The Holiday: Romantic Christmas escapade

‘What Women Want' and 'Something's Gotta Give' writer-director Nancy Meyers' 2006 movie The Holiday deserves to be on the Christmas wish list of all those who enjoy a good laugh and romance.

Putting Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet in lead roles proves that the movie has the ingredients of a winning formula. Diaz and Winslet play two women on the opposite ends of the world: Los Angeles and London. They are the complete opposite in personalities and lifestyles but they both share a common problem: they are both losers in love.

Amanda is a wealthy, workaholic and neurotic movie trailer producer who begins the season by throwing out her boyfriend who had cheated on her. Iris is a compassionate journalist who tries to get over the heartbreak of learning that the man that she has hopelessly been in love with for years is getting engaged to another woman. Both women do not look forward to spending a lonely Christmas in familiar surroundings. So they decide to take a break in a land far off from home by exchanging their houses for two weeks. The deal is discussed and sealed online and both women transport themselves to their new environs.

කොළඹ සිංහල ජනගහනය සියයට 24 ට බසී Steep drop in city’s Sinhala population

කොළඹ ප්‍රදේශයේ සිංහල ජනගහනය 1971 දී 50% ක්‌ වුවද 2012 පූර්ව සංගණන තොරතුරු අනුව 24% දක්‌වා පහළ බැස ඇත. කොළඹ දෙමළ ප්‍රතිශතය 33% ක්‌ වන අතර මුස්‌ලිම් ජනගහනය 40% කි.

1971 දී කොළඹ මුස්‌ලිම් ජනගහනය 19% ක්‌ වූ අතර එය 2012 දී 40% දක්‌වා වර්ධනය වී ඇත. 1971 දී දෙමළ ප්‍රතිශතය 24.5 ක්‌ වූ අතර එය අද 33% කි.

2012 දී කොළඹ වෙසෙන සිංහලයන් ප්‍රමාණය 79468 ක්‌ වන අතර දෙමළ ජනගහනය 106325 කි. මුස්‌ලිම් ජනගහනය 126345 කි.

The Sinhala population in Colombo city has dropped to 24 percent in 2012 from 50 percent in 1971, according to the latest statistical records.

The preliminary data of the 2012 Census indicates that the percentages of the Tamil and Muslim populations in Colombo had increased to 33 percent and 40 percent respectively.

In 1971 the Muslim population in Colombo stood at 19 percent and in 2012 it had increased to 40 percent. The percentage of the Tamil population in Colombo in 1971 was 24.5 percent and in 2012 it had increased to 33 percent.

The Sinhala population in the city now stands at 79,468, while Tamil and Muslim populations stand at 106,325 and 126,345 respectively.

Courtesy - Divaina

හමුවුනෙමි, උපාධිධාරී රැකියාලාභී පෙම්වතිය -

හති දදා නතරවුණු දුම්රියේ හද ගැහෙන ගුම් නාදෙ
යටකරන් හඬ තැලුව හරස් මඟ සීනුවේ නින්නාදෙ
පසු කරන් ඔබ ආවෙ, උරහිසින් එල්ලගෙන අත් බෑගෙ
වැඩ අරුණු මහ සෙනග බිම බලන් ගෙදර යන හැන්දෑවෙ

හමන දූවිලි සුළඟ කළේ හැම නිතර කරදර තමයි
ඒ වුණත් ගෙළේ නළලේ වෙලී, නැගුණු දහඩිය නිවයි
වම් අතේ බඩු මල්ල අතට, ණය පතට බර වැඩි තමයි
ඒ වුනත් ඔබෙ මුවේ නැගෙන සුදු සිනා හැඩ එහෙමමයි

කහ ගැහුණු සාරියට, හිතට ආ උපමාව ඕනෙ නෑ
දහ දාහ මදි වුණත් කිසිදාක අවලාද කීවෙ නෑ
හිරුත් බැස ගිහින්, ඔය නන කැඩුණු කුඩ පොඩිය ඕනෙ නෑ
හෙමින් ඇවිදන් යමුද, ගුරු පාරෙ තව ලයිට් දාල නෑ

අලුත් කන්තෝරුවේ, ඉඳගන්න දැන් තැනක් තියෙනවද
වැඩ කියා දෙන්න හිටි අක්ක තව ඔරවගෙන ඉන්නවද
සංගමේ වැඩ නිසා අරගොල්ලො තව සල්ලි ගන්නවද
හොරෙන් ඉඟි බිඟි දාන, මට වඩා හොඳ කොල්ලො ඉන්නවද

කැඩුණු කකුලට තාම අත්තම්ම වෙද බෙහෙත් බඳිනවද
අම්ම ගැන හිත හිතා අප්පච්චි තාම නිදි මරනවද
පොඩි මල්ලි දඟ නැතුව ඉස්කෝලෙ වැඩ හොඳට කරනවද
බුම්මගෙන ඉන්නැතුව මට ආදරෙයි කියල කියනවද

ගෙදර ළඟටම ආව, එහෙමනං මං යන්නං
අර පේන ගහ යටදි පුංචියට හාදුවක් දෙන්නං
බයිසිකල් එක පැදන් හෙට උදෙත් මං එන්නං
කැඩුණු පල්ලිය ගාව අර අපේ පුරුදු තැන ඉන්නං

භාතිෂ අකලංක සිල්වා www.boondi.lk

20 years of SMS

If you own a mobile phone (and the chances are that you do), there is one feature that you cannot usually live without: SMS (Short Messaging Service) also known as texting. We now take SMS for granted, but it was invented just 20 years ago, when the cellular industry itself was in its infancy (Remember those ‘brick’ phones circa 1990?).

While the technology really didn’t boom until around 2000, the service has been around since 1992. The first text message ever sent took place on December 3, 1992, and was sent by British engineer Neil Papworth to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone. The message simply read, “Merry Christmas.” And Jarvis had no way of replying, because his phone simply did not offer that facility back then.

‘Karma’s offerings

Courtesy - Sunday Observer By Dilshan Boange

Prasanna Jayakody’s Karma became a notable topic of discussion since it debuted in film theatres. Part of the hype could be attributed to the director’s casting decisions if one looks at how the highly talented musician Nadeeka Guruge made a debut as a screen actor while the film also marked the entry of English stage drama actress Michelle Herft to the screen. As for Jagath Manuwarna who possibly delivers the most compelling performance from the main characters, it is I believe his first, doing a lead in a feature film though not a stranger to screen acting.

‘Casting politics’

In every film there is of course the ‘politics of casting’, which could gain both positive and ‘not so positive’ remarks to the work as a whole. One of these ‘remarks’ which I feel would be food for thought was in the weekly column of satirical comments in a Sunday English paper, titled ‘Wealth of a Nation’. The columnist raised the question as to whether Jayakody directed Herft or whether he was directed by her.