Mother Courage
For D.M. Nadira Harshani, a single mother of three autistic children, life is a daily struggle as she strives to give them the best she can, writes Kumudini Hettiarachchi There are no tears now. The weeping ended a long while ago, leaving behind a heavy but mute sorrow. Not one, nor two, but three of [...]
Await a local-flavoured literary feast
Captain Elmo Jayawardena’s dream of taking literature to a wider audience with “Annasi and Kadala Gotu” will pen off on April 25, writes Namini Wijedasa What Sri Lankan does not know the tart, succulent sweetness of pineapple; or the buttery nut flavour of steaming chick peas, bought fresh off the pavement, tossed in mysterious seasonings [...]
Letters
Let’s make our voices heard loud and clear: We want the constitutional reforms The President of Sri Lanka for the next five years (assuming the constitutional reforms are passed in Parliament) is Maithripala Sirisena. However, it appears that the new political race, precisely owing to the reforms, are for the Prime Minister post, and possibly [...]
More on my “PHD” thesis for that new national identity
As I confessed in my column last week, dears, the traditional national holidays in mid-April are a contemplative season for yours truly. As the city goes to the town, and the town goes to the village, and the village goes into celebratory mode, something that is uniquely Sri Lankan can be sensed stirring abroad. There [...]
To hold up a hand that’s whole again
Henagama Liyanage Ranjith Dayananda is a happy man now and there’s jubilation at the Kalubowila Hospital following the first full-hand re-implantation being performed there. Kumudini Hettiarachchi reports on this medical feat. Excruciating pain as he recoils and hurriedly pulls out his hand from the machine, blood spurting all over. Realization only dawns as Henagama Liyanage [...]
A great mentor with a unique character and brilliant mind
I was mesmerised by the light snow blowing outside the window and marvelled at its cascading anonymity dropping from above. My mind kept drifting with it when the message from the Facebook wall hit me with full force: “Prof. Senake Bandaranayake passed away this morning”- Kumari. My heart sank at that single sentence appearing on [...]
Artistic and imaginative: Flags of the Udarata Kingdom
E.W. Perera’s ‘Sinhalese banners and standards’ (1916) was the first book which drew attention to the flags of the Udarata kingdom. This book only had 95 flags because the monks of leading temples refused to cooperate and had not sent all their flags. Nimal de Silva’s “Flag traditions of Sri Lanka” (2013) however, lists over [...]
Celebrating Surya Sena’s musical endeavour with the Sinhala Liturgy
Baddegama, a peaceful, picturesque village was the inspiration for Devar Surya Sena’s musical setting to the Sinhala Liturgy. Surya Sena, collector and connoisseur of genuine Sinhala folk songs, also a creative artist, was convinced by Rev. Lakdasa de Mel to compose a Sinhalese setting (melody) for it. A challenge made by a priest to a [...]
Sweet music to her ears
Marking yet another milestone in her musical career, pianist, composer, musicologist and linguist Tanya Ekanayaka launches an album with her original piano compositions Tanya Ekanayaka launched a debut album of her own composition for solo piano, titled “Reinventions: Rhapsodies for Piano”, on March 30. The album contains seven tracks which have all been composed and [...]
Courageous openness of hope and despair
Novels, based on personal struggles, family life, and bitter relationships interwoven with a magnanimous effort to create and rediscover a secure, hopeful and fulfilling future are not a rarity. We have read many such heartwarming stories but often with a sense of detachment and most importantly, relief, as they fail to challenge us with their [...]
Jith brings out the stars for the children of Nuwara Eliya
When Jith Peiris and the Creative Arts Foundation bring his stars to the stage on the last day of April it’ll be for a slightly unusual but timely cause. ‘Stars on Parade: a musical evening for a charitable cause’ will have some of Colombo’s finest choirs, soloists and performers unite for a celebration of music, [...]
Lotus Inn: A rare bloom in Jaffna
It’s perhaps an exaggeration for Lotus Inn in Jaffna to claim, as it does on its entrance sign and publicity leaflet, that it is a ‘boutique’ hotel. But when the hotel’s best room costs only Rs. 4,500 one can forgive the hyperbole and rejoice in finding an affordable hotel in Jaffna that is clean, well [...]
Florence, the city of art and sculpture
Florence, the capital of Tuscany was originally marshy land. It gained fame for its commerce especially wool and is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance and rightly called the “Athens of the Middle Ages”. The Medici family – the former country gentlemen who settled in the city and made their money through textiles, is closely [...]
Crocs and monkeys leap out of driftwood
What started off as a hobby for Raji Punnoose is now a museum that draws visitors from near and far, says Aanya Wipulasena in Kerala It takes a beautiful mind to spot creativity in what would otherwise be discarded at first glance as something washed up and useless- like a piece of driftwood. It takes [...]
Double XL spreads out
Popular clothing store Double XL has branched out into Negombo and held a reception at the Jetwing Blue to celebrate the opening of their new store last month.
The little plum-like fruit that’s gone a long way
Back in the 1980s, when Consy Goonatilleke planted a seed of a damson fruit she ate, in a small corner of her home garden, little did she know that three decades after, she would be doing something out of the ordinary from that- making damson fruit wine and wine vinegar. Flourishing in her garden, other [...]
Passing on her love for interior design
It took just one appearance on television for Dilini Halvitigala to get noticed. Filling in on a vacant spot on a talk-show, she remembers the producer’s phone call inviting her on the programme for input on interior design. Many shows later, Dilini has become a familiar face representing her area of expertise both on and [...]
Appreciations
DR. H.W. JAYeWARDENE QC An advocate par excellence Twenty-five years ago on April 19, 1990 Dr. H.W. Jayewardene, QC, a colossus in the legal profession, passed away whilst on a visit to India. It was the end of an innings of a great legal luminary Sri Lanka had produced. It was a loss not only [...]
We will remember ‘Master Sir’ forever
Perth –Friday, April 16: As I read the news flash on News First website this evening that Nimal Mendis had passed away, I went back 40 years. I started hunting for ‘Master Sir’ – the song he composed for Manik Sandrasagara’s ‘Kalu Diya Dahara’. ‘Panakaten mata vedikara dunna – Berivunath bath katak daruvata kavanna…’ the [...]
Golden memories from silver-haired ‘boys’
It was a reunion concert eagerly anticipated by their loyal fans and though decades have passed since they rocked Sri Lanka with their music, it was a capacity audience at the BMICH for the Super Golden Chimes on April 10, 2015. The band members now scattered around the world have come back together for a [...]
Retracing those schoolboy days in Jaffna
“A good Jaffna boy had to study hard, enter university, and become a doctor or an engineer. After that, get married around his mid-twenties and have two kids. I had no chance,” muses Bernard Sinniah in his book, ‘Jaffna Boy’. A memoir of the author’s childhood, the book takes the reader through anecdotes of school [...]
