Kumar David in The Island, 26 May 2024 ….. whre the title reads thus: “G.C. Rodrigo: Friend, Colleague and Comrade”
The phrase “When alone think clearly and when with others speak carefully” is attributed to Gautama Sidhartha. Though that may be apocryphal it certainly does depict his grace. Secondly, you will find that I sometimes refer to GCR as Gerard and sometimes as Chris depending on whether S. Thomas College or our later political comradeship is uppermost in the context.
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Uditha Devapriya & Uthpala Wijesuriya, in https://scroll.in/where the title reads thus: “Cricket, class and baila: The many layers of Sri Lanka’s celebrated Royal Thomian sports encounter”
With an unbroken 145-year streak, the face-off between two of the island-nation’s oldest schools has become a cultural rite of passage for the nation’s elite.
Prefects leading a cheer at the 144th Royal Thomian, 2023. |
Uthpala & Uditha … in match fervour
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Photos selected by Michael Roberts & Rendered Accessible by David Sansoni of Sydney
Commencing with a ‘shot’ of passers-by and ordinary citizens assaulting and ridiculing a Tamil person at Galle Road in Colpetty
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Sugath Kulatunga, …. original submission with highlighting added by the Editor, Thuppahi
That** was the story of Monday. The Friday that followed was a stark tragedy and a national calamity which has left its bloody stain in the records of our recent history. This was my harrowing experience of Friday 29 July 1983.
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Sugath Kulatunga .…. in item entitled “Black July Monday 25th” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
In my last post on the 4th of March, I mentioned that the time I served under Lalith [Athulathmudali] was the golden era of my public service. But it did not occur to me that I had deliberately suppressed in my mind the ugliest and nastiest week in my life as well as of the nation. That was the week of Black July of the ghastliest communal riots. Let me recall my experience of that week.
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Somasundaram Skandakumar, in essay entitled “A former chairman of George Steuarts remembers”
As the clock moved towards 10.50 a.m. on January 31, 2021, my mind went back 25 years to that fateful day. It was a Wednesday, and having finished our weekly meeting of the Parent Board of Directors in the Board Room on the eighth floor of Steuart House around 10.30 am, we sat around to exchange views on matters of a non-official nature as was customary, before returning to our rooms.
Enjoying the view of the sea beyond the Central Bank that faced us from the opposite side of Janadipathi Mawatha, was a favourite pastime of ours on such occasions.
Janadipathi Mawatha on that last day of January was as busy as always as people flocked into the banks, business offices and hotels that stood imposingly along it . Yes, the human traffic on this busy street was as heavy as the vehicular.
At 10.45 a.m., we heard what sounded like gun shots and sensed trouble.Moving to the large french windows that were the hallmark of “Steuart House,” we observed a lorrylike the ones that used to bring down tea from the plantations to Colombo, attempting to scale the pavement bordering the Central Bank.
The intention to enter the lobby of the Bank seemed obvious. An alert and courageous security guard shut off the access only to pay for his noble deed with his life as the occupants in the vehicle shot him dead.
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Michael Roberts
Colombo in the 1990s was a rather different world from the city today because its heartland centred around the Fort with its venerable shops (Cargills, Millers) leading mercantile offices, three premier hotels and the huge Central Bank building looming on the horizon. The expansion and transformation of the Port of Colombo and many other developments have transformed the city since then and the ‘weight of the Fort’ has diminished considerably since then.
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Nick Van Der Hoeven, whose choice of title was “The Dutch Burgher Union “……………… while highlights have been imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi …………………………………………………………………………… snSpedtoorh3fi1c80a115m1h307g3u8i82016f0i28a6c396l64390307fi ·
I have been reflecting on how lucky we are (as a group) to have such incredible access to the history of our ancestors. Yes, its very interesting: the diverse biological backgrounds (Dutch, British, Prussian, French, Portuguese, local etc). I am, however, a second generation Australian-born Burgher on my father’s side (plus Hungarian on mothers) and no doubt have a different reading history than those who ‘lived it’ back in Ceylon for those 500 years of colonisation.
For me the
greatest gift is knowing the names and some of the stories of ancestors dating back 22 generations — regardless of where they are from. This is unique and is in my opinion one of the greatest legacies of the DBU. The shipping manifests, the Dutch churches, the British churches, the various journals and off course the DBU records themselves. Continue reading
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thuppahi
