What drives a surgeon born into a well-to-do Colombo family, educated at prestigious schools, and trained in Manchester’s finest hospitals, to choose rural Polonnaruwa as his first consultant posting? For Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke, the answer lies in his daredevil spirit—a trait that has defined his extraordinary four-decade career and continues to shape the man he is today. While most surgeons sought comfortable urban postings, Dr. Goonetilleke made a deliberate choice—to become the sole surgeon
Our Special Correspondent
The only reason the Tamil Tigers managed to assassinate Sri Lanka’s erudite Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is because his inept security didn’t anticipate that a sole sniper would carry out the mission impossible. It was another excellently executed cold-blooded murder that only the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could have pulled off, humiliating a seemingly impenetrable security ring which had turned Kadirgamar into Sri Lanka’s third most protected individual. But even as the
M.R. Narayan Swamy
In a remarkable achievement that has electrified Sri Lanka’s chess community, eight-year-old Tharshan Kajishana from Kokuvil Hindu Primary School in Jaffna has secured a bronze medal in the Girls Under-8 category at the FIDE World Cadets Chess Championship 2025, held in Batumi, Georgia. The tournament, hosted from June 22 to July 3 at the luxurious Grand Bellagio Hotel, drew over 300 young chess talents from nearly 40 countries. A Historic Moment for the North Kajishana’s bronze medal was co
Jaffna Monitor
Why South Asia Reveres Books-and Fears Their Destruction Irrespective of religion, across the Indian subcontinent, books have long held an exalted status. In the indigenous spiritual traditions that emerged from this land-Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism-knowledge is not merely valued; it is venerated in the highest order. In homes, temples, and schools across the region, people treat books with profound reverence-never touching them with their feet, and if done accidentally, offering a
Kaniyan Pungundran
The dead do not speak - but the earth does A few years ago, I visited Cambodia. My original aim was to see the Angkor Wat temple complex. But, as always, my journalistic instincts led me deeper into rural Cambodia, where I found myself in quiet conversations with a few former soldiers of the Pol Pot regime, now living ordinary lives as toddy tappers, farmers, and small shop owners. One of them - a former henchman of the Khmer Rouge - opened up after a few glasses of toddy. In a hauntingly calm
Kaniyan Pungundran
In the decades since the Jaffna Public Library was reduced to ashes-its nearly 97,000 books and manuscripts deliberately set alight in what remains one of the most egregious acts of cultural genocide in Sri Lankan history-a quiet yet determined renaissance has taken root. A new generation of Sri Lankan Tamils, both at home and across the diaspora, has come together to build a library that no racist mob can ever burn again. That library is Noolaham.org-Tamil for "repository of books." Today, thi
Our Special Correspondent
Prof. N. Asokan was invited to give a short “morning assembly talk” at his alma mater, Trinity College, Kandy. The following is the transcribed version of his inspiring speech, reflecting on the four major technological revolutions that have shaped our world—and his life. He writes under the pen name 'eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ', including for Jaffna Monitor. Forty-five years ago, I walked into this assembly hall thrice a week for morning assembly. My classmates and I always sat over on that side. Today,
Eḻuttukkiṉiyavaṉ
