By Keith Pereña
Over the past week or so, my newsfeed has been filled with the adventures of a 16-year-old girl who had world leaders passionately listening to her speech on climate change. Speaking at the United Nations earlier this week, Greta Thunberg’s message about inaction regarding climate change sent shockwaves in the UN’s uber-formal New York headquarters.
Continue reading What’s a jar of purple jam got to do with Greta Thunberg?
By Rohma Sadaqat
If someone were to ask me to think back as far as I possibly can to my very first childhood memory, then I am immediately transported back home to Pakistan.
By Suresh Pattali
#247, Galle Road, Bambalapitiya, Colombo 04.
At a very young age, when I was still grappling with the spelling of my own hometown in India, I could memorise this Colombo address. Just as my dad finished the ritual of dictating his monthly letter, words dripping love, nostalgia and lots of politics — national and familial — I would fold the blue-coloured foreign envelope and jot down my maternal uncle’s Colombo address from memory. To everyone’s surprise, I even knew “Galle” is pronounced “Gol”, not “Gally” as a sizeable number of Indians still do.
Continue reading Remembering Sri Lanka, when it was the Dubai of the pre-oil era
By Dhanusha Gokulan
When you’re in sunny California — the land of Hollywood, hippie counterculture, fast food, and the birthplace of the Internet — there’s very little not to love. Yet, I did not possess my wanderlust spirits at nighttime. Thanks to mainstream American media, I have to admit: even smiling, friendly faces became menacing scowls to me after the sun set. Continue reading Why a nighttime stroll through LA beat the official tour
By Suresh Pattali
Hailing from a town full of churches and temples, the magnificence and architectural brilliance of places of worship have always beckoned me. I preferred to visit them outside of prayer timings — when their physical emptiness and silent ambience would fill my soul with peace and spirituality.
Continue reading It will take more than money to rebuild Notre Dame
By Kelly Clarke
“Disaster has struck. The guy I was meant to interview for my column has cancelled and rescheduled for Sat. I’m in panic mode. What to do?!”
Continue reading Dear Ms Wagner, your Dh69 writing contest really hits home
By Allan Jacob
I feel sorry for British Prime Minister Theresa May. I really do. The more I think of the dilemma she is facing, the more I admire her for ‘keeping her head when those all around her are losing theirs’.
