How nine siblings were steeled to bear excruciating pain-By Admiral Ravindra C Wijegunaratne Madduma Bandara as a source of inspiration: Source:Island Inspired by my friend Captain Elmo Jayawardena’s story in The Island about the grave and headstone of late Ehelepola Adigaram in Mauritius, I thought of writing about the late Adigarm’s younger son, Sri Lanka’s child hero, Madduma Bandara, and how stories about him can be used to inspire the younger generation of Sri Lanka to be brave and patriotic. Captain Elmo’s much-researched book, The Last Kingdom of Sinhalay”, won the State Literacy Award in 2005. I have read it several times to understand what went wrong with our nation. When asked by a reporter on 27th October 2015, when he received the highest honour, “Sahitya Ratna”, at the State Literary Festival in 2015, he said, “I simply write for the love of it and it gives me a voice to reach the people”. ...

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