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Kala Korner - by Dee Cee

Amaradeva bags two more awards

Pandit W. D. Amaradeva continues to add on to his tally of awards. Last week he received the medal of Arts and Letters - "Officier de l'ordre des Arts et Lettres", a medal of honour created in France to grant official recognition to outstanding artistes. Amaradeva was awarded the medal to honour him for the service he has rendered to the world music heritage.

The award came just after a week when he, along with Dr. Lester James Peries was recognised by Eagle Insurance Company with the presentation of the 'Eagle Award of Excellence', given to outstanding artistes who are symbols of excellence. There was a mutual exchange of pleasantries between the two at the presentation. While accepting the award, Lester referred to Amaradeva as "the great legend and national treasure of Sri Lanka" while Amaradeva described Lester as "a human wealth whom the country is fortunate enough to possess". This was the first time that the 'Eagle Award of Excellence' was being awarded and in selecting Lester and Amaradeva as the first recipients, the Company was recognizing "the best in the country".

As to the French medal of Arts and Letters, it marked the opening of a cultural week organized by the French Embassy and the Alliance Française in collaboration with the Trans Asia Hotel titled 'A little bit of France in Colombo'. The week coincided with the popular French "Fete de musique" (Music Day) of June 21. Launched in 1982, this festival started to expand internationally in 1985, carried along by music lovers around the globe. It also happens to be the first day of summer, giving the sign for the summer festivities to start soon.

A radio journal

Many years ago, during the heyday of radio when there was no television and there was only a single radio channel (Radio Ceylon), an interesting publication hit the bookstands every month. Titled 'Tarangani', it was a handy journal carrying selected talks, dramas and other features, which were broadcast over the radio. Neatly printed, it was released by Radio Ceylon at a nominal price and was extremely popular at a time when there were hardly any interesting publications in Sinhala.

As it often happens with such publications, 'Tarangani' disappeared after some years. Though there have been sporadic attempts to release publications of this type, they were short lived. A fresh attempt has now been made by Lakhanda radio and ITN to release a regular journal. 'Lakhanda' is the title given to it and the inaugural issue (dedicated to Pandit Amaradeva who reached 75 recently) is already out. The editorial note to the first issue laments the absence of a regular publication and claims 'Lakhanda' is "an attempt to publish an academic journal in place of a souvenir full of advertisements". The publishers are not quite sure about the frequency. "It may be bi-annual, annual or even once in two years,” they say. "What is required is to keep something behind for the reader or the listener.”

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