Dhanak: Have a re-run of this must-see family movie during the holidays

The article carried on “Dhanak” in the Sunday Times Magazine a fortnight ago prompted my sister and I (two elderly ladies) to watch this children’s movie screened at Liberty Lite. We were so glad we made that spontaneous decision to go that Tuesday morning because it is such a wonderful film not only for the young but also for the whole family.

We enjoyed the dances, the vibrantly colourful Rajasthani costumes and the humour which kept everyone laughing all through. It was a treat to see the natural environment of Rajasthan.

Projecting trust in a world of goodness, the story touches everyone’s heart. It is fascinating to watch how Chatu, a cheerful,cheeky and high-spirited visually impaired eight-year- old boy is totally cared for by Pari, his 10-year- old sister. She is his eyes and his best friend.

From the time of the parents’ demise the two children were taken care of by their paternal uncle and his wife. Though the uncle is kind to them, the aunt is not.

After seeing a poster where Shahrukh Khan had appealed to people to donate their eyes, Pari is determined to meet Shahrukh Khan with the hope of fulfilling her promise to Chatu that he will see on his ninth birthday.

One night Pari decides to run away taking Chatu in search of Sharukh Khan so they walk for miles and miles in vast Rajasthan with utter determination. In their long travels, they meet so many different people -some who help them and some who cheat them-Somehow the two innocent children are magically protected and ultimately Pari is able to fulfil her promise to her brother .

‘Dhanak’ has won a number of awards, proof of how good a film it is and naturally credit must go to Nagesh Kukunoor, the main man behind “Dhanak” and to Manish Mundra, and Elahe Hiptoola as well.

“Dhanak” is full of goodness and humanity and obviously will influence the young minds. It would be good if school authorities encourage their students to see it. Re-runs during the holiday season in July/ August woud enable families to enjoy it all together. R.M.B. Via email

Politicians say they are the servants of the people.

How we treat our servants is a world record. This should go to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Even the very rich countries of the world do not treat their servants like we treat our servants.

We travel by bus and we provide our servants the most expensive cars in the world.

When we are sick we go to the nearest government hospital. But when our servants are sick they can

We had the privilege of having Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Harsha de Silva as the Chief Guest at the 6th Anniversary Celebration of the Lanka Association of Building Services held on June 11.

We were informed by the Minister’s office that Dr. de Silva would arrive at 6.15 p.m for the meeting scheduled to start at 6.30 p.m. While we were waiting at the main entrance to the hotel to receive the Deputy Minister, he arrived in his car, seated in the front seat, with no escort vehicles, blaring horns and pushing all other road users out, possibly with just go to the best hospitals in the world.

Some of us are paid a monthly salary of Rs. 30,000. But to maintain one of our servants we spend about Rs 40 lakhs a month.

For a holiday we hire a van and go to Anuradhapura or Kataragama with our family and spend about Rs 30,000 as our total expenses. But our servants go to Singapore or Thailand for holidays.

We live in a house where the rent is about Rs. 15,000 a month. But for our servants we spend several lakhs one backup vehicle which too was pretty inconspicuous.

After arriving at the function, the Deputy Minister patiently waited till the function started at the scheduled time. When his turn came to make the Chief Guest’s speech, he delivered a brilliant, totally a-political and very appropriate speech which also outlined the need to have a direction in which the country should go with respect to economic and other policies.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Dr.de Silva excused himself as he had to attend to another function. When we escorted the Deputy of rupees per month to provide a house.

Our servants’ telephone bills, electricity bills, water bills, etc are paid by the people. But we have to pay all our bills. Is this the correct way of keeping servants? If you think it is, let us continue this system.

If you think this is not correct, let us change this system to a more reasonable and a better one. D. Weeratunga

Nugegoda Minister back, it was found that there was a minor delay for the vehicle to arrive.

At this point Dr. de Silva requested us to return to the function to continue with the rest of the activities and that he would wait in the lobby till the vehicle arrived. Our insistence that we wait till he left was very politely, but firmly, turned down and we had to go back leaving the Deputy Minister by himself and waiting for his vehicle seated in the lobby of the hotel like any ordinary citizen would do. Wijitha Perera Via email

The Mattakkuliya Colombo Road has been widened to connect the Hendala road, parallel to the Colombo- Negombo main Road, to meet the development needs of the area. Although it will be a blessing to ease traffic once it is completed, construction has been delayed considerably.

Road users and traffic police manning traffic in the morning and evening know very well that the heavy flow of traffic in the morning is towards Colombo-Fort and evenings towards Hendala-Negombo. Knowing this situation the police allow additional flow on either side depending on the need of the hour.

However even before the road has been completed, a hurried paved concrete construction has come up in the middle of the road dividing it, taking road space and depriving the police of using an additional lane on either side to allow a smooth flow of traffic during peak times. This action will compromise the very purpose of widening the road, since the road is now likely to have a single lane, as most often vehicles park on either side of the road. This concrete divider is also a waste of money. The middle white line segregating the left and right lanes would have been sufficient. It is practical and found to be successful on many Colombo roads.

We request the RDA and the authorities concerned to reconsider this unwanted concrete construction on the middle of the road. A. Weerasekera Via email