Discovering the magic of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
There are books which finish on the last page and then there are books by Marquez. I first encountered Gabriel Garcia Marquez in a library in Delhi. I was in my final year in university and had vaulted through my exams in previous years through an amalgamation of procrastination, last-minute studying and caffeine. During that [...]
Taking a challenge by its wheels
When Ajith Fernando decided to mark his 50th birthday in style he would never have imagined the consequences. No sooner had he ambitiously decided that he would cycle around Sri Lanka was he approached by several others, amongst them Ranil De Silva, Managing Director of Leo Burnett Solutions. Ranil was the one to suggest that [...]
Letters
From living hell to beautiful walkway A few months ago, I wrote in this same column, about the deplorable state of our road, known as the Millenium Drive, a.k.a. CBK Mawatha. It was not about the road surface, but about the loiterers and perverts, who cast lewd remarks and made the lives of solitary females [...]
Appreciations
Beulah Perera (nee Dissanayake) Ammi, you continue to live in our hearts Writing an appreciation about your own mother subsequent to her death is both a relatively easy and sappingly difficult thing to do. Easy due to the fact the connection is so organic. For most of us it’s a familiar, shared voyage that lasts [...]
Trying to break free
Trapped in a web of debt and cascading poli (interest) — this is the plight of a family of four, precariously living on the edge of an abyss that threatens to swallow them up. Earlier, A.L. Inoka Nilakshani, husband Nilantha Ranasinghe and their daughter and son were leading a simple hand-to-mouth existence before tragedy hit [...]
Imbuing the passion for dance in generations to come
More than 70 years ago, a young man with a burning passion for the dance blazed a visionary trail brooking no opposition in his quest to bring the country’s traditional dance from its ritualistic form to the stage. That man was Chitrasena. He found a peerless partner in a young dancer whose fire matched his [...]
Human body in a different frame
Artist Pramith Geekiyanage whose latest exhibition opened this week at the Paradise Road Galleries completed his university degree at the University of Visual and Performing Arts in 2008. Geekiyanage’s early work focused entirely on figurative drawings on canvas of the male torso. The muscular lines of the naked back often in brown and grey hues [...]
Students of Narthana Asapuwa set for big day
The students of the Narthana Asapuwa of Bemmulla, Gampaha are getting ready for their first public concert since the institute’s inception five years ago- “Angahara 2014- Heritage Unfolded”. The show is choreographed by Nuwan Ranjith Priyanga, a professional dancer who is also the dancing teacher of Carey College, Colombo and his wife Krishanthi Angelo, the [...]
To win the rat race and ‘reverse culture shock’
I don’t travel abroad, as much as I used to in the midsummer of my life. But now, as the fall burst of appetite for knowledge and adventure deepens, I do. And inevitably – after the trip – when the wings dip, and the new shoes touch old home soil, and the eye beholds the [...]
How do you solve the problem of failures in mathematics?
According to media reports, every year about 50% of the student candidates at the GCE Ordinary Level examination come down in mathematics in Sri Lanka. This is a worrying situation as mathematics plays a major role in developing logical, critical and creative thinking of an individual and the application of mathematics is seen in almost [...]
Ensuring a rounded education with newspaper reading
Young reader expert and consultant for WAN-IFRA based in Belgium, Gerard van der Weijden, who will visit Sri Lanka next month speaks to the Sunday Times on the importance of newspaper reading in schools – We’ve heard so much about the importance of young people reading newspapers but how important is it for students? First [...]
All that’s spicy and fruity at Rosyth Estate House
The Rosyth Estate House, in Kegalle is another wonderful hideout for all those wanting to escape the crowd and noise of Colombo. The estate house is located close to Kandy, overlooking a picturesque view of the Knuckles mountain range. It’s a private 64 acre tea and rubber estate. This was revealed at a re-launch of [...]
In the doghouse!
As readers probably know by now, any organised activities in our household usually end up by being totally disorganised. Whether it is making Christmas Cake or playing Monopoly, we end up in a near-riot situation. As I said before, there are too many loud females in our over-extended family who have differing opinions amongst themselves [...]
Go back in time to country living
Reproduction of antique furniture is common in boutique hotels in Sri Lanka, but it’s unusual to find an entire hotel that is itself entirely a reproduction of traditional Sri Lanka heritage architecture. Even more unusual is that this hotel is set in 80 acres of forest, but has only four accommodation units. I use the [...]
Away from the magical nanny with the umbrella
P.L. Travers (Pamela Lyndon Travers) was the author of Mary Poppins – but her real name was Helen Lyndon Goff, and she was born in 1899 in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, the daughter of a wayward alcoholic bank manager of Irish heritage but born in Deptford, London. Her mother was Margaret Agnes née Moreland who was [...]
Creating a super-rich wildlife destination
Imagine your goal was to create the perfect location for wildlife tourism. Sri Lanka would be a good example how to go about it. You want to keep it small so that tourists don’t have to travel too far from one location to another. But not too small as small areas don’t have many animals [...]
All in the family
Walking into his garden in early January to start watering his collection of orchids, breeder and researcher Ajantha Palihawadana noticed some flowers that looked different amidst the Dendrobiums. He quickly checked the plant tag and referred his hybridisation notes to realise that the flowering plant was a cross between Dendrobiumlineale and Dendrobium.shavinonwhite orchids. Ajantha has [...]
How T.K. won an Air Force jungle survival training course
The year: Around 1964 The place: The Royal Ceylon Air Force (RCyAF) ground combat training centre Diyatalawa, 1500 m. high in the central highlands of Sri Lanka. The scene: A senior training officer addresses 15 young trainee officer cadets (including T.K., a native of Colombo) prior to a jungle and mountain survival course. “Tonight, exactly [...]
Events
Clean & Clear – ITN Avurudu Kumara and Kumari 2014 Clean & Clear was a proud partner with ITN for the second consecutive year as they held the annual ‘Clean & Clear-ITN Avurudu Kumara and Kumari 2014’ (Clean & Clear Wethin Abihesheka Labana ITN Avurudu Kumara SahaKumari 2014). The final winners were selected by a [...]
