People and events
View(s):23rd annual Susan George Pulimood Oration
The 23rd Susan George Pulimood Oration will be held on July 23 at 5 p.m. at the Jeremias Dias Hall, Visakha Vidyalaya. The oration will be by Mrs. Kamalini De Silva, Attorney -at –Law and Secretary, Ministry of Justice, who will speak on the topic ‘ Tears on glass’- gender based violence and the trafficking of women.
The Oration is conducted in memory of a beloved principal, Mrs. Pulimood who served as principal for 22 long years and was responsible for changing the direction of education of Buddhist women, enabling them to achieve academic excellence and serve the country in many diverse fields. Visakha Vidyalaya was established as a ‘super grade’ school under her guidance, a status enjoyed todate, and has been and is today a most sought after girls school.
This oration will focus on the vulnerability of women to violence in society today, which encompasses gender based violence, domestic violence and trafficking in women. The oration will initially focus on the relevant international conventions, and thereafter refer to the domestic legislation enacted to give effect to those conventions with statistics both international and local and case studies, highlighting the magnitude of the problem.
“Feel the Spirit”: Concerts aid worthy charities
The Peradeniya Singers and the Kandy Junior Singers together with Young Professionals and Vocal Enigma present “Feel the Spirit” – Concertaid XV, 2013 on July 27 at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church, Kynsey Road, Borella and on August 3 at 6.30 p.m. at Girls High School, Kandy.
The concerts are in aid of the Home for elders and orphans Asarana Sarana in Kandy and the St. Anne’s Home for Elders, Thewatte. The Peradeniya Singers also maintain a fund for the support of disabled music teachers who are no longer able to make an income from teaching. The concert series of the Peradeniya Singers is named Concertaid because all profits are given to worthy charities.
The programme will include works from Mozart, Schubert, Sarjeant, Stanford, Rachmaninoff and more. Also included will be popular favourites such as songs by Fun, One Direction and The Beatles.
Admission is by programme available from Bridget Halpé (081 2239113), Haasinee Andree (0112723026) or at the door.
Kala Korner | Remembering the great scholar
Prinitha Bandaranaike, Sudara Galgamuwa, Tharindi Umayangana and Randula Koralage are Advanced Level students who shone at the GCE O’Level examination last year. They had scored the highest marks in Sinhala Language and Literature. All four had identical marks.
Of them Prinitha and Sudara are from Colombo schools – the former from Devi BalikaVidyalaya and the latter from Royal College. The other two are from outstation schools – Tharindi from Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda and Randula from Christ Church Girls’ College, Baddegama.
All four have something to be proud of. They are the winners of this year’s ‘Cumaratunga Munidasa Sisuwarana’ scholarships awarded in memory of the great scholar to the best student(s) who score the highest marks at the GCE O’Level examination. They will collect their awards from Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena on Thursday, July 25 at the Cumaratunga Munidasa 126th birth anniversary commemoration to be held at the Colombo National Museum auditorium.
The Cumaratunga Munidasa Foundation holds a commemorative programme every year. They introduced the award of scholarships last year and the winner collected the award from President Mahinda Rajapaksa who graced the occasion. Another feature of the commemoration ceremony is the release of new editions of Cumaratunga’s books. This year ‘Kiyawana Nuwana’ books for the sixth and seventh grades will be launched.
The Sinhala scholar’s books have begun to be highly appreciated after his energetic grandson Gevindu started publishing new editions. Gevindu is also the secretary of the Foundation which plans numerous activities to remember the oriental scholar whose services particularly to the Sinhala language are beginning to be recognised much more.
There will be two addresses by prominent personalities this year. One will be by Professor Walter Marasinghe and the other by cardiologist Dr. Ruwan Ekanayake. Memorial songs will be sung by Albert Fernando, Raveen Kanishka and schoolchildren. Pandith Amaradeva will be the special guest.
‘Ape Gama’ exhibition is art as activism
By Shehani Alwis
Lovely paintings on canvas by student artists cover the walls of the Barefoot Gallery, Colombo 3. As a result of three community based art projects that the “Theertha” artists’ collective carried out in Horapawita, Maradana and Gampaha since 2009, this exhibition under the theme ‘Our Village’ (‘Ape Gama’) is on show now and will continue until July 28.
“This was a project that thought of art as activism. In this project, the “Theertha” artists worked with schoolchildren, art teachers, and community leaders of the three villages engaging them in various creative activities and discussions on places, memories, and persons that they thought were important to their respective villages,” said the Project coordinator, Bandu Manamperi.
“Theertha” is an independent, artist-led non-profit initiative established in 2000 to facilitate the local community of artists in innovation, experimentation, exchange and dialogue within Sri Lanka.
The project worked as a channel for the students to picture and translate their shared and distinctive memories of the ‘place’, which they have been calling ‘Ape Gama’. The unique aspect is that it united art making and cultural mapping as a heritage management process at village level.
The memories have been put down on canvas as cultural maps drawn by groups of students. Based on these maps a final ‘heritage map’ has been printed. In addition to making cultural maps, the students of the project produced a large number of paintings of each other, their homes, and of important people in their villages.
Theertha’s idea was to make art a tool to bring together communities and to see heritage as a unique cultural experience. The students were thus prompted to look at a geo-political region in a more socio-historic point of view.
“When art is taken as activism and heritage as a process and when the two paths of knowledge are combined it could give rise to a sense of community connection as one can see in the exhibition. The students even acknowledged that even the common well of the village has a very long story to tell,” smiled Mr. Manamperi.
Revelations Academy are performing champs
The Revelations Academy of Performing Arts and Creativity took the top honours in Comedy, Inventive and Prepared Story Telling, Public Speaking, Prose Reading and Drama in the recently concluded Sri Lanka Festival for the Performing Arts (SFPA). SFPA is organised under the patronage of the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, and conducted by the Institute of Music, Speech & Speaking Skills, affiliated to the British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech UK.
Representing the Revelations Academy, Devishke De Silva (Best Comedy), Swathik Ponnusamy (Best Dramatic Solo) and the Academy’s Senior Drama Group (Best Overall Performance) were chosen as the standout performances of the entire Festival. The all-island winners were Devishke De Silva (Prepared Story Telling), Damath Gunawardhena (Public Speaking), Tharuka Jayaratnam (Inventive Story Telling), Shyalina Muthumudalige (Drama Solo) and Swathik Ponnusamy (Prose Reading). The Academy’s Senior Drama Group was also adjudged the all-island winner of its category. Akshan Cader, Devishke De Silva, Damath Gunawardhena, Tharuka Jayaratnam, Aanya Perera, Swathik Ponnusamy, Sathinji Senanayake and Anukha Wijesuriya were the members of the winning cast. The Junior Drama Group also clinched the all-island winner’s award. The ensemble comprised of Jonathan Durairaj, Cheran Jayaratnam, Gavyn Marshall, Shyalina Muthumudalige and Dhearthik Ponnusamy.
The Academy entered its students in 18 individual categories and two group competitions that saw an impressive 85 % of students receiving distinctions or higher grades in a variety of genres, including mime and radio script reading. Krishan Jayaratnam and Thelma Jayaratnam coached the Academy’s candidates who participated in the SFPA competition.
Chundikuli Girls College OGA celebrates centenary
The Old Girls Association of Chundikuli Girls College, begun in Jaffna by one of the past Principals Miss Sophia Lucinda Page, with a few old girls in 1913, marked its centenary this year. The OGA initially met once a year and then twice a year. Now the OGA meets on a monthly basis. The annual general meeting is now a full day programme. The growth of the Association has enabled the OGA to help the school.
In the early ’60s during the takeover of schools the OGA members played a vital role by raising funds to keep the school a private non-fee levying institution. In the ’70s, the OGA formed groups for social welfare, home economics, drama and creative art to enhance the potential of members. When there was an influx of refugees following the 1983 ethnic violence, OGA members rose to reach out to them and Lalitha Brodie and Themba Gunanayagam became leaders of the mothers’ front. In the ’90s, when people started fleeing Jaffna, the old girls who stayed behind helped to renovate the hostel kitchen and dining hall and felicitate the teachers on teachers’ day. They also award a Gold medal to the best all-round student at annual Prize days and honour the Jubilarians of the staff with gold medals.
The Colombo branch was formed by Caroline Hunt, an old girl and teacher who served on the Jaffna OGA as secretary for seven years unofficially in 1930 and officially in 1939. During the 1958 riots The Colombo branch helped the refugees. They also shouldered the responsibility of compiling and publishing the Centenary magazine of the school in 1996 under the leadership of Indrani Abeyasekera and launching a commemorative stamp of a denomination of Rs.2.
In 1984 the idea of a UK based OGA came to Karuna Jesudasan. The first get- together was in 1985 in London which culminated in the forming of a joint association with St. John’s – the SJC CGC Past Pupils’ Association.
An informal meeting of the past pupils of St. John’s and Chundikuli was held in Scarrborough, Canada, in 1987. In 1989 a Constituition was drafted and it became a formal one.
Three old girls who met in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1990 organised a dinner for some Chundikuli St. John’s past pupils and families. The idea of starting an old girls association was born here. The first committee was formed with Sharmini Eliezer as President.
The inception of the Sydney OGA coincided with the visit of emeritus principal, Mrs. L.P Jayaveerasingam in 1992 when approximately 50 old girls met at St. Anne’s Church hall at Strathfield. They launched on their fundraising in the ’90s when war raged in the North of Sri Lanka.
The OGA in Jaffna and branches around the globe help the school and also the internally displaced children attending Chundikuli , paying their school fees, tuition fees, etc. These generations of old girls walk in the footsteps of their predecessors, with caring and sharing hearts upholding the high ideals inculcated in them by their Alma mater, kindling the torch of learning lit by the pioneer Missionaries.
First anniversary of ‘Silgath Kokku’
Catch the first anniversary production of ‘Silgath Kokku’ Ranjith de Alwis’s play on July 28 at the Punch Theatre at 3.30 p.m and 6.45 p.m.
Saranga Dissasekera, Lochana Imashi, Manohari Wimalatunga, Sandhya Rambukkanage, Nilanthi Heendeniya and Givantha Arthasad are among the cast and the music is by Edward Jayakody.
Nalanda Golden Jubilee Batch annual get-together
The annual get-together of the Nalanda College Golden Jubilee Batch (who were in school in the O/L class when Nalanda celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1975) will be held at the Lions Activity Centre, Vidya Mawatha, Colombo 7 on July 26 from 6.30 p.m. onwards.
For more information, please contact: Chandana Weerasinghe -0777315904, C Kalupahana – 0776571743, Kithsiri De Silva – 0772719613
Please help Hope
A dog now named Hope was picked up in Kolonnawa where he was limping badly. He was taken to a vet by his kind rescuer where he was treated for three weeks, but as his leg did not heal, it had to be amputated. He is absolutely lovable, has been given all the vacinations and been neutered as well. Unfortunately his rescuer cannot keep him at her home and is now looking for a kind and loving home for Hope. Please call 0777377647
Sacred area clean-up
A programme to clean-up the environment and rid it of the polythene and plastic products that get accumulated in the sacred area of the Uda Maluwa and the Ruvanweliseya in Anuradhapura will be held on July 21 and 22 between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. A large amount of these materials accumulates at these sacred sites, especially around the full moon Poya day when there is a large influx of worshippers into these areas.
Those who would like to volunteer for this clean-up programme please contact Hasika Kulatunga on 0772223789.
The Colombo Toastmasters Club elect new president
The 30th Presidential Installation of the Colombo Toastmasters Club was held on July 6 at the Galadari Hotel with Keith Raymond, an accomplished Toastmaster and prominent business leader being appointed the 30th President of club. The Executive Committee for year 2013-2014 are: ( from left to right)
Club Secretary; Sanji De Silva TM, Vice President Education; Aruna Fernando TM, Treasurer; Suvimal de Costa TM, President; Keith Raymond CC,CL, Immediate Past President; Nadeeka Jayathilaka Mascarenhas, CC, CL, Vice President Public Relations; Anton Canisious, TM, Vice President Membership; K. Rameshkumar TM and Sergeant-at-arms; Thilak Gunawardena TM
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