R. SENTHILNATHAN

I have been a writer for the past 15 years.

A native of Sri Lanka, I was based in Austria for ten years before moving to Toronto late 1999. I currently freelance for, among others, the Straits Times, Singapore.

I began my career at a newspaper in north Sri Lanka amidst shells, strafing and killings. I later moved to capital Colombo and became a freelance correspondent after my newspaper was bombed out of existence. I worked for a local news agency and freelanced for Inter Press Service (IPS) news service. I worked also in the AP office, which introduced me to modern technology, such as the Tandy-200 laptop, modems and wire-transfers.

I left Sri Lanka in 1990, and moved to Vienna where I worked for the IPS. I also freelanced for the Straits Times, Panos Features (UK) and India Abroad News Service (IANS).

I was part of an IPS team that was contracted by the European Union to create a media network in 11 eastern European countries to promote intra-regional communications. Well, they found out that the Czechs, for instance, were communicating more with the Germans than with the Slovaks, their southern neighbours with whom they have more in common. Besides, I was contracted by a UN organisation to write special reports on its projects in Brazil.

In 1991, I received the Lillian Hellman/Dashiell Hammett Fund grant, awarded by the Fund for Free Expression of the USA.

I like to travel, and my travels have taken me to a number of Eastern European countries and Brazil. Wherever I go, I turn up with an article.

I welcome freelance opportunities. You can reach me at:rsenthil@compuserve.com

My homepage at http://thinker.exit.de

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