Tilaxan’s effort to capture plight of elephants wins award
Tharmapalan Tilaxan’s photograph of a herd of elephants eating from a rubbish dump in the Ampara district has won first prize in this year’s Royal Society of Biology (RSB) photography competition. On the evening of February 8, 2020, Tilaxan saw a herd of wild elephants foraging for food in a garbage mound close to the [...]
Reliving his school days in ‘Funny Boy’
Hidaayath Hazeer’s first taste of acting was not on the stage. It was not even on the screen which is becoming familiar turf for the 24-year-old who will make his feature film debut in “Funny Boy” directed by the internationally acclaimed Deepa Mehta. It was around the glowing campfires as a boy scout at Royal [...]
Letters to the Editor
The COVID-19 crisis: What do we do now? The much expected COVID-19 second wave has set in first as a local outbreak in Minuwangoda and then made its way into farther parts of the country such as Jaffna and Monaragala. The tedious task of finding the contacts that we know of, and the contacts that [...]
Appreciations
To those joyous memories both here and abroad Sarojini Jayawickrama It is now six years since Sudu Amma passed away, but her memory lives on in my heart and I am sure in many more hearts. Sudu Amma was a second mother to me from childhood, with us living downstairs and she, Nihal bhappa and [...]
A local seaside setting resounds with ‘being Sri Lankan’
The Bentota Beach Hotel’s Literary Weekend promised a dive into the legacy of the Gratiaen Prize, the country’s premier English literary award being celebrated against our best known seaside resort with its own elegant identity created by Geoffrey Bawa. Aptly, the weekend began at Lunuganga, Bawa’s garden estate, with an ‘aperitif’- a poetry reading where [...]
“Emily” and the Cross
Lightning does strike twice. On special days. On Easter Sunday last year, for instance, when the bombers killed themselves and so many others, it echoed the Easter Sunday air raid of 1942, when the Japanese bombed Colombo and Trincomalee. Again, on Boxing Day, 2004, when the tsunami hit us, we recalled Cyclone “Emily” which hit [...]
The one that got away – Tai Hsin Shiek
Tai Hsin Shiek’s parents wanted him to become a doctor; but as he couldn’t stand the sight of blood, he went with software engineering instead. He then got into technical writing, quality assurance, business analysis – ‘but it was not my thing.’ So at the age of 28 he thought, why not try photography? He [...]
It’s more than just verse, it’s a work of art too
Jayashika Padmasiri’s new collection of poems is much more than verse slapped within two covers. A lavishly produced volume which is a painstaking labour of love between five people, it is as maverick as the author- a writer who has won the State Literary Award and is also a film director. Meraki Sutra: Tears and [...]
How a team of corporates came to be protectors of our biodiversity
The author could not have found a better title for the ‘Compendium of Biodiversity Stories in Hospitality’ launched recently. ‘Life’ – brings to light the heartening and shared role of a team of reputed hospitality industry professionals in conserving biodiversity through the practice of responsible tourism. The book is a brilliant piece of work by [...]
Details of remembered events in preparation for a narrative
Vinodh L. J. Wickremeratne describes himself as a Colombologist, a word he has invented to explain his fascination not just with Colombo’s recent history, but also with the prominent people who have contributed so much to the development of Colombo and Sri Lanka. He is not a historian, although he conducts research for people into [...]
Early days of COVID-19 lockdown: An MO’s account
Dr. Dammika Adikariwattage’s Maradana lockdown experience during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic is the subject of two books ‘ Lockdown saha Nidahasa’ and ‘From Lockdown to Freedom’ launched recently. Dr. Adikariwattage is the Medical Officer of Health D2B, Colombo Municipal Council and was in charge of the Maradana Immamal Aroos area which was [...]
Facing hurdles to become winners
The fifteen stories in Mosaic are portrayed in their variety; the wealthy socialite sharing her life between Colombo and London, the poor, peasant girl Palingu Menike from Habarana are just two of the contrasting lifestyles. There are others. The young Kandyan Manike who finally decides to extricate herself from the all absorbing love of her [...]