Rajiva Wijesinha, in a Facebook Item entitled “A New Life 44 …
I also loved the book Yasmine had written, and my old furniture from Lakmahal suited her memoirs splendidly while Lazarus’ pots added charm. And of course Richard and Yolande read splendidly, so the launch on Saturday June 28th was a great success, and indeed Yasmine tried later in Australia to replicate the event. But it was also a sad day, for earlier there had been a memorial service for her cousin, Felix Dias Bandaranaike, a brilliant parliamentarian whom I had much enjoyed listening to in my schooldays.
On the Sunday Lakshmi de Silva hosted a dinner for Yasmine, and then next day I took Ranmali to the Peradeniya Training College for a workshop on ‘The Merchant of Venice’ for which I got her to read. Margie Peiris and her deputy Mrs Swaris gave us lunch but then we headed back to Colombo. That weekend I was again in Kurunagala, but getting there only on the Saturday for just one night.
The following week I had to go to St. Anthony’s Wattala for its English Day for, though I found such events tedious, I had been asked by one of my students at Peradeniya way back in 1980, Brother Bastian. He was usually fast asleep in my classes, but he had become a Principal, and indeed went on to even greater things later, taking over at St. Anne’s Kurunagala. I was astonished when he turned up to see me at the Council, and felt I could not refuse.
The next day, Saturday, was Anila’s wedding, with a lively reception at Lakmahal, and then early next morning I went to Aluwihare with Ena – who had danced energetically the previous night – and after a welcome afternoon sleep I went to the Queen’s in Kandy to spend a few days lecturing at the university which I had been persuaded to undertake. I had to talk on a wide range of subject, Byron and Patrick Fernando, Naipaul and Rushdie, the History of the Novel, Anne Ranasinghe and Dickens. Ashley gave me lunch on the Monday, but on the second I had to go to Hillwood, to check on its piano, and then I spoke at the Girls High School on poetry from Dryden to Eliot, I presume in connection with the Advanced Level syllabus.
The next day Marcus Gilbert had a farewell, which was sad, and the more so in that none of those who replaced him had anything like his energy and commitment. Over the next few days I had to collect visas, but there was much social activity, Anila’s homecoming and a few dinners hosted for and by her, the launch of the New Lankan Review, and even a dinner hosted by the Rugby Union for the coach the Council had financed since the funding had come from the cultural budget Rex and I administered.
We also put on readings of Prize-winning works by Sri Lankans, for which I got Neloufer de Mel who taught at Colombo to join Richard, and I have also noted Rudi’s Play and Rudi’s rehearsal on two different days. But what this was I have no idea, and I was not involved further for on the evening of August 2nd I left, for three weeks in England and two in America before joining the ship in Vancouver on September 8th.
