Aanya Wipulasena in Ceylon Today, August 2025
The decision to work overseas wasn’t easy. Burdened by debt, 25-year-old Nelum Niroshani, a mother of one from Anuradhapura, felt she had no choice. Her plan was simple: Take a job as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia, earn enough to support her family, repay her loans and then return home to her seven-year-old child. But her time in the Middle East quickly turned into a nightmare.
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Tomos Morgan, BBC News, 19 August 2025, where the title runs thus: “Faces of Welsh convicts sent to Australia recreated by AI” ++
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has helped researchers generate what they believe could have been the faces of Welsh convicts sent to Australia in the 19th century. The lives of 60 criminals deported from Anglesey for crimes as small as stealing a handkerchief have been traced by a team of volunteers and researchers.
They have used detailed prisoner records from the time, historical sketches and, where possible, photos of the prisoners’ modern day descendants to create a profile of what they may have looked like.
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DATA secured from Internet Sources by The EDITOR, THUPPAHI
News Item presented by Walter Jayawardena
The wedding of London educated daughter Yasodhara of Sri Lanka’s former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and a Consultant medical practitioner Roger Walker was announced in London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in a paid advertisement about three weeks ago.
Following the British tradition of calling Consultant level medical practitioners as Mister the Telegraph advertisement called the groom as Mr.R.H.M. Walker and the just passed out young doctor bride as Dr.M.Y.S. Kumaratunga.
Michael Roberts in Adelaide, August 2025
Among a small pile of photgrpahs, letters and papers left by my departed elder sister, Estelle Fernando, is a printed ‘pamphlet’ published by Yasodhara Kumaratunga, the eldest daughter of Vijaya Kumaratunga and Chandrika Bandaranaike.
It presents thirteen brief poems coined by Yasodhara when she was “in exile in London” — as the Foreword by an unknown person tells us. These were “written by Yasodhara between the ages of 8 plus 1/2 years – 11 years” during a period when she was beginning to learn English after an education in Sinhala.”
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Lisa McGregor in ABC.Net.Au, 15 August 2025, bearing this title “Former immigration minister Alex Hawke calls for action on bridging visa backlog with thousands left in limbo”
Rathy Barthlote and her two daughters live in fear of their future. (ABC News: Simon Winter)
A former Coalition immigration minister has joined calls for the government to resolve the status of thousands of asylum seekers on bridging visas. A group of around 8,000 asylum seekers who arrived between 2012 and 2013 and whose claims were rejected under a now abolished system remain in legal limbo. The Department of Home Affairs says people with new, credible claims relating to their asylum applications may request ministerial intervention.
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Fazli Sameer, … The Compass Café …… If you donno where you’re going, then, any map will do
It was the sort of café people stumbled into without planning. A little crooked building on a side street that never seemed to appear on Google Maps. The hand-painted sign above the door read: “The Compass Café, Directions Served Daily.” Situated in the heart of Kollupitiya, on Green Path, the ambience was amazing and many young people made it a regular place to hang out in the evenings.
Inside, the air smelled of strong coffee and cardamom buns. A jumble of maps covered the walls: ancient parchment, subway diagrams, star charts, even children’s doodles of treasure islands. Every table had a globe, most of them cracked and faded.
Ifham Nizam ✍️in The Island, August 2025… with this title “From Skies to Scripts: A young editor taking Sri Lanka’s stories to the world,” Published
At just 26, Avishka Mario Senewiratne has already done what many spend a lifetime trying to achieve. A trained pilot, published author, historian, and now Editor-in-Chief of The Ceylon Journal, Senewiratne is fast emerging as a defining voice in Sri Lanka’s literary and historical landscape. But behind the titles lies a story of deep passion, quiet perseverance, and an unwavering love for history – and the written word.
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Sachi Sri Kantha
Sachi examining a winged bean pod in 1981
Prelude
Willingly, I opt to use the ‘Ceylon’ word, because I was born in the blessed island Ceylon in May 1953. The place of my birth was Chilaw, solely for the reason it was the then work location of my father Sachithanantham, then employed as a clerk in the hospital services of the Department of Health. He was 30, but my mother was only 17. My parents are from Point Pedro, and it was an arranged marriage among the kin in Point Pedro’s adjacent regions.
From 1961 to 1971, I had primary and secondly schooling at the Colombo Hindu College (Bambalapitiya, Ratmalana) and Aquinas University College. I entered the University of Sri Lanka (Colombo Campus) in January 1972, at the age of 18 years and 8 months. This entry was delayed by months, due to the JVP insurrection in April 1971. Ceylon was re-named as Sri Lanka in May 1972.
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thuppahi
