Running in the family: Have you inherited a genetic disease?
Their firstborn son, Sunil* was fine till he was about five years old. It was when father and son went to a nearby ground in Gampaha to play, run around and cycle that the father found his son to be a little kammeli (lazy). “Sunil just couldn’t run much but would collapse on the [...]
Beating quarantine confinement blues with mindfulness
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, on my return to Sri Lanka from overseas, I had to undergo a mandatory two week quarantine per government policy at a designated hotel. I was assigned Blue Water Hotel in Wadduwa, a four-star hotel with all the modern conveniences. However, being an active individual who loves his freedom to [...]
Ringing in some seasonal cheer amidst pandemic gloom
The International Christmas Charity Bazaar (ICCB) is one of Colombo’s most anticipated events of the season for whilst gift-shopping for your loved ones (and yourself) you are also giving back to those in need. Amid a pandemic that shows no signs of letting up, the ICCB is celebrating its 40th edition since its inception in [...]
Click on to Zoom, FB Live for leopards of Wilpattu
‘The Leopards of Wilpattu National Park -Insights into a stronghold population of the island’s only big cat’ is the topic of this month’s Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) lecture by Dinal Samarasingheon Thursday, November 19 at 6 p.m. via Zoom and FB Live. Sign up online https://forms.gle/NnFQEEod7hE14kvh9 The Sri Lankan Leopard is one of [...]
Letters to the Editor
Our lifestyles and other factors probably more harmful to our hearts than coconut oil I was tempted to add my thoughts to the informative article by Kumudini Hettiarachchi in the Sunday Times of October 25 – ‘Now; coconut oil is bad for your heart’, wherein she has succinctly reviewed a comprehensive, recent research paper on [...]
Appreciations
Fond memories from one of your ‘animals’ DECIMA CRUSZ Our mum referred to her four children, Thomas, Frances, Robert and Marie, as her “animals”. She used it later to refer to sundry favourite nephews and nieces too. Her explanation for using this term of endearment was because our dad was a zoologist. His speciality was [...]
A place brimming with hope
Twenty-five years ago, with the aim of providing a permanent facility for the training and development of youth, the Lions Club of Hendala started raising their own funds, to match the outright grant received by the Lions Clubs International Foundation to establish the Lions Vocational Training Centre (VTC) at Hendala. The Lions Club of Hendala [...]
Like an octopus, juggling different things across different domains
Our weekly column ‘Notes on Resilience’ takes on questions of resilience and hope that have come to the fore because of the pandemic. This week, we explore burnout, the heightened importance of communication with one another and the changing conditions of writing and publishing with Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, a Nebula-nominated science fiction author and data scientist. [...]