The Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre

It was a pleasure for me to visit the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre, formerly the Indian Cultural Centre and meet its Director , Professor Ankuran Dutta who is a Professor of Journalism, so we had much in common. Ties between India and Sri Lanka have always been strong and unbreakable. India is not only our closest neighbour but also our closest friend in need who has always been the first to come to our rescue in many a disaster. This objective of this Centre is to further foster mutual understanding, cultural appreciation and intellectual dialogue between our two countries.they seek to promote India-sri Lanka cultural co-operation by building on cultural commonalities and creating an awareness of Indian culture in all its myriad facets. They have many literary events ; Sanskrit, book launches and discussions on Hindi. Their activities are many and varied; workshops, lectures, seminars and also conduct events and classes in yoga, ayurveda, music, dance, food festivals and regular classes for children in handicrafts and art. Instilling these in children is a wonderful idea as they realize early that our two countries have much in common, which will stay with them for life. Mrs Santosh Jha, wife of India’s High Commissioner here visited the centre while I was there and showed particular interest in the class for children which was in progress. I too learned a lot about their activities and was impressed by the many events and classes they conduct which certainly increased my knowledge about India’s cultural heritage. It’s good to learn about the cultural traditions of other countries particularly when the countries have been as good a friend to us as India has always been.