Author: subhamw
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A Burning: 31 Years Later
31 years ago, today, the Jaffna Public Library, situated in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, was burnt to the ground. It was collateral damage of a long and bitter ethnic conflict which ultimately claimed many other things of value, including several thousands of human lives, property, homes, landmarks of culture and religion, of civilisation. Eye-witnesses of the incident…
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The Idea of One-Ness: Questions of Identity, Ethnicity and Unity
When the Armed Forces of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) military defeated the LTTE in 2009, thus ending a 26 year long civil war in Sri Lanka, the President of Sri Lanka, also the Minister for Defence and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, said this in his speech to his parliament…
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Thoughts on the Preview of Cast as Mother
As I watched the preview of Ruwanthie de Chickera’s new show, Cast as Mother, last night, the feeling that I was most overwhelmed by was that I missed my mother. Mothers are wonderful, brave, curious creatures. They are not always easy to understand – they are often confusing. I think the glaring contradictions in conviction…
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What Samhara Means: A review of Samhara and an unraveling of what it really means for Sri Lankan Dance
Samhara is a new dance work created by the Odissi dance ensemble, Nrityagram, together with their long-term friends and collaborators in Sri Lanka, the Chitrasena Dance Company. It was performed over the weekend at the Lionel Wendt Theatre in Colombo, fresh off the plane after a successful tour of United States and Mexico, having premiered…
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Maurice Sendak and the Power of a Good Story
When I heard yesterday that Maurice Sendak, author of what has lately become a legend of sorts in the genre of children’s literature, Where the Wild Things Are, had passed away at the age of 83, I felt very sad. I tried to explain it to my friend, who had been the bearer of the…
Subha M Wijesiriwardena 