|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 28 March 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Silumina steps into its 75th year by PADMA EDIRISINGHE Born on March 30, 1930 Sunday Observer's sister Sunday Sinhala newspaper Silumina known in English as The Ceylon Sunday illustrated (Sinhalese) in its maiden copy will be completing 74 years next Tuesday and entering its 75th year. The first editor was Piyasena Nissanka.
Carrying the same name "Silumina" curving in a crescent shape that had not been altered ever since but minus today's coloured background the maiden newspaper comprised 20 pages in all. The daily ANCL Sinhala newspaper, Dinamina had preceded it. The main news item flaunted on the first page of the first Silumina under a bold caption is the impending war between two Buddhist countries i.e. Tibet (Thibbathaya) and Nepal. Britain and China too seem to have got involved. The long column on the right of the first page has been allotted to a Dharmanusasana (sermon) by the Chief Incumbent of Veluvanaramaya in Dematagoda on the theme "How to develop an upright personality". Adjoining it is a brazen crime report, very modern in its execution. Burglars who had broken into the house of Mr. Hope of Wellawatte had departed with the valuable goods of the absentee house owner after celebrating the event with poor Hope's champagne! A hopeless situation indeed. At the top left end is boxed the subscription rate for the annual purchase of Silumina paper would be sent by post every Sunday for 52 weeks for the mere sum of six rupees! A rough calculation fixes the price of one newspaper at 11 - 12 cents postage included. Today a single Silumina copy sells at 22 rupees. Talk of inflation the ads inserted are further indicative of the stark discrepancy of prices then and now. Among the advertisers are Cargills, Millers, Brown & Co. (sited in Chatham Street), Syme (?) & Co. Pierce Leslie & Co., Colonial Motor Co., "Lactogen", Ayur. Dr. W. K. Jinadasa (who has inserted the largest advt.) and Porolis Fernando & Co. That the telephone as a mode of communication was not even in moderate use is reflected by the fact that none of the advertisers except Porolis have given their telephone numbers. The Porolis Tele number is 120, that makes those who struggle with dialling 10 to 12 digits yearn for his number. These changes orchestrated during a short span of 74 years can boggle naive minds as the writer's. Do you like to purchase a car for 3000 or 4000 rupees? Answer the Colonial Motor car ad that flaunts the request. "Mehi avith me puduma car deka balathva" (Come and have a look at these miraculous two cars). The two cars advertised are Fiat 5 14, a 4 seated car, four cylinders and horse power 10-28 (price-3200 Rs.) and Fiat 5 21 C, 5 seated car, 6 cylinders and h.p. 18-55 (price Rs 4750). But even if you answer the ad you cannot buy for they had been marketed in 1930 before most of you and I were born. Syme & Co. advertises wrist watches for Rs. 3.95, a steel cash box for Rs. 4.95, pocket watch for Rs. 2.75 and a large schoolbag for Rs. 1.75. The famous Silumina cartoon that used to thrill us as school children had made its debut from the maiden copy and is themed around "The latest fashion". The parents boast that a sum of 107 rupees was spent on the daughter's latest frock and a short while later the beloved lass emerges almost half nude in "the expensive latest". The sum 107, today would have zoomed to 10700 rupees or more but that the inexplicable fashions of females continue the same is testified by dresses today that follow the motto, "Dearest, yet briefest that show almost all". Many wedding photographs too have been inserted but sad to say, the faces of the brides look rather sacrificial, may be burdened by all that headgear and tight fitting bostorokkes and all. Remember this was yet the colonial era. One can get an idea of the bridal fashions of the 1930 decade. The large photographs flaunted on the last page reveal men's contemporary fashions as these are photos of public events and gatherings. Main studio seems to have been Gampaha Photo Karmantha Shalawa. Of much interest is the photo of the reception accorded to ex-king of Saxony by Meedeniya Adigar and his son, at Ruwanwella. The car of vintage could be a museum piece. The supplement on academic themes that nourishes Silumina today also has had its birth in the maiden paper itself which also allots a page for women, cooking and children and a large column for sports matters. The academic supplement carries articles of varying interest ranging from the Inscriptions of Mihindu the Fourth via the long deed of Don Juan Dharmapala that granted the maritime provinces to Portugal to "Asirimath Misera Deshaya" or "the splendour of Egypt". The deed may interest present day readers in view of the fact that Portuguese emissaries may come to celebrate their atrocities in 2005, 500 years after their first landing year of 1505. Ofcourse these would be emissaries are not the ones who committed the atrocities. Azavado and his men are long since buried. And one need not go on licking old wounds too when there is a proliferation of present wounds. Like Azavado, Seebert Dias again carrying a Ferenghi name too is long dead and gone. But it was he who began the very popular Nrthya Mandala, a column in Silumina to trace the evolution of modern drama in the island. All in all, the yeoman service rendered by the Silumina since 1930 in the area of religion art, crafts, drama, literature and academic enlightenment and even politics is immense and the nation should be very grateful for that. Today Sunday newspapers are just mushrooming. But for a very long time the Silumina hoisted its own flag alone and proudly so and under different editors who worked with equal dedication, to make the Sabbath day interesting for avid readers. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
