Fairy-tale ending for island beauties
By Kaveesha Fernando When after weeks of travel and excitement, her name was announced as the winner, the slender 19-year-old was overcome with emotion. Indeed in keeping with the Miss Intercontinental pageant’s theme, it was a fairy-tale win over beauty queens from 60 countries for 19-year-old Heilynar Rosario Velazquez, Miss Puerto Rico when she was [...]
Remembering Sarachchandra’s Maname, 60 years after
By Chandani Kirinde “I remember vividly the first night performance of Maname. As the curtain rose and the rich chant of the Pothegura (narrator) filled the auditorium, I sat spellbound at what seemed to me a theatrical miracle. Sarachchandra’s total transformation of ideas and theatrical aspects that he had taken from the traditional rituals and [...]
From the heart: A song for Trail – by B & S
Bathiya & Santhush, Ambassadors for Trail have now released the theme song for the initiative which carries a message of unity and understanding for the people of Sri Lanka, motivating them to raise funds in aid of cancer treatment. The previous Trail initiative, which took place back in 2011, saw the establishment of the Tellippalai [...]
A desert journey of discovery
Smriti Daniel meets Ruvan Ranatunga and Shihan Anthony John after their gruelling Atacama crossing Ruvan Ranatunga and Shihan Anthony John did not know quite what to make of the Japanese team. It was early October and they were in the middle of one of the most demanding of the 4 Desert Races – a 6 [...]
Bollywood splash for Lavinia
By Ravi Shankar Actress Karisma Kapoor added a touch of Bollywood glamour to the Mount Lavinia Hotel’s grand launch of a seductive fragrance “Lavinia” – inspired by the legend entwined with the hotel’s history – British Governor Thomas Maitland’s clandestine romance with dancer Lovina Aponsuwa. Maitland named his mansion, now the hotel after his lady [...]
Travel fashion, the focus at Mercedes-Benz fashion runways
By Kaveesha Fernando Aiming to meet the need for a global platform for Sri Lanka’s growing design industry, the Sri Lanka Design Festival to be held this November will highlight Sri Lanka’s multi-billion-dollar fashion manufacturing industry, contemporary craft design sector and interior design. Held annually, the Sri Lanka Design Festival hosts a range of events [...]
Leading writers and deep reads at FGLF 2017
By Adilah Ismail Book lovers and festival-goers, rejoice. The Fairway Galle Literary Festival returns next year and will feature writers such as bestselling author, Philippa Gregory, Pulitzer prizewinning writer,Katherine Boo and leading foreign correspondent, Christina Lamb. Well-wishers, sponsors, partners and press were present at the Galle Face Hotel on Tuesday when the organisers unveiled their [...]
Catching those tell-tale signs
Major campaign to create awareness on autism launched By Kumudini Hettiarachchi The white envelope looked like any other. But the invitation enclosed therein was distinctly different – it was a simple jigsaw puzzle sending out a strong message, similar to the campaign launched on Tuesday. While the invitation said, ‘Let’s piece together the complexities of [...]
Portrait of a political paradox
October 22 marked the 114th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister,the mercurial W. Dahanayake By Gaston de Rosayro The 114th birth anniversary of Wijayananda Dahanayake of Galle, a former Cabinet Minister and caretaker Prime Minister, fell yesterday. He came into the world on October 22, 1902 as a twin in a conservative Kachcheri Mudliyar’s family. [...]
Spain’s Alhambra – the heart of Muslim Granada
By Sanjiva Wijesinha The world’s most visited UNESCO World heritage site – the Alhambra (from the Arabic Al-Qalat al-Hamrah, the Red Fortress) with its adjacent Generalife (from Jannat Al-Arif, the Garden of the Architect) – attracts over 7000 visitors daily to Spain’s southern city of Granada. The Alhambra complex includes several tourist sights well worth [...]
History through women’s eyes
Philippa Gregory, the noted novelist, once said one of the most extraordinary moments in her life was when she realised‘that history would answer all the questions I had spent my life asking.’ Since then,Gregory’s fascination with some of England’s most controversial figures has propelled her multiple times into the #1 spot on the New York [...]
Rice and curry and a lot of help
The Sri Lanka Association of Women in Belgium marks 25 years of assisting their homeland By Kaveesha Fernando The Sri Lanka Association of Women in Belgium has completed over 100 projects in its 25 years, says its President Sharmini Jacobs with a sense of accomplishment. “I’ll admit, there were times when the projects we undertook were [...]
Being a “Smurfette”…
Few people – adults and children alike – would need an introduction to The Smurfs. The Belgian comic/cartoon series which featured small blue ‘humanoid’ characters, who wore white bottoms and Phrygian caps and lived in a fictional colony, in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest was first created and introduced as a series of comic characters [...]
Dr. A.N.S. Kulasinghe lecture
The Deshabandu Vidyajothi Dr. A.N.S. Kulasinghe Memorial Oration will be delivered by Eng. Aravinda de Silva on Wednesday, October 26 at 5.15 p.m. at the Wimalasurendra auditorium of the Institution of Engineers, 120/15, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 7. Aravinda Perera, Chairman, Siyapatha Finance Ltd and former Managing Director of Sampath Bank will speak on ‘Technology and [...]
Lecture on endemic birds
Prof. Sarath Kotagama will deliver this month’s National Trust lecture on ‘Insight to Endemic Birds’ on Thursday, October 27 at the HNB Auditorium, 22nd Floor, HNB Towers, 479 T.B. Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 10 at 6.30p.m. Species identification has changed over time and the number of endemic species for Sri Lanka has also gone through changes. [...]
Gospel musical at St. Francis of Assisi
The church of St Francis of Assisi will present the Gospel Musical ‘Into All The World’ on Saturday, October 29 at 6 p.m. at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, 80, Hotel Road, Mt. Lavinia. When Randy Vader and Jay Rouse contemplated producing the musical “Into All The World”, one phrase persisted – “The [...]
Annual stamp exhibition by Royal Philatelic Club
Celebrating its 72nd anniversary, the Philatelic Club of Royal College’s annual exhibition of stamps and items related to philately – “Royal Philex” will be held on October 27, 28 and 29 at the Lionel Wendt Gallery. This is the only annual stamp exhibition held in Sri Lanka for the past seven decades and the largest [...]
Appreciations
L.K.Karunaratne A genius in his field A few weeks ago L.K.Karunaratne passed away after almost a century of a life well spent. I may be the only person alive who can speak of his beginnings as an extraordinary teenage artist at Sri Rahula College, Katugastota in the early 1940s. I now quote from an [...]
Letters
Open letter to the President FCID and BC: Do the right thing Dear Mr. President, Your outburst a few days ago targeting the CID, FCID (Financial Crimes Investigation Division) and the Bribery Commission (BC), came as a deep disappointment to those of us who have continued to place their trust in you, in spite of [...]