Just about to leave to eat Annasi and Kadalagotu

I am just about to leave to eat Annasi and Kadalagotu.

Their website says as follows:

The Annasi & Kadalagotu Literary Festival or ‘A&K LitFest’ is a Sri Lankan literary festival which will bring together literary enthusiasts from every nook and corner of the country. It is a collaborative platform where those who share a passion for literature can come together, explore the way we write, the way we read and learn about the ways of Sri Lanka and its people - their expressions, cultures and perspectives.

The Festival’s objectives are to create an interest in contemporary local literature of hitherto known and unknown writers and creative artistes, as well as fuel the burning passions of latent literary hopefuls scattered around our island.

Frankly, I was too busy to think much about my presentation and I will be in deep thought while driving from Matugama to Colombo. Will my kids who are going with me allow me to do so, I am afraid?

Anyway, I have a story to say. I am a village man who was one time rebel of JVP who spent most of his youth for full time politics of the Marxist party and then in numerous prisons. Although I quit JVP for ideological reasons, I was in politics all throughout my time and media was my medium.

I started a career in media as editor of rebel literature and became a freelancer after I quit JVP. One time I was provincial correspondent of two newspapers of Padaviya, a war torn area where I worked as a teacher. Teaching is more a passion for me now which I am obsessed so much and do not wish to sacrifice for a journalist career.

Back in Colombo, I was in Hiru Group which published a weekly alternative newspaper that campaigned for seeking a solution to ethnic problem. It was all voluntary work. Then I again quit that group due to ideological differences.

The big question before me was what to do next. There was nobody to give us money to publish newspapers. It was not easy to find space in mainstream media too.

I entered Sinhala online content creation in 2005 as a webmaster cum editor of Lanka Polity dot org website which is now defunct.

Later, I was shown the benefits of blogging and here I go. I write what I think and I fight for a cause I believe right with my writing.

I told you a story in brief now and you know I want to be a better storyteller one day. That is my ambition and this bloody blogging plus translations which I do to make a living eats me. I want to quit all this and go offline to write. I once published a novel called Shasthru and if you have time to read it tell me I can give one to you.

Anyway, we must have a country first of all and I have to stay here getting all the threats, hate expressions and insults to fight for a better day in terms of freedom and democracy.

I will be in social media until I believe we have consolidated the foundation for a society at least a little bit better than what we had before January 8th this year.

මේ ලිපිය වෙන අයත් එක්කත් බෙදා ගන්න. උපුටා ගන්නවා නම් ‍මෙතැනින් ගත් බව කියන්න

ඔබගේ අදහස් අපි මහත් සේ අගයමු. නිර්නාමිකව හෝ අදහස් පළ කිරීමට අවස්ථාව ලබා දී තිබෙන්නේ එම නිසා ය. එහෙත්, එය අපහරණය නො කිරීම ඔබ‍ගේ වගකීමකි. අසභ්‍ය යයි සාමාන්‍ය ව්‍යවහාරයේ පිළි ගැනෙන වචන සම්බන්ධයෙන් සදාචාරවාදී නො වන මුත්, අනුන්ට අපහාස කිරීම සඳහා එවැනි වදන් භාවිතා කර තිබෙන අවස්ථාවලදී ඒවා ඉවත් කිරීමට සිදු වන බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න. එසේම, නීතිමය ගැටලු මතු කරන අදහස් පළ කිරීම් ද ඉවත් කරනු ලැබේ. අදහස් පළ කිරීම සම්බන්ධ කාරණාවලදී සංස්කාරක වගකීම් සමග සහයෝගයෙන් කටයුතු කිරීම බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමු.