When the Plains go pink and purple
As the Nelu flower blooms once again, Shaveen Jeewandara speaks to conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts on this rare phenomenon that occurs every 12 years A pink and purple blanket has been thrown over Horton Plains, as the biodiversity of the National Park has taken on new life. The humming of bees in the thousands collecting [...]
Advent of Sanghamitta Theri and our pioneering Bhikkunis
Sri Lanka was the only country where the Bhikkuni Order was established outside the Indian subcontinent and the lineage of the Order, founded by Sanghamitta Theri in Sri Lanka when she arrived in the 3rd century BCE on an Unduwap Poya day, persisted unbroken for over 12-13 centuries. The event led women to literacy and [...]
A lasting legacy from the 19th century
In 1838, twenty men formed themselves into an association to extend and perpetuate the charitable work they engaged in at their annual family reunions, held on the Sunday of the Christmas week since 1823 at Nalluruwa, Panadura, a coastal township 18 miles south of Colombo. What prompted the annual gathering of relatives just eight years after [...]
Living and telling the story of China’s cultural revolution to a new generation
Rupa Monerawela was a story teller before she was a writer. Her grandchildren would clamour for tales about the kabaragoya their grandmother had as a child – and thrill to hear how it would roam around the house and pounce on meals of rice left out for it. Rupa’s childhood memories are also of listening [...]
Black and white close encounter with the wilds
The leafy backdrop of Stratford Avenue provides the perfect setting for the pencil sketches of leopards that adorn the Gallery Red- Gandhara this weekend, as artist Indika Wijewardhana presents, “Whiskers: An Artist’s Perspective of Wild Life”. From black and white drawings of the big cat to several other creatures of the jungle, the 30-piece collection [...]
Letters to the Editor
The plight of pensioners and Mahinda Chintanaya We have heard on TV and radio, and read in newspapers that the President had invited all sectors of the public to get their views before he presented his Budget for 2014. This exercise by the President was to encompass the aspirations of the relevant disciplines to present [...]
Appreciations
Alas! Politicians of his calibre are no more M.L.M.Aboosally It is over seven years since Mr. Aboosally, my maternal uncle passed away. When I last saw him he made it a point, before I bade him goodbye, to walk alongside me at dusk slowly in silence to see me off for I was returning to [...]
Runaway train –runaway nation
It has all the makings of a blockbuster action movie. A railway yard after midnight. The hiss of exhausts, the silhouettes of sinister engines. Then a stealthy hand – human or ghoulish – trips the clutch on a stationary locomotive. The metal beast bestirs itself, nudges forward, slips over points and crossings, and lumbers out [...]
Laki’s owls all flock together
Laki and his owls: he’s lost track of how many he’s sketched, sculpted and painted into life but the closest you’ll ever come to seeing them in the same place is in a book launched last week. ‘Laki’s Book of Owls’ delivers exactly what the title promises and catalogues an obsession decades in the making. [...]
Designs with a human touch at Rithihi
Walk through the blue wooden doors this season at Rithihi at Alfred House Gardens, Colombo 3 and you enter a world of subtle grandeur. More than just a clothes store, the focus at Rithihi is on the human touch. All products are hand -made and sourced directly from the weavers and craftsmen across the subcontinent. [...]
A starry reception
Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the chief guest at the reception hosted by Upali Jayasinghe, for the launch of D.P. Jayasinghe Piling Co. (Pvt) Ltd at the Grand Ballroom of Water’s Edge on December 3. Many stars of the silver screen were present at the reception. Pix by Susantha Liyanawatte.
Good Shepherd Convent Kandy: For the good times
Christmas is the time for re-unions and the past pupils of Good Shepherd Convent Kandy and their families enjoyed renewing old ties at their annual Christmas get-together at the ‘Sovereign’ last Monday. Pix by Ranjith Perera
The voice of a compassionate crusader
So long ago and yet so clear in the memory it could have been last night, two adults and a young adult were walking up Alfred House Avenue, Colombo 3, one evening in 1971, when a voice called out from a darkened doorway. The voice was friendly and kindly. The two syllables of our name were [...]
People and events
The Little Sopranos do the Christmas Samba Everybody is a singer. Everybody sings. Everybody wants to sing. This is ‘a modern singing school’ – the thought of which excites many. Sonali De Soysa started her school five years ago and ‘The Little Sopranos’ will be having their sixth concert this month when they present, ‘The [...]
