Nineteen side-splitting stories from sri lanka to begin this chronicle of the funny things that have happened to him, muller goes back to his days as a recruit in the royal ceylon navy when the queen of england came a-visiting: the saucy sailors decide to tip her a wink! the second story takes us back to mullers childhood in anuradhapura where two visiting rat snakes turn out to be a railway linesmans grandparents there are further hilarious adventures in the navy, encounters with more snakes of different sizes and lineage, graphic descriptions of jam-making factories, and hazardous days in the gulf effortlessly, muller creates caricatures that leave you helpless with laughter as they highlight the follies and foibles of the human race.
Nobody – and the whole of Boteju Land agreed – could cook like Maudiegirl. She wielded a wizard’s wand not only in the kitchen but also over domestic problems, however large in magnitude; from predicting the sex of an unborn child to knowing more than a dozen ways to cook eels; from cutting a goat in the right way to setting failing marriages straight; from nursing the ailing to health to keeping the best kitchen, Maudiegirl had a solution to every little problem. Her home was her castle and the kitchen her domain. In the fourth serving of his Burgher chronicles, Carl Muller reverts to his favourite family, the von Blosses of his first ‘Burgher’ book, The Jam fruit Tree. A hungry family and a wonderful cook, a kind paedophile, a cantankerous mother-in-law, a disloyal husband, good-for-nothing uncles, prudish Pentecostals, Dunnyboy’s exhibitionism, Sonnaboy’s show-of-strength- the author captures the hallmarks of the von Blosses’ days and ways in his quintessentially irreverent, witty and heart-warming style. Maudiegirl and the von Bloss Kitchen features many of Maudiegirl’s famous recipes making the book a treat not only for Muller fans but also for the senses!
Once Upon a Tender Time, a poignant tale of childhood, is the concluding part of Carl Muller's Burgher trilogy. The Burghers of Sri Lanka, hardy and fun-loving, produce children by the dozen-but often forget them. Carloboy Prins von Bloss and his companions are usually considered a pain in the neck by the adults they encounter as they go about the serious business of discovering the world and, primarily, the facts of life. Romps in the backyard, trysts in deserted houses and long bicycle rides to discover true love are commonplace. Also frequent are thrashings and canings as adults try to do.
This book is a sociological study of the institution of marriage in all its possible forms and a discussion of family and of kinship. What were marriage and the family in the "dim red dawn of man"? How have they changed and evolved? What is their probable future? This clear and comprehensive book, written by a leading sociologist, answers these questions with a wealth of material, from a thoroughly modern point of view, and without traditional prejudices.
Winner of the Gratiean Memorial Prize for the best work in English Literature by a Sri Lankan for 1993 Hilarious, affectionate, candid and moving, this is the story of the Burghers of Sri Lanka... Who are the Burghers? Descended from the Dutch, the Portuguese, the British and other foreigners who arrived in the island-nation of Sri Lanka (and 'mingled' with the local inhabitants), the Burghers often stand out because of their curiously mixed features—grey eyes in an otherwise Dravid face, for instance.... A handsome and guileless people, the Burghers have always lived it up, forever willing to 'put a party'. Carl Muller, a Burgher himself, writes in this quasi-fictional, engaging biography of the lives of his people; they emerge, at the end of his story, as a race of fun-loving, hardy people, much like the jam fruit tree which simply refuses to be contained or destroyed.
For many centuries, Lanka was referred to as Sihaladipa—the island of the Sihala, the people of the lion. This is the magnificent story of Anuradhapura, the greatest Asian Buddhist city of ancient times, and the proud capital of the lion kings of Lanka. In Children of the Lion, Carl Muller recreated the story of the conquest of Lanka by Sihabahu and Sihasivali’s eldest son, the disgraced and banished Vijaya. Continuing this monumental saga, richly embedded in myth and legend, City of the Lion, the second book in the series, carries forward the story of the Sinhala race. The book recreates the return of the lion people to Anuradhapura after the bold and reckless Sinhala prince, Duttha Gamani, waged war, slaying the usurping Damila king, Elara, who had ruled over their precious city for forty-four years. The city, where Duttha Gamini built the most enduring monuments of Buddhism, grew, flourished, and the edifices of Buddhist glory rose to become the wonders of the East. A celebration of the people of Sri Lanka, and the island’s culture and heritage, City of the Lion is a robust retelling of history.
So many books on marriage leave one with a feeling of chaos that it is important to examine any document underlying the discovery of order by searching for underlying tendencies. The author emphasizes the necessity of taking the evolutionary point of view, and sees in militant feminism, which teaches emulation of men, a phase which will pass as women come to make their own peculiar spiritual contribution to civilization as men have done. Perhaps this will come the sooner, he suggests, if women will regard themselves as the equivalents and not as the equals of men.
Yakada Yaka is the second part of the Burgher trilogy that began with The Jam Fruit Tree When the conquering British roll out the first railway steam-driven locomotive in Sri Lanka, it causes quite a stir. The smoke-spewing, banshee-wailing, fearsome black thing hisses like a thousand cobras... and the villagers declare that this Thing is an Iron Demon-a yakada yaka. The Burghers who drive these Iron Demons have a penchant for challenging authority and courting trouble, sometimes just to liven things up in the railway outposts... and so it is that Sonnaboy and Meerwald chase a large group of villagers all across Anuradhapura, mother-naked but not much bothered by it, Ben Godlieb conjures up a corpse in his cowcatcher, Dickie Byrd single-handedly demolishes a Pentecostal Mission and is hailed as the messiah of the Railway fraternity, and Basil Van der Smaght filches a human heart and feeds it to the Nawalapitiya railway staff ...and to cap it all, Sonnaboy takes French Leave to act in The Bridge on the River Kwai! '(Muller) tells his tale with a gentle humour often bordering on tenderness, but couched in the vigorous rugged localese. Almost immediately we find ourselves empathizing with Muller's roistering band that sins and prays with equal zest.' -Business Standard '... The Burghers ...believed in living life to the hilt. Every situation occasioned wild revels, and there was nothing that could not be solved through a brawl.' -India Today.
Meet Fury the Magpie, Pooh the Dog, Grandpa and Grandma Ratsnake, Lizzie and Dizzy the Lizards-in-love, Spike the Porcupine and many others in these exciting stories. In these thirteen hilarious and moving stories the author writes about animals from his childhood, ones that share his home currently, and of chance encounters with assorted snakes, bats, mongooses, monkeys that haunt houses, and other wildlife...
Nazism was deeply rooted in German culture. From the fertile soil of German Romanticism sprang ideas of great significance for the genesis of the Third Reich ideology--notions of the individual as a mere part of the national collective, and of life as a ceaseless struggle between opposing forces. This book traces the origins of the "political religion" of Nazism. Ultra-nationalism and totalitarianism, racial theory and anti-Semitism, nature mysticism and occultism, eugenics and social Darwinism, adoration of the Fuhrer and glorification of violence--all are explored. The book also depicts the dramatic development of the Nazi movement--and the explosive impact of its political faith, racing from its bloody birth in the trenches of World War I to its cataclysmic climax in the Holocaust and World War II.
See here, first take a little polish on the finger and rub into the leather. Then spit. and rub.' - boasts one recruit of his boot polishing skills. sadly, the only reward this gets him is thirty pairs of shoes to shine. This is only one of the hilarious episodes in Carl Muller's continuation of the von Bloss family saga. Carloboy von Bloss is back, now a robust young man of eighteen, spending four eventful years in the one-ship Royal Ceylon Navy. Carloboy and his fellow recruits get up to the weirdest capers: painting their boots black; posing as Italian ghosts; planning to wink at.
For many centuries, Lanka was referred to as Sihaladipa—the island of the Sihala, who were the people of the lion. Children of the Lion told the story of the conquest of Lanka by the great king Vijaya. City of the Lion, carried forward the story of the Sinhala race recounting the return of the lion people to Anuradhapura after the bold and reckless Sinhala prince, Duttha Gamani, waged war against the usurper, Elara, who had ruled over their precious city for nearly fifty years. In the third book in the series, Carl Muller recounts the glorious days of Duttha Gamini’s reign. With blazing energy the king transformed Anuradhapura into the greatest Buddhist city of ancient times. The gods smile down on him—he is blessed with a son and mysterious discoveries of flowers bearing gems, caves with silver and many other riches are made all over the kingdom. These divine treasures help him erect enduring wonders of Buddhism like the colossal Maha Thupa and Ridi Vihara in Anuradhapura. Vividly told, full of rich mythology, Grandeur of the Lion is an extraordinary book about one of the most astounding periods of Sri Lankan history.
The heroic Sinhala king, Duttha Gamini, is aging. His son Saliya, who he hopes will succeed him, has fallen in love with an outcast chandala woman, a union that will cause much outrage in the kingdom. The Maha Thupa, the colossal structure that took eighteen years in the making, is ready to be enshrined in accordance with the divine prophecy—with an urn containing the relics of the Buddha’s bodily remains. However, the urn is in possession of Kala Naga, the serpent king of the resplendent kingdom of the Nagas, where he lives guarding it. Intrigues of the Lion, the fourth part of the historic Children of the Lion series, traces the decline of the Sinhala empire through a fascinating series of events in Sri Lankan history.
Winner of the Gratiean Memorial Prize for the best work in English Literature by a Sri Lankan for 1993 Hilarious, affectionate, candid and moving, this is the story of the Burghers of Sri Lanka... Who are the Burghers? Descended from the Dutch, the Portuguese, the British and other foreigners who arrived in the island-nation of Sri Lanka (and 'mingled' with the local inhabitants), the Burghers often stand out because of their curiously mixed features-grey eyes in an otherwise Dravid face, for instance.... A handsome and guileless people, the Burghers have always lived it up, forever willing to 'put a party'. Carl Muller, a Burgher himself, writes in this quasi-fictional, engaging biography of the lives of his people; they emerge, at the end of his story, as a race of fun-loving, hardy people, much like the jam fruit tree which simply refuses to be contained or destroyed.
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