In his post marking the 36th birth anniversary of the LTTE, DBS Jeyaraj said something striking – “Today the battered and shattered Sri Lankan Tamils reduced in numbers to being the fourth largest ethnicity in the Island are slowly struggling to pick up the pieces and get on with life.” I think what he’s saying here is that the races in Sri Lanka would now be Sinhalese, Muslims, Indian (Estate) Tamils, and then Sri Lankan Tamils. Which sounds crazy, but it may be true.

This ad was pulled for raising racist hackles, but I don’t get it. It’s not a great Indian imitation or anything, but I don’t see anything that offensive. I’m Sri Lankan, but still. The character is a Bollywood producer who likes Kim Kardashian and Snooki, which I wouldn’t call entirely rare. India is number two in Google searches for ‘sex’, btw. Pakistan is number one. It’s a caricature, but a human one and I think not especially racist.

The Sri Lankan flag is not an aesthetic triumph, but neither am I. I like it anyways. In this (random) graded review of flags Sri Lanka got 41/100 with demerits for weapons, bad colors, graven images and being too busy. Which I think is fair, but again, I like it anyways. It’s a flag, it’s our flag. I have one in the house in case there’s a big cricket match or something. What’s news is that a Tamil leader made news by simply holding the flag at all.

I was watching this video on fan art and I saw these cool images of Internet meme faces, drawn quasi-realistically. These faces are used all over the world for all manner of jokes, including Sri Lanka – for everything from bus rage to dansal hijinks. It’s interesting seeing the usual line-drawn rage faces in quasi-realistic grossitude.

I hope you’re enjoying the Vesak weekend, celebrating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death. I went to a calm and beautiful temple, took one of the new city buses downtown and walked around the Beira Lake. It hasn’t been a huge Vesak thus far, but the streets are packed with cheery and friendly people, lining up for dansal (free food and drink) and piled into the back of pick-up trucks and Dimo battas, to see the lights. Sri Lankan Buddhism is fundamentally a positive and beautiful thing. It’s nice to see it in the light.

April and May aren’t months full of holidays, they’re holiday months. In case you haven’t noticed, my blogging frequency has dropped dramatically. Every day just feels like a holiday, with occasional surfing for paperwork. Which is kinda the way it is. Avurudu breakishness has just worn off and now it’s Vesak, a long weekend for the full moon. I think that’s the end of it, but during these hot harvest months, there really isn’t a whole lot going on.

I went to get some milk today for my cereal. It was Rs. 155 for a liter of Ambewela (which I bought) and Rs. 165 for 250g of Rathi powdered milk. I mention this only because milk is the latest flash point in Sri Lanka’s ongoing consumer trauma. Just a few days ago, local farmers were so pissed at low profitability that they were pouring milk down the Hatton streets, even bathing in it. In response, the government has raised taxes on (imported) milk powder by 15%. The end result, however, is one more higher priced consumer good.

I was recently in South India, briefly. One thing I noticed (after it was pointed out) was the dominance of a particular font, or typographic style moreso. On almost every wall or poster (often above trash or urine) they’d be using the same type of lettering. Top half one color, bottom half another – often with a white stripe through the middle. I kinda like it. It’s an interesting and striking style, and surprisingly ubiquitous.

Yesterday I wrote about the opposition JVP May Day rallies. These are some photos from marches on the other side of town, near Town Hall, led by the government and presumably paid for by you and me. They seem to bus people in (in government buses), clothe them in propaganda t-shirts and presumably feed and perhaps libate them as well. I generally enjoy the May Day floats and stuff, but I do rather dislike the use of public funds for what essentially amounts to a partisan political rally.

May Day is International Workers Day, which has taken on a distinctly commie tint. In Sri Lanka the JVP traditionally goes all out on my street, but this year I noticed that the government had also bused a lot of people in to have their own demonstrations. I assume they always do that, I just noticed it. JVPers were mocking effigies of Mahinda in Dehiwela and people were wearing ‘Mahinda: Our Hero’ t-shirts near Town Hall. May Day floats are fun and I watched them go down my street. I’m not so happy about the government spending my money to have their own demonstrations, however.