Features

BEACH BOYS, GROUP TOURS & LOBSTERS – Part 26

Published

4 years ago

2021/11/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY

By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil

President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada

Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum

chandij@sympatico.ca

Some Challenges on the Beach

As the Executive Chef of the Coral Gardens Hotel, I laid a strong foundation for my work in the new environment by learning about the union, the history of the hotel and the work culture of the kitchen. I changed my management style slightly to suit the team of 50 mature employees in my departments. I experienced positive outcomes with the team due to that adjustment. I also enjoyed positive reactions from the customers about the ‘new-look’ products and services. These were encouraging signs, but my optimism was short lived when we experienced a series of hostile encounters on the beach in front of the hotel.

It commenced when a security guard tried to chase away some beach vendors who harassed the hotel guests sun bathing on the beach. The beach vendors had been selling corals. Later when one of the hotel gardeners asked a local fisherman not to keep his fishing boat right in front of the hotel, I heard a loud argument. “Your rich hotel does not own the public beach! My family used this spot on the beach to keep our fishing boat for generations! If you touch my boat, you will not be allowed to come out of the hotel, alive!” the fisherman yelled. The Manager of the hotel, Muna requested the staff to avoid any further confrontations with the locals.

I considered such disagreements as an indication of deeply hostile attitudes of the locals toward the hotels. One day, a well-known local deep-sea diver, drew a pistol and shot the bullseye of the dart board hung in the public bar. I then felt that the situation with the locals was like a time bomb. There were also objections from the locals about the hotel using the public beach for weekly barbecue buffets. Reluctantly, I had to back off and re-locate the barbecue near the beach but, within the boundaries of the hotel. I was disappointed, but learning from this challenge, decided to do some research about the culture of the locals living in the town of Hikkaduwa and nearby villages. Muna and I consulted the local businessmen – Lesley and Dudley, whom we befriended before we took over the management of the Coral Gardens Hotel.

Two Worlds Separated by a Wall

Having spent the first two decades of my life in Colombo, I had to make an effort to learn the culture of Hikkaduwa area. It was small, but a vibrant town in many aspects. It was important for me to understand the attitudes and aspirations, behaviour patterns and belief systems, customs and cultures (ABC) of the local residents. In general, the area was poor and the economy was largely dependent on the co-operative fishing industry owned and operated by small-time local businessmen.

I realised that compared to the locals who were making a living from agriculture, fishermen communities were more aggressive in their nature. Some younger members of the local population attempted to make a living by selling local handicrafts, corals and other items to tourists. They also rented diving equipment to the tourists. The hoteliers called them “beach boys” or “touts”. In the mid-1970s, unlike Bentota, Hikkaduwa attracted many low-budget travellers and hippies, who were served well by these local beach boys, and smaller guest houses.

Showing some respect to the locals, being flexible and having an open dialogue appeared to be wise decisions by Muna. However, I felt that being firm and fair would be an even better approach in dealing with hostile locals as well as the union. I noticed that some people took kindness for a weakness. Muna was not keen on walking outside the hotel. However, on some evenings after dinner service, I used to walk to nearby hotels to meet friends and play cards. I used to walk back to Coral Gardens Hotel during early hours of the morning. During my walks I usually spoke briefly with local vendors and touts. That provided me some understanding of their attitude and mentality.

A string of small tourist hotels mushroomed in Hikkaduwa following the success of Coral Gardens Hotel which set the standards for others to follow. The key common element of these hotels were the names, which all had the word – ‘Coral’ (Blue Corals, Coral Reef, Coral Sands, Coral Rock, Super Corals etc.). These hotels were predominantly owned by rich business people from Colombo. In general, the poor villagers viewed hotels as rich establishments providing luxury products and services to tourists while making lots of profit, without providing any direct or indirect benefits to the locals. A couple of these hotels hired retired army officers to manage hotels. They were considered tough administrators, who maintained connections with the top brass of the army.

Coral Gardens Hotel provided security to its guests with tall walls and gated entrances controlled by uniformed security guards (mainly ex-military men) provided by an agency from Colombo. In general, villagers were not allowed in the hotel. The only exception was the public bar, which had a separate entrance from the car park. As management, our key responsibility was to provide services to our guests in a safe environment. In later years, during my work as a hotelier in other parts of Sri Lanka as well as in other developing countries such as Iraq, Guyana and Jamaica, I always felt that the wider the economic gap between the luxury hotels and the local communities and economy, the higher the tensions were.

The Most Experienced Sommelier

In addition to the union leader Edmond, there were two other Butlers at the hotel. They supervised the restaurant employees during breakfast, lunch and dinner service. The oldest of them, Butler Raman, had gained over 25 years of experience as a Wine Waiter and Sommelier at the famous Galle Face Hotel, prior to joining Coral Gardens Hotel, 10 years earlier. He was reputed in Sri Lanka as the person who had opened the greatest number of bottles of wine during his long career. I learnt from his knowledge of wines.

Butler Raman was a cheerful man. He was loyal to the hotel and respected the management, unlike some of his peers. He was happy when I commenced a restaurant employee briefing prior to each lunch and dinner service. He loved my detailed explanations about the preparations of dishes and how the dishes had been named, particularly the new items I introduced to the menus. He took notes during all my briefings. We developed a mutual respect for each other. Raman was very open to my new and creative ideas. He respectfully addressed me, ‘Master’ and I addressed him, ‘Butler Raman’.

Raman’s customer relations were excellent. He had a good memory and addressed repeat customers by name. All tourists who returned every year or sometimes a couple of times in each tourist season, all knew Raman by name. He quickly became my right-hand man in the restaurant. Often both of us stayed by the entrance to the hotel reception area to greet tourist groups arriving at the hotel.

Categorising Lunch Groups

When the hotel was full, we had only around 100 resident guests for lunch and dinner. On most days, we catered for an additional 150 to 200 tourists who visited Coral Gardens Hotel only for lunch. These ‘lunch only groups’ were on one-week long tours of the island. Coral Gardens Hotel was their first stop and they arrived towards late morning or around noon. After they did the glass-bottom boat excursions to see the underwater Coral Gardens and a quick dip in the sea, they used the large changing rooms with showers and lockers. Then they came to the restaurant for a quick lunch. Speed of service was very important as the European tour leaders in charge of these groups had to manage the time efficiently.

In consultation with the tour leaders, I planned standard three-course lunch menus that can be prepared and served quickly. These menus changed slightly depending on the fresh catch of the day from the sea. Obviously, the restaurant staff provided better service to high spending tour groups who tipped generously. After the welcome, Raman quickly categorised the tour groups into the following four:

a) Wine Party – a group that ordered wine and tipped well. The best tables were allocated.

b) Beer Party – a group that ordered only beer and tipped a little.

c) Soda Party – a group that ordered only soft drinks and pop and hardly ever tipped.

d) Choo Party – a group that did not order any beverages or tipped, but stopped to use the washrooms only.

Selling Lobsters

A month after the tourist season in 1975/1976 commenced, I wanted to introduce a lobster night similar to that Bentota Beach Hotel offered weekly. As most guests were on full-board packages, we charged extra to include a lobster dish on their dinner menu or upgrade the main course with lobster. I planned the additional lobster dishes and briefed Raman and motivated him to take lobster orders and sell wines to match the dishes. I gave him a free hand and he commenced lobster order taking for our first lobster night. The next day, when I checked how many lobsters that Raman had sold, I was disappointed to note that he managed to sell only six.

“That’s OK, Raman. I know that you tried your best”, I told Raman, as he was also disappointed to let me down. “Sorry, Master. As those guests who were satisfied with the lobster dishes you cooked this evening and talked with other guests, I think that we should be able to sell more, next week” Raman told me. I understood that word of mouth is a good form of sales, but I was eager to have some quick results. We agreed that next week, I should join Raman to sell lobsters, as a team of two. “Next week, shall we take lobster orders soon after breakfast?”, Raman asked me. “No, let’s sell when the tourists are hungry, say just before lunch, around noon” I decided on the timing strategy.

The next day just before 12 noon, on my way to meet Raman at the restaurant, I dropped in at the stores. The divers from Ambalangoda were delivering freshly caught live lobster to the stores. “Sukumaran, give me that king lobster”, I told the storekeeper. Carrying that large lobster, I accompanied Raman and went near the beach where most of our guests were sun bathing. As someone in a chef uniform including a white hat carrying a lobster was uncommon, I attracted some attention of the guests immediately. A few guests surrounded me and one guest asked me, “Is that lobster live?” “Henny, you may touch one of its eyes”, I gently prompted. The lobster moved in an aggressive manner when Henny did so. She screamed and all the guests on the beach came to check the commotion.

I knew at once that we had created some interest and now, I had a interested audience. I wanted to strike quickly to take lobster orders for dinner. Raman carried two empty Coca Cola crates from the resident bar, and told me, “Master, stand on these crates so that everybody can see you and the king lobster.” I did the sales talk and Raman wrote down the room numbers and orders. It was perfect team work. When I explained how I prepare our favourite lobster dishes I noticed some guests looking hungrier and clearly indicating their desire to order the most expensive item on our à la cart menu. When I mentioned the price, that became an obstacle for closing the sale. Some guests said that was too expensive for them. I quickly thought of a few problem-solving deals.

Later, privately I told a couple, “Mary and George, I know that these dishes are expensive, but do you want to return to France without tasting a single lobster dish in Sri Lanka?” As they were still not convinced, I then said, “I have a solution for you. I will serve one lobster dish for both of you to share, but served on two large plates, filled with some extra assortment of salads. Two plates for the price of one!” “That sounds great, count us in”, Mary said, even without noticing her husband’s nod of approval. With that confirmation Raman and I reached a record-breaking 50 lobster orders for that evening. We had to buy a few extra lobsters from neighbourhood hotels to meet the demand.

Our lobster nights proved to be popular and successful for the rest of the tourist season. Over the months, we enhanced the promotional tactics. This included taking the lobster orders the previous evening just before dinner. We set up a large sea water tank in the lobby with live lobsters and a colourful poster. At times I did some ‘free’ lobster tasting sessions. I also arranged for the Receptionists at the front office to talk about our lobster promotion to every new guest at the time of their arrival. Due to 10% service charge on bills, which were equally distributed to all full-time employees, I was able get the support of the employees working in different front of the house departments (waiters, barmen, receptionists, cashiers, room boys), for lobster promotion.

AIDA

A few years later, when I had my first course in Marketing at the University of Colombo, some of the best Sales and Marketing experts from Lever Brothers (who were guest lecturers) introduced a concept called AIDA to the business administration students. In explaining this concept, my first Marketing Lecturer and then Chairman of Lever Brothers Sri Lanka, Mr. Stanley Jayawardena told my class that AIDA is the best way to describe the customer journey throughout an effective sales process. Without any formal education in Marketing or sales training, in 1975, at Coral Gardens Hotel I had followed exactly the four stages of the AIDA concept:

Attention

– attract the customer’s attention – timing, location and the chef uniform.

Interest

– generate interest in the product or services – commotion with the live king lobster.

Desire

– transition from interest to actively ‘wanting’ the product – dish explanation.

Action

– spark / convince the customers to take action / close the sale – 50 lobster orders.

Since then, I have been a firm believer of AIDA. Not only in selling, but also in advertising campaigns I designed, seminars I presented and keynote speeches I delivered. I used AIDA for them all.

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Features

More state support needed for marginalised communities

Published

1 day ago

2026/02/13

Thilina Walpola

A landslide in the Central Province

Message from Malaiyaha Tamil community to govt:

Insights from SSA Cyclone Ditwah Survey

When climate disasters strike, they don’t affect everyone equally. Marginalised communities typically face worse outcomes, and Cyclone Ditwah is no exception. Especially in a context where normalcy is far from “normal”, the idea of returning to normalcy or restoring a life of normalcy makes very little sense.

The island-wide survey (https://ssalanka.org/reports/) conducted by the Social Scientists’ Association (SSA), between early to mid-January on Cyclone Ditwah shows stark regional disparities in how satisfied or dissatisfied people were with the government’s response. While national satisfaction levels were relatively high in most provinces, the Central Province tells a different story.

Only 35.2% of Central Province residents reported that they were satisfied with early warning and evacuation measures, compared to 52.2% nationally. The gap continues across every measure: just 52.9% were satisfied with immediate rescue and emergency response, compared with the national figure of 74.6%. Satisfaction with relief distribution in the Central Province is 51.9% while the national figure stands at 73.1%. The figures for restoration of water, electricity, and roads are at a low 45.9% in the central province compared to the 70.9% in national figures. Similarly, the satisfaction level for recovery and rebuilding support is 48.7% in the Central Province, while the national figure is 67.0%.

A deeper analysis of the SSA data on public perceptions reveals something important: these lower satisfaction rates came primarily from the Malaiyaha Tamil population. Their experience differed not just from other provinces, but also from other ethnic groups living in the Central Province itself.

The Malaiyaha Tamil community’s vulnerability didn’t start with the cyclone. Their vulnerability is a historically and structurally pre-determined process of exclusion and marginalisation. Brought to Sri Lanka during British rule to work for the empire’s plantation economies, they have faced long-term economic exploitation and have repeatedly been denied access to state support and social welfare systems. Most estate residents still live in ‘line rooms’ and have no rights to the land they cultivate and live on. The community continues to be governed by an outdated estate management system that acts as a barrier to accessing public and municipal services such as road repair, water, electricity and other basic infrastructures available to other citizens.

As far as access to improved water sources is concerned, the Sri Lanka Demographic Health Survey (2016) shows that 57% of estate sector households don’t have access to improved water sources, while more than 90% of households in urban and rural areas do. With regard to the level of poverty, as the Department of Census and Statistics (2019) data reveals, the estate sector where most Malaiyaha Tamils live had a poverty headcount index of 33.8%; more than double the national rate of 14.3%. These statistics highlight key indicators of the systemic discrimination faced by the Malaiyaha Tamil community.

Some crucial observations from the SSA data collectors who enumerated responses from estate residents in the survey reveal the specific challenges faced by the Malaiyaha Tamils, particularly in their efforts to seek state support for compensation and reconstruction.

First, the Central Province experienced not just flooding but also the highest number of landslides in the island. As a result, some residents in the region lost entire homes, access roadways, and other basic infrastructures. The loss of lives, livelihoods and land was at a higher intensity compared to the provinces not located in the hills. Most importantly, the Malaiyaha Tamil community’s pre-existing grievances made them even more vulnerable and the government’s job of reparation and restitution more complex.

Early warnings hadn’t reached many areas. Some data collectors said they themselves never heard any warnings in estate areas, while others mentioned that early warnings were issued but didn’t reach some segments of the community. According to the resident data collectors, the police announcements reached only as far as the sections where they were able to drive their vehicles to, and there were many estate roads that were not motorable. When warnings did filter through to remote locations, they often came by word of mouth and information was distorted along the way. Once the disaster hit, things got worse: roads were blocked, electricity went out, mobile networks failed and people were cut off completely.

Emergency response was slow. Blocked roads meant people could not get to hospitals when they needed urgent care, including pregnant mothers. The difficult terrain and poor road conditions meant rescue teams took much longer to reach affected areas than in other regions.

Relief supplies didn’t reach everyone. The Grama Niladhari divisions in these areas are huge and hard to navigate, making it difficult for Grama Niladharis to reach all places as urgently as needed. Relief workers distributed supplies where vehicles could go, which meant accessible areas got help while remote communities were left out.

Some people didn’t even try to go to safety centres or evacuation shelters set up in local schools because the facilities there were already so poor. The perceptions of people who did go to safety centres, as shown in the provincial data, reveal that satisfaction was low compared to other affected regions of the country. Less than half were satisfied with space and facilities (42.1%) or security and protection (45.0%). Satisfaction was even lower for assistance with lost or damaged documentation (17.9%) and information and support for compensation applications (28.2%). Only 22.5% were satisfied with medical care and health services below most other affected regions.

Restoring services proved nearly impossible in some areas. Road access was the biggest problem. The condition of the roads was already poor even before the cyclone, and some still haven’t been cleared. Recovery is especially difficult because there’s no decent baseline infrastructure to restore, hence you can’t bring roads and other public facilities back to a “good” condition when they were never good, even before the disaster.

Water systems faced their own complications. Many households get water from natural sources or small community projects, and not the centralised state system. These sources are often in the middle of the disaster zone and therefore got contaminated during the floods and landslides.

Long-term recovery remains stalled. Without basic infrastructure, areas that are still hard to reach keep struggling to get the support they need for rebuilding.

Taken together, what do these testaments mean? Disaster response can’t be the same for everyone. The Malaiyaha Tamil community has been double marginalised because they were already living with structural inequalities such as poor infrastructure, geographic isolation, and inadequate services which have been exacerbated by Cyclone Ditwah. An effective and fair disaster response needs to account for these underlying vulnerabilities. It requires interventions tailored to the historical, economic, and infrastructural realities that marginalized communities face every day. On top of that, it highlights the importance of dealing with climate disasters, given the fact that vulnerable communities could face more devastating impacts compared to others.

(Shashik Silva is a researcher with the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka)

by Shashik Silva ✍️

Features

Crucial test for religious and ethnic harmony in Bangladesh

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

A political protest that led to governmental change in Bangladesh mid last year. (photograph: imago)

Will the Bangladesh parliamentary election bring into being a government that will ensure ethnic and religious harmony in the country? This is the poser on the lips of peace-loving sections in Bangladesh and a principal concern of those outside who mean the country well.

The apprehensions are mainly on the part of religious and ethnic minorities. The parliamentary poll of February 12th is expected to bring into existence a government headed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamist oriented Jamaat-e-Islami party and this is where the rub is. If these parties win, will it be a case of Bangladesh sliding in the direction of a theocracy or a state where majoritarian chauvinism thrives?

Chief of the Jamaat, Shafiqur Rahman, who was interviewed by sections of the international media recently said that there is no need for minority groups in Bangladesh to have the above fears. He assured, essentially, that the state that will come into being will be equable and inclusive. May it be so, is likely to be the wish of those who cherish a tension-free Bangladesh.

The party that could have posed a challenge to the above parties, the Awami League Party of former Prime Minister Hasina Wased, is out of the running on account of a suspension that was imposed on it by the authorities and the mentioned majoritarian-oriented parties are expected to have it easy at the polls.

A positive that has emerged against the backdrop of the poll is that most ordinary people in Bangladesh, be they Muslim or Hindu, are for communal and religious harmony and it is hoped that this sentiment will strongly prevail, going ahead. Interestingly, most of them were of the view, when interviewed, that it was the politicians who sowed the seeds of discord in the country and this viewpoint is widely shared by publics all over the region in respect of the politicians of their countries.

Some sections of the Jamaat party were of the view that matters with regard to the orientation of governance are best left to the incoming parliament to decide on but such opinions will be cold comfort for minority groups. If the parliamentary majority comes to consist of hard line Islamists, for instance, there is nothing to prevent the country from going in for theocratic governance. Consequently, minority group fears over their safety and protection cannot be prevented from spreading.

Therefore, we come back to the question of just and fair governance and whether Bangladesh’s future rulers could ensure these essential conditions of democratic rule. The latter, it is hoped, will be sufficiently perceptive to ascertain that a Bangladesh rife with religious and ethnic tensions, and therefore unstable, would not be in the interests of Bangladesh and those of the region’s countries.

Unfortunately, politicians region-wide fall for the lure of ethnic, religious and linguistic chauvinism. This happens even in the case of politicians who claim to be democratic in orientation. This fate even befell Bangladesh’s Awami League Party, which claims to be democratic and socialist in general outlook.

We have it on the authority of Taslima Nasrin in her ground-breaking novel, ‘Lajja’, that the Awami Party was not of any substantial help to Bangladesh’s Hindus, for example, when violence was unleashed on them by sections of the majority community. In fact some elements in the Awami Party were found to be siding with the Hindus’ murderous persecutors. Such are the temptations of hard line majoritarianism.

In Sri Lanka’s past numerous have been the occasions when even self-professed Leftists and their parties have conveniently fallen in line with Southern nationalist groups with self-interest in mind. The present NPP government in Sri Lanka has been waxing lyrical about fostering national reconciliation and harmony but it is yet to prove its worthiness on this score in practice. The NPP government remains untested material.

As a first step towards national reconciliation it is hoped that Sri Lanka’s present rulers would learn the Tamil language and address the people of the North and East of the country in Tamil and not Sinhala, which most Tamil-speaking people do not understand. We earnestly await official language reforms which afford to Tamil the dignity it deserves.

An acid test awaits Bangladesh as well on the nation-building front. Not only must all forms of chauvinism be shunned by the incoming rulers but a secular, truly democratic Bangladesh awaits being licked into shape. All identity barriers among people need to be abolished and it is this process that is referred to as nation-building.

On the foreign policy frontier, a task of foremost importance for Bangladesh is the need to build bridges of amity with India. If pragmatism is to rule the roost in foreign policy formulation, Bangladesh would place priority to the overcoming of this challenge. The repatriation to Bangladesh of ex-Prime Minister Hasina could emerge as a steep hurdle to bilateral accord but sagacious diplomacy must be used by Bangladesh to get over the problem.

A reply to N.A. de S. Amaratunga

A response has been penned by N.A. de S. Amaratunga (please see p5 of ‘The Island’ of February 6th) to a previous column by me on ‘ India shaping-up as a Swing State’, published in this newspaper on January 29th , but I remain firmly convinced that India remains a foremost democracy and a Swing State in the making.

If the countries of South Asia are to effectively manage ‘murderous terrorism’, particularly of the separatist kind, then they would do well to adopt to the best of their ability a system of government that provides for power decentralization from the centre to the provinces or periphery, as the case may be. This system has stood India in good stead and ought to prove effective in all other states that have fears of disintegration.

Moreover, power decentralization ensures that all communities within a country enjoy some self-governing rights within an overall unitary governance framework. Such power-sharing is a hallmark of democratic governance.

Features

Celebrating Valentine’s Day …

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

Valentine’s Day is all about celebrating love, romance, and affection, and this is how some of our well-known personalities plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day – 14th February:

Merlina Fernando (Singer)

Yes, it’s a special day for lovers all over the world and it’s even more special to me because 14th February is the birthday of my husband Suresh, who’s the lead guitarist of my band Mission.

We have planned to celebrate Valentine’s Day and his Birthday together and it will be a wonderful night as always.

We will be having our fans and close friends, on that night, with their loved ones at Highso – City Max hotel Dubai, from 9.00 pm onwards.

Lorensz Francke (Elvis Tribute Artiste)

On Valentine’s Day I will be performing a live concert at a Wealthy Senior Home for Men and Women, and their families will be attending, as well.

I will be performing live with romantic, iconic love songs and my song list would include ‘Can’t Help falling in Love’, ‘Love Me Tender’, ‘Burning Love’, ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’, ‘The Wonder of You’ and ‘’It’s Now or Never’ to name a few.

To make Valentine’s Day extra special I will give the Home folks red satin scarfs.

Emma Shanaya (Singer)

I plan on spending the day of love with my girls, especially my best friend. I don’t have a romantic Valentine this year but I am thrilled to spend it with the girl that loves me through and through. I’ll be in Colombo and look forward to go to a cute cafe and spend some quality time with my childhood best friend Zulha.

JAYASRI

Emma-and-Maneeka

This Valentine’s Day the band JAYASRI we will be really busy; in the morning we will be landing in Sri Lanka, after our Oman Tour; then in the afternoon we are invited as Chief Guests at our Maris Stella College Sports Meet, Negombo, and late night we will be with LineOne band live in Karandeniya Open Air Down South. Everywhere we will be sharing LOVE with the mass crowds.

Kay Jay (Singer)

I will stay at home and cook a lovely meal for lunch, watch some movies, together with Sanjaya, and, maybe we go out for dinner and have a lovely time. Come to think of it, every day is Valentine’s Day for me with Sanjaya Alles.

Maneka Liyanage (Beauty Tips)

On this special day, I celebrate love by spending meaningful time with the people I cherish. I prepare food with love and share meals together, because food made with love brings hearts closer. I enjoy my leisure time with them — talking, laughing, sharing stories, understanding each other, and creating beautiful memories. My wish for this Valentine’s Day is a world without fighting — a world where we love one another like our own beloved, where we do not hurt others, even through a single word or action. Let us choose kindness, patience, and understanding in everything we do.

Janaka Palapathwala (Singer)

Janaka

Valentine’s Day should not be the only day we speak about love.

From the moment we are born into this world, we seek love, first through the very drop of our mother’s milk, then through the boundless care of our Mother and Father, and the embrace of family.

Love is everywhere. All living beings, even plants, respond in affection when they are loved.

As we grow, we learn to love, and to be loved. One day, that love inspires us to build a new family of our own.

Love has no beginning and no end. It flows through every stage of life, timeless, endless, and eternal.

Natasha Rathnayake (Singer)

We don’t have any special plans for Valentine’s Day. When you’ve been in love with the same person for over 25 years, you realise that love isn’t a performance reserved for one calendar date. My husband and I have never been big on public displays, or grand gestures, on 14th February. Our love is expressed quietly and consistently, in ordinary, uncelebrated moments.

With time, you learn that love isn’t about proving anything to the world or buying into a commercialised idea of romance—flowers that wilt, sweets that spike blood sugar, and gifts that impress briefly but add little real value. In today’s society, marketing often pushes the idea that love is proven by how much money you spend, and that buying things is treated as a sign of commitment.

Real love doesn’t need reminders or price tags. It lives in showing up every day, choosing each other on unromantic days, and nurturing the relationship intentionally and without an audience.

This isn’t a judgment on those who enjoy celebrating Valentine’s Day. It’s simply a personal choice.

Melloney Dassanayake (Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2024)

I truly believe it’s beautiful to have a day specially dedicated to love. But, for me, Valentine’s Day goes far beyond romantic love alone. It celebrates every form of love we hold close to our hearts: the love for family, friends, and that one special person who makes life brighter. While 14th February gives us a moment to pause and celebrate, I always remind myself that love should never be limited to just one day. Every single day should feel like Valentine’s Day – constant reminder to the people we love that they are never alone, that they are valued, and that they matter.

I’m incredibly blessed because, for me, every day feels like Valentine’s Day. My special person makes sure of that through the smallest gestures, the quiet moments, and the simple reminders that love lives in the details. He shows me that it’s the little things that count, and that love doesn’t need grand stages to feel extraordinary. This Valentine’s Day, perfection would be something intimate and meaningful: a cozy picnic in our home garden, surrounded by nature, laughter, and warmth, followed by an abstract drawing session where we let our creativity flow freely. To me, that’s what love is – simple, soulful, expressive, and deeply personal. When love is real, every ordinary moment becomes magical.

Noshin De Silva (Actress)

Valentine’s Day is one of my favourite holidays! I love the décor, the hearts everywhere, the pinks and reds, heart-shaped chocolates, and roses all around. But honestly, I believe every day can be Valentine’s Day.

It doesn’t have to be just about romantic love. It’s a chance to celebrate love in all its forms with friends, family, or even by taking a little time for yourself.

Whether you’re spending the day with someone special or enjoying your own company, it’s a reminder to appreciate meaningful connections, show kindness, and lead with love every day.

And yes, I’m fully on theme this year with heart nail art and heart mehendi design!

Wishing everyone a very happy Valentine’s Day, but, remember, love yourself first, and don’t forget to treat yourself.

Sending my love to all of you.