Category Archives: life stories

September 14, 2025 · 9:10 pm

DOWNTON ABBEY calls it a Night !!

Michael Roberts

This epic and fascinating TV series serial has brought its curtains down and called it a night  [to alter the idiom]. My first  intimation of this event was in reading Ed Potten’s account in The Australian 13-14  September 2025 ….but  I cannot  access this news item because the !@#!$!!! paper demands money for web-access ….even  though  I receive the print-paper daily.

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EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all About It … in  Wikipedia = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downton_Abbey

Downton Abbey is  … {was] ….. a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. It first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States on PBS, which supported its production as part of its Masterpiece Classic anthology, on 9 January 2011. The show ran for fifty-two episodes across six series, including five Christmas specials.

‘Downton Abbey’ Duo Talk Success And Controversy, But Some Questions Are Off Limits

Tom Branson and Lady Mary return  for the final Downton Abbey movie(Image: Rory Mulvey/Focus Features)

 

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September 14, 2025 · 11:50 am

Tony Peries: First Lankan Director of George Steuarts

Being  CHAPTER ELEVEN of The George Steuart Story  1835-1985 ++

THE FIRST SRI LANKAN CHAIRMAN

When a young Sri Lankan walked into the office of George Steuart on February 1, 1953, no one is likely to have imagined that he would become not only the first Sri Lankan Chairman of what was then essentially a British firm, but also the youngest man to hold that important office.

The young man, whose name was John Francis Anthony Paul Peries, and was generally known as Tony Peries, had been edu cated at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo, and had applied for a post as a trainee Tea Taster. His father, ·W. Peries, a Director of Mackwoods, was held in the highest esteem in agency circles.

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September 14, 2025 · 11:29 am

Karthik’s Appraisal of the Bangladesh-Lanka T20 Match

Karthik Krishnaswamy in ESPNcriciinfo, 13 September 2025

Sri Lanka 140 for 4 (Nissanka 50, Mishara 46*, Mahedi 2-29) beat Bangladesh 139 for 5 (Shamim 42*, Jaker 41*, Hasaranga 2-25) by six wickets
They were locked 8-8 in T20Is in the decade leading up to this match, and all signs pointed to the first close contest of this Asia Cup after it kicked off with four mismatches. It was a bit of an anticlimax in the end, however, with Sri Lanka brushing Bangladesh aside by six wickets, with 32 balls remaining.
 Given the high stakes of this group-of-death contest, Sri Lanka got everything they wanted from it: two points and a massive net-run-rate boost. Bangladesh, who had already copped criticism for taking 17.4 overs to chase down 144 against Hong Kong, now face an uphill task to qualify for the Super Four.

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September 13, 2025 · 9:46 pm

Cartesian Commonalities: New Amsterdam & Galle Fort, II

Bunchy Rahuman, whose preferred title is “Galle Fort, New York City and the Cartesian Legacy” ** … with  the highlights being impositions by the Editor, who also had the privilege of being a resident within the Fort for twenty or so years from 1938-1960

ESSAY TWO

 Do I exceed myself? Cartesian? The Big Apple? – surely not! But I insist, I am here, not to tweak the truth. In Essay One, I said, the street I lived [most of] my Galle, Fort life in was Lighthouse Street. Discerning readers [for a moment I thought to add if any – but my life insurance policy has lapsed!] would note that I said Lighthouse Street formed a ‘Y’ axis line for the [Galle] Fort. Now even math allergic types, have heard of X axis and Y axis as [perpendicular] lines that cross at right angles and sit in the middle of paper sheets populated by tiny squares arranged 10 x 10, within larger squares, all sitting above, below and at each other’s sides in sheets known as graph paper.

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September 13, 2025 · 8:46 pm

Crazy Run-Rate From Crazy Opening Batsmen

Vithushan Ehantharajah, in ESPNcricinfo, 13 September 2025, where the title is

With Duckett and Smith rested, Buttler and Salt’s dominant stand revived a proven pairing heading into the World Cup

Phil Salt and Jos Buttler took England to 100 in the Powerplay, England vs South Africa, 2nd Men's T20I, Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, September 12, 2025

Phil Salt and Jos Buttler took England to 100 in the powerplay  •  Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images

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September 13, 2025 · 1:46 am

Peter Mayer: Straddling USA-India-Australia via Academia

Michael Roberts

 The world of university lecturers is quite varied and cannot be easily distilled. My experience is mostly based on my years teaching at Peradeniya University n Sri Lanka (1960-62 & 1966-76) and Adelaide University from 1978-2004—besides exposures to the environments in Oxford, Chicago, Heidelberg & Bielefeldt.

I have decided to introduce my TPS readership to some personnel from this highly-variegated field. My first choice has been an easy one: PETER MAYER is an easy man – personable, talented, multi-skilled and well-travelled. As vitally, he is an American who has married an equally personable lady named “Latha” who is from India.

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September 11, 2025 · 12:34 am

Sri Lanka ‘Besieged’ by Foreign ‘Settler Tourism’

Dr Asoka Bandarage, in The Island, 5 September 2025 where the title reeads, “Sri Lanka: The beautiful, besieged island”

“Israelis are coming to Sri Lanka, and they’ve done what they do best — taking over the place. They’ve occupied it and made it feel like Tel Aviv. They host parties advertised as ‘no locals allowed.’ The Israelis have come to Arugam Bay, throwing raves and refusing to let Sri Lankan people attend.”

In July 2025, the influential global travel website Big 7 named Sri Lanka the “most beautiful island in the world,” stating that the “teardrop-shaped island off the southern coast of India has it all—golden beaches, terraced tea plantations, timeworn temples, colonial towns, misty mountains, and wildlife safaris … elephants and leopards.”

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September 10, 2025 · 11:42 pm

A Zealot in USA targets Sri Lanka

Rohana R. Wasala, in The Island, 10 September 2025, with this title “The root of all evil”

Professor Michael K. Jerryson of Youngstown State University, Ohio, USA,  testified on the subject of ‘Human Rights Concerns in Sri Lanka’ before the ‘Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, House Committee on Foreign Affairs (of the U.S. House of Representatives) on June 20, 2018. While delivering his statement, Jerryson submitted a written testimony into the record. He thanked Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass, and other Members of the Committee  for ‘addressing a very important issue facing Sri Lanka, which is also a larger issue of peace and stability for South and South Asia today’

A file photo of a US House Committee on Foreign Affairs meeting …. graced this item but refused  to comply with  Thuppahi’s ‘request’

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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 9, 2025 · 9:31 pm

Asia Cup Now … Gruelling Schedule for Sri Lanka

Shashank Kishore in  ESPNcricinfo, 9  September 2025, where  his  title runs  thus “Back-to-back games plus travel ‘not ideal’ – Asalanka, Rashid on gruelling schedules”

“If you start complaining about these things, it affects your performance on the field,” Rashid Khan says.

“Right now, I’m feeling very sleepy,” Charith Asalanka announced, to peals of laughter around the room. It was a brutally honest opening quip from Sri Lanka‘s captain, who had flown into Dubai from Harare via South Africa just hours earlier for the men’s T20 Asia Cup.

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