by Jayadeva Uyangoda, ‘The Sunday Observer,’ Colombo, July 8, 2018 There are two new developments in Sri Lanka’s contemporary politics which is getting crystalized and clearer these days. They are: (a) the consolidation of a hard right-wing alternative to a weak and shaky democratic regime option, and (b) the projection of an ex-military officer as… Read more »
Monthly Archives: August 2018
‘King Poet’ Kannadasan at 91
Random Thoughts, Part 3 by Sachi Sri Kantha, July 28, 2018 Part 2 Recently, I provided the English translation of poet Kannadasan’s powerful 48 line verse on sympathizing with Eelam Tamils during the 1958 anti-Tamil riots. [http://sangam.org/60-anniversary-1958-anti-tamil-riots-part-3/] Kannadasan’s cousin, and assistant cum biographer Rama Kannappan described what many may be unaware of, that, as a… Read more »
Akil Kumarasamy’s “Half Gods”
A Début Collection Explores Strife, Trauma, and “a Lifetime Loving Strangers” by Katie Waldman, ‘The New Yorker,’ July 7, 2018 The dinner party is for fiction writers what the étude is for pianists: a high-stakes showcase for their many talents. Authors must stage-manage a large number of characters brought together into one enclosed space; they must… Read more »
Debut Stories Trace the Aftershocks of the Sri Lankan Civil War
by Tania James, ‘The New York Times,’ July 5, 2018 HALF GODS By Akil Kumarasamy 224 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $25. In Tamil, farewells are never final. As Akil Kumarasamy pointed out in a 2017 interview, the Tamil equivalent of goodbye is poyittu varen, meaning “I’ll go and return.” These are parting words especially suited… Read more »