![Nuns from Jangchub Choeling Nunnery in Mundgod, South India, begin the creation of the Medicine Buddha Sand Mandala at the Peter J. Gomes Chapel in Lewiston, Maine, as part of the Jangchub Jamtse Tour, on June 24, 2024. The mandala is part of the Jangchub Jamtse Tour and aims to generate positive energy and mend physical, emotional, spiritual, and environmental ailments.The event is open to the public until June 28, 2024. (Theophil Syslo | Bates College)](https://www.bates.edu/news/files/2024/06/4x6_-200x133.webp)
The Huffington Post interviews Ru Seneviratne Freeman '94 about her debut novel
Ru Seneviratne Freeman ’94, a political science major at Bates, was interviewed by The Huffington Post about her debut novel, A Disobedient Girl (Simon & Schuster), which tells of the intersecting lives of two Sri Lankan women who grow up in the same family. Latha is an orphan absorbed as a servant into a Sri Lankan family, and Thara is the family’s spoiled daughter. In her summary, reviewer Naazish YarKhan writes that at age 15, Latha “rebels against being sentenced to a life of servitude, [and] breaks Thara’s heart and sets in motion a chain of deceit, despair, anger and irreconcilable hurt.” YarKhan describes the book as “sad, so sad” yet with “honesty of feelings and thoughts that streamed across its pages.” (View story.)