Features

Susili Wilson (1928-2025): A woman of Stature, Strength and Purpose

Published

4 months ago

2025/10/26

Suseelavathy (Susili) Wilson, formerly of the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and later the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada, passed away on October 8, 2025, in Toronto, Canada. She was 97 years old. Born in Thellipalai, on June 2, 1928, she was the oldest child and only daughter of Samuel James Velupillai and Emily Grace Chelvanayakam. Her father, SJV Chelvanayakam Q.C., became the accredited Tamil political leader in 1956, and the following year entered into a historic agreement with the country’s Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike – the celebrated B-C Pact that enshrined the Sri Lankan government’s agreement on the minimum demands of the Tamils.

Her maternal grandfather was Maniagar RR Bar Kumarakulasinghe of Thellipalai, the village at the heart of Jaffna to which both Chelvanayakam and the Kumarakulasinghes traced their Tamil Christian roots. The latter were also well known in Sri Lanka for their accomplishments in the learned professions of law and medicine during the 1950s and 1960s. Chelvanayakams had four sons after their daughter, each one of whom went onto achieve excellence in different fields: Manoharan in Physics, the late Vaseeharan in Mathematics, Raveendran in Finance and Accounting, and Chandrahasan in Law, Politics and Human Rights.

Susili herself was an accomplished student at Bishop’s College in Colombo, where she won the prize for the best SSC results in 1945, before moving on to university and a life of scholarship as a librarian. It was at the University of Ceylon, Colombo, that she met her future husband, Alfred Jeyaratnam Wilson. They both graduated in Economics which then included Political Science as a sub-discipline. Wilson went on to specialize in political science, after a brief stint as a leader writer for the Ceylon Daily News, while Susili took to library science.

After post-graduate studies in England, the Wilsons joined the University of Ceylon at its new Peradeniya campus, he as Lecturer in Government in the Department of Economics and she as a Librarian at the University Library. Still in their twenties, the Wilsons were academic celebrities even as they began their career at Peradeniya just as they would be while leaving Peradeniya for Canada as highly accomplished scholars 20 years later. AJ Wilson was a household name for Arts Faculty students because of his nationally popular textbook on Civics and Government, and he was married to SJV Chelvanayakam’s daughter. They were tumultuous times in Sri Lankan politics, and the political aura around the Wilsons was inevitable even in the rarefied university setting at Peradeniya.

A Witness to History

As a young woman and Chelvanyakam’s oldest child, Susili was acquainted with her father’s highly successful legal career and his reluctant entry into the vortex of Tamil politics. Chelvanayakam was one of the finest legal minds of his generation and a contemporary and close friend of forensic stalwarts like HV Perera Q.C., and retired Chief Justice Sir Edward Jayatilleke Q.C. They were frequent visitors to Chelvanayakam’s Colpetty residence at Alfred House Gardens. They were both there in the afternoon of 26 July 1957, the day the B-C Pact was signed, for a friendly postmortem.

It is well known that Chelvanayakam went into politics rather reluctantly, if not accidentally. He had been persuaded by then Tamil leader GG Ponnambalam Q.C., a dazzling orator and Criminal Lawyer, to join the Tamil Congress the Party that Ponnambalam led, and to contest the Kankesanthurai seat for the island’s first parliamentary election in 1947. That was Chelvanayakam’s first and successful election campaign, and as a 19-year old Susili joined her mother in helping with the campaign in Kankesanthurai that included their natal Thellipalai.

She was involved in all of her father’s campaigns that followed: the 1952 campaign that saw his only electoral defeat; the historic 1956 election in which Chelvanayakam’s Federal Part swept the northern and eastern provinces; two elections in 1960, one in 1965, and his last general election campaign in 1970. She was in Canada in 1975, when Chelvanayakam resigned from parliament in 1973, in protest against the 1972 Republican Constitution, forced a by-election in Kankesanthurai to demonstrate Tamils’ opposition to the new constitution, and resoundingly defeated the government’s Tamil candidate.

The stirrings that led to the emergence of Chelvanayakam as the pre-eminent Tamil leader were the disagreements between Ponnambalam and Chelvanayakam over Ponnambalam’s decision to join the United National Party government of DS Senanayake and his cabinet of ministers within an year after the 1947 election. Chelvanayakam opposed Ponnambalam’s decision as a betrayal of the undertaking he gave to the Tamil people as the leader of the Tamil Congress. Chelvanayakam broke away from the Tamil Congress and founded the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kaddchchi, the Federal Party, even as Ponnambalam joined the government and became a Minister.

The Ponnambalam-Chelvanayakam schism has been political staple for more than a generation of Tamils stoned on politics. But Susili Wilson is the only person I have come to know, who had been at the best vantage point to observe, even if without formal participation, the inter-personal dynamic between two men whose decisions would be of utmost consequence for Tamil politics, if not for Sri Lankan politics itself. She would good humouredly contrast Ponnambalam’s flamboyance and flights of fancy with her father’s softspoken steadfastness. They were contrasting qualities of two contending leaders who resonated differently with the Tamil people as they chose to favour one over the other.

In her own right Susili Wilson was able to combine her knowledge of her father’s political life with her training and skills in the political and library sciences, to make a lasting archival contribution to her father’s legacy and to Tamil politics. What Prof. Wilson with her help began as an archival arrangement with Columbia University, New York, for preserving documents and papers of Chelvanayakam and Tamil politics, has since spawned similar arrangements at the University of Toronto, to include Professor Wilson’s papers as well, and to make them digitally accessible.

Thanks to the Wilsons, the Chelvanayakam era in Tamil politics almost from its very beginning had the rare benefit of receiving contemporaneous coverage in academic journals in the English speaking world. Even though it may largely have been a coincidence, it was also compensatory considering the paucity of official attention and priority given to Tamil questions in the national political discourse especially when they were articulated with constitutional propriety and with no hint of violence. The B-C Pact was a well intended exception but only to have its abrogation prove the general rule.

More importantly, AJ Wilson wrote extensively on Sri Lankan politics, perhaps more voluminously than anyone else yet, and his forays into Tamil politics were foursquare within an overall framework that was consistent in its objectivity, commitment to truth, and exceptional scholarship. It is not an exaggeration to say that whatever Professor Wilson wrote first passed muster with Mrs. Wilson who was his first reader, critic and lifelong sounding board.

From Peradeniya to Fredericton

Their time at Peradeniya, that was the latter part of 1950s and the 1960s, was also conducive to reaching excellence and maintaining high academic standards. Although they were still formative years for Peradeniya, they would also turn out to be Peradeniya’s golden years, especially for the Arts Faculty and its many disciplines. The Wilson’s were part of a growing universe of young scholars and their young families among whom serious scholarship easily overlapped with convivial socializing. Among their many friends at Peradeniya were Ian Goonetilleke and his wife Rosalyn. Ian was already a legend on campus as the Librarian of the University Library. His cultural curiosity and reach extended beyond the campus perimeter to include artists and intellectuals in the country. One of them was George Keyt, Sri Lanka’s storied painter. Like other friends of Ian, the Wilsons befriended Keyt and became collectors of his paintings.

Susili worked with Ian at the Library and may have had the chance to succeed him had the university at Peradeniya been able to keep its early promises. That was not to be and like many other academic families at Peradeniya before and after them, the Wilsons left Sri Lanka in 1973 with their young children, Malliha, Maithili and Kumanan to start a new chapter in the pastoral sweep of Fredericton in Canada.

They were already known among Commonwealth scholars in Canada, and had spent a year in Montreal when Professor Wilson was on sabbatical leave at McGill University. Wilson was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Political Science at the University of New Brunswick, Canada’s oldest university, for nearly 20 years. Mrs. Wilson joined the University Library and she was also active in the cultural activities of the small South Asian community in Fredericton.

Through the years they saw their children excel in studies and make their mark in their chosen fields: Malliha took to Law and became Assistant Deputy Attorney General in the Province of Ontario; Maithili was an Aeronautical Engineer and changed course to a career in Medicine as a Dermatologist; and Kumanan is a Medical Doctor and a distinguished specialist in internal medicine, digital health and public health policy.

After the Wilsons joined the University of New Brunswick, quite a few Sri Lankan students have done post-graduate studies at UNB, including three of Prof. Wilson’s former students at Peradeniya. “He observed ethnic parity,” Mrs. Wilson would say referring to his choice of students: a Sinhalese, Laksiri Fernando; a Tamil, the late Ambalavanar Sivarajah; and a Muslim, Rizwi Faizer (daughter of Dr. MCM Kaleel, well known Muslim political leader). Dr. Walter Perera of the Peradeniya University did his Masters and Doctorate in English at UNB.

I came to know Professor Wilson during my final year at the Peradeniya Engineering Faculty, in 1972, when I invited him to lead off the faculty’s annual Dean’s Day seminar on the new Republican Constitution, with Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, then Minister of Constitutional Affairs, as the featured speaker. I had also met him in the company of my uncle Rev. Thani Nayagam who was a good friend of the Wilsons. I met Mrs. Wilson and the children years later in Fredericton when my wife Amali was enrolled at UNB to do her MA in Anthropology. All of us who were in Fredericton at one time or another, are all grateful beneficiaries of the kindness, generosity and the hospitality of Mrs. Susili Wilson and Prof. AJ Wilson.

Prof. Wilson passed away early in 2000. Several years earlier, at the 1966 Kuala Lumpur Conference of the International Association of Tamil Research (IATR), with both SJV Chelvanayakam and GG Ponnambalam in attendance, Wilson presented a research paper on “The Contribution of some Leading Ceylon Tamils to the Constitutional and Political Development of Ceylon during the 19^th and 20^th centuries.” The death of Susili Wilson brings a distinguished closure to what was a distinguished chapter in the history of Tamil politics and constitutional development in Sri Lanka. To paraphrase St. Paul, she ran the good race, lived the good life, kept her promises, and has earned her rest. To her family and friends, and to her grandchildren, Melanie and Matthew, she leaves behind fond memories and rich legacies to cherish and to celebrate.

by Rajan Philips ✍️

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Features

More state support needed for marginalised communities

Published

7 hours 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

1 day 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

1 day 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.