I was in Sri Lanka in June and July, so I stopped by at A. F. Raymond’s to meet an old friend Shannon Raymond. Three books, with a Sri Lankan angle. Shannon recently published a coffee-table book on the Kandy perahera. It’s a visual documentary of dance, hence the title.
Shannon vehemently claims, “I am not a photographer!” Yet one day in 2020 he borrowed his brother’s Nikon D850 camera and went to watch the Kandy Perahera. Shannon and his bro, Johann are old friends, so I got the rich backstory. In his office at A. F. Raymond’s—just past the caskets one has to navigate sometime—he explained the genesis of this book. You see, Shannon is also a dancer, and a choreographer. He wanted to document the skill and passion of the performers. In 2020, being the Covid year we prefer to forget, he took up a spot on a balcony of Queens Hotel in Kandy, and clicked. And clicked. The irony was that Kandy was literally shut down, so the artists in the Perahera were dancing to no audience. The lighting was simply from the flames of the torch bearers and fire dancers. What he captured, unwittingly—since Shannon claimed to know nothing about ISO settings or F-stops—was a magical study of light and choreography. It’s a large format coffee-table book so the pictures come to life.
I was reading a biography of the original authors of the Oxford English Dictionary: “The professor and the madman” (now a movie starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn), and made a startling discovery. A whole chapter on Ceylon. Turns out William Chester Minor, the co-author of the OED was brought to Manipay, in Ceylon by his American missionary parents. It doesn’t go well for him; he ended up in a British asylum, while contributing to the OED. I won’t spoil the story, but suffice to say his madness was based on his early years there.
My memoir
Finally, let me tell you about my latest book. It’s a collection for 26 poems (and an essay) titled “Radio Silence.” Why the title? I happen to be a radio buff, who has gone from producing audio (recorded on spool tapes at the BBC), to podcasting. The central idea—despite the radio vibe— is of the experiences many of us share as immigrants but seldom speak about. I have been writing poetry for awhile. Actually since 1983 and the ethnic riots. I finally decided to put some work together in one place. Yes, it’s personal, and many of the topics and people referred to are known to my circle of friends and family. Hence the memoir.
I will leave it to others to say what it represents. If you like a copy, please let me know. Radio Silence available on Amazon, but I could send you a PDF.
Hoipolloireport 