Where have All the Flowers Gone, Long Time Passing ….
Where have All the Windies Cricketers Gone,
Caribbean Death-knell Looming ………………….
A Ditty from One Thuppahi ….
Pete Seeger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Have_All_the_Flowers_Gone%3F
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger
The West Indies in their heyday of the early 1980s. Picture: staff photographer…. Continue reading
Rodney Vandergert, whose title reads thus: “Random Musings of A Senile Mind,”.… an article which appeared on web on 4th March 2006 at https://kermeey.blogspot.com/2006/03/random-musings-of-senile-mind.html …… reproduced with selective highlights in this version … & brought to my attention by Charles Schokman of Australia
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven” Wordsworth: Preludes
In the Nineteen Forties and early Fifties, Bambalawatte was the centre of the universe. It was where all the meaningful action took place and where the principal actors were mainly Burghers and a group of expatriates drawn from half a dozen nationalities.
This was brought most forcibly to my mind after reading the recent obituaries which appeared in the local press – one to Zoe Jayatilleke by Tita Nathanielsz; the other to David Gladwin Loos , C.C.S.. by Bradman Weerakoon. 
Rodney Jonklaas, Mike wilson & Arthur c. Clarke at seaside in Ceylon 1950s
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Dash De Soysa, …. with a modification by the author of the original Thuppahi entry set out in blue lettered text; and two ‘pictures’ of the Prince of Wales’ visit to Ceylon added on 28th Novembe 2023
The walauwa was a residence of an aristocrat in the past and, according to the Sinhala Dictionary, it is derived from the Tamil or Telugu word ‘walawu’. Some also refer to it as a place of jurisdiction. The earliest sources that refer to elite residencies and residents of Lanka can be found in many ancient Brahmi inscriptions dating from about the 2nd century BCE. The ‘prabhu‘ (elite) of various sectors – administration, military, tax collection, navigation, ports, agriculture, infrastructure and so on were referred to as ‘parmuka‘, and the king as ‘Mapurumukā‘. Similarly, ‘pramukha’ and ‘pramukhän’ in Sanskrit and ‘perumakan’ in Tamil also mean foremost, chief, principal or a distinguished person. The term ‘grahapati’ (from the same era) meaning householder is perhaps the earliest recorded version of the subsequent gruha(pati), geya and gedara, terms which are in use even today. The term derives from the Sanskrit ‘gṛha’, meaning house. Whilst subsequent literary sources also mention wasala, niwasa and medura, there is no mention of walawwa until one comes across sources from the more recent centuries.
Badulla Pillar Insciption
Mannar Kacceri Pillar Inscription
Continue reading
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The full title in the Times runs as ; “200 years ago a green haven began to grow: the Royal Botanical Gardens Peradeniya
The Royal Botanic Gardens Peradeniya, beloved to Lankans and known simply as the Peradeniya Gardens celebrated it’s bicentenary in 2022. Founded by the British as a premier research institution for agriculture and plantation crops in the country, it was brought under the purview of the Department of Agriculture in 2006, The Department of National Botanic Gardens was formed to administer this and other botanic gardens around the island. Dr. Shelomi Krishnarajah, the seventh Sri Lankan Director General of the Gardens became the first woman to hold this post. Dr Krishnarajah who was appointed in 2018 has a solid background in floriculture and tissue culture.
Philip Gunawardena
Edmu
nd R Leach
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A Striking Photo sent to Thuppahi by Keith Bennett of Australia
A FORECAST by Errol FERNANDO, …. A Piano Player from the Heavens, 19 November 2023
After a long tournament, we reach the final that we all predicted many weeks ago, Lorenz – India vs Australia – with the obvious prediction that India will win. Millions will back India,of course.
Let me take a different path by predicting a win for the Aussies, especially if they bat first. Head, Marsh and Maxwell are dangerous players who can take the game away from India.
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Bernard Vancuylenburg & Sisira Weragoda
Prologue: As an introduction to the subject of this article I had to choose a title which nails it all in just one line. It is the story of an academic miracle which emanated from a simple school in its infancy, St. Anthony’s College Katugastota, by a group of students who raised the bar of achievement and excellence in the prestigious London Matriculation Examination in 1934, with a 100% pass rate THUS OBTAINING THE BEST RESULTS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE. It was a path breaking year for the College and a validation of the school’s excellence. Twelve students sat the examination that year of whom six obtained first division passes, and six obtained second division passes. Their names which should be emblazoned in letters of gold in the field of education will be mentioned in this article. Paraphrasing the title of the book by Rubeih Murray James, we should “Carve their names with pride”.
A.C.[1]
“But where the stirring crowd, the voice of strife,
The glow of action, and the thrill of life?”
It may not perhaps be altogether useless to ask, How many of our countrymen have reflected seriously upon their condition and their prospects? How many have cast a thought beyond the events of yesterday or the business of to-day? We fear, not many. We are too content to move in the same mechanical circle of samenesses to-day as yesterday, to square our ideas with those of other men, to believe and to speak according to dictates; that we should entertain the remotest idea of comparing our Past with our Present, so as to arrive at a probable conception of the Future. Our life-time passes with the dreamy knowledge that we are, and but little beyond that. But What may we be? What ought we to be? Are questions which are never engendered in our minds. For any one original thought on the subject which may exist, we may be dwelling in Fairyland.
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Michael Roberts, deploying a twist on the West Indian calypso song presented by Lord Superior to sketch the twists and turns in the game exposd by Glenn Maxwell in te couse of two back-to-back matches
Playing against Afghanistan at Wankhede Stadium on the 14th November 2023, Glenn Maxwell produced an extraordinary innings of 201 runs off 138 deliveries that eventually secured an unlikely victory in dire circumstances—one that hauled the Aussies from 7 wkts for 91 runs in the 18th over to 293 for 7 wkts in the 47th over. He amassed amassed an unprecedented double century …. 201 runs in 138 balls at a strike/rate of 157.03.
thuppahi
