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"The same holds true for Sigiriya…where there once lived a king who…paint[ed] frescoes of his many women, all beautiful, all bare-breasted, and all carp-eyed…Of these paintings, R A L H Gunawardana observes: 'the complexions of the ladies depicted in the paintings vary from a light yellow-brown to a deep blue or black color…the paintings certainly depict members of highest social strata. The variety of physical types that they represent clearly indicates that the dominant social group at the time was not physically homogeneous'"

— Charred Lullabies by E. Valentine Daniel (Page 57)

"While all Tamils proudly lay claim to Tiruvalluvar as their poet…it is the Parayans, the untouchable caste of drummers, who lay special claim to this famous poet. They consider Tiruvalluvar as their very own ancestor. To this day, the priests of Parayans are called Valluvars"

— Charred Lullabies by E. Valentine Daniel (Page 30)

"They agreed with me, but we were all silent, hearing the trash talk about a divorced great-aunt, a gay cousin, a Muslim son-in-law, the 'low-caste' neighbors; hearing the same kind of grotesque everyday hatred that had been directed at Tamil people for so long."

— Rambutan by Cynthia Shanmugalingam (Page 194)

Note: All times used in this book…are solar time based on the sun's actual location in the sky which changes throughout the year. In contrast, clock time is based on an imaginary sun location that results on dividing time into equal 24 hour days throughout the year… for example solar 11am is 1 hour before solar noon.

— Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1, 3rd Edition by Brad Lancaster (Page 92)