Lungi debuts on the Upper East Side this week by Caroline Shin, Eater NY, September 18, 2024 While Sri Lankan food has made a mark in Staten Island, it’s moving beyond the borough to Manhattan’s Upper East Side with Lungi. Co-owner Albin Vincent is flipping Imli, his neighborhood spot for modern Indian food, into Lungi, with a focus on… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Arts & Culture
Books about Tamils & Sri Lanka
Listmaker unknown, Goodreads, accessed August 8, 2024 Readers are allowed to add to the list. What would YOU add? [Editor] “My favourite fiction and non-fiction books about Tamils and the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.” 1 Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje 2 Love Marriage by V.V. Ganeshananthan (Goodreads Author) 2 Tamil Tigress by Niromi de… Read more »
‘How Were We Done For in This war?’
Three poems by women poets from Sri Lanka ask the same question Written in Tamil, the poems have been translated by N Kalyan Raman. by Sivaramani, Paamathi & Anar, Scroll.in, March 6, 2019 The stress of a night during wartime Sivaramani The stress of a night during wartime will make adults out of our children…. Read more »
The Articulation of Violence in the Poetry by Tamil Women (1981-2009)
Speaking in Many Tongues by Aparna Eswaran, Kerala Council for Historical Research, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, KCHR Working Paper Series, VOL – II, November 2021 KCHR Working Paper Series_Vol II_03 Nov 2021_Final Abstract The three decade long war in Sri Lanka fought over competing ethnic nationalisms was a period of grave human rights violations and of ‘unspeakable’… Read more »
Chopstick Travel: Jaffna Kool
by Luke Martin, Chopstick Travel, March 2024 https://youtu.be/bQ87rmB3q3c?si=p7SlBXT9bhkI6IP8
Two Poems by V.I.S. Jayapalan
translated from the Tamil by Shash Trevett, Harvard Review Online, Boston, MA, USA, December 5, 2023 One Night in Frankfurt Packed like litter in the belly of a pregnant sow, a group of men from Jaffna lie seemingly lifeless in a room in the heart of Frankfurt— their bodies curled in blankets wrapped tight like… Read more »
Caste System in Medieval Tamil Nadu
Not Manusmriti, British—caste system in medieval Tamil Nadu solidified after Cholas fell by Anirudh Kanisetti, ThePrint.in, March 24, 2024 Middle castes reveal a complicated social history. Caste is rooted in politics, not just religion Illustration of the castes and tribes of South India | Representational image | Commons As always with India’s historical debates, the… Read more »
Arwi: The Lost Language of the Arab-Tamils
by Kamala Thiagarajan, BBC, London, February 12, 2024 Coastal towns across southern India still reveal how medieval travellers once used the power of language to further trade and forge deep connections. One warm summer evening in 2008, when Mohamed Sultan Baqavi was a 26-year-old student at Arabic College in the South Indian town of Vellore,… Read more »
How to Capture Birds of Freedom
Picturing Tamil Women at War by Vindhya Buthpitiya, Trans Asia Photography, Vol. 13, Issue 1, May 1, 2023 https://doi.org/10.1215/21582025-10365016 Abstract This article examines the uses of images of women fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during and after the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) to explore the contrasting mobilizations of visual representations of… Read more »
Uduvil Girls College’s Bicentenary
by Dr. Thayalan Ambalavanar, Jaffna, February 7, 2024 Report Tuesday morning (6th February) saw the inaugural function of the Bicentennial celebrations of Uduvil Girls’ College in their college hall. The program was titled ‘Anthizo’ which in Greek means blossom. It was 200 years ago that a young American missionary, Harriet Winslow, started this school which… Read more »
President in the North, Governor in the East
by A. Nillanthan, January 13, 2024 [Translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate with improvements by the Sangam editor.] At the same time as the President visited the North to celebrate the New Year, his Governor in the East staged a huge cultural festival. The President met various people in the North: entrepreneurs, university… Read more »
The Fearlessness of Kanji
by Pallavi Pundir, Eater, New York, January 2, 2024 How a simple rice dish became a Tamil symbol of resistance in Sri Lanka Photography by Steephan Sansigan; Interpreter: Gowthami Thillainathan The plan for a surreptitious meeting had been in the works for weeks. On the morning of November 7, Mariyasuresh Eswari got in touch with a… Read more »
Why Stand-up Comedy has had a Slow Start in Tamil Nadu
This could be because satire is already deeply ingrained in the State’s popular culture. by Siddarth Muralidharan, Saatvika Radhakrishna, Frontline of The Hindu, Chennai, November 16, 2023 In May 2019, the BBC published an article titled “Nesamani: Who is he and why is the world praying for him?” The reason the #PrayForNesamani hashtag had become… Read more »
Alapara Club: Is the Taste of Jaffna Changing?
by Nillanthan Maha, November 11, 2023 On the 4th, a party was held at Dilco Hotel, Jaffna. The Jaffna Municipal Council administration and the concert have contacted the hotel management and inquired about the event. The hotel management has given the contact information of the Colombo-based company called “Shuttle Vibe” which organizes the event. Some… Read more »
Deeper Sufferings
Many Tamil writers from Jaffna peninsula have written both prose & poetry. But their readings have largely remained within smaller groups. Artists from Sri Lanka have also spoken through their creations by T.M. Krishna, The Telegraph Online, Calcutta, India, September 29, 2023 In 2011, when I travelled in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, I… Read more »
‘Kilinochchi’
by Himali Innis, Granta, May 11, 2023 When Nisha performs the burial ceremony for AJ, her 26-year-old son, she has to imagine his body lowering into the earth. Without a body, cremation is impossible. This ceremony, instead, is a commingling of the Christian traditions practiced by Nisha’s husband Sam, and the ancient Hindu rites of… Read more »
Idol Politics: Knowledge and Action
by A.Nillanthan, March 25, 2023 In the North, more than three statues have been opened in the last one week alone. Along with Nataraja statue, Valluvar statue, Sangliyan statue, there is a bell obelisk in Tirunelveli market. We looked at the politics behind these idols in last week’s article.The religious politics behind these idols should… Read more »
Journey of a Civilization – Study Program
by Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA) We would like to welcome you all for the final week of our Journey of a civilization study program Concluding remarks: Mr. Balakrishnan R IAS (Retired) Time: 9:00 PM to 10:30 PM EST Zoom Link You are Invited to attend the Grand Finale of the 10… Read more »
An Overview of Sangam Literature சங்க இலக்கியம்
by R Shanmugananthan, Sydney, September 2, 2022 Flags of Cheras Cholas and Pandyas When I was reading about Arumuganavalar and C W Thomotharam Pillai, I found that they have done pioneering work in rediscovering Sangam Poetry even before U Ve Saminatha Iyer. Their work appears not to have been given credit. That led me write… Read more »
Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s Fantasy Dinner Party
Minnette de Silva, Akwaeke Emezi and M.I.A. The British-Sri Lankan chef and founder of Rambutan provides sweet Egyptian cucumbers; a demon queen provides the soundtrack by Cynthia Shanmugalingam, Financial Times, London, June 25, 2022 From deep inside my ear I hear that unmistakable alarm: the anaemic, shrill buzz that means it is mosquito hour. The… Read more »