Category Archives: cultural transmission

September 10, 2025 · 4:19 pm

East & West: Cross-fertilisation in Sri Lanka, 1940s et seq

Michael Roberts

An EMAIL Exchange with Vinod Moonesinghe recently prompted me to search for relevant literature and I came across this text from my hand in People Inbetween (1989, Sarasavi Publications, page 111).

“In brief, in the 1900s and 1910s the literati who engaged themselves in English drama developed no synthesizing link with the Sinhala theatre which was flourishing at the same time in and around the Tower Hall in Maradana, Colombo. The latter, as we know, had some awareness of the Western theatrical traditions [81]. Our speculative point is that the fertilizing influence, such as it was, moved in one direction only.      Pathiraja

 Sarathchandra 

Ludo
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September 8, 2025 · 2:05 am

AKD: ‘Palm Leaves’ For Tamils & Jaffna

Rajan Philips in    7 September 2025, where the title runs thus: “Crowded agenda includes Cricket but no visit to Chemmani”  … wth highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The President goes to Jaffna! ... President Anura Kumara Dissanayake made yet another visit to Jaffna last week. With all good intentions, he may be on course to set a record for visiting Jaffna more times than all his predecessors combined. There is no Lyn Ludowyk among us to make a political satire of presidents going to Jaffna, reversing the time honoured old trope – “He Comes from Jaffna!”.

Foundation for Cricket Stadium

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September 7, 2025 · 2:57 pm

Indigenous ‘Touches’ within the British Colonial Era of Capitalist Expansion

Vinod Moonesinghe, IN  Factum Perspectives March 3, 2025, where the title runs thus: “Tindals, Dhonis, and Sampans – The interconnectedness of historical Indian Ocean commerce” ….  NB: the two photos &  the map are insertions by The Editor, Thuppahi

 In the days of the British Raj, bullock carts were used to transport goods inland and to bring coffee beans (and later tea) from the montane plantations down to Colombo, for shipment overseas.

The distance from the coffee plantations to the main seaport of Galle caused the colonial government to override the wishes of the British Admiralty and of the steamship lines (who all wished to operate from Galle, which was closer to the main sea route to the Orient) and to develop Colombo harbour at a considerable cost.

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September 6, 2025 · 12:52 am

Two Reviews in 2010 of Copeman’s Book on Blood Donations in India

https://sacrificialdevotionnetwork.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/jacob-copeman_veins-of-devotion/

 ONE …. REVIEW OF Jacob Copeman: Veins of Devotion: Blood Donation and Religious Experience in North India (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009, 233 pp)………….by Ron Barrett of Macalester College …. Taken from the American Ethnologist May 2010, vol. 37/2, pp. 380-81.

Recent years have seen an emerging literature on the sociopolitical dynamics of human tissue exchange. Most of these studies are of a critical nature, focusing on the exploitative aspects of organ trade and other high-profile controversies. Yet few studies have closely examined the apparently mundane forms of biological exchange and the remarkable contexts in which these everyday activities can occur. Jacob Copeman addresses this important gap with Veins of Devotion, a well-researched ethnography about the contributions of several North Indian devotional movements to voluntary blood donation campaigns. Critical in the classical sense, this volume traces the flows of blood, spirit, and power through expanding domains of kinship, asceticism, nationalism, purification, and gift exchange in the urban heart of neoliberal India.

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September 5, 2025 · 4:32 pm

Presenting Curious Things with Humour & Discernment

Stephen Keim, reviewing Richard Glover’s BEST WISHES , ABC Books.

 Richard Glover has been in the humour and entertainment business for a very long time. He has written a weekly humour column for the Sydney Morning Herald since 1985. Since January 1996, he has presented the 3.30-6.30 pm drive segment on 702 ABC Sydney.  This role came to an end in November 2024, after just short of 29 years. He has published 15 books prior to Best Wishes.

The roles of humour columnist and radio presenter include making observations about various curious things about the way we live in society and presenting them in a way that informs and entertains and, in the best case, brings a smile to people’s faces.

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September 5, 2025 · 4:01 pm

Vale: Bishop Kenneth Fernando

From Wikipedia …………… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Fernando

Kenneth Michael James Fernando (25 July 1932–3 September 2025) was a Sri Lankan Anglican clergyman who was Bishop of Colombo.[1][2][3]

 Born in Moratuwa and educated at Prince of Wales’ College, Moratuwa and Royal College, Colombo and at the University of Oxford, he served as the Secretary of the Diocese before he was elected as the Bishop of Colombo. He served as the Vicar of Maharagama Anglican Church prior to his ordination. Fernando died on 3 September 2025, at the age of 93.[4][5]

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September 5, 2025 · 12:42 pm

Vale … Lareef Idroos: A Gathering in Los Angeles

Dr Mohamed Lareef Idroos of La Canada, Ca. passed away on September 1st, 2025.

Beloved husband of Nabila and father of Shireen, Sabrina and Samira

Funeral will be on Thursday, September 4th …..at Rose Hills Memorial Park, 3900 Workman Mill Road, Whittier, Ca……………..at 10 am

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Dr Lareef Idroos, was a past pupil of St Thomas College……….. He headed the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Hollywood, Ca……………….A highly respected and loved doctor to all his patients.

Lareef Idroos was a successful leg-spin and googly bowler for S. Thomas’ College in the late 1950s; entered the Medical Faculty circa 1960 and was a member of the University of Ceylon cricket team under Carlyle Perera which secured the Sara Trophy during a spectacular season 1962/63. After he migrated to USA in the 1970s, he played for USA in the ODI tournaments conducted by the ICC in the late 1970s.

“Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un”

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

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September 3, 2025 · 4:40 pm

Vale: Lareef Idroos

Errol Fernando in Melbourne

I am deeply saddened to hear of my very old friend Lareef’s death. He was my neighbour in Kollupitiya, Colombo 3. From the time I was 6 or 7 years old I played cricket with him under the coconut trees. The railway line and the sea were just behind the batsman!  Lareef loved to bowl, and I loved to bat and so we were both happy! I spent hours, days, weeks, months and years facing his bowling. He came up with new tricks all the time and used the sea breeze very effectively!  I have no memory of him batting and me bowling !

 

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September 1, 2025 · 8:10 pm

Learning Law with Aid From Colvin R de Silva

A Guy named Talagalla, …  with highlighting imposed by The  Editor, Thuppahi

I am just penning this note after finishing my research for the day, before the thoughts dissipate into the quiet of the evening. The cases I read, the legislation I examined, and the scholarly writings I consulted all converged in my mind, and they brought me back to a lesson I once received from my senior, Mr. D.S. Wijesinghe, President’s Counsel, passed down from his own mentor, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva. The story of how Dr. de Silva engaged with the law has lingered in me for years, and it bears repeating, for stories carry the weight of wisdom in ways instructions never can.

Dr Colvin R de Silva

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August 30, 2025 · 6:35 pm

A Candle for GAZA in Colombo……Supporting the SUMUD Flotilla

Message from  Manel  Fonseka 

Join us to light a candle and say a prayer for the success of the Sumud Flotilla as they set sail to break the siege on Gaza.

Starting on August 31st, 150 ships will set sail with crew from more than 40 counties, in the biggest global effort to break Israel’s 18year siege of Gaza. As famine spreads in Gaza and Israel continues with complete impunity to murder, rape and starve the population of 2 million people living there, the people of the world are banding together to step up where international law has failed.

Join us this Sunday, 31st of August, at 4.30pm under the Nuga tree at the Chapel of Christ the Living Saviour on Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 07, to light a candle and say a prayer for the success of the fleet, the safety of its crew, and the salvation of the people of Gaza from Israel’s unrelenting genocide.

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