Category Archives: performance

Medicoes in Society: For Sri Lanka

Dr. Sarath Gamini De Silva: Plenary lecture delivered at the Colombo Medical Congress. 24th Nov 2022, where his chosen title was  “The Doctor in the Society: A Sri Lankan Perspective”

I thank the organizers for inviting me  to talk on a very relevant  topic at a time when the role of the educated  in society is becoming the focus of the people as well as the members of our own profession. I am known to be somewhat blunt calling a spade a spade in expressing my opinion as I strongly believe that diplomacy often fails to achieve desired results. As such  I can only hope that, at the end of my presentation, the organisers of the Colombo Medical Congress 22 will not regret ever asking me to speak.

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Sri Lankan Navy’s “Salute” on February 4th: Thereby A Tale

Somasiri Devendra’s NOTE in The Ceylankan, 25/4, November 2022

On Independence Day, February 4th, this year 2022, , the Sri Lanka Navy fired its traditional “Salute to the Nation” from aboard ship, “Gajabahu”, anchored off Galle Face. In 1951, “Vijaya” had saluted the then Head of State of a self-governing Dominion, (King George VI) while “Gajabahu” saluted the elected Head of State of a Republic.

 

 

 

 

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The Travails of War in Lanka Underscored in a New Play in Sydney

Steve Dow @dowsteve  in a review in The Guardian, 18 November 2022… the play being entitled “The Jungle and the Sea” 

Sri Lankan civil war drama lifts joy above traumThis play by the xcreaators of the Helpmann-winning Counting and Cracking shows people living and loving despite danger, but sometimes minimises the horror.

 Blindfolded matriarch Gowrie (Anandavalli) and her firebrand daughter Abi (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) in The Jungle and the Sea at Belvoir St theatre in Sydney. Photograph: Sriram Jeyaraman

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Snap! A Classic ‘Catch’ of a Classic Catch

 

This photographic snap is a classic because of the frozen imagery of all involved! It must surely outdo that of Bradman on the ground having tea (https://thuppahis.com/2022/11/21/mid-pitch-tea-for-don-bradman-12-others/).

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EM Karunaratne: Doyen of Cricket in Galle

Michael Roberts

EM Karunaratne was a doyen among cricket adminsitrators in Galle and his work is quite appropraitely marked in the Janashakthi Book of Sri Lanka Cricket, 1832-1996 edited by SS Perera in 1999 (sse pp.11-12) …where he is placed among an illustrious list: viz, George Vanderspar, Dr John Rockwood, SP Foenander, P. Saravanamuttu, Robert Senanayake and Gamini Dissanayake.

 

 

 

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Afghanistan beat Sri Lanka at Pallekele

Andrew Fidel Fernando in ESPN,  November 2022, with these headlines: “Ibrahim, Farooqi, Naib lead Afghanistan to comfortable win” …. Hasaranga counterattacked with a rapid fifty, but Sri Lanka still didn’t get near their target

Ibrahim Zadran struck 106 as Afghanistan’s top order set them up for a commanding 294 for 8, before the bowlers – Fazalhaq Farooqi, Yamin Ahmadzai, and Gulbadin Naib – ripped through Sri Lanka’s batting order, sharing nine wickets between them.
Gulbadin Naib finished with figures of 8-0-34-3AFP/Getty Images

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The Cricketer Athletes of Ceylon: 1940 and Thereabouts

Michael Roberts

The Janashakthi Book of Sri Lanka Cricket 1832-1996, edited by SS Perera for the Janashakthi organisation of the Schaffter family (Colombo, 1999) has an invaluable photograph within page 206 of the Athletes who represented Ceylon in “what was then an annual contest” (p. 205). This shot has been ‘rekindled’ for digital presentation by David Sansoni of Sydney.

 

 

 

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Working on the Book PEOPLE INBETWEEN

Michael Roberts

The ‘discovery’ of the Lorenz Cabinet in the Royal Asiatic Society in the 1980s led me to combine with Percy Colin-Thome[1] and Ismeth Raheem in working up this material into a plan envisaging a  set of books (four volumes).[2] The first in this projected series was drafted by me and came out in 1989 courtesy of Sarvodaya Publishing Services (within the limitations of book production in that period).[3] This book, People Inbetween,  has been out of print for quite a while.

 

 

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Leslie de Saram and Aubrey Martensz: Straddling Ceylon & the British Empire

Hugh Karunanayake, in The Ceylankan, Journal of the Ceylon Society of Australia, No 100, vol 25/4, November 2022, where the title reads “Two Acclaimed Lawyers who migrated from Ceylon During the Days of the ‘White Australia’ Immigration Policies” … with the highlighting here being an imposition by The Editor, Thuppahi

The names Leslie de Saram and Aubrey Martensz are not likely to evoke sentiment of any kind from contemporary Sri Lankans. They were two outstanding lawyers who not only dominated legal practice and legal education, but also were very influential members of the profession and of Colombo’s social scene. Both de Saram and Martensz were at various times partners of the well-known legal firm FJ and G De Saram, founded by Leslie de Saram’s grandfather, FJ de Saram Senior, in 1841.

FJ De Saram (Snr) was the grandson of Maha Mudaliyar Christtofel de Saram the son of Johan Henriques de Saram who was only 14 years old when taken to England by Governor Maitland, handpicked from among the leading “native” families as suitable for higher studies. That headstart created a dynasty of lawyers.

Leslie De Saram 

JA Martensz

 

 

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Eureka! The Film Clip of the 1949 Independence Day Festivities Secured

The heroes of this enterprise in retrieving the film clip produced by the Government Film Unit (aka GFU) are James Blake Jnr of Germany and Anusha Palpita & Arun Dias Bandaranaike of Lanka. The relevant details are indicated in a Memo from James emailed to me recently…..  Michael Roberts in Australia, 20 November 2022

A NOTE from James Blake sent from Colombo in late October 2022:

Hi Michael: Please see below for the two links to the FILM CLIP produced by the Government Film Unit.

Note: the Source-1 clip was from an OLD post on your Thuppahis blog: dated 30 July 2020.

Note: the Source-2 clip surfaced when I did an additional YouTube ‘search’.

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