THOMIA …. with the world and the moon in its sights and landing sites
RICHARD’s NOTE, 20 February 2024
Two important Thomia-related things happened yesterday. First, I had a call from Softwave to confirm that the first completed copies of the book would be delivered today, 20 February, as promised. Second, I made a call of my own, to confirm with the proprietors of the Barefoot Gallery Cafe that I shall be holding the official launch of Thomia there on the fourth of March.
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Thuppahi introduces the Amazon.com FLIER for the book by Dr. Hilali Noodeen entitled Letters to a Young Doctor, 2021 whitefox …
https://www.amazon.com.au/Letters-Young-Doctor-Exploring-Surviving-ebook/dp/B08VWVTVLB
Letters to a Young Doctor: Exploring and Surviving a Career in Medicine, …….. by Dr Hilali Noordeen, 2021, Kindle Edition
| 4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 8 ratings |
Part manual and part manifesto, Letters to a Young Doctor is a timely and passionate book to help future medical students and young doctors navigate and survive medical education and practice, presenting an unvarnished depiction of the profession as it is today and the challenges it faces.
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Laleen Jayamanne & Nammika Raby, in The Island, February 2025
“People were nourished by stories….” (Kathandarawalinne minissu jeewathwune) Gananath
“Man does not live by bread alone” Matthew 4:4
Dimuthu Saman Wettasinghe’s film Gananath Obeyesekere: In Search of Buddhist Conscienceopens with a bravura tracking shot moving past trees, water, a splash of saffron robes. These sunlit images are enfolded in a non-religious, rather melancholy male choral chant, but soon the singular voice of Professor Gananath Obeyesekere cuts through with a kind of Dionysian intensity. He tells us a story about Gauthama Buddha, as the camera encircles, at speed, what turns out to be the Kandy Lake. His tale is about a devastating war waged by the king of Kosla against the Sakya kingdom but of the Buddha’s unshakable belief that if folk get together and discuss matters in good faith (call it diplomacy), all wars could be averted. This carefully and deeply researched, imaginative, ‘Educational Film’ of 142 minutes, with its exhilaratingly dense overture and its subtle montage, is a loving tribute to an exemplary Lankan scholar/teacher and his life work (of some 70 years) as an internationally renowned Anthropologist.
The film shows Gananath’s empathetic ability to pay careful ethnographic attention to a variety of gendered states of mental distress and trauma and their traditional ritualised ecstatic expressions, especially with regard to women, well before some feminist scholars in the West began to be interested in the topic of ‘Women and Madness’ from a Freudian psychoanalytic perspective. Psychoanalytic theory became methodologically important for Feminist Film Theory, which I used in my doctoral thesis on ‘Female Representation in the Lankan cinema’.
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Michael Roberts
I came across an old article of mine entitled “Confronting Charlie Ponnadurai: Clarifying The Context Of Disparaging Ethnic Epithets In Sri Lanka Over The Last 180 Years.” Charlie happens to be a batchmate at Ramanathan Hall in Peradeniya University in 1957, but we had not encountered each other for decades before this verbal contretemps occurred in the year 2013. SEE ………………………………………………… https://thuppahis.com/2013/08/18/confronting-charlie-ponnadurai-clarifying-the-context-of-disparaging-ethnic-epithets-in-sri-lanka-over-the-last-180-years/.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disparagement, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Indian traditions, life stories, politIcal discourse, racism, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, world events & processes
Sulochana for PUPPETRY ! …. Sulo now resides in Adelaide and is therefore a resource within reach for All Australians …
Nick van der Hoeven
I wanted to write about a very complex man, one of my grandfathers …. George Frederick van der Hoeven. The main reason for doing so is because history has not been kind to him, especially the unwritten verbal history within our family. Born in 1901 in Colombo Ceylon — then under British rule — Grandpa (as we called him) died here in Melbourne in 1978. I was 6 years old.
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Michael Roberts
During my years at Peradeniya University campus in the late 1950s, one of my bosom pals was LJM Cooray aka Mark Cooray. Our engagements in the Student Christian Movement deepened our association and was further strengthened by his marriage to another SCM-er viz. Noreen – a gentle and inspiring soul. Let me stress that Mark’s home in Colpetty was one of the several spots where I could stay overnight during my undergraduate days.
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Upali Obeyesekere, whose chosen title reads thus: “Tribute to ‘Sons of the Soil’ who made a huge contribution towards the Economy and Socio-cultural Aspects of Sri Lanka.”
Summa
Jackson Anthony
Lalith Kotelawela
Sri Lanka lost a few stars of yesteryear recently and it is our bounden duty to recognise these individuals in our popular monthly tabloid – The Sri Lankan Anchorman. They came from diverse backgrounds in terms of birth, schooling, and upbringing. But they all had one mission in life – to excel at what they do to exude a commitment of excellence in their chosen field and bring pride to our motherland – Sri Lanka.
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Sumanasiri Liyanage, … His Prologue to An Academic Appreciation of Professor HA De S Gunasekera
Prologue …. Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Head, Department of Economics, Members of Prof. H A De S Gunasekera family, colleagues, Friends and students.
It is indeed a pleasure to be in Peradeniya once again, and I felt honored and privileged when I was asked to deliver the Prof H. A. De S. Gunasekera memorial oration 2025 for which I thank Prof Sri Ranjith, Head/Economics and members of the H.A. De S. Gunasekera Memorial Committee.
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Cherylann Mollan, presenting an article entitled “India’s pioneering female anthropologist who challenged Nazi race theories” ….. BBC News Mumbai 19 January 2025
Irawati Karve’s writings about Indian culture and civilisation are ground-breaking. 
Irawati Karve led a life that stood apart from those around her. Born in British-ruled India, and at a time when women didn’t have many rights or freedoms, Karve did the unthinkable: she pursued higher studies in a foreign country, became a college professor and India’s first female anthropologist.
She also married a man of her choosing, swam in a bathing suit, drove a scooter and even dared to defy a racist hypothesis of her doctorate supervisor – a famous German anthropologist named Eugen Fischer.
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thuppahi
