Posts Categorized: Sri Kantha

The tragedy of the Hindu is the tragedy of newspaper editors who allow themselves to be sucked into the decision-making processes of their governments! [Tamil Times, London, October 1988, p.12]

My verdict: Those who read the editorials presented in the Appendix can recognize that Kasturi posed as a wiseacre and his wishy-washy writing style was verbose, pretentious, repetitive, unimaginative and unrealistic to the aspirations of Eelam Tamils. Last but not the least, his written stuff was boring to read!

So, what’s the price for a Ceylon Tamil politician? If you are a keen student of politics in independent Sri Lanka, the answer is a Cabinet portfolio. For the sake of Cabinet positions, two independent Tamils namely Chellapah Suntharalingam (1895-1985) and Cathiravelu Sittampalam (1898-1964) pawned Eelam rights.

That Prabhakaran committed suicide cannot be provable, but is certainly believable, considering the above-listed five strikes against the probability that he was killed by an army sniper. If the Sri Lankan army offers sustainable evidences to negate the five strikes that I list above, then I will buy their version of Prabhakaran’s death.

The malady faced by the Hindu was aptly diagnosed by S. Sivanayagam, while he was residing in Chennai. He wrote in 1988, “The tragedy of the Hindu is the tragedy of newspaper editors who allow themselves to be sucked into the decision-making processes of their governments!” [Tamil Times, London, Oct. 1988].

On September 9, Lakbima (a Sinhala daily newspaper in Colombo) carried a cartoon by HasanthaWijenayake. It featured a plump Jayalalitha Jayaram, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, in an aggressive posture against Sri Lanka. While her right index finger was pointing at Sri Lanka, her left hand holding the lower end of saree to her… Read more »

The shock that an LTTE landmine had decapitated the Sinhalese military leadership of the Northern Province, who had bragged only a week before to the India Today magazine (July 31, 1992) that they were about to humiliate LTTE, was too much to absorb by the Sinhala media and politicians. There was an orgy of breast beating, finger pointing and blame shifting. For popular consumption, these military heroes had died either due to carelessness (as Chandraprema opined recently) or due to internal back-stabbing by President Premadasa who was envious of the popularity of Major General Denzil Kobbekaduwa. Sinhalese military analysts and public found it difficult to gulp that they lost their heroes to the LTTE’s adept reconnaissance tactics.

by Sachi Sri Kantha, September 20, 2005 This September 11, the editor of the Sangam website directed an appreciative Tamil reader’s query to me.  The query posed by reader Elango was on the dilemma faced by the current Election Chief Dayananda Dissanayake on scheduling the next Presidential election in the island and the plight of… Read more »

by Sachi Sri Kantha, September 12, 2005 1992 Hit List in Chennai The India Today magazine of April 15, 1992 (pp.28-31) carried a three page “Special Report” authored by Anirudhya Mitra, from Madras [now Chennai].  On page 28, with a boxed caption, “The Hit List,” four photographs of prominent Tamil Nadu individuals were placed; (1) J. Jayalalitha, the chief… Read more »

By Sachi Sri Kantha, September 3, 2005 It does not take even ten seconds, for Tamil music fans, to identify the characteristic voices of star performers like M.S. Subbulakshmi, Madurai Mani Iyer, Chidambaram Jayaraman and Sirkali Govindarajan.  The tonal markers of sweetness, swing and lilt of each such musician’s voice are too distinct, unless one… Read more »

by Sachi Sri Kantha, September 3, 2005 The other day I received an e-mail from one appreciative Tamil reader of my essays and commentaries.  Here is a relevant excerpt: “…Almost every international writer or human rights worker (such as a doctor) supporting the Tamils of Sri Lanka is placed on a travel restriction list by… Read more »

by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 16, 2005 Many readers will consider this article in somewhat bad taste because it does not speak well of someone who has passed on.  The editor is of the opinion that one must look at a life honestly and acknowledge the good and the bad.  The feelings expressed in this… Read more »

For Candid Thoughts on ‘Black July 1983’  Front Note by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 13, 2005 The horrendous events of July 1983 which scarred the bodies, minds and properties of Eelam Tamils deserve to be remembered annually.  I feel, however, that it is better to re-read what one of the erudite Sinhalese journalists or our… Read more »

On ‘Tides of War’ Much of the problem with Gourevitch’s article in ‘The New Yorker’ became clear yesterday when he hosted a discussion of Sri Lanka with Dayan Jayatilleke as his guest on [US] National Public Radio. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/08112005  Jayatilleke had come off well in Gourevitch’s article and Grourevitch had used the Jayatilleke-coined epithet ‘Sun God’ to… Read more »

by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 30, 2024 It is considered somewhat a bad etiquette to speak ill or criticise a deceased individual.  This is especially so if that individual suffered a violent death.  That the criticised individual cannot defend his or her past deeds seems to be the main reason behind this prevailing etiquette.  Should… Read more »

A birthday greeting by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 26, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/662.html Having reached fifty, what is in store for LTTE leader Pirabhakaran?  While his admirers would wish him a ‘long life’, his adversaries (both local and non-local varieties) would dream of something different from his admirers.  Thus, it is opportune to review how five of… Read more »

Seventh Story of Falling off the Horse by Fr.Costanzo Beschi [aka, Veera MaMuni] sangam.org/articles/view2/654.html Front Note by Sachi Sri Kantha The seventh story in the Guru Paramarta series describes the obstinacy of his five dummy disciples, who were short on common sense and would do only what was instructed specifically.  In this story, the Guru… Read more »

An Alphabetical Assembly by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 19, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/646.html I was tempted to compile this list after I read an essay penned by R. K. Narayan entitled, ‘The Enemies.’  First I quote an excerpt from this humorous essay in which Narayan introduced his motivation for a list of the ‘enemies of society’: “…I… Read more »

by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 15, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/636.html Fourteen years ago, in the pages of now-defunct Asiaweek (Hong Kong) magazine, I engaged in a ‘duel’ with a spineless, anonymous correspondent on the purported ‘anti-social’ activities of the LTTE.  In my letters to the magazine editor, I compared the LTTE’s performance as a peoples’ militia as nothing different… Read more »