Boxing Day

About the Book

Boxing Day contains four short stories describing (1) the dramatic struggle of a young girl taken away by the gigantic waves of the 2004 tsunami from her lover and her parents, and fulfilling her life-long ambition to complete her university education to lead a meaningful and successful life, (2) the acceptance of the diseases of HIV/AIDS and Prostate enlargement by two young sufferers who finally made a positive attitude towards the diseases, (3) the adoption of an abandoned child from an overseas orphanage who became an eminent lawyer and later a Member of Parliament and Minister, showing that people from disadvantaged backgrounds could still be highly successful individuals, given the right environment, and (4) The series of poems under the captions - The Four Seasons, Love: True or Not?, Separation from a wife, Life, and Death - are a comparison of the four seasons of the year with stages of human life, giving a realistic touch to both.

About the Author

The author, born in Hikkaduwa in Sri Lanka, migrated to Australia in 1975, with his family, as a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers. He worked as a Social Worker at the Allambi Children's Assessment Centre at Burwood and at the Pleasant View Assessment Centre for Alcoholics and Drug Dependant Persons, East Preston in Melbourne, Australia.

He also worked as an Inter-country Child Care Consultant attached to the South Australian Department for Community Welfare for eight years. During his tenure of office, he was responsible for placement of over 500 orphaned or neglected children from Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Philippines and South Korea with adoptive parents in South Australia approved by the department.

Later, he worked as the Senior Social Worker at the branch office of the Commonwealth Social Security Department at Tamworth in New South Wales, Australia.

Before migrating to Australia, the author had worked as a Social Services Officer in the Sri Lankan Department of Social Services, and as a Lecturer at the Ceylon (Sri Lanka) School of Social Work for nearly 17 years.

A versatile writer, the author has contributed a series of articles and letters to leading newspapers in Sri Lanka and Adelaide, Australia, and national magazines and community newspapers in Australia.

An Honours graduate in Philosophy of the University of London, he has obtained a Diploma of Social Work from the Ceylon School of Social Work, a Special Certificate in Advanced Social Work from the Philippine Women's University, a Higher Diploma in Advanced Freelance Journalism from the Australian College of Journalism and a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the Central Queensland University, Australia.