‘From a drop to an ocean’: Vajira’s contribution to Kandyan Dance
I met Vajira when I was researching a book on Chitrasena. As we spent countless Saturday afternoons over many months she would giggle and ask, “is this book about Chitra or me?” On some rare days she would lose patience and interest, and we would cut the interview short, whereas on others she would share [...]
Letters to the Editor
Vajira, memories of the woman inside the dancer On the morning of the 16th of July 2005 at the home of Anjali, his daughter, the great dance artist Chitrasena lay ill on a bed, two days before he passed away. Anjali and Chitrasena’s love and lifelong companion Vajira were standing by, Gamini Seneviratne and I [...]
Appreciations
An enduring love for this country, he called home Richard Boyle is a name familiar to many readers of the Sunday Times in years past. On his first death anniversary, Michael Meyler looks back on his life and the many paths he pionnered in this island he made his home September 25th was the first [...]
The pardon of Henry Pedris brings back memories of a plucky officer
A sight one takes for granted in busy Havelock Town is the statue of a youthful horseman near the tranquil temple of Isipathanaramaya. With the posthumous pardon granted to him by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe on September 12, the national hero Diyunuge Edward Henry Pedris stands acquitted of the ‘traitorous’ crimes he was wrongly accused [...]
Foreign artists’ gaze of our island over 5 centuries
Bringing together the works of 420 foreign artists whose paintings reflect the landscape and people of Sri Lanka, Anura Saparamadu’s latest book, a project which he has been labouring over for 13 years, is ‘Ceylon — Through the eyes of Foreign Artists’. In two sumptuously illustrated volumes numbering some 900 pages, the artists’ works spanning [...]
Love of the written word in an evolving literary landscape
When I recall my first visit to the Colombo International Book Fair, two vivid images come to mind: the books filling every corner and the long queues extending to the main gate. Some flipped through the pages of every book, while others examined the price tags to see the new discounts. Groups of young people [...]
A new look Channels @ 30: Capturing Lankan authenticity
The new issue of Channels, complete with an attractive new cover design, opens with a poem (the first prize winner of the English Writers’ Collective competition) that takes us back to the days of the Kandy Lake poets and concerns as old as the hills (or at least, as civilization). It hones in on the [...]