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| Sunday, 23 June 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Their world in more ways than one On my way to office each day I happen to see and marvel the ingenious way in which some of those less fortunate than we substitute things for what they lack in life. Recently I came across a man who stopped near a parked motor cycle; pulled out a pair of scissors from his pocket and used the motor bike's mirror to trim his moustache. Once I found a wayside boutique keeper's daughter busy replacing the back of her earring with a piece of cork from a discarded bottle. Then there is also a beggar down a side lane in Mt. Lavinia who listens to music from a pocket radio. Is he a lover of music? No. Listening to it ''makes me forget I'm hungry'' was his reply. What would you call the above doings" Creativity of the highest order? I should think so; for creativity gives you the insight to see your world in more ways than one. Creativity does not limit itself to lofty company either as you are wont to think - associating it as you do with those inventors of motor cars, composers of music or other great men and women. The kind of creativity I've given as examples are of those who see their world which stems from their realization that they could do things differently to others; and their willingness to learn from things around them. In their case there is no pressure or compulsion to the accepted. How depressing when you come up with an idea or suggestion only to be told ''I've always done it this way.'' F& B Brings the most money Colombo's five-star hotels are constantly on food promotion sprees - one vying with the other to produce the kind of fare that would entice the busy businessmen or the fastidious diner and so grab a share of the tourist market. Not surprising. For the tourist industry being what it is, the hotels are pinning their hopes on their food and beverage departments, for it is the 'F & B' that brings in the most money, said a hotelier. No wonder the variety of culinary delights turned out by our local chefs and those 'five stars' flown down from time to time are truly amazing. Right now the Galadari Hotel is busy with a Burger promotion scheduled from June 14 - 22 at which all burgers will be served with French fries and a coke. What makes them pick on 'Burgers'? That happens to be the most popular from among all the other food festivals we have had over the year, said this hotelier. The Hilton Colombo is busy having their `Crab Claw' promotion at the Curry Leaf and the Lanka Oberoi is capitalizing on the glut of mangoes with a mango festival which will see mango milk shakes, mango ice-cream, juices and desserts in various forms made with this fruit. And then there is the Mt. Lavinia Hotel that is having a `Satay Promotion' this week offering eight varieties of it - Mutton satay, fish, beef, chicken, seafood, vegetable, with rice cakes, spicy salads, peanut sauce and the like. Mayor's plans beautify the city of Colombo The members of the Colombo Club had the Mayor of Colombo Prasanna Gunawardena as Chief Guest at their luncheon meeting at the Lanka Oberoi last week. The Club's Chairman Reggie Candappa in his very sincere introduction to the Mayor referred to him as ''an expert in urban development, an old Royalaist always among the top ten in his class'' and that while other students studied Latin, Greek, Shakespeare and Western Classical Music, he studied Sanskrit, Sinhala Literature and was a member of the oriental orchestra playing the Dilruba.What's more after graduating in architecture from the university of Croatia, he worked there as an architect in Croatia's Urban Planning Institute and subsequently met and married his wife Dariya who is an art historian. The Mayor, of course, talked of his plans for beautifying the city of Colombo which, during his childhood was referred to as a 'gentleman city, a garden city, a cosmopolitan city; even then with no ingredients of a big time city. But it was clean and orderly, leisurely and not quite vibrant. Yet it was a garden city in which people lived and worked in relative harmony. And any big change was limited only to the Ceylinco House with its Aakasa Kade providing at the time only breathtaking views of the city below and far beyond. But alas! That was only till the country started opening up its economy during the post 1977 UNP times. And with that came rapid and complex change; contradictions and conflicts. And there were concerted programs to manage them. The Mayor listed the numerous schemes like the Kotte development, the Port Expansion with its new access road and so on. But over the years these systems having broken down, the main challenges in the city were to attend to these problems that are the real concern of the majority that live in Colombo and the carrying out of major tasks of forging the future development of the city. ''My plans for the city have to respond to these two challenges'', he said touching on the problems that affect our day-to-day lives and how he was to set about rectifying those too numerous to list here. |
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