The Sunday TimesPlus

18th May 1997

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People and Events

Joint exhibition of paintings

Eeshanie Jayawardena Basu Dev Biswas and Ashoke Ganguly will hold a joint exhibition of their paintings from May 17th to 25th at the Heritage Art Gallery Colombo 7.

Eeshanie Jayawardena studied painting at the Cora Abraham School of Art during her childhood. At the age of 14 she moved to the Moscow Art School and graduated from the Sunikov Institute later. She has recently returned from Cuba where she now lives. Her work is mostly representative and she has recently produced a number of very expressive drawings and paintings.

Ashoke Ganguly, a self taught artist of Indian origin joined Kala Bhavan, Santinketan in India as a non-academic member of its staff in 1976. His talents as a creative artist started emerging after he joined Kala Bhavan and grew further by associating with art students and teachers in Santiniketan.

Basu Dev Biswas hails from Calcutta and met Ashoke Ganguly when he was studying for his Masters in Santiniketan. It was there that they became firm friends. In this exhibition Basu Dev’s Tempera paintings depict the Santhal - a trible people of Santiniketan.


Musical concert

The Institute of Western Music and Speech will present Young Musicians in Concert today at 6.30 p.m. at the IWMS auditorium. The show will feature the participants of the Royal Overseas League Scholarship, London 1997.

Tamara Holsinger(Cello) accompanied by Ramya de Livera, Sureka Amarasinghe (flute) accompanied by Indranie Wijesundara, Nalaka, Perera (recorder), accompanied by Gayathri Attiken and past winners Neluka Seneviratne and Kishani Jayasinghe accompanied by Soundarie David.

British High Commissioner David Tatham will be the Chief Guests.


Ex-Services Association AGM

The 44th Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka Ex-Services Association was held recently at the Ex- Servicemen’s Institute, Colombo 7.

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, President of Sri Lanka was unanimously re-elected Patron and the 3 Services Commanders were elected Vice Patrons of the Association.

The following is a list of office bearers for 1997:

President: Maj. Gen. C.H. Fernando, VSV psc; Vice Presidents: Maj. Gen. C.J. Abeyratne, VSV (Army); Maj. W.M. Weerasuriya (Army); Cdr. A.R C. Fernando (Navy) and Flt. Lt. Thaw Khalid (Air Force); Hony. Secretary, Capt. R. Bandara; Hony. Treasurer, Mr. S.S. Gunawardana


Obtains promotion

T.P. Ratnayake, dental surgeon attached to the Sri Lanka Air Force was promoted to the rank of Air Vice Marshall. He is the only dental surgeon to be promoted to such a high rank. An old boy of Carey and Thurstan College, he passed out as a Dental Surgeon in 1969, after which he joined the Air Force.

He is also the command Dental Officer and the Director Welfare in the Air Force


Jaycees-Your Passport to success

The 20th Mid-Year Conference of Jaycees Sri Lanka was held at Deer Park, Giritale on May 10 and 1l.. A large Jaycees gathering from Sri Lanka will also attend the JCI’s Asia Pacific Conference (ASPAC) in Pattaya, Thailand from May 22 to 25.


St. Anne’s College Kurunegala OBA meets

The AGM of the Old Boys’ Association of St. Anne’s College Kurunegala (Colombo Branch) was held recently and the following were elected unanimously as office bearers:

D.R.L. Samararatna (Patron), D.A.S. Agunagala (Vice Patron), P. Letchemenan (Vice Patron), Henry Gunaratna (President), L.R. Liyanaarachie, W.B. Dissanayaka, G. Rodrigo, Nelson Fernando and Bandula De Silva as Vice Presidents, Sherly Mallawa (Secretary), Sarath Abeysinghe (Asst. Secretary) and Keerthi Perera as the Treasurer.

The Committee Members are as follows:

Bandula Weerasekara, Patrick Silva, Douglas Ranasinghe, M. de Alwis, Terrace Tirunayaka, H.B.W. Tilakaratna, Dr. Abeygunapala, Gihan Samaranayaka, Wijeyaratna Warakagoda, Eddie Jayamanne, Christie Nawarathna.

The office bearers request all old boys living in and around Colombo to contact any of the above members as the committee will shortly be organizing a drama and looks forward to the support of old boys.


Not Shepherd

In last Sunday’s Plus section feature on the film on Mother Teresa, a picture mistakenly captioned Peter Shepherd was actually that of Kevin Connor, director of the film . The error is regretted


"Let’s Give Them Curry"on the boards

The English Association together with the British Council presents Ernest Mac Intyre’s ‘Let’s Give Them Curry’ an Australian comedy performed by the Kandy players and directed by Prof. Ashley Halpe on Monday May 26, at the British Council Hall, Colombo.Tickets Rs.30/= are available at the Cultural affairs Office of the British Council on May 19, 20 and 23 from 8.30 to 4.30 p.m.The play will be also performedat the Pushpadhana Balika Vidyalaya, Kandy on May 18 and 19.


It’s the writer’s world here

By Madhubashini Disanayaka

It was an event of writers for writers. The opening of the new bookstore of Godage and Sons at Maradana cannot be described otherwise.

There were writers helping to boil the milk, as is done when one moves into a new house; there were writers peering into the new showcases in the shop, most often seeing their own work prominently displayed; there were writers bumping into each other on the staircase as they went up and down the four-storied building, looking over the new home that their books had found; there were writers enjoying the Kavun and Kiribath, shouting greetings over each others’ heads while more and more people kept coming in. There were a couple of Ministers thrown into the fray too, and artists in other fields, all standing testimony to how broad the influence of this publisher is, in the Sri Lankan art world.

The new Godage and Sons a slim, four-storied building opening out to the road stands only a few feet away from the old bookstore at Maradana. So what is so special about this bookshop, in a country which could boast of some great bookstores like Vijitha Yapa’s or Lake House? One could be that while the bigger stores concentrate mainly on English books by foreign writers, having perhaps one section where the Sinhala books can go, Godage and Sons is mainly for books published in this country, mostly in Sinhala and then, in English.

In conception, the store is the work of KMI Swarnasinghe, a good writer as well as a draughtsman, whose involvement with the shop was purely for the sake of friendship. Perhaps it can be said that almost all the people who had gathered there that day, and helped in some way to make the opening a success, did so because they wanted to be with a friend at an important event in his life. That Sirisumana Godage had touched most people’s lives positively, helping out in various ways, and most importantly for writers, with publication, is a known fact in literary circles.

S. Godage’s willingness to publish books is legendary. For a publisher, acceptance of books by well known writers deserves no speical mention. It carries with it an assurance of a return that every businessman should expect. But what is special about this particular publisher is that for him, the newcomer has as much a chance of getting his/her book published as a famous one. His unbiased, unquestioning attention is known to be given to anyone who approaches him.

Anywhere in the world, the toughest stumbling block a writer faces, (apart from writer’s block, perhaps!) is to find a publisher. In countries like America, the existence of a literary agent is paramount, and they are the ones who tackle the job of tackling a publisher. Publishing houses most often don’t even consider the books of relative newcomers if they have reached them directly without the hype connected to it by a literary agent. All right, so we don’t have the big business that books are in our small island. But I doubt if the desire for every would-be writer to see his/her book in print is any different. This is where men like S. Godage take the proportions of saviours.

The store portrays the personality of this man with regard to special nooks and corners accommodating the needs of others. There is a conference room, where people can sit down and talk, instead of standing around Godage’s desk like they used to before. In this room, writers can check proofs and do anything connected with getting their books published.The fact that most writers come from afar to get their books published and that they may not have any place in Colombo to rest and get their work done, has thus been kept in mind.


Exhibition

The Centre for Performing Arts Ranga Kala Kendraya presents an exhibition of A.V Anandan’s sculptures at the Colombo Public Library auditorium on May 23 and 24 A.V.Anandan was born at Kulamankal a remote village in Mallakam, Jaffna in 1946. He comes from a family of artists.


Talk on Canadian Literature

The English Association together with The British Council presents "A discussion of Patterns in Canadian Literature" a talk by Jill Macdonald headmistress, British School. It will be held on Thursday May 29. at 5.30p.m.


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