Coming home with his kind of music
Having amassed a remarkable following in the United Kingdom (UK) and in India as a Brit-Asian artist with his fusion of contemporary Western and Eastern sounds, Arjun Coomaraswamy who goes simply as Arjun in his professional life, is pivoting towards Sri Lanka to connect with his roots and bring the island’s vibrant culture into his [...]
A new chapter for Lakmahal
The Lakmahal Community Library is made up of certain elements that book lovers dream of when they daydream about a reading space: window seats and a half-moon verandah overlooking greenery, lots of natural light, cool cut cement floors combined with wooden flooring, nooks to settle into with a book or to write in. Founder of [...]
Letters to the Editor
Plight of pensionless senior citizens The life expectancy of Lankans, has been gradually increasing over the past 30-40 years and stands at around 75 years, at present. Whether this trend is healthy or unhealthy is a billion dollar question! Making budgetary allocations for the maintenance of ‘non-pensioner’ senior citizens, would present a challenge to the [...]
Appreciations
A visionary scholar, he contributed greatly to St. Servatius’ College G.L.Galappaththi The great educationist, G.L. Galappaththi, who was born on January 9, 1925, dedicated his entire life to education and produced thousands of worthy and disciplined citizens to the country. For this strict disciplinarian and intellectual visionary, teaching was not merely a profession, but also [...]
Senior surgeon’s herculean effort to foster research culture
All postgraduate students and university academics are familiar with the age-old aphorism ‘Publish or Perish’ which highlights the importance of research for progress in their professional career. However, until recently research was not given its due place in postgraduate surgical education of Sri Lanka. Many jokingly said ‘Good surgeons operate; bad surgeons do research’! Fortunately, [...]
Channels: Young voices to the fore
Volume 27 of Channels, the journal of the English Writers’ Collective Sri Lanka is relatively prodigious in size- a reflection of how COVID-19 has sent us in droves to unburden ourselves to pen and paper. This volume comes with voices old and new- more of the latter, refreshingly. A crop of young talent, fresh and [...]
Thai Pongal: Age- old rituals to mark harvest festival
Usually celebrated on January 14 or 15 every year, Thai Pongal is a harvest festival dedicated to celebrating and honouring the sun, the rain, and other elements of nature and the weather that aid a fruitful harvest season. Contrary to popular belief, Thai Pongal is actually not a Hindu festival. It is celebrated by Tamils [...]
Short story contest to mark 2nd edition of ‘Nights of Reading’
The Embassy of France in Sri Lanka and the Maldives along with Sarasavi Bookshop (Pvt.) Ltd is presenting its first short story contest to celebrate the upcoming second edition of the ‘Nights of Reading’ of the French Ministry of Culture. The ‘Nights of Reading’, an initiative by the French Ministry of Culture celebrates the pleasure [...]
Around the Mediterranean with Rajiva Wijesinha
Godage & Bros published last month another travel book by Rajiva Wijesinha. Around and About the Mediterranean covers journeys over half a century to Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and the Levant from Jordan up to Turkey. It also includes travels to the Balkans, Yugoslavia in 1972 and then the separate countries of the former Yugoslavia [...]
Evolution of a city, now as a coffee-table book
The Great Days of Colombo by Asiff Hussein tells the story of how Colombo originated from very humble beginnings as a simple Moorish port to become what it is today, a bustling city full of life and colour. The evolution of the city is traced in much detail in this vividly illustrated coffee-table book and [...]