The Saadhu Blog
Don’t Let The Sun Go Down
Sept 6, 2011 • 5 min read
Nawalowa Nawahiru’ was the title given by Bandara Eheliyagoda to the biography of Deshamanya H.K. Dharmadasa. I had the good fortune to translate the book into English, with the title ‘Son of the Soil’.
Bulgari Connection
Sept 5, 2011 • 5 min read
“…white gold and pavé diamonds, cold metal intricately, beautifully worked, lain heavily against the cool, moist flesh of wrist and throat”. This is not a line from a jewellery advertisement, but from Fay Weldon’s novel, ‘Bulgari Connection”. The novel is also an advertisement and the copy was written by Weldon, paid for by Bulgari, the jewellery and watch maker. It is claimed that she had to use the brand name Bulgari at least twelve times in the story, and she was paid £18,000 for doing it.
I Copy Therefore I Am
July 27, 2011 • 1 min read
“He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.” Though Jefferson was a slave owner, he had probably not considered creative works as property to be owned.
Culture Vs. Nature
July 13, 2011 • 5 min read
Culture is departure from nature. It has been the way throughout man’s history. Man, Homo sapiens would have lived with nature till he became Homo symbolicus and then Homo eastheticus.
Music In The Clouds
July 12, 2011 • 5 min read
Paul McCartney is planning to have his complete music library in the clouds. Once this ambitious project is completed, any music lover could select his music ‘out of thin air’.
Genes, Memes And Arts Spots
June 8, 2011 • 5 min read
Dr. Dean Hamer, director of gene structure and regulation unit at U.S. National Cancer Institute, wrote a book about the ‘God Gene’, trying to identify a gene responsible for religious beliefs. He was attacked by Barbara J. King, Professor of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, who said that “Hamer needs to find a gene for recognizing fiction masquerading as science”. This made me think that there could be a gene responsible for fiction and other works of art.
Be Peaceful & Useful
May 19, 2011 • 7 min read
The concept of “Dhammic Socialism” was introduced by Ajahn Buddhadasa. He defined Dhammic as being “Peaceful” and “Useful” and Socialism as serving our society selflessly.
අසා සිටියා ඔහු මෙෙස්
Sept 16, 2010 • 1 min read
ෙලෙඩක් මරණාසන්නව ෙරා්හල් අෑදක වෑතිර සිටියි. ඔහුෙග් ප්රානය රදා පවතින්ෙන් විදුලි උපකරණවලට පින් සිද්ද වන්නටය. ඔහු බලන්නට එන අමුත්ෙතා් ඔහු සිටින්ෙන් සිහි නතුව යෑයි සිතා ෙනාෙයක් කතා කරති. ෙලඩා ගෑනම ෙනාෙයක් ෙද් කියති. ෙමි සියල්ලම ෙලඩාට අෑෙස්. ෙමි දුර්ලභ අත්දෑකීම වස්තු ෙකාට ගත් ෙහා‍ද නවකතාවක් මම මැතකදී කියවීමි. - ෙමෙහම කියන්ෙන් ෙමෙස් පෑවසුෙවි 2010 ස්වර්ණ පුස්තක සමිමානය දා මුඛ්‍ය ෙද්ශනය කල මහාචාර්ය ෙජ්. බී. දිසානායකයන් ය.
Babli
Sept 15, 2010 • 1 min read
Babli is my 4th Sinhala novel, after "Vessan Novu Vedyn' (1st Sinhala e-novel), 'Chandraratnage Bhavantara Charikava' (short listed for Swarna Pusthaka) and 'Asa Sitiya Ohu Mese' (the Sinhala version of 'Eavesdropper" which won the State Literary Award for the Best English Novel)