January 9, 2025 · 1:29 pm

Remembering Priya Suryasena’s Lyrics

Sunil Thenabadu, in Ceylon Daily News, January 2025

Priya Suriyasena’s popularity will remain evergreen even after his death. With his soul-touching lyrics and iconic tunes, the genres of pop, soul, rhythm, and blues will continue to resonate with new generations.
Priya Suriyasena entered the music arena in the early 1970s, alongside artistes of the calibre of Neela Wickremasinghe, Malini Bulathsinhala, Mervin Perera, and T.M. Jayaratne. From his younger days, Priya was a huge enthusiast of Indian music stars such as Lata Mangeshkar, Mohamed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, and Asha Bhosle. Priya was an acclaimed lyricist, composing both lyrics and music, and submitting them to SLBC for auditions. His initial songs accepted by SLBC authorities—Etha Ran Viman, Mata Wasana, Adaraneeya Neranjana, and Sudu Paravi Rena Se—became everlasting hits. With these songs, Priya rose to fame overnight. Over the next five decades, he maintained his prominence, producing some of the most popular songs in Sri Lanka, including: Andura Andura Mage, Sanda Tharakawo Handawee, Sarasatha Nima, Hadawatha Illa, Heta Dawase, Malsara Hinawa, Apasu Enawa, Ratakin Eha, among others.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, theatre world, unusual people

January 9, 2025 · 1:07 pm

Rhodes Scholars For 2025

Rhodes Trust has presented a Set of NAMES & PHOTOs of Rhodes Scholars before they start at Oxford as Rhodes Scholars.

Abrianna Morales Abrianna Morales, New Mexico, 2025 …. Abrianna Morales, of Placitas, New Mexico, graduated summa cum laude from the University of New Mexico in 2023, where she studied Psychology, Criminology, and Mathematics. An internationally recognized speaker and advocate, Abrianna has spent the past seven years working at the intersections of youth engagement, gender-based violence prevention, and victims’ rights. She currently works with the National Organization for Victim Advocacy (NOVA) as the program manager of their pilot Victim Advocacy Corps (VAC), a federally-funded initiative that aims to provide college students throughout the United States with victim advocacy training, credentialing, mentorship, and a paid field-placement at a local victim service agency. A Truman Scholar and McNair Scholar, Abrianna has conducted research on victims’ experiences of procedural justice and New Mexicans’ resilience in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has published multiple reports on youth service in partnership with the Allstate Foundation. An avid reader and writer, Abrianna is interested in exploring the relationship between lived experiences of oppression, personal narrative, and the development of the political self. At Oxford, she hopes to pursue an MPhil in Political Theory.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, Canadian politics, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, female empowerment, heritage, life stories, literary achievements, migrant experiences, modernity & modernization, performance, Uncategorized, unusual people, world events & processes

January 9, 2025 · 11:43 am

An Epitaph For Lasantha Wickrematunge

Sabanayagam Varagunam in Daily Mirror, 8 January 2024, where the title reads “Lasantha Wickrematunge: A National Hero’s Enduring Legacy” … with highlighting here being the imprint of The Editor, Thuppahi

Wickrematunge’s courage was not merely a product of his profession; it was an intrinsic part of his being

January 8 marked a dark and somber day in Sri Lanka’s history, as our thoughts went back to Lasantha Wickrematunge, the fearless journalist and an indefatigable champion of human rights, who fell victim to a brutal assassination. Sixteen years have passed since his untimely demise, but Wickrematunge’s adherence to justice and human rights cemented his status as a national hero that continues to inspire generations.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, Eelam, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom & censorship, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes

January 8, 2025 · 1:30 pm

Touring Sri Lanka promoted by “Good News”

A NOTE from Naushan

The digital version of the inaugural Good News Collection shares positive and uplifting stories from across Sri Lanka. It celebrates local heroes, sports victories, new infrastructure developments, the country’s growing appeal as a travel destination and much more.

Link: https://online.fliphtml5.com/pgkmm/aysu

THIS ‘Work’ highlights the Lanka Monthly Digest’s Awards Night 2024 as well as “Bawa’s Legacy”

ALSO NOTE

https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2020/07/25/dutch-bungalow-porch-frontals-exposures-within-galle-fort/#more-44379

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, photography, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, tourism, travelogue, wild life, world events & processes

January 8, 2025 · 1:30 am

A Tamil Expat’s Appraisal of the LTTE …. Today 2025

Dr Muralidaran Ramesh Somasunderam, whose chosen title is “The Liberation Ttigers of Tamil Elam.”

The LTTE was the worst thing that destroyed Sri Lanka and its people for nearly forty years.

The LTTE killed many high caste Tamils, including Sinhalese and Muslims. They believed in children and women soldiers and suicide killing.

In fact, the 1983 ethnic riots were blamed rightly or wrongly because the LTTE killed about twelve to thirteen army soldiers in the North of Sri Lanka. Anyway, when innocent Tamils like me faced the brunt in Colombo in July 1983 the LTTE never came to our rescue. Many thousands of innocent Tamils were killed and their properties destroyed totally. In fact, my father Mr Rama Krishna Somasunderam was Senior Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Mahaweli, but our family home located at no 16 Elvin Place, Nugegoda was totally burnt, including a magnificent private library of ancient books and teak furniture was totally destroyed or looted all together.

Continue reading →

13 Comments

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, ethnicity, governance, heritage, life stories, sri lankan society

January 8, 2025 · 1:18 am

When Extremists Feed Off Each Other …. Pertinent Reflections from 2012

Michael Roberts

Just today I came across an old political essay of mine, one entitled “Prejudice and Hate in Pluralist Settings: The Kingdom of Kandy.” While the essay is of continued relevance today for Sri Lankan as well as world politics, let me bring readers face-to-face with several insights reposing within two of the COMMENTS which the article attracted, one from Dr Jane Russell and the other from Professor Chandre Dharmawardena.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, Eelam, ethnicity, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, language policies, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power sharing, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

January 7, 2025 · 10:53 am

Caste Among the Sinhalese in the Modern Era: The Significance of Name Changes

M. W. Amarasiri De Silva: “Do name changes to “acaste” names by the Sinhalese indicate a diminishing significance of caste?” 

ABSTRACT of article pubd in in Cultural Dynamics, 2018, Vol. 30(4), pp. 303–325 ………………………………….. sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav httpDs:/O/dIo: i1.o0r.g1/1107.171/0779/201932173470410918982299660055

journals.sagepub.com/home/cdy

In modern Sri Lankan society, caste has become less significant as a marker of social identity and exclusion than was the case in the past. While acknowledging this trend across South Asian societies, the literature does not adequately explain why this is happening. Increasing urbanization, the growing number of inter-caste marriages, the expanding middle class, and the bulging youth population have all been suggested as contributory factors. In rural Sri Lanka, family names are used as identifiers of family and kinship groups within each caste. The people belonging to the “low castes” identified with derogatory village and family names are socially marginalized and stigmatized. Social segregation, marked with family names and traditional caste occupations, makes it difficult for the low-caste people to move up in the class ladder, and socialize in the public sphere. Political and economic development programs helped to improve the living conditions and facilities in low-caste villages, but the lowness of such castes continued to linger in the social fabric. Socially oppressed low-caste youth in rural villages moved to cities and the urban outskirts, found non-caste employment, and changed their names to acaste names. By analyzing newspaper notifications and selected ethnographic material, this article shows how name changes among the Sinhalese have facilitated individualization and socialization by people who change their names to acaste names and seek freedom to choose their own employment, residence, marriage partners, and involvement in activities of wider society—a form of assimilation, in the context of growing urbanization and modernization.

Keywords: acaste; individualization; low caste; name change; rural change; urbanization

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, demography, discrimination, disparagement, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, intricate artefacts, island economy, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes

January 6, 2025 · 8:02 pm

Remembering Karen Roberts Who Chose Writing …..

Renuka Sadanandan, whose original title runs thus: “Karen Roberts Writing. Her Way of Staying Close” **

Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara

It was probably the single most frightening thing that happened to her. Having to walk alone from the advertising agency in Kollupitiya where she worked part-time to her home in Dehiwela, through the streets aflame. Those terrible scenes stayed imprinted in her mind though it was many years before she would think of putting them down.

“On twenty-third of July 1983, the day the world went mad, was how Karen Roberts would later write about the ethnic violence in her book ‘July’. Her world changed that day, she says sombrely. “Until then my life was great…..my only concern was what to wear on Saturday night!” Her father was abroad, her mother had to fetch her younger sister home from school and her brother was stuck somewhere and the 17-year-old Karen had to fend for herself amidst the mayhem and madness that saw the familiar Colombo landscape turn into killing streets.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, disparagement, ethnicity, historical interpretation, life stories, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, terrorism, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry

January 6, 2025 · 7:43 pm

Recalling Karen Roberts’s Novel “JULY”

A GIFT of a book from Dr. Hilali Noordeen of Britain and Galle led from one event to another: the “another” being the felicitation that he provided to authoress Karen Roberts in the course of the Galle Literary Festival in early 2004. KAREN, alas, passed away prematurely in 2018: so this is an occasion for TPS  to pay homage to her memory in several ways  — one being   a focus on her novel July published in 2002. In doing so, let me stress that I recall some of the tales — that is, her “evidence” — she provided about her experiences in witnesssing the horrendous assaults on SL Tamils and/or their establishments  meted out by a variety of hands during that fateful week in late July 1983.** After leaving her work place on the first day of the attacks,  she had to walk back from Kollupitiya to Dehwela to reach her home and she provided me with several vivid details of the scenes she witnessed.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

January 6, 2025 · 1:20 pm

Meeting Professor Hilali Noordeen in Galle via Karen Roberts

Michael Roberts

In late 2003 or early 2004 I was privileged to receive an invitation from Nazreen Sansoni of Barefoot to participate in the Galle Literary festival where the central events took place within the precincts of the Galle Fort — a familiar spot replete with memories of my childhood and youthful experiences.

Dr Hilali Noordeen

Karen Roberts

As it happened one of the literary stars featuring in the manifold ‘events” of the GL Festival was Karen Roberts, whose background and literary work was known to me. She was, I stress, no relation, though she had been educated in a school in Wellawatte that was a stone’s throw away from my sister Estelle Fernando’s abode in Hampden Lane Wellawatte.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under art & allure bewitching, communal relations, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, medical marvels, meditations, patriotism, performance, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, unusual people, world events & processes