The Sunday LeaderFebruary 3, 200812 ARTS

Mobitel to mobi-cast world-renowneddesigner Dinesh Chandrasena’s first

fashion show in Sri Lanka

Picture Caption From left to right:Roshan Kaluarachchi - Head ofMarketing Management - Mobitel,Janaka Jayalath - General Manager -Corporate Planning, internationalBusiness and VAS - Mobitel, JeanFernandez - General Manager -Customer care - Mobitel, Suren J.Amarasekera - CEO - Mobitel , DineshChandrasena - World renownedFashion designer, DinushkaChandrasena - Director Publishing -DoubleDee Publishing

Junior Chamber General MeetingAmidst the grandeur of the Cinnamon Grand hotel the National Board ofthe JCISL was sworn in by the National President JCI Senator NiroshanSilva. The past world president, senate chairman, past national presi-dents and many other distinguished personalities gathered for the cer-emony added much importance to the event. Junior Chamber Interna-tional (Jaycees or JCISL) being a worldwide federation of young pro-fessionals and entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 40, wasestablished in Sri Lanka in the year 1954. Ever sine JCISL, has givenmany thousands of youth the opportunity to develop themselves intoresponsible citizens. Our customized & demand driven trainingprogrammes provide members and the general public with the higheststandards of training and personal development opportunities. This yearthe National Presidents theme is “Making your Dreams come True”.

Alston Koch storms the chartswith the Murali SongAustralian music star, Alston Koch who was born inSri Lanka is storming the charts with a song dedi-cated to the world champion bowler, MuttiahMuralitharan. The Murali Song is doing well down un-der as well as the Asian Charts. It has been featuredin three continents. Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka’sace spin bowler overtook Australian Shane Warne’srecord when Eng;and played Sri Lanka in a three testseries on the island. Murali is now the world’s leadingwicket taker - a historic record. He could well end upwith 1000 wickets.

Alston Koch has recorded the only official tribute personally en-dorsed by Muttiah Muralitharan.

Sr i Lanka TelecomMobitel, the national mo-bile services providertakes great pride in an-nouncing its partnershipwith world renowned fash-ion designer DineshChandrasena to presenthis latest collection at hisfirst ever fashion show inSri Lanka. The show willbe held on April 4 at theGalle Face Hotel, Co-lombo.

This is followingMobitel’s recentlylaunched M3, its ‘super-3.5G’ services to the pub-lic, which has helped ex-pand its range by offeringthe fastest mobile broad-band service in Sri Lanka.Mobitel’s M3 the ‘super-3.5G’ service offers theonly truly mobile ICT avail-able in the country.

Mobitel will have thesole rights to mobi-cast itlive on its 3G network, giving users with access to 3G the privilege ofwitnessing an exclusive fashion show of haute couture presented by

ARTS ROUND-UP•

An evening of whit, charm, and good music by popu-lar enter tainer, singer and compere Clif fordRichards.

An Evening With Cliff.Sunday Loth February 2008,

This is a two and a half hour audience interactive concert, featur-ing Sri lanka’s popular singer, compere and entertainer CliffordRichards.Well loved evergreen favourites of Elvis, Tom Jones, Engelbert,Jim Reeves, Cliff Richard and many more will come alive inClifford’s Inimitable style not forgetting our very own sri lankansongs.The backing band for the evening will be Super Pink ‘n Purple.Clifford will also be doing many well loved duets with Mariazelle,who will be the guest artist.There will be a special sing along segment with the audience andLatin American dancers.

Young artist Jehan SamithSilva recently held his first

painting exhibition at theGandhara Gallery.

The paintings on displaywere done in oil and Acrylic.Silva who works full time as amerchandiser at a leadinggarment firm says that he wasattracted to painting from hischildhood and his firstmemories of drawing were whenhe used to draw cars featured inhit television shows. “I used tojust draw them over and overagain.”

Jehan’s debutexhibition

Srilal Miththapala, Char-tered Electrical Engineerturned hotelier is a serious

wildlife and nature enthusiast withan affection for the majestic el-ephants, launched his maidenbook the ‘Tranquil Footsteps’ – astory about the elephants atUdawalawe National Park, lastweek at the HNB Towers audito-rium.

Tranquil Footsteps was writtenon the basis of an elephant familyliving in the Udawalawe Park,through the eyes of a she elephantthat traces the life experience ofthe elephant herds in the park

The book encompasses awealth of information about el-ephants, wildlife and theUdawalawe National park in gen-eral. The author’s deep-rooted in-terest and love for wildlife and el-ephants are abundantly mani-fested through the matriarch’sstory of her life.

With a facile pen on wild lifeand in particular on elephantsMiththapala has gathered all thedetails of the she elephant and herfamily during 1998- 2002 al-though he could not publish thebook due to his numerous com-mitments in the leisure industry.

The book features the experi-ence trials and tribulations of day-to-day life of the she elephant inthe park with reminiscing herchildhood, the death of her motherand the subsequent transition ofthe mantle of leadership on to hershoulders. Her interaction withother herds and individuals, de-

By Nirmala Kannangara

tailed descriptions of the park andit’s environ are all interwoven in tothe story.

Tranquil Footsteps is a novelthat would no doubt quench the thirstof all nature lovers and for those whohas flair interest on the magnificentelephants. Tranquil Footsteps isfreely available in all leadingbookshops.

Paying a glowing tribute to hislate father P.A. Miththapala who hadinspired him in conserving natureand wild life from his young days,Miththapala at the book launchingceremony retreated the importanceof preserving the nature and wildlife that not only gives a personalsatisfaction but helps to build a closerelationship with the elephants to

put a halt to the human elephant con-flict in the country.

Miththapala is a Chartered Elec-trical Engineer graduated from theUniversity of Moratuwa and a Fel-low of the Institute of Electrical En-gineering London and had workedin Nova Scotia, Canada before tak-ing up in tourism. At present he isthe Chief Executive Officer/ Direc-tor Serendib Leisure Managementthe management company of HotelSigiriya, Club Hotel Dolphin andHotel Serendib Bentota.

Miththapala has also under-taken a field research programmeon the Mobility Patterns and Popu-lations Dynamics of SreniLankan Elephants in theUdawalawe National Park in2002 under the sponsorship of USFish and Wildlife Services. He gotthe opportunity to present hisfindings at The InternationalSymposium on Human ElephantRelationship and Conflict held inSeptember 2003.

For more details log on to SrilalMiththapala’s website on Sri LankanElephants - www.geocities.com

‘Tranquil Footsteps’

He is also a versatile musicianbut says that with his demandingjob he has to find time to paint andto do music. “It is very relaxing, sosometimes I would be paintingwell into 2, 3 in the morning aftercoming home from work.”

In his short career he has alreadywon both local and foreignaccolades and has also done muralpaintings for commercialestablishments. “I paint because Ilike painting, and I have a greattime painting.”

Silva is planning to hold hisnext exhibition in Dubai soon.

•Book Launch

Srilal Miththapala