Colombo has a perahera (elephant, fire and awesome parade). Well everywhere has a perahera, but Gangarama Temple in the city has a boss one. Briefly interrupted by war, the colorful Podi Hamduruwo has brought it back in style. I attended for the first time and it was pretty awesome, and well organized. The Kandy Perahera is a bit of an endurance event, but this one was more modern.

For Sri Lankan Independence Day we travelled in the armpits and elbows of our countrymen to the rural south, where we slept in the fields. I wouldn’t call it a vacation, but it was definitely an experience.

Happy birthday to the late Neelan Tiruchelvam, peacemaker, killed by the LTTE in 1999. He would have been 68 yesterday. His trust staged a performance of Ravanama by Maya Krishna Rao. It was… interesting?

I recently got a physical book in the mail. It cost me twice as much as the Kindle version and took three weeks longer to arrive (I live in Sri Lanka), but I bought it anyways. Why?

The Island has posted an douchey response to this film – Kerosene. Sometimes you have knee-jerk reactions so much that you end up kicking everything – the chair, the cat, the coil. Too many people (on whatever side) put their agenda before what’s in front of them, and that’s what the Island is doing here. They’re accusing Kannan of targeting the government, but he’s just telling stories. In this case, literally transmitting the voices of old taxi drivers and mechanics in Jaffna.

The city has posted signs asking people to use garbage cans, without actually installing garbage cans. While education is important, it should be linked to possible execution. Right now these signs just hang out there, being purely theoretical. While I appreciate the effort, I’m still walking around with popsicle sticks in my pockets.

Any given Sunday they sell art on Greenpath (Nelum Pokuna Road), but today they had full stalls and a grand affair, sponsored by Keells I think. There were hundreds of people walking around, I saw Saskia Fernando, Dian Gomes, Ameena Hussein, etc, so people from the art and business world, plus tourists and students and parents and kids. It’s a great thing.

I finally walked into the Colombo Public Library. It’s about as bad as I imagined it. The periodicals room is OK, it has all the newspapers and you can stand around reading them. Not too much else that’s new. It’s mainly the selection of books that’s depressing. I did a random walk around and the newest book I could find was from 2006. There was some non-fiction about the Chinese economy in the 80s. The fiction was even worse.

A lot of progressive values are the default if you’re poor. Eating less meat, not using cars, consuming less electricity, buying local food. While someone in Brooklyn will pay exorbitant amounts (and attention) to bicycle to work, eat organic food and minimize their carbon footprint, this is what a poor Sri Lankan does by default.

Many Sri Lankans have two names, as do most Sri Lankan roads. My name is Indrajit, but everybody calls me Indi, or Jit. The Galle Road is either the Galle Road or the Colombo road, depending on which way you’re going. The Colombo Plan Road – along the coast – is still called Marine Drive. It’s a beautiful stretch.