Master keyboard artist Malini Jayasinghe-Peris cut a slim, dignified figure that distant evening, when she performed with the Symphony Orchestra of Ceylon nearly half a century ago. She was then in her mid-thirties. She was draped in a striking black saree with a broad scarlet border and her black hair gleamed like the surface of a new Steinway grand, her hands alighting on the keys and lifting off in light, graceful gestures. The memory of that concert is very clear.

An eclipse of the Sun occurs when the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun. Since the planets Mercury and Venus orbit inside the path of the Earth around the Sun, they too can come between the Earth and the Sun. However since these planets have a tiny apparent diameter as seen from Earth, the Transit is seen as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun.