Living in a familiar land of picketocracy
New designer clothing store opens at Gandhara
AARYAA, the new chic clothing store, opened its doors last fortnight at Stratford Avenue, Colombo 5 in the Gandhara building, launching its designer brand AARYAA and showcasing its own designer creations. From smart cool casuals to elegant evening wear, the designers’ accent was to clothe the wearer in comfortable attire. Their philosophy: Classy plus Comfy equals ‘Confidence’. AARYAA’s line is not only limited to clothes but extends to accessories to make complete total adornment of the body beautiful. The collection includes trendy handbags and cool comfortable footwear and a touch of silver jewellery to make replete the ensemble – all created by AARTAA’s founders to capture the spirit of today’s high fashion. Simultaneously opened at the same address was the new branch of AYATHI, the well known saree store down Park Road, Colombo 5.
A young Sri Lankan orphan gets caught in a flood and lands in an alternate reality - a ‘picketocracy’ where the country runs on picketing. He travels through the country with the help of a prisoner, a prison guard and a lady tuk driver and sees the many issues facing people. There is the student union discontented with the standard of education and facilities, the leader of a racist group fighting to annihilate other races, the porcelain people who are armchair protesters taking up the latest trending cause and the two political leaders. One characterised by her liberal values, but also a control freak who wants things exactly so, while the other one has nationalist policies but is more charismatic - both interested in furthering their own personal goals.
Do these issues sound familiar? The cast of ‘Picket Republic’ hope that their play will explore the issues surrounding the protest culture in Sri Lanka through comedy. The play is written and directed by Ishtartha Wellaboda, Rajitha Hettiarachchi and Nishantha de Silva. “The country is a symbol for Sri Lanka,” says Ishtartha. There’s a lot of mirroring of issues between that country and our country, he says.
The directors explain that they were inspired by the Kuliyapitiya incident (and so many other