In Respect to Kalana

One of my closest friend Kalana Wattearachchi celebrated his 21st birthday on October 23rd and he is generous enough to offer party on following day at NIBM premises. He entertained all with lunch and WE ALL WISH HIM VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

The Colombo International Book Fair 2010

As usual in every year, Colomobo International Book Fair 2010 was held in September in this year too. Being an enthusiastic reader I also waiting till September to participate this grand event. This books fair provides an opportunity to buy every book with discount which causes to attract wide range of readers from little children to adults. It doesn't matter what kind of job you are doing, there is any kind of book to anyone of any age group. Thus thousands normally visit there and it is stated that this time more than a million visited. This create win - win situation to both readers and publishers. Publishers can sell more books where as readers can buy books at dicounted prices. Even some visited there to have a fun. One of my friend told me that although he visited there he couldn't find any suitable book for him ???????? However I visited there twice. ( There was a break down of blogging as I had lot of books to be read and I wish to sorry for my beloved readers.)

However there were some books which were highly demanded. One of them is Sinhala translation of "Harry Potter and the order of phoenix". (I wish to talk about that book in another blog. So I don't write more details about it now).

Buddhist Books are also highly demanded and there were several stalls which only includes Buddhist Books. Most intteresting fact I noticed is there many buyers who are in their twenties or thirties.

Psychological books were also prefered choice of many readers and it is notable thing that most youth bought Psychological books.

And there was a trend to buy which were nominated to "Swarna Pusthaka" awards. When I was selecting books one lady came and bought "Kandak Sema" not because of quality of story in the book but because that it was nominated.

There few facters which can be noted in the Book Fair 2010. First one is higher cost of books. For example Sinhala translation of "Harry Potter and the order of phoenix" was cost Rs. 1200. 00. This is huge cost and normally anyone think twice before spending such big money for one book if it was not a recommeded text book. Sinhala fictions were non second to translations. Late auther T. B. Ilangarathne's books like "Lasada", "Amba Yaluwo" and etc cost around Rs. 300. That was an only example and prices of books are high specially books that were published by reputed publishers.

Another good thing was that no stalls in upstairs of BMICH due to on going repairs of the building. In previous occasions many visiters were tired going up and down with huge bags. So that many visiters were discourage to go stalls which were situated oustside main hall of BMICH. Unlike previous times this time visiters visited many stalls. However the size of stalls is also questionable. Many stalls were full with crowd and it was not easy task to select books.
Sometimes visiters waited out of particular stalls till crowd is unloaded. The congestion made many problems and it was hard to select books that suit redears' preferance. Long queues at counters were normal seen and I must state that this situation really discourage visiters. It is not either secret or unexpected thing that large number of visited book fair every years. So that organizers must be ready to welcome large number of visiters in this years too specially under the situation of ending long ran conflict. On that side visiters were facilitated with least convenience. However it is a must to draw the attention of the organizers of this exhibition to this problem and I wish thta we would not have to face this problem is book fair 2011.
However we enjoy a lot in Book Fair 2010 which brought us many experiences and it would be nice experience to anyone who visited there. Finally I wish to state that although there were small problems the Colombo International Book Fair 2010 was very successful grand event and Book Fair 2011 would be a better one.

Manju Wanniarachchi - A hero of our time

Manju Wanniarachchi was able to bring a Gold Medal in Common Wealth Boxing Games after 72 years. I'm writing this article to both congratulate him and present my opinion regarding sports in Sri Lanka. In our context this was a great victory because Sri Lanka is a WONDERFUL country which offers lesser facilities to athletes who try to shine our motherland with medals. Therefore if someone plays for country he has to go his journey himself. Neither officials nor media pay their attention to those nascent athletes until he or she scores a medal in international area. So it is a really miracle if someone can bring a medal to country under thiis situation where as other countries provide maximum support for their athletes.

That is the situation before win any medal and when athletes win a medal situation is completely is contrast. Officials are waiting to take snapshots with medal winners and uncountable wishes are offered. Mass Media offers full coverage. Fortunately I was able to find out a Photo of Manju Wanniarachchi in which he is posed alone.

Next I wish to point out some issues in sports in our schools. Many in born talented athletes can be found on sportsmeets in schools but unfortunately they are not given proper guidance and most importantly they have no enough facilities to practice and enhance their skills. If a student shows his skills in a particular sports, from that point he has to face lot of difficulties. Many look him jealousy and if a child of teacher in same school plays same game, talented student has to stopped his journey. On that side Manju Wanniarachchi was lucky enough to study in Vidyartha College, Kandy which has a good reputation for athletes. Facilities that are required for most of games are limited to Colombo. If someone in rural area wants to continue his sporting career he has to migrate to Colombo. Manju Wanniarachchi is a rare example who does his practices outside of Colombo. There is boards, authorities for each game but unfortunately most of them are limited to their name and nothing has done to benefits of either athletes or sports in Sri Lanka. Being a Chess player I had experience this bad situation very well and it is hard to find anything done by Chess Federation of Sri Lanka to promote Chess in Sri Lanka and all other regulators of other sports repeat same story.

This is the bitter truth of situation of sports in Sri Lanka. This is the reason for not having a succeeding athletes after Sugath Tilakarathne or Susanthika Jayasinghe. As a result of this only few extraodinaries perfom in international stage represnting Sri Lanka.

However I wish YOU all the best for Manju Wanniarachchi for your GREAT VICTORY and wish U MAY BE ABLE TO BRING GOLD MEDAL FROM OLIMPIC TO OUR MOTHERLAND.

Sherlock Holmes, Conan Dolye and Chandana Mendis

The Sherlock Holmes stories were written by Conan Doyle who was able to take readers to another dimension. There is no doubt, the stories are very interesting. Millions around the world hug the books warmly. This brings fame and wealth to Conan Doyle.

Recent years these books were translated into Sinhala by Chandana Mendis. Though some translators had already translated Sherlock stories into Sinhala It was neither famous nor successful. However translations done by Chandana Mendis were very successful and were able to attract many readers throughout the Sri lanka. Reactions from readers were very encouragable so that Chandana Mendis started translating other Sherlock Holmes stories too. I and my nost of friends are also big fans Sherlock Holms and we are still in a taste to read them. Chandana Mendis must be thanked for his excellence skills in translating which are able to convey the enthusiasm as original English books to Sri lankan readers. No doubt his work was well done. The effort of Chandana Mendis to introduce new charactors of international detective literature to Sri Lanka was very successful. However there are few questions remained on my mind that I wish to disccuss in next paragraph.

There were 60 stories (if not exactly 60, it should number around 60) written by Conan Doyle and the LIST OF BOOKS can be found on Wikipedia. My question is there are morre than 60 Sinhala transalations of stories of Sherlock Holmes? If there were only 60 books were written by Conan Dolye how Chandana Mendis published more than 60?. When I forwaded this question to my friends some told me those are the stories were orginally written by Chandana Mendis. But when I searched on the internet, it was found that many other authors used charactors of Conan Dolys's stories to create their own stories. I found one of such book and photo is published below and it is sure that there are many more books like this.

I guess these are the stories which might be translated by Chandana Mendis. However in the preface of the books it was mentioned that these stories were taken from the documents in the trunk belonged to Dr. Watson. This made most readers upset. It was better if Chandana Mendis could mention from where he took the story. On the other hand he should have mentioned it because real authors of those particular stories must be respected. It was very funny that Chandana Mendis stated that he found trunk of Dr. Watson. I wonder why anyother couldn't find that trunk which was in a store for decades. I must mentioned another point in my article. I think everybody cannot be another Conan Dolye. The writing style of Conan Dolye was unique to him and nobody was able to imitate his writing style. Actually his situation can be described as some sort of intellectual property stealing. If someone is real writer he should be able to address readers in a unique way to him. But instead of being creative, copying some others story is not so good. This is my opinion and your comments are highly appreciated.

SRI DANTHA DATHUN WAHANSE

A very rare photograph of the Sacred Tooth of Relic of Lord Budda. Now established in Sri Dalada Maligawa, Kandy, Sri Lanka. The Buddhists throughout the world respect the Sacred Tooth of Relic.

Stamp for our school

This stamp has been issued to celebrate the century of the Sri Sumangala College, Panadura. Long life for our GREAT SCHOOL.

Hambanthota harbour bottom quarry blasting

These days newly built Hambantota harbour is very popular topic. So I decided to post a video of the harbour. This video is recored by my friend Mr. Hemal Nalaka Warawita ,who is a subcontractor of the port. I'm very grateful to him for this video.