The Saadhu Blog
The Ig Nobel Award
Aug 28, 2016 • 5 min read
The Ig Nobel awards had been established as a reaction against the Nobel Awards. The aim was "to first make people laugh, and then make them think", probably because the Nobel Awards make us wonder if we should laugh or cry. Ig Nobel is organized by the bi-monthly magazine 'Annals of Improbable Research'.
Worship Tirupati At Kelaniya
Aug 21, 2016 • 11 min read
Tirupathi is in Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the holiest places in India, Dedicated to an incarnation of Vishnu as Venkateshwara, with goddess Lakshmi residing on the chest of Venkateshwara. The god is also worshipped as Tirupathi Thimmappa by the Dalits, Adhivasis and the so-called 'Backward' castes in India. According to Wikepedia, the annual income is said to be over I.Rs 10 billion for a year!
De-Anglicizing Tagore
Aug 5, 2016 • 19 min read
De-Anglicizing Tagore could begin by calling him Gurudev Rabindranath. If we have accepted Rabindra-sangeet, instead of Tagore-sangeet, we are not creating a new precedent in calling him Gurudev Rabindranath, and his writings as Rabindrasahithya, and he too probably would have been happy to be accepted by this name. If we do not need a family name for Valmiki or Kalidasa, why do we need a family name for Rabindranath?
Webinar Phobia
Dec 7, 2015 • 5 min read
Webinar or the web-based conference, and discussions in cyberspace is the future.
Heritage Marketing
Dec 2, 2015 • 5 min read
Art into Heritage appeared in this column on January 22nd, 2014. The SAARC Cultural Center in association with the University of Peradeniya held a conference on April 28th and 29th, 2014, at the Peradeniya University. The theme was 'Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Sustainable Development'. Delegates from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka presented their papers.
Going Down Memory Train
Dec 2, 2015 • 6 min read
We are one country, one nation, one people. Now we can travel by train from Matara to Jaffna like we used to do till 1983. Today Omantha is a small railway station and another calm little town on the A9. Let it always remain so, from now on. We do not need any more barriers or border check points within one country. Though we talk of the A9 now, a few decades ago very few would travel by road to Jaffna as the train journey was more convenient. All we could notice then was the 'Jaffna junction' in Anuradhapura. Still, even if A9 is popular now, the train is a more convenient, and greener way to travel to Jaffna.
21st Century Silk Route
Nov 14, 2015 • 5 min read
A late 8th century poet wrote on the Sihigiri mirror-like wall about a "sina-pata beji [e] rana-vana", a golden skinned beauty wearing Chinese silk.
Many Shades Of Truth
Nov 12, 2015 • 5 min read
Sigiri Graffiti No. 395 reads, 'Hama jene ran-vanun dut-mo yi boru kiyat". Pranavitana translation goes as "We saw the golden-coloured ones, thus everyone utters false words". Clough and also Carter translated 'boru' as 'lie', 'falsehood' and 'untruth'. Prof. Senarat Paranavitana explains the term "boru", which he translated as false wrods in his 'Sigiri Graffiti'. "The word 'boru' may not, in the 9th century, have had so depreciatory a meaning as is attached to it in the modern language".
Do We Need Book Fairs
Sept 27, 2015 • 5 min read
Once again we are having an "International Book Fair" in Colombo. It is the talk of the town this month. The organizers will count the footfalls and be proud about the achievement. For nine days there will be a huge traffic congestion around the BMICH. The book fair is the largest annual crowd puller in the country.