Mirror Magazine

24th February 2002

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Making a pretty picture on her wedding day at the Colombo Hilton recently was Ruwankie who was dressed for the occasion by Ramani Fernando. Mary Jayaratne created the bride's bouquets. Pix by Mettasena
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A taste of the unconventional

Colombo and Kandy audiences will experience a taste of the unconventional when Trans-Global Underground, a seven-member British band, well-known for mixing musical styles and rhythms (pictured on our cover this week) performs in Sri Lanka.

An acclaimed live act featuring Arabesque vocals, Nepalese temple rhythms and a multitude of rappers and percussionists, their first album, 'Dream of 100 Nations' reached the top fifty and topped the indie charts.... The second album, 'International times' went to the top forty and launched the group in Europe. 

TGU's first single 'Temple Head' was a statement of intent and gained the status of a club, anthem despite its slow funk tempo with Indian classical rhythms, Brazilian percussion and guitar solos. It took a while for the rest of the world to catch up, but by the mid-nineties the growth of ambient and trance styles had created a hunger for new ideas and Trans-Global Underground had plenty. 

The seven members play a variety of instruments including guitars, drums, sitar, keyboards and Indian percussion including dhol and dholak. Some of them are professional DJs. Sitarist Sheema Mukherjee has worked with musicians outside the Indian classical world, notably jazz musician Courtney Pine. The band's vocals range from rap and reggae to pop and rock styles. The band's leading vocalist Doreen Webster has had an illustrious career as a singer and dancer and has performed with a whole range of artistes including Miriam Makeba.

With a total disregard for musical genres, technological barriers and common sense, TGU have been right in the public eye, sometimes behind the screen, but they have never stopped being influential. Trans Global Underground will perform in Colombo at the Crescat Boulevard (rooftop) on Friday, March 1 at 8 p.m and on March 3 in Kandy at the Suisse Hotel. 


Young wizards to the fore

By Esther Williams
Students of Wycherley International were the triumphant winners of the Inter-School Computer and Mathematics Quiz held on February 11. Not far behind were CIS, emerging as the runners-up. Hosted by The British School for the second year, the event was received with much enthusiasm from all sectors of the educational community. 13 schools, both local and international participated in the event, including Trinity College, Kandy.

Areas covered in mathematics included arithmetic, geometry, algebra and statistics. Questions in these areas were combined with those related to computers such as hardware, software, operating Proud winners: Wycherley's Vaibhav and Senadhisystems, application software and Internet, all of which were well within the schools' A Level curriculum.

Quiz Master, Margaret Slopes who teaches mathematics at The British School led the students (two from each school/college) through the various rounds leading up to the semi-finals and eventually the finals. Having conducted the Quiz last year, Ms. Sloper thinks that the students fared better this year.

The semi-finals proved to be a tough competition with CIS vs. Asian and Gateway vs. Wycherley ending neck to neck. A tiebreaker question had to be asked to determine who would go into the finals. The final round caused tense moments for both CIS and Wycherley. Neither the audience nor the participants could hazard a guess as to who would win.

Nuwan Senaratna and Taraka Bandara from Royal College put up a tough fight against Nishok Goonesekara and John Shin of CIS. Although the Royalists fared fairly well in Maths, they found that they were unfamiliar with some areas of computer science , a subject that was formally introduced in their school only recently.

"We were unprepared for questions both in Maths and Science to be asked simultaneously," said Isuru and Rakitha of Trinity College, Kandy. Both of them had been prepared with one subject each.

"Give me a place to stand and I will move the whole earth!" This was one of the quotes to be identified during the quiz. Archimedes, the legendary Greek inventor and mathematician, 287-212 BC apparently made this statement. Thus participants had to have a wide general knowledge too. Elated at their win, Vaibhav Rikhye and Senadhi Ramachandra, studying for their A levels at Wycherley said that the competition was good fun. "The knock out system should be maintained," says Vaibhav who also received an award for the highest individual average. Pleased with the response to the quiz, the Head Mistress of the British School, Ms. Macdonald said that the school wished to encourage students to go beyond their syllabus, to use what they have learnt creatively. "An academic interaction between schools, both local and international is what we hope to promote," she said.

Ms. Macdonald further explained that the subjects students learnt in school are meant to be the building blocks for creative thinking. While they wish to promote healthy competition, they also want students to develop mental agility and apply the skills learnt in school for sound, logical and analytical thinking. Other schools that participated in the event were: IKRA, Stafford, Leighton Park, Lyceum, Alethea, St. Nicolas and The British School.



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