Category Archives: art & allure bewitching

THOMIA now on Sale: A History of S. Thomas’ College in Colombo

Richard Simon to Michael Roberts, Editor, Thuppahi

Thomia, as you know, is a comprehensive history of S. Thomas’ College presented in the wider context of Lankan history and focusing on the influences between the two. In this sense it resembles my previous history of the Ceylon tea industry, which you were kind enough to praise when it was published in 2017. It is very different from a typical school history and its appeal is certainly not confined to Old Thomians.

 Now on sale: Thomia is available for advance purchase from today, 25 November 2024. I hope to finance printing of the book partly through advance sales; I am happy to say I have already received a number of pledges.

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Sri Lankan Cricket Squad for SAF Tests in South Africa

The Squad selected has received approval froma keen watcher in Hiran Hewavisenti of LMD fame, albeit with a passing query about the absence of Kusal Janith Perera. Dhananjaya De Silva remains as Captain — thus marking an ‘era’ when two Richmondites have maintained their hands on the cricket wheel in all formats of the game [so that my old mate Dougie Goonewardena up in Valhalla will be joining Nandi Jasentuliyana (in USA now) in a hai-hoyi …..].

The Selectors have kept faith in the oldies Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal …not unreasonably.  … Michael Roberts

https://www.facebook.com/hiran.hewavisenti/

HIRAN HEWAVISENTI in FB

Kudos to the selectors for keeping the faith in both talent and class (although KJP is missing). This is a crack squad – we have the armoury to play on any surface and that is a luxury that we may never have had. A place in next year’s World Test Championship final at Lord’s is up for grabs if we can win at least one of the two tests in South Africa – and we have proved we can
#SriLanka #cricket #WorldTestChampionship

— feeling confident.

Most relevant ………….Comments

Hiran Hewavisenti

AND THE OPPOSITION

Hiran Hewavisenti

WHERE WE WILL PLAY

Huzefa Husein

Selection of Sadeera samarawickrama and Lalith Embuldeniya …………. is questionable.   SS because he’s not proven his worth yet and LE because Prabath is doing such a good job and similar genre. Vandersay would have been a good choice as he extracts a lot of turn a…

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QUESTIONABLE.SS

 

Hiran Hewavisenti replied

Dirk Tissera

Looks like great blend of experience and youth. I’m sure they will step up to the plate. Sri Lanka seems to have found their lost rhythm.

Hiran Hewavisenti replied

Deepal Ahangama

Eagerly looking forward to the Tests v SA. As stated this is a versatile squad of players. We must win at least one test however we do have the wherewithal to win both matches.

**************

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Gerald Peiris: A Lifetime of Wide-Ranging Research & Service

These are but some of his publications over a career spanning the 1950s to 2020s — with eyesight deterioration blighting his last platform of life. No more table tennis, but much to remember. So, here. let me doff my cap to thee, Gerry Machang, …. Mike

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A Journey.…. A Journey: Working Up a Documentary: “A Pilgrimage to Sri Lanka

Dodwell-Keyt to Victor Melder, mid-November 2024

The series of videos will showcase Sri Lankan culture and way of life. A few scripts have already been written, though I plan to revise and refine them further. The series will follow the journey of a young Sri Lankan girl, portrayed by the talented actress Nimmi Harasgama, whose website you can visit here: ………………..
https://www.nimmiharasgama.com/home-1.html
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Guta Goldstein’s Holocaust Songs: A Spirit Undying

Jane Albert, in The Australian, 8 November 2024 …. where the title runs thus: “The Song that kept Guta alive during the Holocaust ….,”

It is often said that music has the power to heal and nourish, but for Guta Goldstein there were times in her childhood when music and singing were her only nourishment.

Guta Goldstein with her longtime friend and music scholar of the Holocaust, Joseph Toltz. Aaron Francis / The Australian

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Assorted Data on Walter T. Stace

A = A Note from Lucy McCann at the Bodleian Library in Oxford – Michael Roberts, some years back…

At the Institute of Commonwealth Studies there is an autobiography of W.T. Stace as a civil servant in Ceylon, written in 1964 – ………………see https://archives.l………………libraries.london.ac.uk/Details/archive/110022875

There is also something about his appointment to the Ceylon Civil Service in the India Office Papers at the British Library and some correspondence with him among the papers of philosopher George Edward Moore at Cambridge University Library – …………see https://archives.libraries.london.ac.uk/Details/archive110022/875

Best wishes,  Lucy

Historical view of Kandy. 

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Sri Lankan Association Treated in Adelaide’s Parliament

 

 Zoe Bettison, Minister for Tourism and Multicultural Affairs in the South Australian Government headed by Peter  Malinauskas, marked her long fellowship with ASLA, namely, the Adelaide Sri Lanka Association, by treating and feting the Association’s members to dinner and cameraderie at Parliament House on October 2024.

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How the SSC Penetrated the Long Room at the Lords Cricket Ground

Lam Seneviratne, whose choice of title is “Lords -My Claim to Fame” … quite an appropriate point

I had presented to the MCC at Lords a painting of the Singhalese Sports Club grounds in 1975 to mark the first ODI World Cup event.

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British Ceylon Through A Family Lens 1850-1950

Prof Naren Chitty …. an article in THE CEYLANKAN vol 27/4 November 2024

 Introduction
British Governors relied on mostly unsalaried Mudaliyars (leaders) from select families who exchanged service for land grants.[1]  Educated in public schools Mudaliyars’ Anglophile sons increasingly inhabited a Jane Austenian lifeworld, particularly as they donned European attire in the middle of the nineteenth century. Unfolding around them was a countervailing Buddhist revival associated with Sinhala cultural resurgence. [2]

Chitty Family in 1899 … Standing L-R = Christian, Wilfred, George Snr, Marian, Charles ….. Sitting L-R = Mitzi, Rose, Maude, Laura, James

 

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Addressing Audrey Maxwell’s Research on Cross-Cultural Marriages in England

Michael Roberts

My elder sister Audrey’s article on cross-cultural marriages & families in England via detailed interaction with several well-educated families in Oxford in the 1990s has been reproduced in TPS in the full … https://thuppahis.com/2024/10/28/not-all-issues-are-black-or-white-some-voices-from-the-offspring-of-cross-cultural-marriages/. It has the potential to inspire comments from British folk of varied backgrounds; and, hopefully, to promote studies in the today which could mark contrasts – or similarities – now some 20-30 years later.

Audrey in an acting role at Peradeniya Uni, mid-1950s ….  & at a church in Oxford in the 2010s

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