Sri Lanka, March 31 -- The beating heart of the nation? It used to be in the rolling hills, among the pukka sahibs of the plantations. That's where the then spirit of the nation derived its sustenance, so that's where the beating heart of the nation must have been.

But, the beating heart of the nation is wherever we imagine it to be. It's also where the shifting sands of time have made their imprint. Yesterday's beating heart of the land was somewhere else, and sometimes in a matter of months it feels as if we have moved an eon.

Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike decided the beating heart of the nation is among the hewers of wood and the drawers of water in the rural heartlands. But it was not to be.

J. R. Jayewardene made his entry with a thu...