'Cause Pigs can Fly

Published in The Nation Strange Fruit begins with Maya, a Sri Lankan who is flying away from home. The reader gets a glimpse of what makes up Maya’s memories of home, of Sri Lanka, when her fingertips touch the sand in her pockets, left behind by the sea she waded into with Malik, the one who made her fall in love with Sri Lanka after years of being away and considering pain and violence her only memories of the island. The first chapter, the girl with the storm in her head, begins with Black July, when Maya is only ten years old. The reader is given a detailed account of how Maya spent that day in July, at first trading cheese and chilli sandwiches and scotch egg, waiting for her mother to pick her up and finally that ride back home. The author simply, but strongly, describes the events that take place, how Maya and her mother are questioned and asked to pronounce the word ‘baldiya’ or bucket. Being made to pronounce this word was a simple trick to determine the ethni...

There is a river that cuts through a village. The villagers use a bridge to cross the river and this bridge is used daily. After years of being walked on, one fine day, the bridge crashes to the river below. There was a man crossing the bridge at that time and he fell into the river. At first the villagers wondered how that man’s weight was enough to bring the bridge crashing down. Slowly, they realized that while it is what made the rope keeping the bridge in place finally snap, that man wasn’t the sole reason for the bridge to collapse. After years and years of being used and after years and years of rain and sun, the bridge finally gave up and collapsed. I doubt there is a single woman in this country who hasn’t been harassed, especially by a man. Even girls as young as ten are leered at. We grow up hearing disgusting comments about nearly everything about our bodies. We tolerate it, we put up with it because it’s even worse when we raise our voice against these monster...

Published in The Nation's Free magazine on August 17 If you come from one of those typical families, where every single relative has a say in your life, then you would have already heard them discuss your marriage. You can be 20, just starting university and with no intention of tying the knot anytime soon, but the females of your family won’t even care about that. It’s never too early to start looking, they firmly believe. Girls are the first victims. At the family gatherings, those aunties and achchis will ask your age, whether you are studying or working and then, somehow bring in the topic of marriage. “Ammala oyata galapena kenek hoyala dewi,” they will say (your parents will find a suitable boy for you.) The suitable boy in their minds will most probably be related to you, a few years older, stocky and boring, but with a ‘good job’ and someone who is not at all interested in anything romantic. At first you ignore their banter, laughing along, but soon enough, you...

Beauty doesn’t matter, right? It’s more than your looks, it’s more than your skin or hair. Beauty is about those qualities that make us good people. All those inspirational posts about beauty tell us that beauty needs to be redefined. While men often hesitate before admitting another man looks good, most women openly admit it when other women look pretty. I’ve seen beautiful women and I’ve seen drop dead gorgeous women. Men, too. But men aren’t allowed to be beautiful. They are supposed to be handsome, with rugged good looks, maybe some facial hair, a slightly mean twist to their lips and piercing looks. Going back to beauty, you can’t say everyone is beautiful. Yes, beauty is subjective but we all have some definition of what isn’t beautiful, and through this definition we come to some agreement about what and who can be considered beautiful. When we compliment, we choose our words carefully. ‘You look nice today’ isn’t the same as ‘you are wearing a nice dress....