Category Archives: art & allure bewitching

March 29, 2025 · 11:28 am

Launching the Book THOMIA … in Colombo

IN  PICTURES   

     the author speaking ….. and signing books

… with Suresh Navaratnam in this  picture

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March 28, 2025 · 7:10 pm

Donald Friend’s Acid Readings of the Sri Lankan Scenario, 1957-1962

EXTRACTS From The DIARIES Of DONALD FRIEND, Volume 3** …. The Ceylon Diaries cover the period 25th January 1957 to 22nd July 1962 and run into 180 pages in small print. During this period Donald Friend, the gifted Australian artist, based himself at Bevis Bawa’s ‘Brief’, Bentota.

“His diary entries are pithy, sarcastic, self-critical and wonderfully observant of people, places and events. I dare say he was a better writer than a painter. One can only look on aghast at how little things have changed in Sri Lanka in nearly 50 years of turmoil. ….”  .… (the author of this ASSESSMENT remains unclear; while the highlights are interventions on my part: Michael Roberts).

26th January 1957: Time drifts through all this…. carrying on his back, like a turtle, a weight of the idiotic likes and dislikes….

4th February: Who like Bevis, is a hypochondriac. They both make a fascinating hobby of pills and injections …

19th March: The horrid old guide jibbered on endlessly, telling whopping lies.

24th March: Ratnapura Resthouse – nauseatingly loud Americans and a rabble of Ceylon drunks.

11th April: Orientals fortunately regard madness as something allied to holiness.

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March 26, 2025 · 10:05 pm

An Epitaph for Gananath Obeyesekere

Chandra R. De Silva, … with highlighting emphasis added by The Editor, Thuppahi

I write to add a few words to the outpouring of appreciations of Gananath Obeyesekere, a scholar whose research in anthropology, religion, myth, and cultural practices  has won him accolades across the world. I will not comment on the advances in knowledge and the discussions he provoked by his many scholarly works of which among the best known are Land Tenure in Village Ceylon, The Cult of the Goddess Pattini, Buddhism Transformed (co-author), The Work of Culture, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, and The Doomed King. There has been much written on this world renowned scholar, and there will undoubtedly be more comments by experts in the years to come.

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March 24, 2025 · 7:18 pm

Wed Firm: Gregory Peck and His Veronique

An Item in Facebook presented by Nimal Dias Jayasinha

It was October 1955 when Gregory Peck, already a Hollywood icon, married the elegant French journalist Veronique Passani. Their love story began in Paris, where she interviewed him for “Roman Holiday.” He had been married before but found himself drawn to Veronique’s intelligence, warmth, and the quiet depth in her gaze. Within a year of meeting, his first marriage ended, and he followed his heart. Their wedding was intimate, surrounded by close friends and a future neither of them could have fully imagined.


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March 23, 2025 · 12:06 pm

Simon’s THOMIA sways Sri Lanka

Rohan Pethiyagoda, reviewing the new book THOMIA written by Richard Simon, in The Island, 16 March 2025

As schools go, St Thomas’s College Mt Lavinia has, since its inception in 1851, had a disproportionate influence on the affairs of Sri Lanka. In ways both good and bad, it created the modern incarnation of this country. After all, four of our first five prime ministers were Thomians (‘Thomian’, by the way, is a Latin diminutive of Thomas, like Tom in English).

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March 23, 2025 · 10:13 am

The Thriving Undersea World around Shipwrecks around Sri Lanka

A recent news Item in The Island prompted me to ‘explore’ the web for items displaying the rich history of shipwrecks around our island with incidenal thoughts about the intrepid cluster of undersea explorers in the mid 20th century, namely: Mike Wilson, Arthur C. Clarke, Rodney Jonklaas, Hugh Stewart, Dinkalage et al.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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March 22, 2025 · 12:43 am

Christina A. Bejan: Multi-Talented Authoress, Performative Artist, ….

A NOTE From the RHODES TRUST Secretariat, 24 March 2025

Cristina A. Bejan is a Romanian-American theatre artist, poet, and historian. A prolific playwright, Bejan has written nineteen plays, with productions in the United States, United Kingdom, Romania, and Vanuatu. Her hit play “Districtland” was bought for TV development, and Next Stage Press has released three of her scripts. She writes creatively in five languages and has published countless poems, plays, and poetry translations in literary journals and anthologies.

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March 20, 2025 · 6:57 pm

Pungent Rare Mushroom sprouts up in Galle Area

News Item in  Ceylon Today,  March 2025

A rare species of mushroom, which is considered one of the most unique in the world, has been discovered at a journalist’s residence in Hapugala, Galle, according to the Ceylon Journal of Science.

This mushroom species was first discovered in Malaysia, and later reported in Madagascar. Prior to this, it had been documented in Sri Lanka in 1919 at the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens among fungi. After a long gap, this species was reported again in Sri Lanka in 2023, with the discovery made at the home of a journalist couple, Sajeeva Wijeweera and Sirangika Lokukarawita, in Hapugala, Galle, following heavy rainfall.

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March 19, 2025 · 8:47 pm

Big Cricket Matches in Sri Lanka: Long-Lasting …. Evergreen ….

Item circulated by Keith Bennett

𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗿𝗶 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗮…………………………………….. It’s fiesta of 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 in Sri Lanka right now, which commenced in February and expected to go on until May this year. Most of the Big Matches are now converted into 03 Days, after a request made by Sri Lanka Cricket and Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association to all the Schools who are playing traditional Big Matches to extend their play from two days to three days. Until this year, it was a norm for schools to opt to play for three days once crossed the 100 years, a tradition set by Royal College and S.Thomas’ College (Royal-Thomian Battle of the Blues) in 1979 with their centenary encounter.

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March 13, 2025 · 4:58 pm

Jaffna Women: Their Hidden Powers

Kenneth David ** whose article in  a book edited by Susan Wadley in  1980 (see end)  is entitled “Hidden Powers: Cultural and Socio-economic Accounts of Jaffna Women”

The general concern of this volume is the social position of Tamil women and cultural representations about them. This paper deals with both of these issues. The first part is a symbolic account of the life stages and associated ceremonies of Tamil women from the Jaffna region of Sri Lanka. In the course of showing the varying degrees of subordination or of influence that women have during their lives, I focus on two spe­cific strands of symbolism in these life cycle rites: binding and shaving. These are interpreted as a dual­ image of the woman as slave and renouncer, bound on the exterior but internally powerful. The second part is a socio-materialistic account. It contrasts the public images of female subordination with the practical reality in which women control property and covertly effect pro­ductive and other crucial decisions. The third part situates the first two in the context of a general theo­retical question. What are the pitfalls in studying a disadvantaged sector of society? My critique is di­rected towards the theoretical practice of linking pairs of descriptive terms and asserting that such linkage constitutes explanation. This practice is especially problematic when one is trying to understand a disadvantaged sector. Finally, the symbolic account is linked to the socio-materialistic account.

 

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