Srilanka, Oct. 24 -- Sri Lanka has two faces - the sunny, smiling face of welcome so highly valued by foreign visitors, and the grim, unsmiling one feared by the country's own citizens. Thilina Weerasinghe's 'Maranaya Asala Nisalawa' mirrors that dark side with unflinching honesty.
'Maranaya Asala Nisalawa' can be translated as 'Deathly Still in Face of Death' or 'Unflinching Besides Death.' But I don't know if either of these translations captures the sombre mood of the original. Writing of this nature won't tag with popular taste. People want to forget and move on. Instead of mass murders, the public finds the daily deluge of horrific accidents on social media is vastly entertaining.
'Maranaya Asala Nisalawa' is an account of a writer-a...