Sri Lanka: An Uncommon Destination

Thursday October 4, 2018
7:00 PM
Join us as we relive a 16-day wildlife expedition in Sri Lanka with cultural side trips which made for a revealing experience. Explore some of the 115 species of birds and some of the passel of mammals including leopards, elephants, water buffalo, sambar and spotted deer, langur and toque macaque monkeys which he encountered. Visit archeological sites dating back to 100 BC. Discover two special Sri Lankan dishes: “egg hoppers” — an egg cooked in a thin hemispherical crepe, and “curd and treacle” — curd made from water buffalo milk and treacle, a product of the processing of raw sugar. Join us as Mark Rochkind introduces this welcoming country which is burdened with some tough patches of history.

Mark Rochkind is a graduate of NYC’s Stuyvesant High School, the University of Rochester, and Cal Berkeley where he earned a PhD in Chemistry. He was a research scientist and technical manager at Bell Laboratories and an R&D Executive at Philips Electronics and AT&T. For six years Mark served as a publicly elected member of the Bernards Twp Board of Education. He was President of the Louis August Jonas Foundation (2004-2010). In 2005, Mark and his wife Pat created the Rochkind Wagner Foundation active principally in education. He is a member of the Morristown Library Finance Committee and a trustee of the Library Foundation. Mark rides a Vespa, enjoys wine, opera, birds, and travel, and maintains a passion for single malt scotch.