A taste of the unconventional
Colombo and Kandy audiences will experience a taste of the unconventional
when Trans-Global Underground, a seven-member British band, well-known
for mixing musical styles and rhythms (pictured on our cover this week)
performs in Sri Lanka.
An acclaimed live act featuring Arabesque vocals, Nepalese temple rhythms
and a multitude of rappers and percussionists, their first album, 'Dream
of 100 Nations' reached the top fifty and topped the indie charts.... The
second album, 'International times' went to the top forty and launched
the group in Europe.
TGU's first single 'Temple Head' was a statement of intent and gained
the status of a club, anthem despite its slow funk tempo with Indian classical
rhythms, Brazilian percussion and guitar solos. It took a while for the
rest of the world to catch up, but by the mid-nineties the growth of ambient
and trance styles had created a hunger for new ideas and Trans-Global Underground
had plenty.
The seven members play a variety of instruments including guitars, drums,
sitar, keyboards and Indian percussion including dhol and dholak. Some
of them are professional DJs. Sitarist Sheema Mukherjee has worked with
musicians outside the Indian classical world, notably jazz musician Courtney
Pine. The band's vocals range from rap and reggae to pop and rock styles.
The band's leading vocalist Doreen Webster has had an illustrious career
as a singer and dancer and has performed with a whole range of artistes
including Miriam Makeba.
With a total disregard for musical genres, technological barriers and
common sense, TGU have been right in the public eye, sometimes behind the
screen, but they have never stopped being influential. Trans Global Underground
will perform in Colombo at the Crescat Boulevard (rooftop) on Friday, March
1 at 8 p.m and on March 3 in Kandy at the Suisse Hotel.
Young wizards to the fore
By Esther Williams
Students of Wycherley International were the triumphant winners of the
Inter-School Computer and Mathematics Quiz held on February 11. Not far
behind were CIS, emerging as the runners-up. Hosted by The British School
for the second year, the event was received with much enthusiasm from all
sectors of the educational community. 13 schools, both local and international
participated in the event, including Trinity College, Kandy.
Areas covered in mathematics included arithmetic, geometry, algebra
and statistics. Questions in these areas were combined with those related
to computers such as hardware, software, operating  systems,
application software and Internet, all of which were well within the schools'
A Level curriculum.
Quiz Master, Margaret Slopes who teaches mathematics at The British
School led the students (two from each school/college) through the various
rounds leading up to the semi-finals and eventually the finals. Having
conducted the Quiz last year, Ms. Sloper thinks that the students fared
better this year.
The semi-finals proved to be a tough competition with CIS vs. Asian
and Gateway vs. Wycherley ending neck to neck. A tiebreaker question had
to be asked to determine who would go into the finals. The final round
caused tense moments for both CIS and Wycherley. Neither the audience nor
the participants could hazard a guess as to who would win.
Nuwan Senaratna and Taraka Bandara from Royal College put up a tough
fight against Nishok Goonesekara and John Shin of CIS. Although the Royalists
fared fairly well in Maths, they found that they were unfamiliar with some
areas of computer science , a subject that was formally introduced in their
school only recently.
"We were unprepared for questions both in Maths and Science to be asked
simultaneously," said Isuru and Rakitha of Trinity College, Kandy. Both
of them had been prepared with one subject each.
"Give me a place to stand and I will move the whole earth!" This was
one of the quotes to be identified during the quiz. Archimedes, the legendary
Greek inventor and mathematician, 287-212 BC apparently made this statement.
Thus participants had to have a wide general knowledge too. Elated at their
win, Vaibhav Rikhye and Senadhi Ramachandra, studying for their A levels
at Wycherley said that the competition was good fun. "The knock out system
should be maintained," says Vaibhav who also received an award for the
highest individual average. Pleased with the response to the quiz, the
Head Mistress of the British School, Ms. Macdonald said that the school
wished to encourage students to go beyond their syllabus, to use what they
have learnt creatively. "An academic interaction between schools, both
local and international is what we hope to promote," she said.
Ms. Macdonald further explained that the subjects students learnt in
school are meant to be the building blocks for creative thinking. While
they wish to promote healthy competition, they also want students to develop
mental agility and apply the skills learnt in school for sound, logical
and analytical thinking. Other schools that participated in the event were:
IKRA, Stafford, Leighton Park, Lyceum, Alethea, St. Nicolas and The British
School. |
