Michael Roberts, … This item was initially presented in my other [now dormant] website CRICKETIQUE in May 2014 as a form of requiem. Buddy Reid’s recent ‘memorial’ to DH prompts me to present this account again. It also provides fuller information on the assassination strike on Hema in Kandy which induced his family to flee from beloved Sri Lanka … albeit without any awareness that a bullet stub remained embedded within his body. This tale also indicates that Hema had been a significant influence in the flowering of Sangakkara’s cricketing skills. Continue reading
Category Archives: patriotism
A Mind For One and All: Jayantha Dhanapala
Tissa Jayatilaka, in The Island, 4 June 2023, … with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
The splendid career and the many glittering prizes won by Jayantha Dhanapala is common knowledge and does not require reiteration here. Rather I wish to focus on the man himself in this tribute to an exceptional person whom I had the privilege of getting to know personally at the tail end of the 1980s – I had of course heard of Jayantha and his many accomplishments long before our first meeting. Having read a newspaper review of North-South Perspectives, an international affairs journal that I edited, which focused on the promotion of greater understanding between the ‘developed’ and the ‘developing’ world, Jayantha telephoned me to ask if we could meet. I readily agreed and thus began a friendship that lasted until his death a few days ago.
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How the Kandyan Sinhalese Forces Kept the European Powers at Bay for Two Centuries
PK Balachandran, whose original article in the Daily Mirror of 26 November 2021, is entitled “Kandyan armies which kept Europeans at bay for two centuries”
The Kandyan army also had local Malays and Kaffirs (Africans) and also Indians like Malabars, Tamils, Telugus, and Canarese (Karnatakas). There was also an assortment of European deserters and prisoners. These mercenaries also served in the armies of European powers.
Kandyan peasant warriors. Codice Casanatense Sinhalese warriors. Wikiwand
The Kandyan Kingdom’s dogged resistance to European invaders from the 17th century to the second decade of the 19th century has not received the attention it deserves from military historians, laments historian Dr. Channa Wickremesekera, the author of “Kandy at War: Indigenous Military Resistance to European Expansion in Sri Lanka 1594-1818.”
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SLINGERS: Malinga on Pathirana
Item in CRICINFO in The ISLAND, 28 May 2023
Lasith Malinga, now a bowling consultant with Rajasthan Royals, has been watching Chennai Super Kings’ games with particular interest. Matheesha Pathirana, CSK’s death-overs specialist, not only bowls with the same, unusual round-arm action with which Malinga dominated the IPL for many years, but is also in a sense a protege. Over the last three years, Malinga has worked sporadically with Pathirana in Sri Lanka’s high performance centre, and has advised him on what he needs to do to build a career.
Combating The Damages of War & Accident: Artificial Limbs for One & All … In Lanka
CHRONOLOGY BACKWARDS
https://thuppahis.com/2021/07/24/dr-susiri-weerasekera-a-sturdy-servant-of-humankind/
https://thuppahis.com/2019/10/04/dr-susiri-weerasekera-a-man-for-all-seasons/
Dr Weerasekera standing 2nd from right facing us with a visiting dignitary at the Friend-in-Need Society building in Colombo Continue reading
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Memories of Peradeniya University Campus Sparked by A Visit in 2012
Rex Olegasegaram, whose favöured title runs thus: “Peradeniya Campus – A Visit Down Memory Lane
In November, 2012 when I drove into the Peradeniya University along with my wife Navaranjini, it was indeed a wonderful visit down memory lane covering my very enjoyable undergraduate spell in 1955/59. Then known as the Peradeniya campus of the University of Ceylon, it has indeed seen a number of physical changes in the interim period with new Halls of Residence, some significant changes to existing buildings (e.g. the old tinned roof of the Economics Department replaced with new modern structures), new approaches etc. Notwithstanding, a number of features that obtained at that time still continue: the older Halls of Residence, some lecture theatres, the library including the “pilloring” area, the gymnasium and the sport venues.
Meaningful Moments at the National War Memorial in Battaramulla, Colombo
Compiled by Gp Capt Kumar Kirinde, SLAF [retd] …. with his title being “National War Memorial,Colombo and the National War Heroes Day Commemoration”
The National War Memorial in front of the Parliament complex at Sri Jayewardenepura, Colombo is dedicated to all military personnel killed since World War I and police personal killed due to militancy. An annual ceremony to commemorate the velour and gallantry of War Heroes is held at the site on the Remembrance Day unique to Sri Lanka, which is 20th May. This day in 2009 the country’s civil war which went on for 26 years came to an end.
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How The War Memorial in Colombo came into Being
Dr. Narme F. Wickremesinghe, in the Sunday Times …………….. https://www.sundaytimes.lk/071111/Plus/plus00012.html …….. where the title is “The Genesis of the National Remembrance Park”
The red poppy which s”ymbolizes the blood of war heroes is from the poppy that grows in Flanders, France, a Remembrance Park for the war dead. It was at 11 a.m. on November 11 (- the 11th month) 1918 that the Armistice was signed, bringing to an end the First World War. The war heroes are remembered on the Sunday closest to November 11th at 11 a.m. with two minutes silence and all life comes to a standstill including electronic channels and vehicular movement. In this article I will give you an account of how Sri Lanka’s Flanders – the Remembrance Park at Mailapitiya, off Kandy, came into being.
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Garry Sobers Feted in Sri Lanka in October, 2015
NEWS ITEM ONE: …. Sri Lanka welcomes Sobers …. http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=sports/sri-lanka-welcomes-sobers
One of the world’s legendary cricketers, Sir Garfield (Gary) Sobers, arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday to a warm welcome. Sobers’ visit coincides with the ongoing Sri Lanka-West Indies Test series where a trophy to honour him along with the island’s ex-captain Michael Tissera will be awarded to the winners.
