Category Archives: historical interpretation
Biographical Insights in Past TPS Items
https://thuppahis.com/2020/05/15/ivor-jennings-and-peradeniya-university-in-two-excursions/
https://thuppahis.com/2022/04/26/an-ode-for-maureen-neliya-hingert-ceylons-beauty-queen/
https://thuppahis.com/2022/04/26/maureen-hingerts-life-times-in-pictures/
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, performance, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes
Nostalgia: Memories of X’mas Fellowship among the Colombo Chetties of Colombo in the 1950s
Dr. Remy Perumal in Sunday Times 22 December 2024 …. with this title “Dreaming of a joyous Colombo Chetty Christmas of yesteryear ” ………… The writer is a retired Consultant Physician living in the UK
In the early and mid-1950s, Sri Lanka was a united, harmonious nation. They were Christmases before politicians inflamed nationalist fervour, for political gain and drove a wedge between communities. With Christmas this year coming at a time of political change, we hope it will be a turning point fostering a new era of unity.
Ours was an average Colombo Chetty family of five. We lived within walking distance of St. Lucia’s Cathedral and St. Benedict’s College. Family traditions and religious convictions moulded our views and our approach to the celebrations. Our Christmases were celebrated within our means.
Mater Dolorosa Church: Where Colombo Chetties congregated for Christmas
Filed under anti-racism, art & allure bewitching, charitable outreach, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, world events & processes
Thoughts on Rajiva Wijesinha’s Book on Ranil Wickremasinghe
Uditha Devapriya
I was perhaps a little overenthusiastic, in trying to claim objectivity for Rajiva Wijesinha’s latest book, when I said at the launch on Tuesday, December 17, at Lakmahal, that the role of the political commentator and observer is not to pass judgments, but rather to lay bare the facts for the reader to decide. During the Q and A I was bluntly – and justly – critiqued by a member of the audience: no, he said, the role is not to overwhelm the reader with facts – it is to come to conclusions, to make the reader aware.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, debt restructuring, disparagement, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, IMF, island economy, legal issues, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, sri lankan society, taking the piss, world events & processes
The Tsunami Trauma in the Town of Galle, 26 December 2024
Dr Pilane Ariyananda, whose chosen title is “The Worst Day in My Life” ….. while I as Editor have imposed highlights only towards the end of this harrowing tale ….. letting Pilane’s weight of words penetrate the souls of readers because of the stark realities embedded therein.
Sunday, twenty-sixth of December 2004, the Boxing Day and the Poya Day, dawned as a quiet day, and as it was a triple holiday, there were very few people on the road. As usual, I had my morning walk on Galle Fort Ramparts and returned home around eight o’clock. After a leisurely breakfast, seated on an armchair in our veranda, I was reading the Sunday newspapers that I had picked up on my way back.
A Poignant Tale … “I Am Not Lighting A Candle Today”
Buddhika Dassanayake, …. reflections presented on 26th December 2006
Its been two years since a friend called one morning, as we were studying for exams, to ask why lamp-posts were shaking. Two years since another friend called from Galle Hospital; tired, depressed, fiercely determined to see things through, utterly helpless. Two years since we heard that Tharini was missing; that the place we stayed at the last time we visited Unawatuna had disappeared along with the occupants.
Murali , Mahela & Kumar at a refugee camp on the east coast …having taken emergency supplies
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, citizen journalism, communal relations, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, refugees, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, tolerance, trauma
The Tsunami Twenty Years After
Padraig O’Leary writing from the vicinity of Colombo now
Twenty Years after the Tsunami
Did the children and I come to you when the waves came?
Were the kids there with you when death came?
In eternity, do you want to be mine again?
Will you come back at least in my dreams?
Those words were written by a grieving husband on the side of a rusting railway carriage at Peraliya in southern Sri Lanka.
On 26 December 2004, 36,000 to 50,000 people (the numbers of dead vary depending on the source) died in Sri Lanka in the St Stephen’s Day tsunami. Between 1,700 and 2,500 passengers on the holiday train, Queen of the Sea, perished as the wave engulfed it at Peraliya, between Colombo and Galle. Rescuers recovered only 824 bodies, as many were swept out to sea or were taken away by relatives without informing the authorities. The village itself also suffered heavy losses: hundreds of inhabitants died and out of 420 houses, the great wave spared only ten.
Remembering the TSUNAMI …. 26 December 2004
Michael Roberts
The Roberts family were assembled at a house-for-hire off Goolwa and near a beach in South Australia when the first news of the devastating tsunami of 26th December 2004 hit the headlines. One of the first inklings the world received about this massive disaster came from Galle in the southwestern corner of Lanka. This was through a series of photos or a movie-camera display of a body of seawater moving from left of screen to right with cars and bodies amidst the debris….. and the walls of the Fort of Galle in the background.
Gamini Seneviratne’s Critical Readings of the Sri Lankan Scenario
Gamini Seneviratne, in The Island, 23 December 2024, where the title runs “What AKD and NPP should bear in mind” … reproduced here with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
This is to thank you [the ISLAND newspaper] for drawing attention to the dangers posed by India to our society and its culture and other basic resources as well as its on-going exertions towards encroaching on our maritime territory. 
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, disparagement, economic processes, electoral structures, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, Left politics, life stories, parliamentary elections, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
Chandra Schaffter Features in the TPS Website
https://thuppahis.com/2023/03/30/a-cricketing-saga-extraordinary/
March 30, 2023
A Cricketing Saga Extraordinary
Chandra Schaffter … responding to an earnest request from Michael Roberts**
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, cricket for amity, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, teaching profession, unusual people
