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Ringing in the New Year with precious gifts from the Bell family-By Kumudini Hettiarachchi Source:Sundaytimes H.C.P. Bell’s great-grandson Andrew was here from England to hand over valuable volumes authored by Sri Lanka’s ‘Father of Archaeology’ to the Royal Asiatic Society They came bearing gifts of immense value to Sri Lanka. The great-grandson of the iconic first-ever Commissioner of Archaeology of colonial Ceylon attempted to bring these gifts in mid-December by checking in one suitcase as hold luggage. The airline requirement was that one bag could hold only 32kg, but his suitcase weighed 39kg…….and so Andrew “took out a whole pile” and carried them in his backpack all the way from England to Sri Lanka! “They were very heavy,” he laughs, the task accomplished and the precious gifts handed over to the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) at the Mahaweli Centre on December 15. Andrew, the great-grandson of Sri Lanka’s ‘Father of ...