Features

Appropriate time to appreciate Abraham Kovoor and his son Aries

Published

5 years ago

2020/12/23

By Prof.Kirthi Tennakone
(Email: ktenna@yahoo.co.uk),
National Institute of Fundamental Studies

Abraham Kovoor and his son, Aries Kovoor, rendered an exemplary service to the nation; it is now largely forgotten and not acknowledged to the extent they deserve. They were unassuming characters whose ideals stand pre-eminently important in the context of retrograde tendencies in the present day society.

A resurgence in actions, based on superstitions and myths rather than rational argument seems to be escalating as evident from recent happenings in our society. Rituals and quackeries have stood in the way of the efforts to contain the pandemic. Deities not known to exist are said to have prescribed cures and disclosed causes of the illness. Listening to folk healers and soothsayers, people suffer or die in situations where a doctor would have cured their condition permanently. Children are made to feel inferior because of their horoscopes. On the eve of the Grade Five Scholarship Examination they are taken to shrines dedicated to various deities. Decisions based on superstition engender harm to individuals and the society and cause backwardness and misery.

Abraham Kovoor stood against superstitious beliefs, debunked occult practices and equated hoaxers to criminals, demanding their prosecution.

Aries Kovoor, following in the footsteps of his illustrious father, upheld rationalistic views and denounced extravagance. His main concern was why Sri Lanka and many other developing countries continued to remain weak in science? Hence the need to determine causes and adopt remedial measures. He was also critical of institutional empire building – the expansion or enhancing the authority of organisations, for purposes made to appear as development, even though in reality, the outcome turned out to be largely the opposite.

Abraham Kovoor: A born rationalist

Abraham Kovoor was born to an acclaimed Christian family in Kerala in 1898, His father was the Vicar General of the Thomma Syrian Church of Malabar. Despite his religious upbringing, he began to question dogmas of faith from childhood. He contracted flu, when he was eight years old, and his mother gave him a syrup, asking him to sip it while praying. The child opposed the instruction, saying, “If I take the medicine while praying, I cannot decide which cured the cough – whether it is the medicine or praying. Therefore, I will first consume the syrup and pray later if the cough had not been relieved.”

Abraham received basic education in a Christian Seminary and earned a degree in Biology from the Bengabasi College, Calcutta. After graduation, he served as a lecturer in Botany at CMS College, Kerala, for a short period, and migrated to Sri Lanka in 1928, accepting a teaching assignment at the Jaffna College. Subsequently, he held similar positions at Richmond College, Galle; S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia and Thurstan College, Colombo.

Throughout his career, Abraham Kovoor pointed out the fallacies of superstition and obscurantism and the need for enlightening the society. In one of his books, Abraham Kovoor wrote “All those who claim to possess psychic, para-psychic and spiritual powers are either hoaxers or mentally deranged persons suffering from cryptesthesia (psychological disorder of abnormal perceptions). Nobody has and nobody ever had supernatural powers. They exist only in the pages of scripture and sensation mongering newspapers”.

After retirement, Abraham Kovoor invigorated his effort to curb superstition, presenting challenges to be answered by those who believe or indulge in such practices. In 1968, he offered a reward of Rs. 25,000 to anyone who could reveal the serial number of a currency note concealed in an envelope. Later, the value of the reward was increased to Rs. 1000,000. Understandably, none came forward to take up the challenge! A large majority of persons who claim paranormal capabilities, being frauds, fear exposure.

Supernatural powers do not exist to perform feats ruled out by rational logic. All phenomena determined to exist with certainty have been explained in terms of science or under its scrutiny. Everything observable comes under domain of science. The muddle-headed argument that there exist unobservable things, entails no meaning.

Abraham Kovoor, who said “I do not believe that I have a soul or spirit to survive my death and go to heaven or hell, or to roam about as my ghost, or even to be reborn”, passed away 18th September 1978.

Aries Kovoor questioned why science was weak in Sri Lanka

Aries Kovoor, born March 3, 1927 completed basic education in Jaffna and pursued a degree course in Botany at the Madras University. Thereafter, he returned to Sri Lanka and worked as a teacher at S. Thomas College. The principal of the school Dr. R.L. Hayman, persuaded him to continue research, making arrangements for him to visit Tata Institute, India, where he studied biological effects of radiation, in a laboratory headed by the nuclear physicist Homi Bhabha. In 1952, he succeeded in earning a research position at Sorbonne University, Paris, later ascending to a professorial rank at the National Centre for Scientific Research, France. He was also Professor at the Institute of Fundamental Studies, Sri Lanka and served as the Advisor on Scientific Affairs to the President of Sri Lanka from 1996-2005.

Aries Kovoor in his capacity as science advisor to the President, analyzed scientific performance of Sri Lanka adopting international norms of judging scientific research.

Scientists are supposed to publish their findings in scholarly journals. Normally, journals accept articles for publication after a strict review by experts in the respective areas of study. Thus, being able to publish in such periodicals, indicate the worthiness of the work. The evidence that your work is read and cited by other authors, further strengthens the recognition of what you have done. Today, there are data bases providing statistics pertaining above criteria determining the quality of research. Aries Kovoor used these data bases to analyze research performance in Sri Lanka. He didn’t fully advocate consensus prevalent in the country that our scientific weakness was a consequence of poor material facilities.

Instead, he believed lack of emphasis on quality of research, institutional bureaucracies and how they were manned, played a bigger role.

Aries Kovoor, opposed institutional empire building, another malady that silently dampens developmental plans and social progress. Empire building means expansion of organisations in terms of material possessions and personnel to meet egos of an individual or group in deviance with the purpose of their establishment. Incompetency, insecurity and seeking undue publicity, prompt empire building. Failure or underperformance, corruption and wasteful consumption of resources are often the causes of empire building.

Aries Kovoor cautioned that the funds allocated to an academic and research institution to achieve an objective should not be utilised to build an extravagant and redundant infrastructure with glorified officials and shining tables. He advocated contractual modes of hiring with higher perks and performance based renewals to ensure elimination of deadwood. The countries where scientific research flourishes have adopted similar strategies.

Aries Kovoor pioneered the establishment of the National Research Council (NRC) of Sri Lanka to accommodate ideals essential for uplifting scientific research and provide funding. He was of the opinion that in order to boost research and higher education, all appointments to academic and research institutions such as Chairmanships, Directors and Members of Governing Boards should be based on their accomplishments. Therefore, he adopted statistics based scholarly publications to recommend the membership of the managing board of NRC. He maintained the view that heads of academic and research institutions should be active researchers, who read write and publish; otherwise, they are unfit to hold such positions. He emphasised that talented Sri Lankan researchers should strive to become leaders in their discipline, and not mere assistants to collaborators overseas.

Aries Kovoor managed NRC as the elected chairman with the help of one single assistant and no other officers. He was always available in office and readily accessible without intervention of a third party, who would truly or falsely say he was not in office or was busy.

The true personality of Aries Kovoor is apparent from the following incident. Once he met with a minor road mishap because he could not properly manoeuvre his old car, when the engine suddenly developed a problem. Although he apologised the aggrieved party expressing willingness to compensate, police took vehicle into custody to check its road worthiness. He was sitting on a bench in the police station for hours. When his official driver arrived, a police officer arrogantly said, “Who this insane man is, he gave a private residential address in Wellawatta and declared he had no religion”. When the driver replied, “He is the Science Advisor to the President”, police officer replied “Sir, why didn’t you tell me all this earlier?”

Aries Kovoor too humble and unassuming in all his dealings, loved to work in the laboratory and amusingly interacted with his students as a primus inter pares. He was a listener, observer and avid reader, rather than talker. At official forums, he spoke mostly when his response pertained to an important decision or a clarification. Unlike his father, he never made public appearances, but was keen to engage in intellectual dialogue with students and colleagues. His attitude was not to work tirelessly to gain credit for himself, but to encourage and praise the good work of others. Unfortunately, such persons do not shine manifestly in the society; many whose success owes much to them, rarely recollect and fail to acknowledge.

Aries Kovoor remained active in his research and mentorship until he reached the age 80 years. He passed away peacefully on 1st December, 2006.

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Features

Proactive peacemaking becomes a paramount need

Published

17 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Wasting wars: Some war-displaced people in Lebanon. BBC

It may be some time before the full impact of food inflation is felt in the West. Until such time the world would continue to keep itself in suspense over whether the Trump administration is in earnest when it seeks to convey the impression that it is backing a negotiated solution in West Asia.

As is usually the case, consumer stress would be one of the final determinants of political change. To the degree to which the average US consumer somehow ‘muddles through’ and puts the food on the table, to the same extent would the Republican sections of the US public in particular be tolerant of the Trump administration’s inconsistent handling of the West Asian war and the main issues stemming from it. That is, there would be no grave popular disaffection and a demand for political change in the short term.

However, the indications are that the Trump administration’s support base is suffering some erosion in the wake of the current economic crisis. While reports indicate that Democratic sections are firming-up their opposition to the political centre, Republican support for Trump is also showing signs of waning, we are given to understand.

The above developments are probably why Trump is on record as having given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a ‘dressing down’ recently on his seeming intransigence on the question of giving negotiations a chance in West Asia. The show of displeasure could be really aimed by Trump at containing the impatience of the American public.

However, the current ground situation in the Middle East, particularly the uncontained bloodshed, is likely to impress on the thinking sections of the world that more than temporary political change is needed in West Asia and the US.

A well thought out political solution that addresses all the contentious issues at the heart of the Middle East conflict is what enlightened opinion would demand, and very rightly. Right now, the ‘peace efforts’ initiated by the Trump administration give the impression of being piecemeal solutions at best.

There have been, of course, numerous initiatives in the past aimed at bringing permanent peace to the Middle East. These failed mainly because they did not address in full the root causes of the conflict.

At bottom the Middle East conflict is mainly about race and religious hate bred by socio-economic and material inequalities. For instance, if the Palestinian people were not displaced and deprived of land occupied by them at the time of the founding of the Israeli state, ethnic enmities would not have grown to the current unmanageable proportions.

When addressing the above questions, though, it must be remembered that the Israelis too were a displaced people who were entitled to land and a state of their own in the Middle East. Basically, out of these seemingly irreconcilable and conflicting demands have grown the Middle East imbroglio.

Middle East peace is considerably about reconciling these demands and arriving at a solution that would ensure the creation of two states that would opt for peaceful co-existence thereafter.

As long as the US does not see the need for a non-partisan solution that addresses the needs of both ethnicities and religions and goes all-out, as it were, to have it implemented, the Middle East would continue to bleed.

However, staunching the blood flow through the creation of two states would be only half the job done, though a very important part of it. More pernicious, pervasive and difficult to remedy are the inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatreds that have been unleashed over the decades.

However, if substantial, long-lasting peace is to be fostered in the region the latter ‘demons’ would need to be exorcised from the hearts and minds of the communities concerned. No doubt an uphill task but one that must be undertaken by those who wish the region well.

The UN would need to put its ‘best foot forward’ in such undertakings but it is time that it dawned on the international community and other caring quarters that Middle East peace, and all other such uphill challenges, require proactive peacemaking on the part of all civilized sections for their effective management. That is, public involvement in peacemaking too is a must.

Since hatreds are harboured in the human consciousness the enmities embedded in the latter need to be managed and defused judiciously alongside other undertakings in a peace process. In the case of West Asia, such enmities could be even spread globe-wide besides being multi-dimensional. For instance, it ought to be thought-provoking that Iran is insistent on a peace initiative that would also include Lebanon.

Besides security considerations it is also ethnic and religious affiliations that account for Iran making this demand. For instance, the Shias are a numerically important religious community in Lebanon and they provide a significant number of Hizbollah fighters, who are in a vital sense carrying out a ‘proxy war’ for Iran. It also needs to be factored in that Iran is a Shia-majority country.

Thus trans-border religious affiliations could add to the complexities and enormity of ethno-religious conflicts. However, the task of managing centuries-long enmities needs to be launched and prodded on with by peacemakers since a downing of arms alone would not guarantee substantive peace.

It is not realized sufficiently that the process of ending hatreds begins with mutual apologies by antagonists to a conflict for the harm inflicted on each other. This would be anathema in some ears but there is no getting away from the requirement. It is the vital first step to permanent peace anywhere.

In fact there could be no reconciliation worth speaking of without such mutual apologies. It is a point worth re-iterating in these times when even the government of Sri Lanka is voicing the need for national reconciliation. Well, without the words, ‘I am sorry’, there could be no permanent end to enmities – they would do well to remember.

The above requirements may not go down very well with governments, but they resonate in the hearts and minds of most people, since they are inheritors of religious traditions of some kind.

This is a principal reason why peacemaking works well when publics too are involved in them. The effectiveness of such campaigns increases several fold when they have a Mahatma Gandhi or a Jawaharlal Nehru at their helm. A strong proactive involvement by the public in peace could lead to the emergence of such leaders at some point in these campaigns.

Features

Dialog Brings Sri Lanka’s Largest Digital Vesak Experience to Matara

Published

17 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

From left to right: Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, and Lasantha Theverapperuma experience the Dialog 5G Ultra-powered VR tours.

Official Digital Partner of the 2026 ‘Dakshina Prabha’ National Vesak Zone

Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s #1 connectivity provider, collaborated with the Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs to bring one of Sri Lanka’s largest and most technologically advanced Vesak experiences to the ‘Dakshina Prabha’ National Vesak Zone. The three-day celebration, in Matara attracted more than hundred thousand visitors, who engaged with a series of innovative digital activities powered by Dialog 5G Ultra, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) experiences, digital pandols and a Data Dansala. The opening ceremony was attended by Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development and Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, Minister of Women and Child Affairs, along with distinguished guests and Dialog’s senior management.

One of the key attractions at the venue was the Dialog 5G Ultra-powered Virtual Reality (VR) experience, which attracted more than 35,000 participants. The activation enabled devotees to virtually visit and pay homage to sacred Buddhist sites, including the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in India and the Atamasthana in Anuradhapura, directly from the Vesak zone in Matara.

Visitors receive complimentary mobile data through Dialog’s QR-powered Data Dansala.

Dialog also conducted an AI Digital Vesak Greeting Card Competition from 21 May to 01 June 2026, attracting numerous entries from across the country. The shortlisted designs were showcased across 20 large LED screens throughout the venue and across Matara City, and were also made available for download via mobile devices. Further, through the use of AI, traditional Jathaka Katha were reimagined in a digital format, demonstrating how technology can be used to preserve and enhance cultural and religious heritage. Together, these initiatives blended traditional Vesak celebrations with emerging technologies, offering visitors a unique and immersive way to engage with Vesak traditions.

Extending the spirit of Vesak through connectivity, Dialog conducted a special Data Dansala powered by its QR Reload platform, enabling visitors to receive complimentary mobile data by scanning QR codes placed across the venue. In addition to the Matara National Vesak Zone, similar Data Dansala activations were also conducted at the Gangaramaya and Bauddhaloka Vesak zones in Colombo.Visitors also had the opportunity to create personalised Vesak-themed digital photos through an AI Photo Booth, generating AI-enhanced portraits using their own photographs and adding a contemporary digital element to the Vesak celebrations.

Visitors watch AI-generated Jathaka Katha

Commenting on the initiative, Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, said, “The 2026 Dakshina Prabha Vesak Festival marked the first time AI-powered digital innovations were incorporated into a National Vesak Festival in Sri Lanka. Presenting Buddhist stories and teachings through technology created a new and engaging way for visitors to connect with these traditions. We thank Dialog for supporting this initiative and for working closely with us to bring our vision to life. Their contribution played an important role in making this first-of-its-kind event a reality.”

Lasantha Theverapperuma, Group Chief Marketing Officer of Dialog Axiata PLC said, “We thank the Government of Sri Lanka for the opportunity to support the 2026 Dakshina Prabha National Vesak Festival and for embracing technology as part of this year’s celebrations. As the Official Digital Partner, we were privileged to contribute through our Dialog 5G Ultra and AI capabilities, creating new ways for visitors to engage with Vesak traditions while preserving their cultural significance for future generations.”

Beyond supporting the National Vesak Zone in Matara, Dialog also enhanced the Gangaramaya and Bauddhaloka Vesak zones through a range of digital activations during the Vesak season. The company additionally continued its sustainability initiatives, including the Thirasara Aloka Poojawa, which illuminated rural places of worship through solar-powered lighting solutions.

Features

Beauty, elegance and talent…for women

Published

17 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Universal Woman is an international pageant focused on “beauty, elegance, and talent” for women, positioning itself as a platform to shape global ambassadors. The 2026 edition will be held in Cambodia, and Sri Lanka will be there, as well.

According to reports coming my way, contestants, at the international event, will work with industry trailblazers, under international standards.

Sri Lankan supermodel, runway and pageant trainer Chulpadmendra Kumarapathirana, is the National Director for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026.

With over two decades in the industry, Chula was crowned Miss Sri Lanka 2006, and has since shaped the next generation of titleholders through her Colombo-based Chulpadmendra Catwalk Studio, widely regarded as one of the country’s leading modelling academies.

The team behind Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026

A former host of Derana Miss Sri Lanka for Miss World 2008 and a judge for Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2025, Chula now serves as National Director for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026, leading the franchise’s search for Sri Lanka’s delegate to the international final in Cambodia.

Applications for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 are being taken, via WhatsApp: 077 659 4994, says Chula.

The judging panel for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 includes Senaka De Silva, Pageant Aesthetic Advisor & Chairperson of the Judging Panel, Angela Seneviratne, Caroline Jurie, Rozelle Plunkett, and Suraj Mapa.

Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 officially began its journey with a first round of auditions, held in Colombo, marking the start of an exciting new chapter in Sri Lanka’s pageant industry.

Launching the first round of auditions

The platform aims to empower women while selecting an intelligent, confident, and inspiring representative to compete at the Universal Woman International Pageant 2026 in Cambodia, this September.

Universal Woman Sri Lanka now moves forward with the vision of creating one of the country’s most prestigious and empowering pageants while preparing to crown a queen who will proudly represent Sri Lanka on the international stage.