The last week I was away in Sri Lanka, for a workshop on Knowledge Sharing.

Ofcourse I was also scouting around for diaspora stories, and I found so many interesting stories.

We have a large Indian (Tamil) diaspora in Sri Lanka. The Indian Tamils were brought to Sri Lanka from southern India in the 19th and early 20th centuries by the British who needed a cheap supply of labor for the plantations.

Greater political representation and equal civil rights for the stateless Tamils are among the key concerns of the Indian Tamils. In the economic arena, improved working conditions, especially better wages, and greater educational and occupational opportunities are viewed as vital to the group's future. As most Indian Tamils are estate laborers, the privatization of the country's tea plantations in the mid-1990s has resulted in some short-term costs. Social and cultural concerns include the ability to use Tamil in dealings with the government, freedom of religious belief, and protection against attacks by the dominant community.

Apparently this group is called a MINORITY AT RISK

Walking down the streets of Colombo, I looked for the Indian Tamil, i saw a lot of them. I also happened to meet a Gujarati girl called Tasneem, who is Sri Lankan but speaks Gujarati at home and is a Borra. She is to be married to an English man. Her grandparents came to settle in Sri Lanka from Gujarat and never returned to India.

Never realized we have a part of the great Indian diaspora this close to home.

When I was there Sri Lanka director Vimukthi Jayasundara's "The Forsaken Land" won the prestigious Camera d’Or award for Best First Film at Cannes.Jaysundara, was trained at the Institute of the Cinema and Television of Pune, in India. For more......