My Pettah walks start with Fort railway station, Colombo. Built in 1908, it is based at Manchester Victoria station in the UK. Ten platforms support seventy-three million passengers a year. Check out the unusual statue in front of the station. We then cross the road into Pettah.

The HSBC Ceylon Literary & Arts Festival has, in just a few short editions, become one of Colombo’s most anticipated cultural gatherings. This year, Edition Three places a special spotlight on its youngest audience with a thoughtfully curated Children’s Festival, designed to spark imagination, nurture creativity and cultivate a lifelong love of reading, storytelling and the arts.

Pippin, which commenced as a personal experience of the Founder & Director Dineshika Nanayakkara, has evolved into a one-stop shop catering to newborns, pregnant mothers, and children up to six years. We had a chat with Dineshika.

Salam Ramadan is a flagship cultural initiative of the Western Provincial Council, implemented in collaboration with the Colombo Municipal Council, first launched in 2025 with the objective of promoting awareness, understanding, and appreciation of Sri Lanka’s diverse cultures during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

At the heart of the HSBC Ceylon Literary & Arts Festival at Cinnamon Lakeside lies one of its greatest strengths: the rare opportunity to encounter writers not just through their words, but through conversation, exchange, and presence. This year’s festival brings together an extraordinary mix of voices—local and international—each offering a distinct lens on history, humanity, and the inner life. Among them are Dr Sanjiva Wijesinghe, Joshua Ferri

So let me start by saying this: when you’re a Jaffna Tamil, walking into Cinnamon Grand Colombo for something called The Jaffna Table comes with expectations. High ones. Borderline judgemental ones. Because let’s be honest, we all believe the best Jaffna food is at home, made by someone who will scold you while serving it. ( In my case it’s my sister, and she does not like short cuts in her Jaffna food)

In Sri Lanka, Serendib: The Silk Road of the Sea, Dr Sanjiva Wijesinghe invites readers to rethink Sri Lanka’s place in world history — not as a small island on the margins, but as a pivotal crossroads of ancient global trade. Drawing on archaeology, geography, lived experience and storytelling, he challenges long-held assumptions about the island’s past and reclaims its central role in the Maritime Silk Road.

At this year’s HSBC Ceylon Literary & Arts Festival, four compelling voices will take the stage, each offering a distinct lens on history, identity and storytelling. Ashok Ferrey, known for his sharp wit and irreverent takes on Sri Lankan life, brings humour and keen social observation to his fiction and commentary. Dr Sanjiva Wijesinghe, surgeon, academic and maritime historian, reclaims Sri Lanka’s forgotten place at the heart of ancient global

In a world obsessed with speed, certainty, and resolution, waiting is often dismissed as an inconvenience. Yet, in The Wait—an Absurd Theatre Festival presented by Off-Centre Theatre—waiting becomes the very heartbeat of human existence. Bringing together two landmark works of the Theatre of the Absurd, Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, the festival invites audiences to pause, reflect, and confront the unsett

The zodiac prognosis is a general overview based on Feng Shui analysis; however, an individual’s specific luck may vary depending on their exact date of birth, time, and a detailed analysis of their personal chart.