I came of age in Chennai - then Madras - in the 1960s and 70s. Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was known then was very much a part of my life. I was a student of Bharata Natyam with the renowned guru Adyar Sri K. Lakshman, and a steady stream of young girls and women from Ceylon made their way to him to learn dance. We became good friends as we groaned over muzhumandis and third-speed adavus. They were full of high spirits and laughter and we teased each other on our Tamil accents. Those were sunny times, an era of peace.
Then disturbing reports started to come in. Living in Tamil Nadu, the war in Sri Lanka was not an abstraction but something very real as refugee camps mushroomed all over the state and accounts of the horrors from across the Palk Strait flooded the newspapers.
I have read many books about the Sri Lankan civil war. And recently, I watched a play, Counting and Cracking, that told the story of a Sri Lankan family that moved to Australia to escape the war and make a fresh start. I loved every minute of it with its fantastic cast of characters, top-notch acting, gut-wrenching storyline and brilliant direction. I laughed, I cried, I was transported to that war-torn land and to sunny Australia and came away with an experience I will never forget.
Here is my review.