The launch was held on Saturday, November 25 at NADA (Western Province Aesthetic Resort).
The chief guests of the event were veteran poet Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekara and his wife Dr. Chandra Amarasekara, Consultant of English at the NIE.
The keynote speech was delivered by Dr. Chandra Amarasekara, Consultant, NIE. She is a former Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Humanities, University of Sabaragamuwa. She stressed how successful the writer has been in recreating the Elizabethan and Victorian style of English poetry, and even revolutionized the sonnet form.
Prof. Dr. Sir Romesh Jayasinghe, Academic Dean and Director of Open International University for Complementary Medicines who joined as the special guest of honour spoke about the psychological aspect where he commended Janith for turning a negative experience which has fuelled the suicide rate in Sri Lanka, by recreating it in a creative form of expression and appealing to the immortalization of Pure Love.
The Literary Symposium began with Sinhala Literature Lecturer, Upali Saputhanthri who spoke how Janith has flourished as a young writer. He spoke on how love surpasses all manmade boundaries and how powerful Janith’s love has been portrayed. He also questioned whether Janith’s blend of Buddhist philosophy is to be appreciated merely as a Buddhist allusion or as something beyond. English Literature Lecturer, Troy Mahamohottale commented that Janith has created an exquisite bilingual collection using religious pluralism. His English poems follow the Biblical doctrine and his Sinhala poems closely relate to Buddhist philosophy. He said that Janith’s sonnets might be the beginning of writing a new form of sonnets and English poetry; and the Sinhala ones are in fact not the Sinhala Kavi, but Sinhala Poetry for they follow Western conceptualized flavours.
Several other distinguished participants and panelists complemented Janith on his collection.