Indira Gandhi Archives

Remembrance of the first Asian woman architect in the mid 1990’s on her 104th birth anniversary Minnette de Silva: An unfinished portrait Source:sundayobserver.lk De Silva being born in Kandy, Ceylon on February 1, 1918, hailed from a well-known multi-cultured and an influential family and was the youngest of three. De Silva’s father had been a renowned key figure in the fight for independence in Ceylon while her mother had been an ardent campaigner for women’s’ right in the country. De Silva was educated at St. Mary’s in Brighton, England and after she returned to Ceylon in 1929, she then moved to Bombay, India to be trained as an architect at the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Arts, since she was restricted to be trained in Colombo. De Silva received her first architectural project to build the Karunarathna house in Kandy, which became a noted turning point in de Silva’s career ...

Only Rs.2,000 spent for Indira Gandhi’s visit in 1967-by L.B Senaratne G.N.S. Hameed – Former Kandy Mayor Source:Dailymirror I had the opportunity to meet the one time Mayor of Kandy G.N.S. Hameed who was the only Muslim to sit on the Mayor’s Chair in Kandy, who spent only Rs 2,000/= of Municipality funds for the Civic reception to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when she visited Sri Lanka and then attended a Civic Reception by the Kandy Municipal Council on behalf of the people of Kandy on September 20, 1967- 54 years ago. He celebrated his 82nd birthday on October 15. He also had the unique distinction as Deputy Mayor acting for the Mayor to receive the Venerable Sangharaja on February 15, 1967. ...