Category Archives: unusual people

Filed under art & allure bewitching, charitable outreach, cricket for amity, cricket selections, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, life stories, patriotism, performance, S. Thomas College, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, unusual people

September 3, 2025 · 4:40 pm

Vale: Lareef Idroos

Errol Fernando in Melbourne

I am deeply saddened to hear of my very old friend Lareef’s death. He was my neighbour in Kollupitiya, Colombo 3. From the time I was 6 or 7 years old I played cricket with him under the coconut trees. The railway line and the sea were just behind the batsman! Lareef loved to bowl, and I loved to bat and so we were both happy! I spent hours, days, weeks, months and years facing his bowling. He came up with new tricks all the time and used the sea breeze very effectively! I have no memory of him batting and me bowling !

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, Colombo and Its Spaces, cricket for amity, cricket selections, cultural transmission, education, heritage, life stories, patriotism, performance, plural society, politIcal discourse, S. Thomas College, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

September 1, 2025 · 8:10 pm

Learning Law with Aid From Colvin R de Silva

A Guy named Talagalla, … with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

I am just penning this note after finishing my research for the day, before the thoughts dissipate into the quiet of the evening. The cases I read, the legislation I examined, and the scholarly writings I consulted all converged in my mind, and they brought me back to a lesson I once received from my senior, Mr. D.S. Wijesinghe, President’s Counsel, passed down from his own mentor, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva. The story of how Dr. de Silva engaged with the law has lingered in me for years, and it bears repeating, for stories carry the weight of wisdom in ways instructions never can.

Dr Colvin R de Silva

Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, education, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, meditations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people

August 30, 2025 · 6:35 pm

A Candle for GAZA in Colombo……Supporting the SUMUD Flotilla

Message from Manel Fonseka

Join us to light a candle and say a prayer for the success of the Sumud Flotilla as they set sail to break the siege on Gaza.

Starting on August 31st, 150 ships will set sail with crew from more than 40 counties, in the biggest global effort to break Israel’s 18year siege of Gaza. As famine spreads in Gaza and Israel continues with complete impunity to murder, rape and starve the population of 2 million people living there, the people of the world are banding together to step up where international law has failed.

Join us this Sunday, 31st of August, at 4.30pm under the Nuga tree at the Chapel of Christ the Living Saviour on Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 07, to light a candle and say a prayer for the success of the fleet, the safety of its crew, and the salvation of the people of Gaza from Israel’s unrelenting genocide.

Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, charitable outreach, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disaster relief team, education, ethnicity, human rights, Jews in Asia, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, trauma, unusual people, war crimes, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes, zealotry

August 24, 2025 · 11:26 am

Yasodhara Kumaratunga: “A Butterfly’s Wise Words”

YASODHARA’s Handwritten Inscription on the Cover Page of the pamphlet in my hands …. courtesy of the copy held by my late departed sister, Estelle Fernando

To ….My dearest Aunty Estelle,

Thank you for starting me off on my long trek” through the world of learning.

With Love

Yasodhara XX

EDITORIAL NOTE: The collection of short poems in this loose-leaf pamphlet is NOT presented below in either chronological order or paginated order [since the pamphlet is NOT numbered].

A Butterfly’s

Wise Words

&

Other Poems.

Yasodhara Kumaratunga

with Cover Design by Yasodhara Kumaratunga

To my beloved thaththi with love

in the hope that the blood which

flowed so vainly from your beautiful

face would mingle with the earth

of my land, to give forth

the blossoms of Peace & Brotherhood

for which you fought so passionately.

And to my ammi for

all that you have been to me

4 Comments

Filed under art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, education, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, martyrdom, patriotism, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, trauma, unusual people, women in ethnic conflcits

August 22, 2025 · 11:12 am

Sanjiva’s Silken “SILK ROAD” Launched Today

Sanjiva Wijesinha

Filed under art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, growth pole, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, migrant experiences, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, power politics, security, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes

August 22, 2025 · 1:10 am

Vijaya Kumaratunga in Wikipedia

FROM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijaya_Kumaratunga

Kovilage Anton Vijaya Kumaranatunga (Sinhala: කොවිලගේ ඇන්ටන් විජය කුමාරණතුංග; Tamil: விஜய குமாரணதுங்க; 9 October 1945 – 16 February 1988), popularly known as Vijaya Kumaratunga, was a Sri Lankan film actor, playback singer and politician^[1] regarded as one of the most popular icons in Sri Lankan cinema of all time. He was married to former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaranatunga from 1978 until his assassination in 1988. He was the founder of Sri Lanka Mahajana Party.^[1]

Filed under art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, insurrections, JVP, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, terrorism, theatre world, trauma, unusual people

August 21, 2025 · 5:15 pm

Remembering Vijaya Kumaratunga Today

Michael Roberts

SEE David Jeyaraj’s Vale ….. https://thuppahis.com/2025/08/10/in-memoriam-vijaya-kumaratunga/ … FOR the original Thuppahi version, which does not have the highlighting emphases from my hand that can be seen NOW.

A NOTE: David Jeyaraj provides readers with a wide-ranging and incisive account – one which I recommend strongly. Sri Lanka’s political circles lost a visionary political figure when the JVP assassinated Vijaya Kumaratunga on the 16th February 1988. For Chandrika, Yasodhara and Vimukthi, of course, it was a tragedy.

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, atrocities, communal relations, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, martyrdom, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, trauma, unusual people, vengeance

August 21, 2025 · 4:51 pm

Yasodara Kumaratunga’s Inventive Mind: Free Verse from London

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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August 21, 2025 · 2:11 pm

Sachi’s Review of Bradman Weerakoon’s Autobiography

Sachi Sri Kantha, reviewing Bradman Weerakoon, Rendering Unto Caesar, Vijitha Publications, Colombo, 2004, 396 pp. under the title “Rendering Unto Caesar: a Book Review”**

Of the millions of Sri Lankans born in the 20^th century, Bradman Weerakoon is the only fellow to be blessed uniquely. He was blessed for the first time in the year of his birth (1930), when his police officer father Edmund R.Weerakoon christened the name of legendary Australian cricket batsman Donald Bradman to him. In 1930, Bradman became a phenomenon in the cricket arena by scoring 974 test runs in his England tour. Bradman Weerakoon was blessed again – the only Sri Lankan – to serve nine Sinhalese politicians who held nominal executive power from 1954 to 2004. Thus, Weerakoon was privy to the thoughts and work styles of these nine politicians (John Kotelawela, Solomon W.R.D. Bandaranaike, W. Dahanayake, Dudley Senanayake, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, J.R. Jayewardene, R. Premadasa, D.B. Wijetunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe) whom he has sketched in this memoir. In addition to the nine leaders, even the first prime minister Don Stepehn Senanayake also receives passing mention, as the father of Dudley Senanayake.

Bradman Weerakoon