Jaffna 2035

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Jaffna Tennis Club, circa 1930s. My grandfather standing in the back row third from the left, and solely responsible for getting me into the game :)

"" 39- : 1981 31 - 2 * . * '' ... * * , . * : https://ta.wikipedia.org/s/dx5 See more

The Jaffna Public Library Burning The BBC Witness interview had to edit quite a bit of what I said as they were short on time. But I share some of that informa...tion which was left out with you in particular about Kugamoorthy who is no longer with us. The morning after the burning of the public library Nithi first went off to the campus. He told me that the student council called a meeting immediately and the plan was to go on a march to the library. In fact there were still some Sinhala students studying in Jaffna and even they felt they should join the march. But as the march left it disintegrated and only Nithi and a few students -around 15, had reached the library that morning. The fear that they would be shot down must have been great amongst the students. I believe that Kugamoorthy was the one who came to our house in the morning with the news, as he was almost a daily visitor. When Nithi came home from the library he said that there was only a burnt out shell remaining. That night students from Jaffna university started turning up at our house, possibly around 150 students. All were cautioned to go behind our house and park their bicycles in the back garden. Everyone in the house was nervous as we thought the goons, the armed police and army were still going around the town. The violent assaults were to continue for two more nights. But before the students came Kugamoorthy was back insisting that we do something. There was no protest. The TULF made no statement soon after the burning down of Jaffna MP Yogeswarans house. Amirthalingam was away in the East I believe. We were short of cash. Nithi and I sat down and wrote this leaflet State Terror in Jaffna in both Tamil and English, with some students and Kugamoorthy contributing. We made a guess from the sizes of the University library book shelves and our own book shelves at home to state that over 60,000 books had been destroyed. Subsequently Amirthalingam in his parliamentary speech gave the figure of 97,000 books and documents. But ours was the only document to be produced about this incident at that time. Soon came Nuhmans timeless contribution, the poem, Buddhas murder. I remember all of us being angry, fearful, and in a state of shock. Kugamoorthy took the leaflet away. He went to a priest he knew, borrowed some money and got the leaflets printed, immediately. Our house was too well known as a place where student activists congregated often. Kugamoorthy kept the leaflets in the priests house and distributed the leaflets. He was coaxing and motivating all of us to write and distribute the leaflets. A few days later there were some foreign journalists and possibly diplomats visiting Jaffna. The TULF sent a message asking us whether we had any copies of our leaflets, to give to the foreigners as they themselves had no written document about it! Kugamoorthy, an activist, social worker and friend to anyone in need, tearing around on his bicycle on all these endeavours with a larger than life persona, was well known throughout Jaffna town. Living only 5 minutes away from our house, he first came to know me as he was Nithis friend and then became almost a brother to all of us Rajasingams, and to Dayapala. Nine years later, and a year after Rajani was killed Kugamoorthy was abducted by the Army and never returned. The burning of the library was a turning point in many ways. People and particularly the youth felt this rage obviously at the state but also against their own leaders who were perceived as being ineffective in the face of such brazen attacks in the heart of Jaffna. I believe, that it was following this incident that a political consensus began to form amongst the youth to throw their weight behind the militancy in a big way. Thanks to Nithi who was able to jog my memory about some of these details, before I spoke to the BBC. See more

The charred remains of the Jaffna library before it was rebuilt.

Some old classics I spotted in Jaffna 2 weeks ago,apart from these the only other classics running on the road were 2 Morris Oxfords and 1 Morris Minor the rest were all new Japanese or Indian cars,even the taxi stand opposite the hospital was full of Altos and Tata's!

The Sri Lankan connection of Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda undertook a 10-day visit to Sri Lanka in January 1897, soon after his successful journey to the West. Vivekanandas first public lecture in the East was delivered soon after his return from the West (1893-1896), it was his first speech advocating India to recognise its spiritual mission. Such idolisation of India inspired the nationalist movement that broke out within a decade. Curiously, this speech... was delivered neither on Indias territory nor addressed to the Indians. It was delivered in the Floral Hall of Colombo, Sri Lanka, on January 16, 1897, where the Lankan Tamils comprised the audience. Vivekanandas exploits in Sri Lanka is a little known chapter. En route India, he plodded through the island for 10 days between January 15 and January 25, 1897. He came there on the invitation of Tamil Hindus who had keenly followed his great feat in the West. He visited the sri-ponnambalam-vanesar-kovil Koccikade _in Colombo. This Temple was build by Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan who was Solicitor-General in 1892 and functioned as such until 1906, and acted as Attorney-General on several occasions during this period. Accompanied by three British friends, Vivekananda arrived in Colombo by the German steamer 'Prince Regent Leopold' on 15 January 1897. He was met on board by the reception committee comprising Swami Niranjanananda, Kanakasabai, Sockanathan and T.G. Harrison, a Sinhalese Buddhist. A decorated steam launch took him to the pier where thousands had gathered to cheer him. From the harbour he rode in a carriage to Barnes Place in Cinnamon Gardens accompanied by Ponnambalam Coomaraswamy, Member of the Legislative Council, and a sibling of the better known duo, Ponnambalam Ramanathan and Ponnambalam Arunachalam. The whole street had been lined by festoons and topped by arches made of coconut leaves and palmyrah fronds. Vivekananda said the reception which was accorded was not to a "great politician, soldier or a millionaire, but to a begging Sanyasi" one who had renounced worldly and materialistic pursuits. He said that he was accepting the welcome accorded to him and the praise heaped on him not as a 'person' but as the representative of a 'principle.'On January 19, he took the train to Kandy the hill station inhabited by tea plantation workers from Tamil Nadu. He was welcomed at the Kandy railway station by a traditional band and temple insignia amid loud cheers.

A Collection of Austins in Jaffna!

Sri Lanka's Jaffna International Airport Officialy declared open today. Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India arrived in Jaffna from Chennai this morning.

This is a start.

University of Jaffna: http://www.jfn.ac.lk/

Statement by Muslim civil society organizations on the Easter Sunday attacks. Please share it widely.

The famed Murugan Kovil in Jaffna, Selva Sannathi Kovil.

The beautiful view from the back side of Selva Sannathi Kovil.

Photos from Indran Amirthanayagam's collection.

https://www.facebook.com/100012687703421/posts/562771600822425/

A friend of mine is building a massive multi-purpose auditorium through his family trust for a local school in Jaffna. Another friend is voluntarily overseeing... aspects of the project on the ground. A multi million rupee investment but something as basic as the construction of the building is going wrong. This same school has a multi million rupee deep diving swimming pool sitting vacant because something went wrong in its construction - and it would cost too much to rectify it. The person behind funding the auditorium through his family trust has run into trouble with construction companies getting their orders wrong before (all for civic society buildings such as schools and hospitals) - so this time he actually had a team of architects and engineers being brought in as consultants from outside to supervise the project - and it still went wrong. Acoustics for the large auditorium not taken into account by the builders, the hundreds of windows screwed in the wrong way, the stage set at an awkward angle... all this and many more problems. This is why people who come in to do anything in Jaffna say that Jaffna people are 'lazy', 'umotivated' and 'unwilling to work'. It's one of the few reasons that the economy refuses to kickstart despite several interventions; yet I have my own opinion on why that is. No, it's not because the average worker here is lazy and unmotivated. It's the bosses behind the project. In this case, the people who contracted the auditorium are suing the builders apparently. I have worked for a construction company here before. The boss was always cutting corners on costs on materials - even though he would be charging the people who contracted for high cost, quality materials. He was severely underpaying his workers too. There were no trainings for labourers, staffers, engineers on what needed to be done. He would give arbitrary orders - including on cutting costs on the mixing of materials - and when the whole thing came crumbling down, he would blame the workers and extract the cost from their already meagre salaries. At one point, I calculated people were paying him to go to work, while getting screamed at continuously. Who in their right minds would be motivated and proactive under such working conditions? And these are working conditions that I have noted repeatedly in the private sector in the North. Even those companies being brought in by the Government from outside to generate employment, take a look at prevailing exploitative working conditions and salaries around here when they arrive, and follow that lead. This is why our people sell their land, their houses, their wives', mothers' and daughters' jewellery to get on boats to Australia or any other country that would have them. And they are known to be quite hardworking, motivated workers in those countries once they get there, in case you hadn't noticed. Now with the construction company being sued in the case above - even though the company bosses have already made millions, they will pass the blame and the costs to the workers whom they are only paying a few paltry thousands per month. Workers whom they would not have trained at the job. Workers whom they would have given specifically erroneous instructions to. Workers who would be paid less that Rs. 15000 a month to do hard labour to support their family with. Time we stopped blaming the average worker and went after the crocodiles sapping them. Yes our economy is failing - but it's not due to the workers. It's due to exploitative work conditions that keep workers trapped in a demotivating, de-energising cycle. Central and provincial government - do something about the employers here instead of focusing only on the employees' faults.

It was exactly three weeks ago that American celebrity chef and world traveler extraordinaire Tony Bourdain decided to leave this world. The attached personal I...nstagram pic was taken of him during the most recent travelogue that he narrated from Sri Lanka and was titled "JAFFNA". Here's a question for those of you in this group who can identify the background location shown here. Could you please tell me where exactly do you think this photograph was taken in Jaffna? Could you please describe the surroundings? I see a clock-tower, a playground, a mosque and several buildings in the distance. What are they? Thanks in advance to any of you here who can help answer these questions. See more

I 'volunteered' my sister for a good cause, and fortunately she agreed. Modeling handloom sarees - woven by war-affected women in Kilinochchi in search of eco...nomic stability. I understand that these sarees will be available soon at the Good Market in Colombo (in June). The weavers are a group of unemployed and war-affected women including ex-combatants, in Kilinochchi who were facilitated vocational training by CARE Sri Lanka. Now their training is over and they have started weaving lovely fabrics, sarees and scarves - yet they do not have the necessary marketing or advertising budget to get the word out. Spread the word, denizens of facebook. And if you drop by at the Good Market after June, visit their stall and buy a saree or two, too :) Photo Courtesy: Anushani Alagarajah

Thanks to Len Theivendra for all the amazing pictures from Jaffna (reposted here with permission from Len Theivendra).

Train from Jaffna to Colombo: Morning sunrise - Northern Province

Analaitheevu Island, Northern Province

While wandering around the cadjan fence lined streets I came across these two gents relaxing on the side of the road. We struck up a conversation in Tamil and a...fter exchanging the usual pleasantries and intros we got to talking about our lives in our respective homes. They are farmers, men of and from the land, like generations before them. And despite the work and toil their profession requires, they get to call this paradise their home and rightfully view it as such. It's on travels when I usually ponder about life back in Toronto versus how life would be if I lived in the particular country or place I happened to be travelling through. And Sri Lanka always makes that thought experiment especially poignant given that it is my birthplace and childhood home after all. The man on the right spoke about quality of life, and what it takes to achieve it. As far as he was concerned, the amount of work he puts in rewards him with a peaceful life on this beautiful island.. he smiled when he observed that it was no different from the hustle & bustle we go through in the west, chasing similar goals. I couldn't agree more with him, and dare say he might have the better end of the deal - Analaitheevu Island, Northern Province See more