the University of Visual and Performing Arts in Colombo, I would not have been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
£417k study to improve research ethics in humanitarian crises
Sitting among the members of a displaced community in Puttalam a few years ago, Dr. Chesmal Siriwardhana found himself thinking about the ethical problems around health research. To get to this point...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two Sri Lankans make history with an Atacama Crossing
Ruvan Ranatunga and Shihan Anthony John did not know quite what to make of the Japanese team. It was early October and they were in the middle of one of the most demanding of the 4 Desert Races – a 6...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sri Lankan-American winner of a Genius Grant champions immigrant children
When Ahilan Arulanantham heard that the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation had named him a recipient of the $625,000 “Genius Grant,” one of the first things he thought about was how much he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Robots lending a helping hand on Australia’s farms
For a change, Kevin Sanders has decided to let someone, or more accurately, something else count the apples in his orchard. This isn’t the first time his idyllic farm down in Australia’s Yarra Valley...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A new approach to conservation in Sri Lanka: The case of the Western Purple...
The raucous troupe of monkeys that visit Dr. Jinie Dela’s house in Panadura do not realize how closely they are being studied. Dr.Dela, a biologist, with a doctoral degree in primate ecology and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two studies: Resettlement under Sri Lanka’s controversial URP
Less than a decade after the end of the war, Colombo’s skyline has undergone a rapid transformation. Across the city, high-rise complexes have sprung up, and are billed as the practical solution to a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In the field with Sri Lanka’s pioneering leopard researchers
Wilpattu, Sri Lanka’s oldest and largest national park, was once a warzone. The fighting between the Sri Lankan state and the militant separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sri Lanka is creating a new Constitution and the people have spoken – more...
Sri Lankan activists will tell you that the island has a commission culture. In the last 15 years alone, people have stood up and testified before dozens of committees – some, such as the Udalagama...
View Article