Curfew, moonlight, and Sri Lanka’s War

Curfew. An adult word. Floats across the power cut dark to the veranda. To us kids sitting around the carom board. Lit by a candle on an upturned Milo tin. Curfew. A thrilling word. It means no school. Waking late. Street cricket. Assorted fun with the gang along the lane. My ears pick up other …

Time: a true measure of space

I measure distance with travel time. Not by fixed the impersonality of metres and kilometres. My perception of distance is fluid. Stretching and shrinking based on where I am, where I am going, how I’m going, when I travel, the parking or available transport, . So my idea of the “distance” from Colombo Fort to …

Original Sri Lankan Hackers

They built Sri Lanka’s bridges, roads, power grid, dams and other infrastructure we take for granted. You may have heard a few names - Wimalasurendra, Kularathne - in passing. The rest never got the recognition required to be forgotten. Yet their work still stands. Despite a decaying state bureaucracy poisoned by Sri Lanka’s feudal politics. This …

Death threat poster that works

I snapped this photo of a poster with a death threat while going though an old Colombo short cut. Its inclusively in three languages. The cause of these threats is the dumping of garbage on vacant property or public places. It tends to happen a lot on small private roads. When I used to take …

Head of interrogation

The head of interrogation is now small and round. A small nose shades a thinning moustache. The eyes are behind glasses tinted to create assumptions of poor vision, ill health and slow reactions. He circulates quietly through the cocktail crowd in the wake of his wife. If you are close enough you might hear an …