Category Archives: education

February 17, 2024 · 12:48 am

Minette De Silva in Pictures

Sired by George E. De Silva and Agnes Nell on 1 February 1918, Minette De Silva has claims to be one of Sri Lanka’s greatest achievers on the world stage. As the pictures of her with Picasso and others at a conference, the Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne, in 1947 reveal, young Minette outshone all the others in presentability and age. She then proceeded to imprint her innovative mark within her beloved island — as some of the photographs and the recent recognition of her extraordinary talent by competent personnel  attests. …. Michael Roberts

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people

February 14, 2024 · 1:20 pm

Minette de Silva: An Ornament of Her Age, I

Jane Russell … presenting A Memoir as one Step in a series and deploying the spelling of “Minette” which Minette favoured (not Minnette)

 The whine of Minette’s white Renault as it climbed the steep curves of the driveway to St George’s [in Kandy] could be heard long before the car arrived under the arched porch. The car headlights would be switched off and I’d catch a few words in Sinhala being exchanged between Minette and Punchi Rala, a tall, fair old man, whose thin grey hair was tied in a tiny knot behind his head, a dirty sarong half falling from his slack stomach. Punchi Rala was a semi-alcoholic (kassipu being his favoured beverage) who slept on a donkey bed in the recess of the porch. Under his bed he kept a pike that had surely been purloined from the last King of Kandy’s armoury.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

February 12, 2024 · 12:13 pm

‘Made’ in Australia: The Journal SOUTH ASIA

SEE … https://southasianstudies.org.au/journal/

   

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies ranks as the leading academic journal in South Asian studies. It provides a forum for scholarly research, comment and discussion on the history, society, economy, culture and international relations of the South Asian region, drawing on a range of disciplines from the humanities and social sciences. South Asia publishes cutting edge, innovative, conceptually interesting, original case studies and new research, which shape and lead debates in the field.

SOUTH ASIA-Journal

 Professor Kama Maclean: a key figure in the history of the journal

 

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, australian media, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Left politics, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, nationalism, Pacific Ocean issues, Pacific Ocean politics, politIcal discourse, Portuguese imperialism, power politics, religiosity, teaching profession, terrorism, theatre world, war reportage, working class conditions, world events & processes, World War II, World War One, zealotry

February 6, 2024 · 1:23 am

Ganeshananthan’s & Karunatitilaka’s Novels Reviewed by Anjum Hasan

Anjum Hasan:  “Even As A Ghost”  in The New York Review of Books, 18 January 2024 … reaching me via a tennis-mate Ralph Schlomowitz who is a ‘religious’ adherent of the NYRB and matters highbrow;while Amaasiiri De Silva in New York sent me the whole text in Worsd File –thereby ‘undermining’ the NYR’s effing barriers.

Hasan reviews two new books relating to Sri Lanka in this essay: Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Random House, 348 pp., $28.00; $18.00 (paper) …. & The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, Norton, 388 pp., $18.95 (paper)

In their new novels, V. V. Ganeshananthan and Shehan Karunatilaka use the “distance of time” to dramatize large chunks, if not the whole, of Sri Lanka’s recent past.

 

 

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under anti-racism, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, historical novel, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, language policies, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes

February 4, 2024 · 9:04 pm

Virtuosi Varied: Count De Mauny, Wendt, Paynter & Raman

Hugh Karunanayake of Melbourne now … whose title for this essay in The Island, 4 February 2024 is “LIONEL WENDT, COUNT DE MAUNY, DAVID PAYNTER, AND RAMAN” … here presented with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The self-styled “Count”. De Mauny was born as Maurice Marie Talavande on 21 March 1886. The circumstances under which he left for Ceylon were controversial, some writers suggesting that he was compelled to leave France for misbehaviour with young men in his charge. None of these rumours have ever been established, and to this day remain as rumours. According to William Warren, author of the book ”Tropical Asian Style”, de Mauny was first invited to Ceylon in 1912 by Sir Thomas Lipton the tea magnate.

Wendt with a sketch of a young man by Paynter on the wall?

 

 

 

 

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under anti-racism, art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, education, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, paintings, patriotism, photography, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

February 2, 2024 · 2:03 pm

Lessons for Life: Dr Buddy Reid in Q and A

THE MAKING OF AN ALL-ROUNDER: A Conversation with Dr Buddy Reid …. Sunday Island, 28 January 2024 …. https://island.lk/the-making-of-an-all-rounder-a-conversation-with-dr-buddy-reid/   ….  Correspondence to Dr Sanjiva Wijesinha = Sanjivasw@gmail.com

Dr Buddy Reid – one of the finest all-around sportsmen Sri Lanka has produced – recently celebrated his 83rd birthday. During his University days, Buddy won the National Table Tennis championships of Ceylon three times, played Cricket for Ceylon, sang in the University SCM choir, and played clarinet in a dance band called The Neurones.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, education, heritage, life stories, meditations, patriotism, performance, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, unusual people

January 23, 2024 · 11:40 pm

John De Silva: Aloysian, Sri Lankan, Australian

Michael Roberts 

John was one of my class generation at St. Aloysius College, Galle and we represented the College in cricket, soccer, athletics and swimming. …. yes swimming …..  and were recipients of training in life-saving at the little harbour of Galle. He was “Johnny” not a “John” in our minds then.

Alas, on one occasion a bad call for a run by me resulted in Johnny being run-out when he was batting well — in a match under my captaincy that we eventually lost. But in a previous year St. Aloysius had won all its matches under Mohammed Anwer’s astute captaincy and the quiet guidance of coach Marcus Jayasinghe.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under cricket for amity, cultural transmission, education, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, patriotism, performance, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, unusual people

January 18, 2024 · 10:46 am

Searching for Familial Roots: An Odyssey …. with Lamentations

Bernard Van Cuylenburg ….. presenting an essay penned in 2020 – one which has had highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi … and pictorial additions

This is the story about a family – a personal story which I wish to share with a wider world. This family consisted of four brothers who lived in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. They were the Eagars and one day, following catastrophic events in the land of their birth, they set their sights on far horizons and left their motherland for a little island still known today as the ‘pearl of the Indian ocean’. One of them was my great grandfather, Halley Eagar.

A partial map of Ireland with a miniature crate of potatoes depicting the potato famine of 1845 – 1852

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under British colonialism, cultural transmission, demography, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, pilgrimages, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, trauma, travelogue, world events & processes

January 13, 2024 · 8:29 pm

Chinese Acrobatics & Balancing Acts from Behind the Screen in 1979

An Informant
A short extract from the 1979 film “One Hundred Entertainments” produced by Bob Kingsbury for Film Australia.

 

The film follows an acrobatic troupe in Shensi Province China as they perform and talk about their lives.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, China and Chinese influences, cultural transmission, education, heritage, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, press freedom & censorship, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

January 8, 2024 · 8:55 pm

Remembering Ian Goonetileke: A Doyen of The Arts & Sri Lankan Publications

Gamini Seneviratne, in a set of profound reflections entitled “Ian Goonatileke, A Memory” and presented previously …. but now subject to a change of title and highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

 

Browsing through various writings that had to do with Ian, I came upon the following paragraphs that seem to merit a fresh airing in the light of the literary awards recently made under the Gratiaen Trust. Regardless of his spell of scepticism (as mentioned below) that made him turn away from his commitment to advancing his friend Michael Ondaatje’s hopes and intent in funding that Trust it came to establish another award in Ian’s name, one for translation.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British imperialism, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, world affairs