1. Achcha House & Umma House [Asiff Hussein]

Description

Achcha House & Umma House

In this delightful book, well known writer Asiff Hussein shares with us some happy pen pictures of his mixed breed childhood lived in the Sri Lanka of the 1970s and 1980s.

Born in Kandy to a Muslim father and a Sinhalese mother, he and his siblings had a most fascinating
childhood in Colpetty where they grew up. Their adventurous parents among other things ran an auctioning business,
got into the food trade, founded a village on the beach and owned a racing horse and a pack of ponies. The boys,
nicknamed the three musketeers, not only had the best of both worlds, but also made the most of it, experiencing life
in all its variety, like playing army, hoarding chemicals, experimenting with some really nasty stuff, torpedoing a
young guest whom they had fallen out with, casually inquiring if girls were circumcised and planning on becoming superheroes to usher in a brave new world where all would be equal.

The author has taken great pains to share with his readers his mixed upbringing, influenced as it was by two cultures that beautifully co-existed in those balmy days of peace. He talks of fairs and festivals, fasts and feasts, customs and beliefs, phobias and manias, games and pastimes and many other things that went to make his childhood a most memorable one.