http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXvLYV9MZLI An often overlooked minority, the Kaffirs of Sri Lanka are African descendants who have been living on the island since the early 1500s. The word Kaffir literally means ‘non believer’ and unlike in most other parts of the world,…
Sundays are usually when most people do their grocery shopping for the week in Sri Lanka, and often you’ll find them at roadside markets. The best deals, especially for vegetables and other perishable items, are generally available towards the end…
A soldier galloped down the palace gardens, the black flag in his hand ripping at the wind. Three women stopped their laughing and splashing in the fountains to watch him pass, smiles dropping. As the rider disappeared through the gates,…
Flipping through the 2014 calendar, my mother mournfully remarks that there is just one public holiday each for the months of March and August this year. It is somewhat of a family tradition to sit around the table and count…
“OMG!!” Exclaimed my newly married friend. “I just realized that all you buggers* will be really old moms”. Thank you, thank you for that. Here I am, suffering from quarter life crisis, panicking over no emergency savings fund and a…
Ishara Naotunna (or Ishi) is eccentric, talkative and a slow thinker. Her best comebacks arrive 5 minutes after the conversation has ended.
I was born in…Colombo, Sri Lanka….I have spent most of your life in….Colombo, and now I live in.…Colombo. My favourite film from my country is….this Sinhalese movie called “machan”, quite controversial but hilarious. My favourite books / novels about my country are….Chinamen by Shehan Karunatilake and Colombo by Carl Muller. When I need a reminder of home, I listen to….I don’t technically need a reminder, as I live here. I eat a lot of kottu (Sri Lankan dish made from a Sri Lankan roti called Godhamba roti and vegetables, egg, and/or meat, and spices), does that count? My favourite time of the year is....December – more slacking off time compared to the rest of the year ( this country has a LOT of public holidays). My all time local hero is….no one person in particular, but I admire strong women who rise up in quite a patriarchal society. My favourite local phrase is…..”maara fellow”. My favourite words of wisdom/words to live by are….every second counts. It really does. I often think yikes I’m 24, 25, 26, what do I have to show for it? So seize the moment and all that jazz. What I love most about my home (country) is….Kottu. And also the friendly/helpful people. So friendly and helpful that you wonder whether they just might be a little too inquisitive.
I was 19 when I experienced my first ‘White Christmas’, and somehow it didn’t feel right. In case you are wondering, it didn’t just start snowing in Sri Lanka one fine Christmas; that was in Iowa, USA. Despite what all…
So, moving on from our obvious obsession with tea, I’d like to focus on another craze prevalent in Sri Lanka: the ‘fairness’ preoccupation. Fair skin is highly desirable, and it’s often a topic addressed blatantly with zero political correctness. My…
Stephanie Rubesh is a German-American who grew up on the island of Sri Lanka and consequently loves a good cup of tea as much as a good cup of coffee, travel, and new cultures. She is a writer and a photographer and a lover of people and their stories. And also of turtles.
I was born in…..Welwyn Garden City, England, I have spent most of my life in….Kandy, Sri Lanka, and now I live in….Seattle, Washington, USA. My favourite local films are…..the Lord of the Rings movies (I’m going to fall back on my US background here). When I need a reminder of home, I listen to…..the popping of mustard seeds as I attempt to make traditional Sri Lankan dhal…probably to a baila beat soundtrack. My favourite time of the year is…..Summer in the West, Christmas in the East. My all-time local hero is…..Kule. He helped bring me up, introduced me to curry cooked over the open fire, and taught me the art of story-telling. My favourite local phrase is…..“gihil, enang” – I’ll go and come. The best way to say goodbye is not really saying it. My favourite words of wisdom/words to live by are……
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
– Mary Oliver
What I love most about my home country is……hot tea, rolling hills, crashing oceans, spicy curry, warm nights, warm days, warm people.
About a year ago a friend of mine and I decided that we wanted to explore other cities and towns in Sri Lanka and check out a few of the sights and places that we as locals sometimes take for…
My first encounter with elephants in Sri Lanka (not that I actually remember) was when I was a few days old and I was carried under the belly of an elephant. In Sri Lanka, newborn babies are often carried under…
“Pure Ceylon Tea” – now there’s a marketing line that I’m sure people throughout the world are familiar with. It often brings to mind a picture of someone elegantly dressed, sipping a cup of golden red tea poured out of…
