Have you spoken to your cousins lately?

Three kids meant a small family in my parents’ generation. That vast cast of aunts and uncles is unthinkable now. In my generation, that crowd of siblings is replaced by cousins. Looking back, not being siblings made friendships easier. Our relationships escaped the inevitable frictions between siblings. In its place a sense of kinship through …

Kataragama Sri Lanka: photos late 20th century

Pilgrimage to Kataragama is a long tradition in my family. Goes back to my grandparents’ time. Perhaps beyond that (one of them is said to have origins in the area). I was taken there countless times during my childhood. The photos in this post are from that era. A Kataragama weekend somewhere in the late …

Ancestral protrait 1938

The photograph is black and white of course. Time has slightly yellowed its lighter shades of gray. Its clearly taken at some sort of party in the evening. The two of them are barely recognizable. She is striking young and beautiful. The sari feels glamorous and contemporary. He has hair, no visible cigarette and wears …

Head of household

It is a role of many facets. Can’t remember how or when I was anointed into it. It just grew on me like the greying of a moustache. Yet I experience it not as some abstract social title but in a flow of moments while wearing many hats. It is traditional to complain about wearing …

Whoever wins this election, we will be OK

Whoever wins this election, we Sri Lankans will be fine — or the very least manage OK. There will be no apocalypse. Life will go on. Sri Lankans will try to make life better with or without the government and NGOs. Not having a war will help. This is a naive sounding feather ruffling U …