Eclectic collection of beats

By Laila Nasry and Ruhanie Perera 

The evening began with the combined choir, comprising the Peterite Chorale and the choir of St. Peter's College, singing 'The Lord's Prayer'. From then on the College Choir and the Chorale alternately rendered the songs lined up for the evening. 

The programme ranged from spiritual songs to pop with the boys singing 'More than Words', 'Eternal Flame' and 'Flying Without Wings'. Popular songs like 'Tomorrow' from 'Annie' and other favourites songs from musicals like 'Lion King' - 'He lives in you', 'Tonight' from 'West Side Story', 'Bali Hai' from 'South Pacific', and 'Out of My Dreams' from the musical 'Oklahoma' and 'Climb every mountain and the 'Sound of Music' dominated the evening's line-up. The songs varied to such an extent that everyone in the audience could identify with their favourite song. The old time favourites like 'Up, Up and Away', 'Moonlight Bay' and 'Mr. Sandman' appealed to all those 'young at heart' in the audience as did more recent songs like 'I'd like to teach the world to sing', 'Love Changes Everything' and 'All for love' (from 'Three Musketeers'). On a more touching note 'Tears in Heaven' by Eric Clapton was dedicated to all Sri Lanka's little ones who have lost their lives to the war. 

The programme was spiced up by Shihan and Shehara, the two dancers who heightened the show with a superb performance. The conducting of the choir changed hands throughout the evening, with Yohan de Alwis taking over from Stefan Corera and Jehan Bastians and Eshantha De Andrado taking over for particular items. 

The accompanists included Neomal de Alwis and Dilip Seneviratne (piano), Christopher Prins (drums), Neranjan de Silva (organ) and Deloraine Fernando (double bass and bass guitar). The evening was 'unforgettable' for each person in the audience was sung to, a 'musical experience' for it was a rich blend of song rendered in perfect harmony...a promise fullfilled.

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Further, how are Sri Lankans supposed to develop as individuals if they are kept in the dark? How often has your TV screen gone black or blurry when an actor and an actress were getting "intimate"? Acts as innocent as kisses are kept from the viewers. This is only TV! Take it easy. An on-screen kiss is not going to make your child run off to the next handsome stranger and imitate the behavior he/she just witnessed. It's ridiculous! All this censoring and taboo-ing is only going to produce a generation of sexually inhibited individuals. This kind of environment creates perverts, rapists and sexual offenders (which I know this country has no shortage of). During a person's teenage years their hormones go into overdrive. Encouragement of responsible behavior is an absolute necessity. Keeping your sons and daughters in the dark is not going to keep them safe! Boys will be boys and girls will be girls. What they don't know they will want to find out. Talk openly about sex and you will avoid a whole lot of unwanted trouble. 

Mrs. N. Welikala
 

What did you have for breakfast today? Ever thought about what you eat? Would you have remembered the last time you devoured a sausage, that it was part of a carcass? Yes! People often forget that eating meat is eating a dead animal's flesh. You most probably forget, cos people so nicely disguise the carcass in nice little bite size pieces often processed to make it look like food. Did you ever think about our origins? If you did, I bet you will most probably agree with me that eating meat is very uncharacteristic not to mention unhealthy for us humans. Why? We all know that humans come from apes and the monkey family. Have you ever seen a monkey catch a pig/chicken/cow etc. grill it and eat it? Bet not! Monkeys/apes/humans are herbivores, that's how God/nature created us. It's the way we were meant to be. But animals eat animals! No. Carnivorous animals eat other animals... like dogs and lions etc. Why can they? Because their bodies were made for digesting animal tissue. An educated person will know that a flesh eating mammal's intestines are short- so that the animal matter can easily be digested and passed out of the body, before it starts decaying and collecting bacteria. A human's digestive track is around 10 times longer than that of a carnivore. Animal flesh (meat as people like to call it) is kept in the body for a rather long time allowing it to decay and get infected by bacteria before it exits the body. 

You can be a vegetarian for many reasons. Save innocent animal's lives, live a healthier life ( you do not need meat for iron -contrary to popular belief), feel better about yourself. Would you like to be kept and killed under the most brutal and inhumane conditions, for your body to be later mutilated, packed up and processed and become part of someone's meal? Did you know that most of the world's greatest people such as Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, Sir Isaac Newton, Shakespeare, J. Kellogg- founder of Kellogg's cereals, and Gandhi (to mention a few) and (the not so great) Adolf Hitler- for health reasons were vegetarians? Don't make your body a living graveyard! Be a vegetarian.

Maria
 

I am sorry to write this, but it is merely the truth. I am an Australian who came here to Sri Lanka on a work related trip for a stay of 5 months. I must congratulate Sri Lanka, for it is a wonderful island. However I have found some people inhabiting it to be rather ignorant and narrow minded and always on the lookout for a chance to make a quick buck. Foreigners in this country, you may think are treated special, and you're right. Children, beggars and the such follow me at the beach or in the park or in the city for miles asking me to donate money, buy their products, or their services. When I go to a market to purchase my vegies I get treated special - only because of the colour of my skin - I get charged double the price for my carrots than a regular Sri Lankan would. This of course only an example, and it doesn't only apply to carrots! Of course you may think that it is ok to spend a little more money when you're on "holiday" in a different country, but what if I had to live here? I feel sorry for the "foreign" people who reside here - they surely get all their money practically sucked out of them - for luxury taxes, groceries, properties, etc. And only because they have a fairer skin! This is discrimination. But most people don't realize it. Now, I understand, coming from a richer country like Australia, I do have more money than the average Sri Lankan, but please, I am only a student teacher, and do not make much money myself. Please Sri Lankans, open up your eyes and minds -If you see a "foreigner" don't jump at them like hungry lions, we are not made of money you know! You will find richer Sri Lankans than me any day living in Colombo 7 - and not being ripped off, simply because they "blend in" and look like Sri Lankans.

Tourist
 

I went to a party Mom, and remembered what you said.
You told me not to drink, Mom, so I had soft drinks instead.
I felt proud of myself, the way you said I would, that 
I didn't drink anddrive, though some friends said I should.
I made a healthy choice, and your advice to me 
Was right as the party finally ended, and the kids drove out of sight.
I got into my car, sure to get home in one piece, 
I never knew what wascoming, Mom, something I expected least.
Now I'm lying on the pavement, and I hear the policeman say, "The kid that caused his wreck was drunk," 
Mom, His voice seems far away.
My own blood's all around me, as I try hard not to cry.
I can hear the onlookers say, "This boy is going to die."
I'm sure the other guy had no idea, 
While he was flying high, because he chose to drink and drive, 
Now I would have to die.
So why do people do it, Mom, knowing that it ruins lives? 
And now the pain is cutting me, like a hundred stabbing knives.
Tell sister not to be afraid, Mom, tell Daddy to be brave,
And when I go to heaven, put "Daddy's Boy" on my grave.
Someone should have taught him, that it's 
Wrong to drink and drive.
Maybe if his parents had, I'd still be alive.
My breath is getting shorter, Mom I'm getting really scared.
These are my final moments, and I'm so unprepared at 23.
I wish that you could hold me Mom, as I lie here and die.
I wish that I could say I love you, Daddy and Sister.
Mom, I love all of you and good-bye.

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