Commonwealth' is not a word I ever used growing up in Colombo. There, in the late 1950s, it would have meant little more than New Zealand lamb and Anchor butter at the cold stores.

I probably felt most out of place as a young kid growing up in Sri Lanka. My mental world was somewhere else, partly because of reading and daydreaming.

When I was growing up, I don't think I knew any other child who had been out of Sri Lanka.

Writing is incredibly important to me as a way of handling the world, understanding how it works.

Why English music is being taught in some schools? The government should make arrangements to promote Indian classical music among students.

I pay attention to politics and technology.

The federal government needs to do a much better job of managing our resources, but the sale or transfer of our land is an extreme proposal, and I won't tolerate it.

If we don't get this economy going, the numbers that represent this stimulus package are going to be small compared to the loss of revenue to the federal government for our economy.