Thuppahi's Blog

Harold Gunatilleka in eLanka

Today, I’m excited to share my wonderful trip to Hiriketiya Beach in southern Sri Lanka with you. Tucked into a perfect crescent bay at the very south of Sri Lanka, just 10 minutes from Dikwella and 20 minutes from Tangalle, Hiriketiya is the spot everyone’s talking about — but somehow it still feels like a secret.

Why Hiriketiya is so alluring …..A= Let’s talk more about this Bay.

Picture this: a horseshoe-shaped cove with palm trees leaning over golden sand, turquoise water so clear you can see your feet, and not a single high-rise in sight. It’s small, it’s intimate, and it’s stunning from the moment you arrive.

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Dylan Wave, in Facebook, August 2026 where the title runs thus: “Madhubhashini Disanayaka Ratnayaka. A Distinguished Voice in Sri Lankan Literature”

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Item in eLanka, deploying an Item in the Sundaytimes … under this title: “Brilliant Shakespeare scholar whose goodness radiated a quiet influence on many by Dr Dennis Bartholomeusz” 

Source: Dennis Stephen Bartholomeusz, an acknowledged world authority on Shakespearean studies (90) passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on March 25 in Melbourne.

Dennis was born and raised in Sri Lanka, attended St Joseph’s College Colombo, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English Literature from the University of Ceylon. He established the English Department at Aquinas University College, in Colombo in 1954, where he was one of the first members of the English Department to be a literature specialist. He directed a number of plays, including ‘The Teahouse of the August Moon’, with Hilary de Alwis, a hilarious Japanese-American clown, ‘Moliere’s Tartuffe’ the two absurd hypocrites played by Percy Colin-Thomé and Brian Rutnam, the tragic beauty of Reneira Campbell’s Joan of Arc in Jean Anouilh’s ‘The Lark’, all box office successes at the Lionel Wendt Theatre in Colombo. In 1966, he graduated with a doctorate in English Literature from the University of London.

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Michael Roberts, presenting an old unpubd article drafted in the 1990s ….with highlights being Today’s insertions

It is feasible to suggest that leisure activity blossomed in Europe in the course of the nineteenth century. As European society was re-ordered by the Industrial Revolution and the bourgeoisification of civilization (e.g. Elias 1978 and 1982), the aristocratic and popular pastimes of the previous centuries were taken over, modified and added to.  Pastimes proliferated. In England, of course, these pastimes bore the imprint of class: one can speak broadly of working class pastimes and upper-class pastimes.

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Michael Roberts

Beauty and Brilliance are not always combined. BUT in Ramani Bartholomeusz these qualities were indelibly combined. Her upbrining in Gampaha and schooling had provided her with a mastery of the Sinhala language in a manner that enabled her to star in  Sinhala films. But, THEN.her lover aand partner chose to murder her with a car as the cruel strike weapon.

    She was only 21 …. Such talent, such indelible beauty ….. destroyed.

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Krishnan Srinivasan, in review of Prof GL Peiris’s New Book on the Events, in Daily Mirror, 17 August 2026… with highlights imposed by the  Editor  —with explicit hesitations expressed regarding the degree to which he is in command of facts and situations

G.L.Peiris has been a minister, was a member of parliament, and led the Sri Lanka Government’s side during the talks with the Tamil LTTE from 2002 to 2004 to end the civil war. Accordingly, his narrative is authoritative and invaluable.

Starting in 1994 with Prime Minister Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka and continued by Ranil Wickremesinghe, the process begun in 1999, facilitated by Norway, went through six discussions in 2002/3 in Thailand, Norway, Germany and Japan. These discussions terminated after the tsunami of 2004 and civil war resumed until LTTE was defeated in 2009.

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Item  drawing on Lindy Warrell’s Work …. circulated by Kumar Kirinde

Tomorrow, 18^th August, is the first day of the Esala Perahera, the annual religious and cultural festival held in Kandy, Sri Lanka. This historic procession is conducted to pay homage to the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha, which is enshrined at the Sri Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic).  Accordingly attached is a copy of an interesting article by LINDY WARRELL, entitled ‘Historicising the Cosmogony*: Naming the Asala Perahara in Buddhist Sri Lanka,’ published in the Australian Journal of Anthropology in 1990.

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Nick van der Hoeven, ... with highlighting imposed by The Editor Thuppahi

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Michael Roberts

It is not only the  location of this Win by Bangladeshbut the comprehensive character of the triumph in all departments that stuns the cricketing world. Well done Bangladesh…..

Bangladesh trump Australia for historic win in Darwin after Mehidy five-for

Visitors needed just 57 to win on day four even as Cameron Green scored 104 for Australia in the second innings

Mohammad Isam …..  Aug 16, 2026, 2:48 PM (14 mins ago)·Published: Aug 16, 2026

Mehidy Hasan Miraz finished with five wickets in the second iinings iGetty Images

Bangladesh 426 (Tanzid 101, Shanto 84, Mehidy 65, Hazlewood 6-89) and 57 for 1 (Mominul 30*, Shadman 25*, Hazlewood 1-5) beat Australia 198 (Smith 71, Mahmud 6-55, Ebadot 2-39) and 284 (Green 104, Smith 44, Mehidy 5-56, Mahmud 3-66) by nine wickets

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A WEB Item sent by Riyaz  Aluher

Every morning, half a million schoolchildren in Singapore stand with their right fists over their hearts and recite 38 words.”We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.”

Those words were written by a man who was born in Ceylon, raised in Malaya, spent 12 years in London, married a Hungarian woman, and didn’t call Singapore home until he was in his thirties.***

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He wasn’t born Singaporean. There was no Singapore to be born into.  He had to help build the country first… and then write the words that would teach its children who they were.

His name was S. Rajaratnam. He was born on February 25, 1915, in Jaffna, Ceylon. But only because his father wanted him born there for auspicious reasons… his elder brother had died prematurely, and the family believed a birth in the ancestral homeland would protect the second child.

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