Even though she’s in a simple blue dress, Candace Bushnell, the internationaly bestselling author of Sex and the City, cuts a glamorous figure as she walks into the Hall de Galle café. All eyes are on the slim, blonde and sexy writer as she saunters over for her interview during last week’s Galle Literary Festival, where she drew some of the biggest crowds, her sessions having sold out well ahead.

It’s been eight years and four months since the day that renowned Indian sculptor Padma Sri M.M. Sthapathi and his men took on the gigantic task of carving out a 67.5 foot high Samadhi Buddha statue on a granite rock situated within the land of a temple in the quiet village of Rambodagalla in the Kurunegala district. The fruits of their labour have now taken the shape of an impressive Buddha figure, the first of its kind to be attempted since the Polonnaruwa era during which time the “Gal Viharaya” was carved more than 800 years ago.