People and events

• Lanka’s golden girl of yesteryear
• Lanka Guardian reaches 20 years
• Bringing professionals together
• Forging ties with travelling films

Lanka’s golden girl of yesteryear

By Roshan Peiris

Shirley Straarup nee Thomas is spry and trim with long legs and a ready smile. In her late sixties she looks very much younger with the agility and the contained movements of an athlete. After many happy years in Sri Lanka she however is now preparing to leave for the UK this month.

Shirley’s grand parents came over to Ceylon in 1898 from Britain to join the tea planting community here. Shirley recalls her grandparents describing their journey from Kandy to Colombo in those days by horse drawn carriage and horses changed at rest houses on the way. It took, she said, four whole days for them to make the journey.

“Ugh, it was very cold, early mornings on the estate. Even out of curiosity if I wanted to try my hand at tea plucking the rain kept me away ,” she recalls with a smile.

“When I was five and a half years old I left for Australia to school there. I returned to what was then Ceylon in 1947 and began both my teaching and my athletic career over here.”

Shirley was the then golden girl of athletics having been chosen together with Duncan White to represent Ceylon at the Olympics. But though born here in the late twenties, she was considered British and so was disallowed from representing the country of her birth.

Shirley was a natural athlete. She toured India with the country’s women’s Hockey team and played for Sri Lanka in cricket matches against the English team of women from here.

“Gymnastics of course , was my life and I taught it at that very charming elegant school at the time and even now, Ladies College,” she says, adding “now when I see some of those I taught oh I feel old.”

Shirley still drives a Mazda and could match any person very much younger than herself, in both running and walking.The years have been gentle to her.

This is due not only to her spare athletic figure but also due to her friendly disposition , always smiling and willing to talk of her experiences here. “I do recall Tarzie Vittachi who wrote about me and commented on my legs. I used to look forward to his column “Fly by night,” she recalls.

“I love this country and my memories of this country are very dear to me. For it was here that I was born and it was here that I met my husband who was Danish and who worked in a business over here.

“The country is truly beautiful only now I feel sad that there is so much security and high walls surrounding the beauty of old houses.

“I enjoyed my friends and my teaching and being a member of the Athletic Club and my husband enjoyed his friends at the Rowing Club. He died in 1974.”

“I recall Cynthia Rasquinho and Irene Williams who were both excellent athletes. I miss some of my friends and hence by the end of the month I leave for Brighton where I will make my home and catch up with my old friends and my sister.” Here she lives with her daughter Mrs Henken whose husband is with the Nethelands embassy. He is a diplomat.They are leaving soon too, to take up a fresh diplomatic appointment possibly in Africa somewhere.

Her son lives in Copenhagen and she looks forward to seeing her grandchildren.

Her bright face clouded over as she said “Believe me leaving this beautiful country with all my memories of it, is an awful wrench.”

“I have led a full life here, but there does come a tide in the affairs of men when a change has to be made.”

Lanka Guardian reaches 20 years

In a message to the Lanka Guardian on its 20th anniversary, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike has congratulated its editor Mervyn de Silva, on his “Service to the profession and to his country”.

“It is not easy to sustain a serious journal on current affairs for two decades. During these years the L.G. has been incisive in its comments and forthright in its approach to both Sri Lankan and foreign affairs”, says Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.

Bringing professionals together

The Council on International Programs and the Cleveland International program are actively in search of professional participants from all over the world (outside of the United States).

For over 50 years, the Cleveland International Program has brought professionals from all over the world to work in a professional setting in the United States from anywhere from two months to eighteen months.

The idea is to promote interchange of professional skills whereby the participant not only learns from his or her placement in the United States about issues that the professional has learned about in his or her country of origin.

Over the years, CIP and its affiliates have hosted hundreds of professionals from South Asia as part of the program. The most recent of such participants is a professional in the criminal justice area who hails from India and will be working at the Witness Victim Centre of the Department of Justice Affairs of the city of Cleveland. Although the majority of the placements have been in the social service area, CIP has also placed professionals in banks, architectural firms , professional sports teams, telecommunications companies and a variety of other private sector settings. A number of journalists have also participated in the program (one of the most recent was a South African journalist who worked at a Cleveland area radio station). In addition to providing for the professional placement, CIP also provides housing to a portion in family setting and a portion in independent apartments, orientation program and a modest stipend to most participants.

CIP is also usually able to arrange for participants to take on a non-credit basis courses at the local universities and colleges. Although not a governmental agency CIP has received some government funding and has the necessary visa granting authority to allow the participants to travel to the United States. The selection process requires completion of an application and an interview in the country of origin (often with past CIP participants).

Further information could be obtained from Dorothy Faller the Executive Director of CIP at (216) 566-1906

Forging ties with travelling films

Travelling Film South Asia, a festival showcasing a selection of documentary films from the SAARC region, will be hosted in Colombo from May 26 to 30. Sri Lankans will get the chance to view some of the most outstanding documentaries on a wide range of issues such as development, political history, social issues and culture.

Travelling Film South Asia (TFSA) presents 15 of the top films entered at the first ever festival of South Asian documentary films held in Kathmandu, Nepal, from October 25 to 29, 1997.

For more information and clarifications please conatact: Banduransi Perera, Deputy Director, Sri Lanka Environemetal Television Project. Phone: 877808.

Fifty years in black and white and colour

The Exhibition “Moods & Modes” - 50 years of Sri Lankan painting will take up both wings of the National Art Gallery and will be open for over a week from today to 31st May.

The Exhibition will be covered by a catalogue of several pages with writings about Sri Lankan painting over the 50 years, and reproductions of many of the exhibits Twenty colour pages and nearly thirty pages of black and white reproductions will complete a nearly 70 page catalogue for this landmark exhibition of the Foundation which incidentally will also commemorate its own 10th Anniversary at this time.

Angels to take wing soon

“Angels” an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Bodh, a Nepalese artist will be held at the Gallery 706, Colombo 3 from May 30 to June 12.

Bodh has made a special place for himself amongst the artistic community in this country. He has been the curator of the Heritage Gallery on Turret Rd., for over a year and has been responsible for putting on some of the most valid and interesting exhibitions by young contemporary artists.Come to the May Fare

‘May Fare’ to be held on May 30 in aid of rebuilding the Nugegoda Methodist Church and a Community Service Centre will provide excellent fare for the whole family to enjoy.

Trade Stalls open at 2. p.m. and there will be free entrance till 6.30 p.m. when the variety entertainment will commence with entrance by ticket which will include refreshments during the interval.

Green Gardens

An exhibition and sale has been organised by Green Gardens at Lionel Wendt from 30th May to 2nd June.

There will be over 1000 varieties of Chinese Porcelain Vases, Ornaments, Artificial plants and flowers. Artificial Bonsai trees on natural trunks will be on display at very reasonable prices.

This is an ideal opportunity to purchase these for decorating your house or office or as gift items.

Artificial trees with natural twisted trunks and natural looking artificial flower arrangements will be an added attraction in this four day sale.

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