Sri Lanka is a beautiful island, a tropical paradise in the eyes of the tourists who flock there in their millions. But for her inhabitants, it is a land of glaring contrasts: beauty and incongruity, tranquillity and cacophony, consensus and conflict, intellectuality and ignorance, compassion and animosity, landscapes of unspoilt, natural beauty and those degraded beyond recovery, all cohabit these sixty five thousand square kilometres, crowded to the brim like a can of sardines! The reasons for this disparity are largely historic, the most crucial being the five centuries of colonial meddling that left the nation in disarray, from which her people are still recovering. While half the nation are traditional and patriotic citizens, the rest are either Anglicised or Americanised, and have little or no interest in the heritage and the wellbeing of this otherwise proud nation. Unfortunately, these represent the richest half of the population. Those who couldn’t fit into one of these dominant classes, particularly the well educated, but from rural or poorer backgrounds, have emigrated to greener pastures never to return, leaving the country in an incurable shortage of knowledge and skills. Since the long awaited end to the civil war that perilously crippled the nation for nearly four decades, a novel buzz of optimism and hope has emerged under the leadership of a determined and, therefore quite popular president. The economy is growing steadfastly, and there is regeneration throughout the nation. It is to celebrate this era of renewal in Sri Lanka that we are posting this particular video here. The song featured in this video is composed and performed by Victor Rathnayake, one of the most important musicians in Sri Lanka, perhaps the crown prince of the traditional music scene. Born in 1942 to a rural family in a beautiful area close to Kandy in the uplands, Victor first appeared on the local charts in the late sixties, with a song refreshingly different from what had gone before, an unmistakably traditional, but uniquely cosmopolitan composition, which instantly captured the nation’s imagination. Prolific in his early output, he became the nation’s top and widely admired artist within a couple of years. He is highly respected within the national music industry for generously paving way for an array of young talent by helping and promoting them, and composing much of their early songs. This particular tune, which was released in the early 1970’s, is about the heritage of this proud nation, a reflection of the patriotism and national pride that flowered during the inspirational premiership of the assassinated leader, S. W. R. D. Bandaranayke, an important epoch in the nation’s history that closely resembles the present era of optimism and renewal. BrownPolar For IsuruFoundation™ ‘love is the cure’