RIFLE RANGE BOY

Marriage and Mutton Curry (2018) M Shanmughalingam The Jaffnese Tamil (JT) community in Malaya and later, Malaysia, can stand with heads held high knowing that they had a pivotal role in the establishment of the country's early post-Independence civil service and putting it on a right footing. The JTs, like many struggling minorities in the world, had their own set of quirky rules to live by. Their aim in life is a better life for their children. They are disciplined and being religious made it easier to instil order in the lives of the younger ones. They look at a job in the civil service of the ultimate joy in life. Education played a prominent place in society, and a young girl's biggest catch for matrimony is a doctor! The Ceylonese community is said to be very class-conscious, and success in education is looked upon as the avenue to escape their clutches of poverty and social class. Shan, a seasoned writer who wears many hats, has managed to rekindle the memori...

Dheepan (Bilingual; Yaalpaanam Tamil and French; 2015) When refugees are given space to stay in a vicinity, it is not just physical space they need. They would need social and psychological support to carry on life. After all the push factors that drove them from their comfort zone, the devastations that they had endured, the love ones that they had lost, PTSD is a real problem which needs to be handled tactfully. They do not come alone. With them come the baggage of young ones who need to be paved for a future where they can fend for themselves. There are bound to be people who are non-conformists and natural fighter-cocks who would just  rebel without a cause. Bad apples are everywhere. Crime and social disharmony amongst themselves and with other communities may strain the policing duties. Refugees and immigrants, who are usually in the prime of the lives, will have dreams and desires, be it for the future or for carnal gratifications. Hence, sexual and rep...

Dambulla Golden Temple They say they had great powers and wisdom. Legend has it that one of their kings, Ravana, had literally brought Lord Shiva to his knees when the king had conquered the Indian subcontinent all the way to what they thought was edge of heaven - Mount Kailash. Only when the mighty Lord thumbed his big guy did he plead for clemency and hence was born the Shiva Thandava stotram which is still muttered by His devotees till today. The island has so much of history and feats in engineering and architecture but what has it become? A third world country with chaotic traffic system filled by traffic etiquette wanting horn blaring drivers and three wheeler 'tut-tut' taxis who treat the road as a war zone where only the fittest and lion hearted survives! A nation with such a long high culture is now wallowed in poverty and has to play dance monkey to the tunes of tourists from supposedly developed nation to conjure out foreign exchange for their liveliho...

http://www.thuraisingham.org/ A Personal Tribute Although a chapter or two in several books were written about my Father DatoSir Clough Thuraisingham and his friend Dato Sir Onn bin Jaafar and their roles in the Malayan independence movement, most of them were published around the late 1970s. Little has been written about the long and enduring friendship of these two men, one a Ceylon Tamil and the other a Malay, both born in British Malaya and how this friendship shaped their vision of independence for Malaya. So why this website? I want to keep alive the contributions of Dato Onn and my Father to early Malayan politics as it seems an unfortunate habit of so many newly developed nations to erase or to ignore some prominent figures of their past or even misquote them now. I hope this website keeps alive the personalities of these two men. Maybe I am exaggerating their contributions to the early independence movement, but I leave the readers to decide this for themselves. We were pre...