News 100 years ago

Two verdicts

The Magistrate, Mr. McLeod acquitted the accused as it had not been proved that according to the contract of service they had to attend at an earlier hour. 

Meanwhile, the waiters had instituted ten civil cases against Galle Face Hotel Company for wages etc. One was tried as a test case before Mr Moir, Commissioner of Requests. A waiter claimed his wages Rs 17/50 due for February and another month's wages in lieu of notice.

After trial, the Magistrate held that the domestic servant was bound to obey his master's orders and that the plaintiff should have been convicted and sent to jail for refusing to obey his employer when he was ordered to attend at an earlier hour.

Cheap tickets 

Return tickets are available in First, Second and Third classes at a single fare for a double journey. Tickets are issued from April 10-17. Return journey can be up to and includes April 23.

A half-page advertisement appears in the daily newspapers under the name of W. T. Pearce, General Manager detailing the stations from where the tickets can be purchased and indicating to what places they can travel. 

Kandy visitors

Plate's postcards

CCC

At the annual general meeting of the Colombo Cricket Club (CCC), it was revealed that the membership comprised 69 playing, 74 pavilion, 26 outstation and 9 honorary members. 

Twenty matches had been played last season out of which 7 were won, 9 lost and 4 drawn. T. E. Etlinger led the batting averages while A. J. G. Field was on top among the bowlers. 

J. H. Bostock was re-elected President. Among other officials elected were W. M. Waldock (Captain), J. A. Symons (Treasurer) and E. Balkwill (Secretary). 

Telegraph course 

Superintendent of the College, E. Human announces that there are about 50 vacancies.

-Media Man

Memories are made of this…

By Carl Muller 

Harsha Ranjan Godage, thank the stars, does not linger in some dark, unfathomed cave or welter in some forgotten desert. What he is doing with his camera and an unstoppable imagination, is what makes him so special. "And to think," his wife said, "at seventeen, he wanted to be a civil engineer." 

Why he switched tracks is hard to say but, turning to photography, he began to make of the art something so extraordinary that his techniques of negative mixing, superimposition and the use of his own filters have made each of his studies unique and very special. "I realised how well one's own art can be transformed into an industry," he said, and in this line, he began designing his own photo albums and album cases. 

"I don't make them myself. I have the craftsmen who work to my specifications, but each must be a statement, each must match the personality of the subject, the person, the company, whose record it contains." Naturally, the emphasis was laid, long ago, on weddings, for it is with the special albums and his photographic sense that each such occasion becomes truly special, affording memories that are timeless. 

Harsha's studio and photo-centre is at Talwatte, near the Lewella junction. He calls it "Photografarts" and it is becoming the choice of the connoisseur. He says he "edged" into the business. "I remember how in 1981, I was an assistant cine cameraman, then followed a course in photography under Lal Hegoda, and my stint in an advertising agency where D.G. Somapala was the Art Director. Lots of influences and I learnt a lot." 

He has scarcely time to follow the serious side of his art, he says, because weddings take up so much of his time. "How can I refuse? Whatever you may say, a wedding is a very big milestone in life. I do my best to make my work a memory that will remain for so many lifetimes." In fact his style and approach makes, for any bride and groom, a service of sheer care and attention. " I take my studio to my clients," Harsha says. 

He is also making his own collection of our "Vanishing Lanka" - travelling extensively and into little-known places to capture the Lanka that is fast disappearing. "Even the old ways are going," he says, "and soon we will not be able to remember how beautiful our way of life was long ago." 

He has extended himself too, to the designing of brochures and publicity material for many companies and has designed the annual report of Noritake Porcelain for 10 successive years. At Noritake, Finance Manager S.G. Samarasekera said that the company had been able to win the award for Best Corporate Report and Accounts for many years thanks to the creative design and photographic art of Harsha. High praise indeed, and yet, Harsha is not really happy.

"People look down on photographers," he said, "but at the same time, nearly everybody needs a photographic record of one thing or another. I want people to realise that there is so much of science and art in this business. I think we owe it to ourselves to make of our work a thing of distinction and distinctiveness."

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