By Frances Harrison

“These are not things you can tell your wife,” said the Tamil man from Sri Lanka, “you do not talk about these things in my culture”.

Driving across Asia is a dream for several automotive enthusiasts. But for Rukshan Munesinghe and Manivannan this dream is to become a part of their travelogue.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi

By building trust between communities over the last year, Sri Lanka has shown itself to be large, larger than many a large country. As it moves into Constitution-making, all that makes for the federal spirit within a unitary system needs to be strengthened.

It is a moment of great hope and some fear in Sri Lanka. As it takes the first step towards drafting a new Constitution, there is renewed hope that the island nation will be able to reinvent itself as a modern state, one that brings economic prosperity and national unity.