Is May the moment to forsake madness and put aside all but the best supporting gods?

“To be or not to be,” is the refrain of several Sri Lankan government departments – but how can they – or that - free you from suffering? From cravings? From any need to cling to things?

Is life really what you best hear when you're absolutely still? And if so, does knowing the names of different trees help at all?

Rich, salty, earthy, savoury, sharp – gorgonzola is not a cheese common to Sri Lanka, and yet its mere anticipation calls to mind on the island the seven stages of living. And of them all, how can you ever manage to make the last, last? I wake and see two yellow Minivets flying off into the jungle. And, by a dizzy sequence of associations too tiresome to make sense of, my mind is turned almost immediately to thoughts of gorgonzola. Gorgonzola is not an easy cheese to fi

The Vatican City of Sri Lanka, Kandy, is a place built on religion, money, politics, faith, power, morality - and some of the most striking temples anywhere in the world. But which ones should you visit? Kipling believed that to understand a country and its history, you had to smell it. Yet the past is documented in so many other ways - in books, in architecture, in music, or even in food. In Sri Lanka, it is the temples that best hold their story. Even so, their stories,

Lord Buddha is famous for his many-faceted hand gestures. But which were the main ones, and what do they actually mean? At 6 am, Mr Goonetilleke the Younger’s workers were already busy tapping the rubber, and as I shot past them, four dogs on a single lead, I waved a good morning. The wave I got back reminded me that hand gestures in Sri Lanka are rarely like this, of the usual kind. Simple, easy to interpret, quick to deliver. To mention “Hand Gesture” in England is

Is death like checking in at The Ritz? Or is it more agreeable still? Damnit. I mean, honestly. Just damnit. This is the second time in as many weeks. One more such episode and you can call me obsessed, or, at best, dull. Either way, I am due a real wigging. Pining for the fjords. Playing the piper. Deep sixth. Toes up. Terminated. Death is like one of those mildly irritating guests present at most parties, eager to pass on to you the plot for his unpublished novel