“Let’s celebrate life, not death” ~ Kethesh Loganathan 

Apart from all the difference of opinion and disagreements, Kethesh was one of my indirect mentors in many ways.  

I was an enthusiastic reader of his political columns penned under the pseudonym ‘’Sathya’’-which were mainly published in the Daily mirror. In a time when political dissent was brutally suppressed by means of violence and murder, and freedom of expression meant nothing else than ones own death- speaking truth to power, was not merely a brave act, rather a clear manifestation of intellectual honesty and a historic political commitment which many intellectuals lacked at the time.  

He was gun downed allegedly by an LTTE assassin at his apartment in Colombo.  

I cherish the memory of meeting him in Colombo along with my father in 2006.  

It’s really sad to realise that all of the personalities that I have considered as my inspiration in my youth such as Richard de Zoysa, Vijaya Kumaranathunga and Kethesh… were brutally assassinated in a row of political killings which has been due to the cursed political reality of post colonial Lanka.