The Wedding: An imagined portrait of an unusual day
He was a filmstar, they said. But she had never much cared for films. She had heard of schoolgirls hoarding dog-eared posters; giggling over provocative poses; singing the songs the stars sang;…
Author: Gypsy Bohemia
Living with the Other in post-war Sri Lanka
I often have to remind myself that I live with a Tamil. My housemate, Vanessa is a Tamil, married to a Sinhalese and I have been living with her and her husband…
…for The Missing
A solitary lamp perched on a desk top lights a room. A man scribbles feverishly on paper, hunched over the light as if he’s jealously guarding what little he has. His desk…
Sri Lanka: A country without citizens
Note from author: For someone who is not in the least interested in politics – and is more often than not bored by it – my reaction to the 2010 Presidential Elections…
A message from a first-time voter
In 2005, I didn’t vote. Being 21, I was eligible to vote, but I didn’t – and if you asked me why, I would ashamedly admit I simply didn’t care. I was…
Understanding horror
I’ve tried to understand this war, and failed. It’s made me feel rather stupid – this inability to wrap my head around 30 years of horror, why it all started and who…
Barbed Wire
Barbed, by Valimar A little boy stares through barbed wire, wondering which direction his home is. He reaches out to rest his fingers between the rusted knots of wire but his watchful…
On a woman’s attire: Are we really tempting young boys and priests?
As a journalist, there is almost no end to the diversity of people I meet on a day-to-day basis. I was covering an event this morning with a colleague and was accosted by…