Product: Pirulu Promoter:Sri Nimal Padmakumara, Jayasri Radio, Sri Lanka Category:e-culture & heritage Proverbs are an important part of any dialect, reflecting the cultural mores of a society. But Sri Ninal Padmakumara, who has 30 years of experience in journalism and television and radio anchoring, says many proverbs are dying as the younger generation does not know how to use them. Hela Pirulu records old Sinhalese stories and proverbs before they disappear and maintains them online as a common resource. He has come up with a unique method of preserving Sinhalese proverbs in the form of audio stories available on the Internet. “I felt that as people move to urban areas, the usage of these proverbs and idioms is disappearing slowly and the younger generation doesn’t think it is relevant. So, I thought to put them together in the form of small audio stories and use the web to spread the word,” Padmakumara says. He has already digitized 1,000 proverbs in this way. “I went to villages; spoke to elderly people; visited libraries and academicians, asked about the origins of the proverbs and validate them with written records and books,” Padmakumara adds. The website has been created to familiarize children with the tales. According to Padmakumara, it’s the only one of its kind for Sinhalese proverbs. He is still researching and recording more proverbs to add to his vast collection. HELA PIRULU Original Title : Hela Pirulu Media Format : Internet Website : http://www.pirulu.com Producer : Nimal Padmakumara Language : Sinhala Location : Colombo, SRI LANKA Contact : srinim@sltnet.lk DESCRIPTION This initiative aim to give an opportunity to the present generation of children of Sri Lanka, to familiarize themselves with beautiful tales that are moving away from them.  Main aim of this website is to educate the present and future generations who have lost the wonders of the old tales and to preserve them through the internet. Mr. Sri Nimal Padmakumara, producer of this website, recorded all the stories in his voice on his website for his listener/viewer via internet. The website is accessed by logging in to www.pirulu.com and one can directly listen to a story about birth of a Sinhala proverb by clicking onto one the banners. Every banner also has a You Tube link for a beautiful story. EVALUATION The Jury appreciated the uniqueness and novelty of this initiative as it appears that no web site has come out so far with a compilation of Sinhala proverbs and a corresponding audio track of this nature. Further it was observed that it is an individual’s effort to preserve the national cultural heritage and that way it is a commendable effort. It also appreciated that, to avoid deployment of a separate server for the voice-based data which would have been costly, instead all the voice tracks have been uploaded in You Tube. The Jury noted that the novelty of this project is the collection of all Sinhala proverbs on the YouTube platform.