The Good Little Ceylonese Girl

Download or read book The Good Little Ceylonese Girl written by Ashok Ferry and published by Random House India. This book was released on 2017-04-17 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our Sri Lankan narrator visits his friend Joe in Italy, where Joe attends a special course—in higher (or, shall we say, lower) studies in women. Italians—much like Sri Lankans—live at home through marriage, death, and sometimes even beyond the pale. An accompanying string of fake fiancés and phoney engagements are the backdrop to this delightful collection of darkly humorous tales about Sri Lankans at home and abroad. Long years and many miles away, Colombo’s Father Cruz attempts to rescue a church from parishioners who like to put their donations where others can see them—on large plaques; on the coast, a retired Admiral escapes the tsunami on an antique Dutch cabinet; two childhood sweethearts, in time-honoured Sri Lankan tradition, are married off to strangers. Ashok Ferrey writes about Sri Lanka and its people, wherever they roam, with remarkable acuity. He writes of the West’s effect on Sri Lankans, of its ‘turning them into caricatures, unmistakably genuine but not at all the real thing’. In The Good Little Ceylonese Girl, his second collection of stories, he shows us the reality beyond those feeble sketches, in its full glory.

Download or read book Colpetty People written by Ashok Ferry and published by Random House India. This book was released on 2017-04-17 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this extraordinary debut, Ashok Ferry chronicles, in a gently probing voice, the journeys of characters seeking something beyond the barriers of nations and generations. His tales of social-climbing Sri Lankans, of the pathos of immigration, of rich people with poor taste, of ice-cream karma, of innocent love, eternity, and more take us to Colombo’s nouveau riche, hoity-toity returnees, ladies with buttery skin and square fingernails, old-fashioned aristocrats, and the poor mortals trapped between them. Ferry’s stories comprise characters that are ‘serious and fine and upstanding, and infinitely dull’, but also others like young John-John, who loses his childhood somewhere ‘high up in the air between Asmara and Rome’; the maid, Agnes of God, whose mango-sucking teeth ‘fly out at you like bats out of the mouth of a cave’; Ashoka, the immigrant who embodies his Sri Lankan identity only on the bus ride between home and work; and Professor Jayaweera who finds sterile freedoms caged in the ‘unbending, straight lines of Western Justice’. Absurd, sad, scathing and generous, but mostly wickedly funny, Colpetty People presents modern Sri Lankans as they navigate worlds between Ceylon and the West.

Download or read book The Rough Guide to Sri Lanka: Travel Guide eBook written by Rough Guides and published by Apa Publications (UK) Limited. This book was released on 2024-07-01 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Sri Lanka guidebook is perfect for independent travellers planning a longer trip. It features all of the must-see sights and a wide range of off-the-beaten-track places. It also provides detailed practical information on preparing for a trip and what to do on the ground. And this Sri Lanka travel guidebook is printed on paper from responsible sources, and verified to meet the FSC’s strict environmental and social standards. This Sri Lanka guidebook covers: Colombo and the west coast, the south, Kandy and the hill country, the Cultural Triangle, the east, Jaffna and the north. Inside this Sri Lanka travel book, you’ll find: A wide range of sights – Rough Guides experts have hand-picked places for travellers with different needs and desires: off-the-beaten-track adventures, family activities or chilled-out breaks Itinerary examples – created for different time frames or types of trip Practical information – how to get to Sri Lanka, all about public transport, food and drink, shopping, travelling with children, sports and outdoor activities, tips for travellers with disabilities and more Author picks and things not to miss in - Sri Lanka– Cricket, Adam's Peak, Big Buddhas, Galle, Yala National Park, World's End, rice & curry, birds, Kataragama, Anuradhapura, Bawa hotels, Sigiriya, Ella, The Pettah, whale and dolphin-watching, Polonnaruwa, Bentota, Kandy Esala Perahera, Sinharaja, Ayurveda, Arugam Bay, Kandyan dancing and drumming, Dambulla, Mirissa, Kandy Insider recommendations – tips on how to beat the crowds, save time and money, and find the best local spots When to go to Sri Lanka – high season, low season, climate information and festivals Where to go – a clear introduction to Sri Lanka with key places and a handy overview Extensive coverage of regions, places and experiences – regional highlights, sights and places for different types of travellers, with experiences matching different needs Places to eat, drink and stay – hand-picked restaurants, cafes, bars and hotels Practical info at each site – hours of operation, websites, transit tips, charges Colour-coded mapping – with keys and legends listing sites categorised as highlights, eating, accommodation, shopping, drinking and nightlife Background information for connoisseurs – history, culture, art, architecture, film, books, religion, diversity Essential Sinhala and Tamil dictionary and glossary of local terms Fully updated post-COVID-19 The guide provides a comprehensive and rich selection of places to see and things to do in Sri Lanka, as well as great planning tools. It’s the perfect companion, both ahead of your trip and on the ground.

Download or read book My Sweet Girl written by Amanda Jayatissa and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-07-05 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE ITW THRILLER AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL “My Sweet Girl pushes the boundaries of what a thriller can do.”—The Washington Post “Fiendish [and] full of twists…. Sri Lankan author Amanda Jayatissa keeps us guessing and worrying until the very end.” —The New York Times “A thriller centered on the meaning of identity and all the layers it can have.”—NPR Paloma thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you… Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything—schools, money, and parents so perfect that she fears she'll never live up to them. Now at thirty years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping someone find their way in America—that is until Arun discovers Paloma's darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this country. Before Paloma can pay Arun off, she finds him face down in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment but by the time the police arrive, there's no body—and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in the first place. Paloma is terrified this is all somehow tangled up in the desperate actions she took to escape Sri Lanka so many years ago. Did Paloma’s secret die with Arun or is she now in greater danger than ever before?

Download or read book Elephant Complex written by John Gimlette and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-02-16 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No one sees the world quite like John Gimlette. As The New York Times once noted, “he writes with enormous wit, indignation, and a heightened sense of the absurd.” Writing for both the adventurer and the armchair traveler, he has an eye for unusually telling detail, a sense of wonder, and compelling curiosity for the inside story. This time, he travels to Sri Lanka, a country only now emerging from twenty-six years of civil war. Delving deep into the nation’s story, Gimlette provides us with an astonishing, multifaceted portrait of the island today. His travels reveal the country as never before. Beginning in the exuberant capital, Colombo (“a hint of anarchy everywhere”), he ventures out in all directions: to the dry zones where the island’s 5,800 wild elephants congregate around ancient reservoirs; through cinnamon country with its Portuguese forts; to the “Bible Belt” of Buddhism—the tsunami-ravaged southeast coast; then up into the great green highlands (“the garden in the sky”) and Kandy, the country’s eccentric, aristocratic Shangri-la. Along the way, a wild and often desperate history takes shape, a tale of great colonies (Arab, Portuguese, British, and Dutch) and of the cultural divisions that still divide this society. Before long, we’re in Jaffna and the Vanni, crucibles of the recent conflict. These areas—the hottest, driest, and least hospitable—have been utterly devastated by war and are only now struggling to their feet. But this is also a story of friendship and remarkable encounters. In the course of his journey, Gimlette meets farmers, war heroes, ancient tribesmen, world-class cricketers, terrorists, a former president, old planters, survivors of great massacres—and perhaps some of their perpetrators. That’s to say nothing of the island’s beguiling fauna: elephants, crocodiles, snakes, storks, and the greatest concentration of leopards on Earth. Here is a land of extravagant beauty and profound devastation, of ingenuity and catastrophe, possessed of both a volatile past and an uncertain future—a place capable of being at once heavenly and hellish—all brought to vibrant, fascinating life here on the page.

Download or read book Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Harvard, late of the Wesleyan Mission to Ceylon and India. With extracts from her diary and correspondence. By her husband ... Second edition written by William Martin HARVARD and published by . This book was released on 1825 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Love in the Tsunami written by Ashok Ferrey and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2012 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: