Sharmini Serasinghe

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Saturday, August 8, 2015


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Vil Uyana

Vil Uyana
Scroll down for the pictorial.....

Jathika Namal Uyana

Jathika Namal Uyana
Scroll down for the pictorial.....

Discover Sri Lanka- Kaludiya Pokuna in Kandalama

Discover Sri Lanka- Kaludiya Pokuna in Kandalama
Scroll down for the pictorial.....

Discover Sri Lanka- Ritigala Kande (Mountain)

Discover Sri Lanka- Ritigala Kande (Mountain)
Scroll down for the pictorial..

Discover Sri Lanka- Pidurangala- King Kashyapa’s Temple

Discover Sri Lanka- Pidurangala- King Kashyapa’s Temple
Scroll down for the pictorial........

Discover Sri Lanka- 'The Gathering'

Discover Sri Lanka- 'The Gathering'
Scroll down for the pictorial........

15th SAARC Conference held in Colombo in August 2008

15th SAARC Conference held in Colombo in August 2008
Scroll down for more photographs........

Peace in Sri Lanka- What a Process!

Peace in Sri Lanka- What a Process!
Muhamalai Forward Defence Line. (Scroll down for more photographs)

Dr. John Gooneratne- A Genuine Peace Pundit

Dr. John Gooneratne- A Genuine Peace Pundit

Birth of ‘Business Matters’ 1989 to 2004

Birth of ‘Business Matters’ 1989 to 2004
Presenter of Business Matters (Scroll down for more photographs)

Travails & Tribulations of a Television Interviewer

Travails & Tribulations of a Television Interviewer
Interviewing Shoko Asahara

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About me.......

About me.......
Sharmini Serasinghe

About Me

Served as-

Director Communications of the Government Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process in Sri Lanka (SCOPP).

Manager Corporate Communications Virtusa Pvt. Ltd.

Guest Producer / Director, Interviewer, Programme Presenter & Script Writer of a variety of magazine and documentary programmes in English, for the state TV station- The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation.

Compere/Moderator of high profile Corporate and National events.

English Newscaster for the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation.

Visiting Consultant on Public Speaking (in English).

Contributor to the CNN World Report through the state TV station.

Guest Producer, Script Writer, Interviewer, Presenter of radio programmes of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.

Freelance features writer to all leading English daily and weekly newspapers in Sri Lanka.

Sub-Editor and features writer for the former Sun & Weekend newspapers published by the Independent Group of Newspapers.

Founder Member of the Society for the Protection of Animal Rights (SPAR)

sharminis@sltnet.lk

Vil Uyana

Vil Uyana
My Idea of Paradise

Discover Sri Lanka- Jathika Namal Uyana

Discover Sri Lanka- Jathika Namal Uyana
The quartz deposit, spread over 105 hectares, is the largest to be found in South Asia

Discover Sri Lanka- Kaludiya Pokuna in Kandalama

Discover Sri Lanka- Kaludiya Pokuna in Kandalama
An ancient incomplete stupa

Discover Sri Lanka- Ritigala Kanda (Mountain)

Discover Sri Lanka- Ritigala Kanda (Mountain)
The open sunken court

Discover Sri Lanka- Pidurangala- King Kashyapa’s Temple

Discover Sri Lanka- Pidurangala- King Kashyapa’s Temple
Rainbow over Pidurangala (left) and the Sigiriya Rock (right)

Discover Sri Lanka- 'The Gathering'

Discover Sri Lanka- 'The Gathering'

15th SAARC Conference held in Colombo in August 2008

15th SAARC Conference held in Colombo in August 2008
Rupavahini's Sinhala, English & Tamil Commentators for the 15th SAARC Conference

Jaffna Fort

Jaffna Fort
Major General Susil Chandrapala shares a joke

Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP)

Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP)
(L - R) Seneka Abeyratne (Director Economic Affairs), Sharmini Serasinghe (Director Communications), Dr. John Gooneratne (Deputy Secretary General) Jayantha Dhanapala (Secretary General) Shanaka Jayasekera (Director Policy) & (Director Operations)

Travails & Tribulations of a Television Interviewer

Travails & Tribulations of a Television Interviewer
Interviewing Shoko Asahara

Producer/Director Business Matters

Sunrise in Vil Uyana....


Sigiriya rock in the background......





My villa.......

Entrance to the villa.......





The giant bed............

The bedroom occupies the entire top floor of the villa.............

View from the bed.......

The bathroom...........

Paradise on a plate......

Jathika Namal Uyana

Jathika Namal Uyana
Entrance

The rose quartz at Namal Uyana glows beneath the setting sun.....

My crew is ready for action.....

Seleting a chunk of rose quartz to take back home as a memento.....

There is archaeological evidence to prove, that the forest was also a meditation center for Buddhist monks.....

Kaludiya Pokuna in Kandalama

Kaludiya Pokuna in Kandalama
Kaludiya Pokuna lies at the base of a long rocky ridge, on the northern periphery of the Knuckles range

Remains of a structure that may have been used to serve alms to the resident monks

One of the numerous kutis where monks meditated.....

Out at last with no snake enounters

The 1st was almost illegible as it is exposed to the ravages of nature.....

Yet another pathetic sight that met my eyes, were the remains of ancient artefacts mostly of clay, belonging to Kaludiya Pokuna, stashed away in a tiny shed, with no door to protect them from treasure hunters.....


The ancient stupa at Dakinigri Viharaya screams of neglect.....

But people still pay homage to this sacred stupa.....

Surface roots of a giant tree.....

Ritigala Kanda (Mountain)

Ritigala Kanda (Mountain)
Our Guide Telson Fernando, Manager Operations of Serendib Leisure Management and the rest of us on the banks of Banda Pokuna, shortly before we commenced our climb of Ritigala Kanda

Scrambling up several boulders, brought us to the top of the bund of Banda Pokuna


The principal entrance staircase brought us to a small circus or roundabout- the first of three which punctuate the footpath

A few meters further on, brought us to a compound, which looked like a sunken court open to the skies

My team of Tarzans

There are huge ‘tree like’ monsters which are parasites, which have over the years, strangled the ‘victim tree’ and caused it a slow death

The Ritigala stone-flagged pavement, which leads up the main spur, to the two principal double-platform enclosures, of the monastery complex

...................each of the two principal buildings of the monastery consists of a double-platform of immaculate precision, built exactly on the east-west axis...............

The stone bridge

Intricately carved stone urinal

From Switzerland- a 3rd time visitor to Ritigala

Surveying our wild-life infested surroundings

Directing the cameraman

Ooops! The FM mic is out of my pocket

Pidurangala- King Kashyapa’s Temple

Pidurangala- King Kashyapa’s Temple
Sigiriya Rock Fortress

Guide Abeykoone explainging the history of Pidurangala on our way up

Final check of the shot-list

Climbing one of the rocks the monks meditated on

Made it at last!

Crawl down was equally bad..........

Crawling down was no fun, at leat not for me

Winding our way between giant rocks

Ancient rock inscription we saw along the way

We have finally arrived.......

At the feet of the giant Buddha statue

The row of twelve 'Kutis' adjoing each other

My knees were almost packing up during our way down

Discover Sri Lanka- 'The Gathering'

Discover Sri Lanka- 'The Gathering'
My 'on camera' introduction to the programme

Welcoming Srilal as our 'honorary guide' to The Gathering





Approaching the Minneriya National Park


Lal my cameraman and the rest of the crew ready to roll!




















Elephants love water!

Water! Too temptigting to ignore

These are the young ones playing in the water

What an amazing sight!

Srilal looks pleased as punch!

Done for the day!

15th SAARC Conference held in Colombo in August 2008

15th SAARC Conference held in Colombo in August 2008
President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, His Excellency Hamid Karzai

Chief Adviser to the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, His Excellency Dr. Fakhrudd

Muhamalai Forward Defence Line

Muhamalai Forward Defence Line

Muhamalai- Bullet riddled wall

Our mode of transportation- A helicopter Gunship

Ready for take-off !




Sigiriya rock in the background......

The pool blends into the lake.......




......leads you to an open spacious living and dining area with an inviting pool by the side


The villa has its own private pool..........




........and has two balconies overlooking the luscious surroundings


.........stone bathtub.


Entrance to Namal Uyana

Namal Uyana has a history filled with legend and romance.....


Making our way back over the rough suface of rose quartz

Another unique feature to be found here is an ancient water receptacle, into which pure water has been flowing down from the quartz mountains for over a thousand years

Namal Uyana is undoubtedly a valuable site, not only for archaeological, botanical and biological research, but also for the curious tourist like you and I

My crew & I make our way towards the entrance to the meditating centre.....

One of the ponds from which "Kaludiya Pokuna" derived its name.....

Kutt #32.......my crew was horrified when I decided to investigate the snake infested kutti.....

I also came across two ancient rock inscriptions.....

.......but the 2nd one was mercifully protected by an overhanging rock

Sinhala & English translation of the inscription




I left Kaludiya Pokuna with a heavy heart, because it was obviously a place of nobody’s-business

A visit to the Ritigala monastery starts close to the foot of the bund of Banda Pokuna


As we wove our way up through the forest, we discovered that there was no proper pathway, except at intervals, with steps cut into the rock

The near perfectly restored stone pathway now made our ascent a bit easier

A short break to consult my copy of ‘A guide to Ritigala’

The route is lined with ancient forest trees, and the air becomes cool and damp as the vegetation changes to that of a montane jungle



The ruined Ritigala monastery complex covers an area of about 24 hectares or 60 acres..........

...........linked together by a stone bridge

On the stone bridge

Male, female or unisex?


Describing our surroundings on-camera

Time to do 'my bit' on camera

Finally, a chance to quietly absorb the ambiance of Ritigala

Pidurangala- King Kashyapa’s Temple

Pidurangala- King Kashyapa’s Temple
Pidurangala

Discussing the script on our way up

Ready for the climb ahead!

Almost there.....



Managed it in one piece...........

Pidurangala- King Kashyapa’s Temple- Lal my cameraman in action as we climb

Meditating path used by the monks (for Sakman Bawana)

Pointing in the direction of the Sigiriya Rock

A moment to catch our breath after that arduous climb

Entrane to a 'Kuti'

Inside a 'Kuti'

My TV crew is amused as I unglamouresly make my way down

Introducing Srilal Miththapala to the programme 'Discover Sri Lanka'.

Ready to take-off to Minneriya


On our way to Minneriya



My first sighting of a wild elephant herd!

Srilal counting the number of elephant herds gathered at the Minneriya Tank.













My camera crew in action








Testing the water

Yummy cool water!

Sparring or playing?

Look at the baby!

The elephants go back home to the jungle after a lusicious meal of juicy grass and a refreshing dip in the Minneriya Tank

15th SAARC Conference held in Colombo in August 2008

15th SAARC Conference held in Colombo in August 2008
Former President of the Republic of Maldives, His Excellency Maumoon Abdul Gayoom

The Rupavahini Camera Crew

Rupavahini's SAARC Crew

'Business Matthers' 1989 - 2004

'Business Matthers' 1989 - 2004
Presenting 'Business Matters'

Editing 'Business Matters'

Checking the list of equipment before leaving for a recording

Shooting in Kandalama for 'Business Matters'

My crew & I returning from 'Nuwara Eliya' after a field coverage for 'Business Matters'

Producer/Director 'Business Matters'
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