Articles in Roar

Asiff Hussein 4 January 2017 Given Sri Lanka’s land size, it may seem like we have the greatest variety of food anywhere in the world. How come, you may wonder. It’s simple, really: it’s a combination of our insular character (we don’t mean narrow-minded in the sense we commonly understand it, but …

Asiff Hussein 13 November 2017 Little is it known that the Arabs of old were a great maritime trading power. Their influence was far-reaching both in East and West. They played a very important role in the maritime silk route of the East that connected Africa with Asia, while their role in …

Asiff Hussein 6 March 2017 The Arabs of old were simply besotted with Sri Lanka, as is evident in the many names they bestowed upon our beautiful island, like Sailan, Sarandib and Jaziratul Yaqut or the ‘Island of Rubies’ ‒ which some say referred to our precious stones, and others, to our …

Asiff Hussein 21 January 2017 Sri Lanka’s Malays, despite being a happy-go-lucky people, are well known for their diligence to duty. This is perhaps a spillover from the days of their ancestors, most of whom came as soldiers from the Indonesian archipelago to serve the Dutch colonial regime here. They …

Asiff Hussein 23 July 2017 The Sinhala language should be a goldmine for anyone looking at unearthing the jewels of the past. It is embedded with strata or layers from different times, showing how much the language has been overlaid by the influence of different peoples over the ages. In …

Asiff Hussein 2 December 2016 Man is what he eats, goes a famous German saying, and yes, he is in the material sense because all that he is, his flesh and bones down to his veneer of skin and chinny chinny chin, he gets from the food he eats. And …