Home  ⁄  Articles  ⁄  George Braine (page 4)

George Braine

“Do you play cricket?” – by GEORGE BRAINE The job interview was at a hotel room in San Diego, during a major academic conference. A few chairs had been lined up outside the room, and, as I sat there, another applicant who had just been interviewed walked triumphantly out of the room, giving a dismissive glance in my direction. Rather dejectedly, I walked in. The room had two arm chairs and a large bed. Three white males, who turned out to be Americans, were waiting expectantly, the oldest seated on a chair and the other two on the bed. They were the interview committee. I was directed to the second chair. I was not surprised by the arrangement. Years before, while facing multiple job interviews at another academic conference, I had been in stranger interview scenarios. The person seated on the chair turned out to be the director of the ...

Apr 27, 2022 Posted by In Articles, George Braine Tagged ,
Read More →

My lovely Chinese friends – by GEORGE BRAINE In the late 1960s, Peoples’ Publishing House, in Slave Island, advertised a list of Chinese periodicals at bargain prices, and I dropped in and bought a subscription to China Pictorial, a large, colorful, monthly magazine. The annual subscription was only Rs. 10, and even I could afford that! In those days of black-and-white newspapers and magazines, when most news stories came from the West, China Pictorial was a welcome change. Filled with colorful, large photos of dancing troupes, farmers in their fields and fish ponds, young “pioneers” in red scarves, soldiers and ballet dancers in heroic poses, steam powered trains and their drivers, and – the main attraction for me – young, smiling, Chinese women, all in pigtails. It was pure propaganda, of course, but I had no inkling how this knowledge would come in handy 40 years later. Shumin The first ...

Apr 25, 2022 Posted by In Articles, George Braine Tagged , , , , , , ,
Read More →

Training College Days – By George Braine In memory of Colonel Nizam Dane, Died in Action on June 24, 1997 The entrance to the Maharagama Teachers Training College wasn’t particularly impressive. It was a narrow, tree lined, pot-holed path leading off High Level Road, some distance from the Maharagama junction. About a hundred yards beyond the entrance, the path opened up to the training college premises. The sight, in the early 1970s, was more akin to an internment camp than the premier teachers’ college in the country. World War II vintage Army barracks, made of carelessly white washed rough-hewn stones, rusty wire mesh, and grimy asbestos roofs, were scattered among overgrown lawns and gravel pathways. To me and the others who had gathered there on a January morning in 1970, our first day as teacher trainees, the environment was indeed forbidding. Senior trainees, rumored to be merciless raggers, hovered menacingly. ...

Apr 16, 2022 Posted by In Articles, George Braine Tagged , ,
Read More →

That $100 Trillion Currency Note – by GEORGE BRAINE When he died, a few articles in Sinhala newspapers and online sites glorified the late Robert Mugabe, (who blamed his self-inflicted disasters on the West), as the liberator and savior of his country. What I detect in these articles is an irrational anti-Western, anti-white bias that has crept into the Sinhala media. Enough ranting.   Robert Mugabe fought heroically against the white racist regime of Ian Smith in Rhodesia (as Zimbabwe was then called), and spent years in jail. He came out with three university degrees, and after Britain negotiated a transfer of power, became Prime Minister in 1980 and later the President. Articulate and friendly to the media, he was hailed as a beacon of democracy. All praiseworthy. But, that didn’t last long. Time and time again, he proved that he would go to any length to stay in power. ...

Apr 7, 2022 Posted by In Articles, George Braine Tagged ,
Read More →

Chef George at POL KIRI – by  GEORGE BRAINE When I travel around Sapporo, in Japan, I keep an alert eye for English wording that appear on shop signs because they often make no sense. The syntax and semantics are intriguing, but they do provide me a with few delightful minutes of speculation, wondering what on earth they mean. My favorite is “Freaky Wardrobe Coffee”. Now, I ask myself, why is the wardrobe freaky? Is the wardrobe in the coffee shop? Does the shop sell coffee or wardrobes and coffee? Finally, dying with curiosity, I went there one day, and, passing a sign that asked “Are you freaky?”, found it to be a retro 1960s place, which served average coffee but overpriced coffee, where young women came to linger and take photos of the displayed artifacts. The manager could not explain how they came upon the name. Perhaps to sound ...

Apr 6, 2022 Posted by In Articles, George Braine Tagged , , ,
Read More →

Hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge – by GEORGE BRAINE I was jolted awake with a searing pain in the chest and heavy alcohol fumes on my breath. It was severe heartburn. Soon, the diarrhea started. A large dose of Imodium, which I always carry on my travels, slowed the runs. I was in the lovely, ancient city of Lijiang in Yunnan, China, on a week-long visit. The previous evening, I had shared a bottle of “Cabernet” with my guide Haba and another friend. China is rife with fake wines, but I had paid a high price and the label said “Great Wall”, a reputable brand. Yet, I had been duped. When Haba arrived for the planned hike to Tiger Leaping Gorge, I was in no state to travel. But more Imodium and lots of water gave me the confidence to face the 100km, 2-hour bus ride to Qiaotou, the starting ...

Apr 4, 2022 Posted by In Articles, George Braine Tagged , ,
Read More →

Hantana – A Fond Farewell – By GEORGE BRAINE Three years ago, in March, I drove away from Hantana for the last time, ending a long relationship, perhaps a romance. As with any relationship that ends, the memories are bittersweet, for the house at Hantana had been our beloved second home for 35 long years. For those who have been students at Peradeniya University, or for older fans who recall the hit movie Hanthane Kathawa, or more recent fans of Amarasiri Peiris’ Hantanata payana sanda, Hantana has an aura of romance, of nostalgia, of lost love. But this is not about that Hantana; over the range of hills from Peradeniya, above the city of Kandy, is the other Hantana where my house was located. In the mid-1980s, when I was planning to travel abroad for higher studies, my son was schooling in Kandy. “If you buy us a house in Kandy” my ...

Mar 31, 2022 Posted by In Articles, George Braine Tagged , , , ,
Read More →

Culture Shock – by GEORGE BRAINE   Not an experienced traveler at the time, even I could tell that PANAM Airlines was in trouble. The old aircraft shuddered like a dilapidated bus, the seat cushion was lumpy, and a dead fly came with my lunch. The year was 1984, and, Fulbright scholarship in hand, I was on my way to Washington DC to begin graduate studies.   We arrived at what I later learned was Dulles airport. After clearing immigration and customs, I asked a bystander for the bus to the American University, and he pointed to a vehicle idling nearby. Two heavy suitcases in hand, I boarded and inquired from the Black, female driver if the bus was going to the university. Unable to make head or tale of her response, I repeated the question and again did not comprehend her reply. Confused and embarrassed – how could I ...

Mar 28, 2022 Posted by In Articles, George Braine Tagged ,
Read More →

The Governors at Nattandiya – by GEORGE BRAINE Opposite the Nattandiya railway station, between the Buddhist temple and the Milk Board collection center, is a narrow road that winds down out of sight. I believe it used to be called the Gansabawa Road. In 1960, my father served as the superintendent of a coconut estate on this road about a mile from the station. Ratmalwewa Estate wasn’t large – it must have been around 150 acres during those days – and it was split into two by the road. For a child growing up in rural Ceylon, the estate and the life surrounding it were memorable. Not much traffic passed down the road. There was no bus service and cars were infrequent. Lorries loaded with coconuts or coconut husks, transporting them from estates down the road to oil or coir mills further afield, passed occasionally. The most frequent sight were ...

Mar 23, 2022 Posted by In Articles, George Braine Tagged , , ,
Read More →

Driving Miss Mandy by GEORGE BRAINE Mandy had been abandoned once. A Sri Lankan friend had found her wondering in the woods and taken Mandy home. When the Sri Lankan herself left, Mandy came to stay with me. She was so scared of being abandoned again and followed me everywhere, and crawled under my bed to sleep at night. Mandy was a Welsh Corgi, obviously of mixed parentage, and perhaps six months old. I was living in Mobile, Alabama, while my wife was working in Arkansas, a good 500 miles away. So, at least once a month, I drove the thousand-mile roundtrip to see her, and I took Mandy along. She refused to rest on the seat, preferring to wriggle and crawl under the driving seat. My attempts to pull her out failed, so I let her be. To travel from Mobile, at the southern tip of Alabama, to Arkansas, ...

Mar 19, 2022 Posted by In Articles, George Braine Tagged , ,
Read More →
Page 4 of 5:«12345»