Category Archives: the imaginary and the real

November 1, 2022 · 5:30 pm

Shehan Karunatilaka in Earlier ‘Incarnations’ in Thuppahi Circles

Shehan Karunatilaka on the ball in “Chinaman” .…… https://thuppahis.com › 2011/05/26 › shehan-karunatila…

26 May 2011 — It consists of one sentence: “If you’ve never seen a cricket match; if you have and it has made you snore; if you can’t understand why anyone

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“Shehan Karunatilaka snaffles a bag of wickets,” …. https://thuppahis.com/2012/01/22/shehan-karunatilaka-snaffles-a-bag-of-wickets/

22 Jan 2012 — NEW DELHI, January 22: Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the US$ 50,000 (LKR 5.68 million) DSC prize for South Asian Literature …

 

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November 1, 2022 · 12:13 pm

Bushes that PREY !

SIDEWALK TRICKs

 

 

 

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October 31, 2022 · 11:57 pm

Ceylonese Precursors ‘anticipating’ Sunak’s Ascent to the Top in Britain

Rifat Halim, whose preferred title is “Sunak’s Path to No. 10 may have begun in Ceylon” Acres of newsprint have been devoted to Rishi Sunak’s rise. He is said to be the first Asian to occupy No. 10 Downing Street.  This is not correct. Asia begins with the Tigris river. Boris Johnson’s great grandfather was a Turkish politician. He should have been called Boris Kemal, as Johnson is the maiden name of his great grandmother.   Continue reading →

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October 27, 2022 · 1:59 am

Richard Simon’s Adamantine Moral Stance from the Clouds

Michael Roberts

In admonishing me in an email letter written as a friend concerned for my welfare (on Sunday 23rd October 2022), Richard Simon wrapped my knuckles. The best way of presenting his lines of thought is by presenting his letter in full (presented below at the end). While undoubtedly well-meaning, the pontifical moral tone is quite evident. This thread has alienated me totally and firmly.

Richard’s belief that I have been scammed and that the Thuppahi site may also be infiltrated is simply ridiculous. His reasoning here suggests a location in never-neverland.

 

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October 27, 2022 · 12:01 am

Visitors to Thuppahi Items … aka HITs

Michael Roberts  

 Every now and then I glance at the list of items [that is, titles] in Thuppahi that have attracted “hits’, namely, viewers, each day. This list often surprises me. In recent months one of the items that seems to receive hits often is entitled “The Haka in Mourning…. So Powerful … So Moving” (see https://thuppahis.com/2019/03/18/the-haka-in-mourning-so-powerful-so-moving/). I remain clueless as to why this presentation attracts so much attention.

New Zealand Defence Force personnel in mourning haka as bodies are brought in from Afghanistan

 

 

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October 26, 2022 · 9:07 pm

Reading China’s Programmes in the World Today: A Bout between Sri Lankans

Michael Roberts

In a recent email message, a good friend of mine residing in Sri Lanka, Richard Simon, contended that he was “particularly concerned to open Facebook this morning and find two posts sharing Thuppahi articles.” One of these references was to the item “Is Sri Lanka Creating a Dungeon for Itself?”

 

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October 22, 2022 · 12:22 am

Enhancing Protection in the Face of Pandemics

Dr. Laleen Jayamanne:** in The Island, 19 October 2022, where the title reads thus: “An Insider’s Guide to Pandemics and Biosecurity”

“June Twenty Second Sixteen Thirty-three
A momentous day for you and me
Of all the days that was the one
An age of Reason could have begun”  …. The Life of Galileo, Bertolt Brecht, 1939

“June Twenty Second Sixteen Thirty-three
A momentous day for you and me
Of all the days that was the one
An age of Reason could have begun”

The Life of Galileo, Bertolt Brecht, 1939

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October 19, 2022 · 11:27 am

Karunatilaka’s Supernatural Satire secures Booker Prize

Helen Bushby,* in BBC.com, 20 October 2022, where the title runs thus: “Booker Prize 2022: Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka wins with supernatural satire”

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, a supernatural satire set amid a murderous Sri Lankan civil war, has won the Booker Prize. The Sri Lankan writer’s novel is about a photographer who wakes up dead, with a week to ask his friends to find his photos and expose the brutality of war.

 

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October 19, 2022 · 11:11 am

Shehan Karunatilaka lands on the BOOKER ‘Moon’

Sarah Shaffi & Lucy Knight, in The Guardian, 18 October 2022, where the title reads thus: “Shehan Karunatilaka wins Booker prize for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the Booker prize for fiction. The judges praised the “ambition of its scope, and the hilarious audacity of its narrative techniques”.

 

 

 

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October 14, 2022 · 1:34 am

Snap! Striking Snaps by an Amateur on Holiday … & at Home

Sometimes, even an ordinary camera in an ordinary amateur hand can strike pictorial gold. I present here some striking photos taken on spec with an ‘everyday camera,’  that is, an “Olympus Digital camera”,while vacationing in Sri Lanka and elsewhere over the years.

 Twilight Catch? Fishermen casting net at sealine near Negombo …. I was at the prow of a hired boat which had travelled along one of the canals towards the sea and took this snap as our boat landed on the beach 

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