Capturing the heart-stopping and the heartwarming
Held since 1965, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition organised by the Natural History Museum in London, UK is the largest wildlife photography competition in the world. From over 50,000 (a reportedly record-breaking number this year) entries from 95 countries around the globe, the judges pick just 100 winning images across 16 categories. In [...]
Their gift to Bawa
For 18 months – through rain and shine; under appraising gazes and the primordial silence when only the gardeners and the squirrels, the polecats and the parrots were there to admire and puzzle over these works of art in conversation with the lake and its reaches, the lotus pond with bamboo groves, the cinnamon hill [...]
Letters to the Editor
Essentials vs desirables: Time to cut the coat according to the cloth Ours is a small economy when compared with many other countries that can afford to lock down whenever they want to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus. We do not have many natural resources such as oil, gas, iron, copper, steel and [...]
Appreciations
He lived an exemplary life of generous giving Hanif Abdeen Hanif had his primary and secondary education at S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia and pursuing his father’s footsteps went into the family business at Abdeen Jewellers. With the demise of his father M.J. Abdeen in 1993, he took over the business with his younger brother [...]
Sal, the forgotten one
The Sal tree (Shorea robusta) like its more celebrated counterpart the Bo tree (Ficus religiosa) is known to be closely associated with Buddhism. How the Bo sapling – a branch of the Bo tree under which the Buddha gained Enlightenment in Bodh Gaya was introduced to this country is also well known. It was around [...]
The gardener in me
The monsoon is tailing off and I am back in my garden, contemplating the lush grass. Too damn lush, though. We have to call on our “grass-barber” too often. He comes on his rickety bicycle with his “whipper-snapper” and bangs on the gate. I call him “Cowboy”: he is ‘Gabby Hayes’ of the old cowboy [...]
COVID: To vacillate – or vaccinate?
It is gratifying to note that Sri Lanka is finally beginning to get its population efficaciously vaccinated against COVID – having initially bungled the management of its COVID vaccination programme. Six months after we commenced immunisation in this country we are finally beginning to see some realistic progress. Initially, the infrastructure for the roll-out of [...]