Me and Simon’s Quest

The small walfdorf-esque grade school I went to was heavily into drama. We used to do several plays a year with the whole class. Mostly they were mythological themes: the Norse saga, the Krishna story, the Gilgamesh epic. I loved it. When our school principal’s daughter opened up an acting school in Royal Oak, I […]

Transnational Sufism and Islamic Change

Transnational Sufism and Islamic Change in Contemporary Sri Lanka by Dennis B. McGilvray In the context of spectacular Sinhalese and Tamil forms of religious austerity and mortifying vow-fulfillment — such as the hook-swinging, kavadi dancing, and firewalking so prominently displayed at Kataragama — the so-called “cutting and stabbing work” of the Bawas is the only […]

Remembering the Samudra Cottage… Here,

Remembering the Samudra Cottage… Here, barefoot and clad only in sarong, one could enjoy herbal teas from the garden, cooked delicacies made of fresh stone-ground rice flour or organic whole grain rice cooked in earthen pots over a wood fire with delicate curries made from our garden’s own produce. No one who came once to […]