Features

My time at Carnegie Mellon University and a holiday back home in Sri Lanka

Published

4 weeks ago

2026/06/21

Carnegie Mellon campus

The identity of Pittsburgh, the city of three rivers, was forged by steel and coal through the mid-1950s. The city sits at the confluence of the three rivers Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio. In the past, much of the shipping trade was conducted through boats, ships and ferries along these rivers. Furthermore, the city was once a major railroad hub. Nowadays, many railway routes have been closed, and old stations have been renovated into fancy restaurants.

The most prominent of these is the restaurant named Grand Concourse, located at Station Square in downtown Pittsburgh. Its round roof provides a sense of elegance and peace, with a view of the Monongahela River. Dining there gives the impression of being aboard a ship. In addition to this restaurant, various international cuisines such as Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, and Italian are offered in the area.

The most expensive restaurant in Pittsburgh is located in Washington Hill. A tram-like car, drawn by steel cables (a cable car similar to those used in San Francisco), would take you up the incline to Washington Hill. Simultaneously, another cable car would descend on the other side of the hill, providing a dynamic balance. Since Pittsburgh is located between mountains and rivers, with many hills and bridges, numerous old bridges provide access to the city.

In the 1920s Professor Jacob Den Hartog—an MIT luminary—had lived in Pittsburgh, working as an engineer in the famous appliance company Westinghouse and also teaching at the University of Pittsburgh. He recalled that the city was so polluted during the boom of steel and coal industry that a white shirt would turn black by the afternoon. However, as the steel and coal industries dwindled, the city has cleaned up significantly, though economic challenges followed.

The creation of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) resulted from the merging of the Carnegie Institute of Engineering and the Mellon Institute of Science. Andrew Carnegie was a philanthropist who amassed considerable wealth from the steel industry, and many institutions are named in his honor. The King Mellon family was also wealthy, owning several large banks. In the past, Pittsburgh was also a hub for aluminum, glass, and paper industries. While these industries too have declined, many large towers continue to be constructed in the area. IC Light (short for “icy light”) is a beer that is famous in Pittsburgh because it is named after Pittsburgh, the “Iron City.”

At Carnegie Mellon University

After completing my PhD at MIT, I joined Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in September 1978 as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. My responsibilities spanned undergraduate and graduate teaching, advanced research—largely for the theses of students under my supervision—and securing external grants to fund that work. These tasks were not easy, yet quite informative and also somewhat rewarding. In the process I was exposed to many interesting research areas; robotics became a central one. When I went there, I first rented a single-bedroom apartment in Green Tree as I was single.

Holiday in Sri Lanka

Spending over an hour driving daily between my apartment in Green Tree and the university in Oakland wore me out. The solution was to find accommodation close to the university, but this proved to be difficult. Housing near CMU was scarce and often unsafe. Frustration grew.

Summer vacation at CMU would span over four months, from May to August. This is typical in departments of engineering of US universities, which pay its faculty members only for nine months, from September to May. The faculty members may work outside the university, for summer income. In the first summer at CMU, instead of working I decided to visit Sri Lanka to see my parents and relatives. This was my first visit back home since leaving about six years previously.

As a student, I had sent money home from my earnings as a teaching assistant to help my parents who depended on their pensions and income from their land. When I learned that my father had fallen ill and was admitted to hospital, I sent all the money I had saved to my parents, mainly to purchase a car for their use. This meant that when I first joined CMU I had no funds left for a trip to Sri Lanka. However, after a year on faculty salary and some technical consultation work for Westinghouse Electric Company, I had saved enough for a trip to Sri Lanka. Since I had rented my apartment in Green Tree on an annual lease, I decided to sublet it for the four months that I would be away.

Grand Concourse restaurant

After placing an advertisement in the newspaper, I received many telephone inquiries. One person who came to view the apartment, who looked respectable and trustworthy, turned out to be under the influence of liquor and/or drugs when I called him on the phone. So I did not want to rent the apartment to him. After that I focused on another person who viewed the apartment. He was a young man dressed in a fine suit who told me he was the manager of a company and drove up in a modern sports car. I rented the apartment to him and received the rent for the entire four months upfront.

Arrival at Colombo Airport

When I returned to Sri Lanka, my mother and many other relatives had come to greet me at the BIA. Over the six years that I had been away Sri Lanka and its people had changed significantly. The traffic congestion in Colombo had worsened and the air pollution due to vehicle emission was quite bad. Relatives and friends had aged, and there was a noticeable increase in the noise level in the city. I couldn’t help but wonder—was this the Sri Lanka that I once lived in or had I changed myself?

From the airport I was expected to travel in a van to the residence of an uncle for lunch before before heading for of my parents’ home in a suburb of Badulla. On the way to my uncle’s, there was an unexpected stop at a large residence on an extensive land by the main road. Later I found that this stop had been masterminded by my cousin, the son of my mother’s older sister. In that house I was served a glass of water by a pretty girl as a traditional invitation to the breakfast table. Not aware of such traditions, I drank the glass of water which I was not supposed to do.

Furthermore, since I had downed a shot of scotch on the flight for my nerves as I was returning home after a long absence, the girl may have thought that I liked a drink. Besides, at the table I skipped much of the spread both sweet and spicy, eating just a kolikuttu banana not available in the US that I had long craved. Clearly I did not leave behind a good impression of myself. As we drove on to my uncle’s home, my cousin asked me what I thought of the girl. I told him that she was very pretty but too young for me.

Then my uncle told me that his youngest daughter wanted us to stop at her workplace and pick her up to join us on the way to their house for lunch. At her workplace she gave me a loving hug, which I had not expected. Later I found out that she had been eagerly waiting for me and wanted to marry me but was saddened about my lack of interest. On the day I ended my holiday in Sri Lanka, my uncle had arranged a lunch for me at his home. There I was introduced to a young technical officer in a nearby university, who, I was told, was engaged to marry my uncle’s daughter. Later she wrote to me saying that it wasn’t true.

During the vacation in Sri Lanka, most of my time was spent visiting relatives and watching Sinhala movies and dramas. I traveled to Kandy and spent time at my old university in suburban Peradeniya and the nearby botanical garden, and also attended a religious event at the Temple of the Tooth and watched the perahera. All my travel in Sri Lanka was either by train or bus. Even though tiring, I considered them not as a hassle but as a part of life.

A sad experience

One day, while on an express bus from Badulla to Colombo, I experienced something that unsettled me deeply. I had already boarded the bus in Badulla and was sitting in the very front row with the adjoining seat empty when a young woman boarded the bus, telling “aiya, I will leave now” to a police officer who accompanied her, and sat next to me. She remained silent until the bus reached the Hali Ella about 15 minutes later when she turned to me and asked, “Are you going to Colombo?” in English. From her accent, I assumed she was an educated Tamil woman.

As we conversed, I learned more about her. She was a university graduate in science and a teacher in the northern city of Jaffna. She had once worked in Colombo, and there she had befriended a police officer and was engaged to be married to him. Later she was transferred to Jaffna, where she had received a letter stating that the officer had been transferred to Badulla. As she had lost contact with him she had come looking for him. When she discovered that he was not at the Badulla police station, she was shaken. A kind police officer in Badulla offered her a place to stay that night and arranged for her to travel back to Jaffna by bus the next day. She tearfully shared her story with me.

“How are you getting to Jaffna today?” I asked.

“There’s a night train from Colombo,” she replied with a smile, and added, “If you like, I could stay with you tonight.”

I said, “If anyone sees us, they might think something inappropriate. I’ll take you to the train station. Do you have money for the trip?”

She reassured me, “Not a problem, I’m not a child. I have money.” She opened her purse and showed me a few hundred-rupee notes. I was left speechless.

Reflecting on my life, I often marvel at how many of the things that I wanted had come to me. Also, when a trouble arose, I always found a way out. It seems like an extraordinary force at work — whether by divine intervention, a guardian angel, sheer coincidence, or entirely something else, I don’t know. I consider myself a peaceful person. I like to help others as much as I can, not causing them any harm, and enjoying a life of tranquility while balancing my acadamic and recreational activities.

However, my experiences with women have been complex. Many of them had faced unfortunate fates in life, and I was eager to help them escape their tragic circumstances. In return I received a good name from most, as I did not cause them any harm or heartache. In many cases, they wanted to have a romantic relationship with me. But the situations obstructed that, except in one case on which I will elaborate later.

After university in Sri Lanka, I joined Richard Pieris and Co. as an assistant works engineer at their factory. Needing a place to stay, even though the company offered me a house in the factory premises, I rented a room in a nearby house of a wealthy family. There was a pretty young woman in the house, who was adopted by the elders there. Later, I discovered that the woman’s adoptive father was sexually abusing her. I helped her escape that abusive situation and return to her sister. That is a long story. I had to face several other similar troubling incidents, both in Sri Lanka and abroad. Since the company had offered me a furnished house in the factory premises, I left the rented room and moved into the company bungalow.

When my Sri Lankan holiday ended, my heart was heavy with sorrow. On the day of my departure, I faced yet another problem. I had booked a return air ticket, but when I called the airline, I learned that I did not have a reservation in that flight. They told me that I hadn’t confirmed my return flight, which caused the issue. Since I had to leave immediately due to my academic responsibilities at CMU, I told my lawyer brother about my plight. He called a friend who was a senior police officer at the airport.

I explained the situation, and he made a few telephone calls. In the end, he suggested that I came directly to the airport, and he would meet me there. At the airport, the officer told the person at the check-in counter that I was a medical doctor in Pittsburgh, and had to leave as planned for a surgery there on the next day. Eventually, I was given a seat on that flight.

The twin brother

In those days, British Airways flew directly from Colombo to London and then from London to Pittsburgh with no stop in New York or domestic transfer. This was convenient and it saved time. After arriving at the Pittsburgh International Airport, I took a taxi to my apartment. The doors were locked, and the person who had rented the place was not there. Since I had an extra key, I unlocked the door and entered.

I was shocked and angry at what I saw. Red wine had been spilled on the carpeted floor, and several of my belongings, including the music system and music albums, were missing. The room had not been cleaned. I called the person who had rented the place using the number that he had given me. The person on the other end of the line informed me that it was the number of the student dormitory at Carnegie Mellon University and that the person I was looking for was “not there.”

The next morning, I went to the campus, to meet the man. I found that he was a student there. When I spoke to him, he said that it wasn’t him at all but his twin brother who had rented the apartment and that he had provided his brother’s name and phone number to mislead me. I was certain that it was the same man who rented my apartment and there was no twin brother though I had no proof. Legal action would cost me more than the loss itself and time was scarce.

So, I told him to inform his “brother” that I was a professor at CMU and that if I did not get the missing items back or did not receive compensation for my losses, I would take the matter to court and inform the university as well.

After I returned to my apartment, I received a message from the “brother.” He assured me that the missing items would be returned. He also pleaded to be merciful because his sibling was mentally unstable, and they were quite poor. I agreed to this. In the end, most of the missing items were returned, but I did not receive compensation for the stained carpet!

By year’s end, I moved to a different apartment near the university. The other residents in the building were older people. I did not speak to them much. One day, a middle-aged woman living there knocked on my door and entered my apartment without invitation while asking questions about myself. I also remember that she had closely looked at the contents of my apartment with great interest. One evening about a week later, I came home earlier than usual from the university and saw the woman running into the building from the sidewalk outside.

As usual, I parked the car and went into my apartment. My door lock had been broken. I noticed that my new television set had been stolen, and parts of the music system had been dismantled to take away. I immediately called the building owner and the police to report the incident. The police arrived and after recording my statement said that they would use a device to identify the stolen items. A new lock was installed on the door by the building owner but unfortunately the missing items were never recovered. The woman, upon hearing about the theft, came to inquire about it. I ignored her and entered my apartment, locking the door behind me.

by Clarence de Silva

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Features

Trump’s tariffs, AKD’s gazette and Sri Lanka’s diplomatic slumber

Published

13 hours ago

2026/07/17

Thilina Walpola

“We are rather respectable in Colombo. We go to bed fairly early, and we remain there till morning. “

According to Sri Lanka’s diplomatic folklore, the late S.W. R. D. Bandaranaike uttered these words while explaining the reasons for Sri Lanka’s abstention on the UN resolution condemning the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Apparently, SWRD’s foreign ministry officials were asleep at home when the diplomatic cable seeking instructions was received from New York. In those days, there were no cell phones, Internet, or even fax or telex machines. The diplomatic cables were sent through post offices. Decoding them was a slow and time-consuming process. Thus, the government could not provide appropriate instructions to our mission in New York in time, and the Sri Lankan delegation abstained on that sensitive UN vote.

Sri Lanka’s Absence from Section 301 Consultations

But then, how does one explain Sri Lanka’s absence from the crucial bilateral consultation held in Washington by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) during March-April on “Forced Labour” under the Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974? Didn’t our foreign and trade ministries send appropriate instructions to Washington in time? Even if the instructions from the foreign ministry were transmitted to our embassy in Washington by pigeon carriers, there was enough time for Sri Lanka to participate in those meetings.

In March, the USTR initiated these 301 investigations on 60 trading partners, and invited all of them for confidential consultations. Out of the 60, 46 participated in these consultations. Sri Lanka was not one of them. Other countries that didn’t participate in these consultations included China, Russia, and Venezuela! In addition to that, the Section 301 Committee conducted a public hearing with interested parties on April 28 and 29. Washington-based diplomats, representatives from few trade ministries as well as representatives from many foreign trade associations and chambers participated in these hearings. Sri Lanka was once again conspicuously absent.

As a result, when the USTR published the proposed forced labour tariffs on June 2nd, Sri Lanka ended up with a 12.5% duty. Pakistani and Indonesian diplomats participated in these consultations and took appropriate follow-up measures, and managed to enter the 10% duty category. As even a threat of a modest tariff hike could disrupt supply chains and reduce competitiveness, particularly in an industry such as garments, I discussed this issue on 15 June and underscored the importance of Sri Lanka’s participation at the next hearing, which was scheduled to be held from July 7th .

Awakening from Diplomatic Slumber and AKD’s Gazette

Fortunately, Sri Lanka finally awoke from weeks of diplomatic slumber, and Ambassador Mahinda Samarasinghe participated in the public hearing on 9 July, and promised, “…. · We have agreed to the text in our negotiations with the USTR on forced labour, …. The gazette as we speak is being printed and I’m getting the gazette tomorrow morning, and the gazette will be shared with USTR as I get it“.

As promised, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake issued a gazette on 10 July banning the imports of goods produced by forced labour. These new regulations are very similar to what Pakistan and Indonesia enacted in April, after their consultations with USTR in March. Why couldn’t we do it in April? Why did we wait till the very last minute?

Challenges ahead

“War is too important to be left to generals alone,” is a famous saying attributed to former French Premier Georges Clemenceau. Similarly, monitoring our main markets is too important to be left to diplomats alone. The United States is the largest single-country market for Sri Lanka. Therefore, Sri Lankan trade chambers and associations should become more proactive in these markets and participate in these events. For example, the chairman of the Pakistani apparel exporters association participated in the April hearings. Similarly, representatives from the Indian Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Confederation of Indian Industry, and Reliance Industries also participated in July hearings. At an event where each speaker is given only five minutes (strictly enforced), having a number of speakers from a country is an advantage. The presence of industry representatives in these kinds of events also help them understand the market dynamics and the future challenges. This is important, particularly because there will be many more challenges with Trump’s tariffs.

With the gazette issued on 10 July, Sri Lanka has imposed a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour. Now, the challenge will be to effectively enforce the prohibition. And what are the goods produced with forced labour? The USTR list only focuses on aluminum, cotton, electronics, lithium-ion batteries, rice, and tobacco. However, according to the U.S. Department of Labour, the list is much longer. Hence, this list may change continuously during the next two years and tariffs may fluctuate once again.

So, this is definitely not the time to slumber.

(The writer, a retired public servant, can be reached at senadhiragomi@gmail.com)

by Gomi Senadhira ✍️

Features

Tales of Mystery and Suspense 10 Casino for Sale

Published

13 hours ago

2026/07/17

Thilina Walpola

After the overwhelming grotesquerie of J K Rowling’s latest Cormoran Strike novel (written, I should have noted, as the others were, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith), I thought I should return to the world of fun, and also a much shorter description since this thriller moves quickly without the layers of detail that Rowling engages in.

I then move to the second comic thriller by Caryl Brahms and S J Simon. This, their second story to feature Vladimir Stroganoff and Adam Quill, was Casino for Sale, as lunatic a romp as the first, though without the emphasis on the ballet that characterized A Bullet in the Ballet.

This one begins with the impresario Stroganoff buying a casino cheap from Baron Sam de Rabinovich, only to find that it was a rundown place, not the grand casino of La Bazouche, a resort on the Frenc+h Riviera, as he had initially thought. The grand one belonged to Lord Buttonhooke, and Stroganoff could not compete, until he thought of bringing the Ballet Stroganoff to the casino – which of course leads to Buttonhooke deciding to have ballet performances in his Casino too.

Stroganoff invites Quill to visit him, which Quill decides to do since he has left Scotland Yard, having come into a legacy. No one believes this, and he has to face questions as to what he did to have been sacked, with sympathy for having been found out.

Caryl and Simon

The day he arrives in La Bazouche there is a murder, of a vitriolic critic called Citrolo, in Stroganoff’s office. He had been going to write a damning review of the opening night of the ballet and Stroganoff, when he realizes Citrolo cannot be swayed, drugs him and dictates the review himself to the papers. He leaves Citrolo sleeping and finds him shot the next morning, whereupon he decides to muddy the waters and leave a suicide note and lots of other murder weapons. So much overkill, as it were, of course ensures that he is arrested.

But the excitable French detective who makes the arrest follows up his suggestion that Buttonhooke was also involved, and so the two casino owners find themselves in cells next door to each other, with the detective Gustave quite happy to provide creature comforts for a fee.

Quill decides he must investigate, and finds Gustave most cooperative, since he has a laid back attitude to work. So it is Quill that finds a notebook which makes it clear Citrolo is an accomplished blackmailer, and that there are lots of possible murderers, including Stroganoff’s croupier, who was crooked, Rabinovich, who was now working for Buttonhooke, a confidence trickster called Kurt Kukumber, whose prospectus for a dud gold mine was found in the office and Prince Alexis Artishok who was engaged in a deal to buy diamonds from the ballerina Dyra Dyrakova.

Stroganoff had been trying to get Dyrakova to dance for him, but having done so previously she had refused. But then to Stroganoff’s chagrin she agreed to dance for Buttonhooke. The clearly crooked Artishok had told Buttonhooke’s mistress Sadie Souse, who was not very bright, that Dyrakova possessed diamonds she was willing to sell cheap, and Sadie was determined to have them.

Quill meanwhile finds out that there was a secret passage to Stroganoff’s office, the obvious solution to what had begun as a locked room mystery, and that this was known by almost everyone apart from Stroganoff himself. And then Rabinovich is murdered, just after Gustave had released his two original suspects, leading him to blame Quill for having insisted on that and thus allowing them to kill again.

Soon afterwards Dyrakova arrives, and the town is full of posters announcing that she will appear in the casinos, elaborate posters for either one, since Stroganoff is determined that she will dance for him, and if she does not come willingly, he has devised a scheme to make her do so unwillingly. So, though Buttonhooke has her taken off to his yacht immediately she arrives at the station, Quill along with Arenskaya gets her into a launch and to Stroganoff’s casino, where she performs to tumultuous applause, not knowing for whom she is dancing.

When Quill asked her about the diamonds, she said she had sold them long ago, and that gave Quill the solution to the mystery. Rabinovich had known about this, and Artishok had killed him to prevent Sadie learning it from him, he had killed Citrolo who had recognized him for an accomplished card sharper, not a Russian prince at all. But before he is arrested, he gets away in a boat, and the police launch that pursues him is on the point of catching him up when it runs out of petrol.

Again, lots of excitement, and entertaining references – Gustave grows marrows – and if not quite as brilliant as its predecessor, Casino was certainly a delightful read.

Features

The challenge of being positive about SAARC

Published

2 days ago

2026/07/16

Sahan Weerasooriya

The RCSS forum addressed by SAARC Secretary General Ambassador Md. Golam Sarwar in progress. (Pic courtesy RCSS)

It was a few years back that a former President of Sri Lanka took it on himself to pronounce SAARC ‘dead’. Since then there have been other sections of Sri Lankan opinion that have joined the critics of SAARC and taken the solemn stance that SAARC has indeed died what may be called a natural death.

Their fatalism is understandable. SAARC has failed to meet at heads of government or state level for the past several years to take the SAARC process notably forward. Regional cooperation has more or less been only an appealing idea. No substantive concrete projects have taken off to make the idea a hard reality. ‘Inner paralysis’ seems to be SAARC’s lot. Hence the fatalism in these circles.

However, being one of the worst cash-strapped regions of the world and a teemingly populated one with people virtually left to their devices, what choices do the ‘SAARC Eight’ have other than to try their best to band together and continue with their cooperation efforts, however small they may be?

There is no escaping the mounting debt trap for many of these countries and bankrupt Sri Lanka is a glaring example, but ‘throwing in the towel’ and abandoning themselves entirely to the diktats of the strongest economies and their agencies will prove a ‘living death’ for many countries in the SAARC fold.

The gains may be meagre but giving-up on SAARC cooperation in full would prove self-defeating for the organization and South Asia. Right now, the collective intention ought to be to salvage what the region could from the tenuous cooperative efforts. Moreover, such initiatives could go some distance to generate a degree of goodwill among the Eight and help in sustaining a dialogue process.

Given this backdrop it proved ‘a stich in time’ for the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), Colombo, to recently host the SAARC Secretary General Ambassador Md. Golam Sarwar to a round table discussion on the unifying potential of SAARC and its future possibilities, besides other related issue areas.

Held on June 24th and moderated by RCSS Executive Director and former ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, the forum brought together a vibrant, wide ranging audience comprising academicians, diplomats, senior public servants, civil society activists and many others. Following the presentation by Ambassador Golam Sarwar titled, ‘Reigniting SAARC: Achievements, Challenges and the Way Ahead’, a lively Q&A followed.

The above forum could be described as an act of lighting the proverbial ‘candle’ rather than ‘cursing the darkness.’ It surely is a ‘darkness’ that could be seen as daunting considering that the region’s pivotal powers, India and Pakistan, are failing to act in a spirit of accord but are engaged in bitter finger-pointing on a number of questions of vital importance to SAARC.

On the other hand, what is the rest of the region doing to bring the above sides together? It is disappointing that to date the rest of SAARC has failed to launch a major diplomatic drive to bring peace between the feuding regional heavyweights. It needs to act without delay and establish its earnestness and this effort would need to prove SAARC’s staying power in the unfolding months and even years.

In assessing SAARC’s seeming failure local opinion in particular has failed to factor in what could be described as weak leadership. Since Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh, the founding father of SAARC, the region has failed to produce a visionary leader who could advance the SAARC cause with charisma and drive.

Among other reasons, weak leadership accounts considerably for the faltering and stuttering status, as it were, of SAARC. Badly needed are leaders who could go the extra mile, think less of narrow national interests and work diligently towards the collective well being of the region but SAARC’s millions of ordinary people have been made to wait in vain for leaders of such stature. Instead, they have been burdened with politicians who seem to be relishing the apparently moribund state of SAARC.

Looking back, it could be said that it was the dynamic leadership factor that led to the launching of the Non-Aligned Movement and for its sustenance for a few decades. True, it could be seen in some quarters that NAM is no more, but as in the case of SAARC, the former too has been unfortunate to be burdened over the years with politicians who lack the vision and drive to unflaggingly advance the fortunes of the South. NAM and SAARC lack the dynamism and vision of leaders of the stature of Jawaharlal Nehru, for example, to give them the required guidance and intellectual depth.

The reasons are complex for there not being among us currently political leaders with the vision and the steadfast commitment to advance the legitimate interests of the South. However, it could be stated with conviction that the majority of Southern leaders have too easily caved in to the demands of the global North and its financial agencies.

These leaders have failed to see, for instance, that the largely market economy oriented Northern governments would not view with favour a centrist economic model that attaches priority to the interests of the dis-empowered publics of the South. This realization ought to have dawned on the current government in Sri Lanka, for instance, some while ago but it has no choice but to abide by IMF dictates since economic survival at present is unthinkable without the latter’s succour.

Accordingly for SAARC this should be the time for some soul-searching. Priority needs to be attached to ending the feuding between India and Pakistan since at present the material fortunes of the region hinge largely on these regional giants giving peaceful relations among them a try. This is no easy challenge to meet but some daring, visionary diplomacy needs to take hold among the rest of SAARC.

There is some sense in SAARC bringing the peoples of the region together through programs that address their best collective interests. A meeting of minds among SAARC nations could enable SAARC and its agencies to build a region-wide people’s movement for progressive political and economic change that could in turn lead to the region’s political leaders sensitizing themselves more to the neglected needs of their publics.

However, the time is ‘now’ for the initiation of these progressive changes and the voice of SAARC well wishers would need to drown out those of their critics.