End of an era
The passing away of Rienzie Wijeratne and Reggie Candappa marks the end of an era. They were both dominant personalities in their own fields - extremely talented, highly sociable and above all, good men. While Rienzie was a top photographer, Reggie was a fine artist.

Rienzie was the last link of the generation of Press photographers who dominated the newspaper scene for many decades. And he stood out among the rest in many ways. He was the most smartly dressed among them. Rarely did he attend an evening party without a jacket.

He was always clean shaven. A stickler for punctuality, he would always be ready when the office car got to his apartment to pick him up. Rienzie was also most concerned about protocol.

By the time I moved over to the 'Observer' from the 'Dinamina' (a rare happening those days for a journalist in a Sinhala newspaper) to take charge of the News Desk, Rienzie was concentrating on features more than news. He specialized in the fashion scene but always had his eyes and ears open for a good news picture. We got to know each other closely when I moved over to the Features Desk and many were the features we planned together for the Sunday Observer, then known as the Observer Magazine Edition. The quality of his pictures was superb. Those were the black and white days when colour pictures were unheard of.

Though we parted company when I went over to Ceylon Tobacco in the late sixties, we never lost touch. Nearly two decades later, we worked together again at Upali Newspapers, this time planning advertising supplements for the 'Island'. Rienzie was an 'ideas man' and would come up with interesting topics where we could approach clients and get them committed for paid supplements.

Of course, most of them were in relation to fashions and styles. He was also specialising as a Travel Correspondent handling a weekly Travel page.
I always wondered why he never drove a car. Wife Sheila would drop him at office every morning and he would do his errands thereafter would always be by taxi. In the latter days in Sri Lanka, he used to complain of his knee problem and it was for treatment that he decided to migrate to Canada.

Sheila used to reply the e-mails I sent him since he found it difficult to sit and write. She always said he could remember old friends. We too will not forget this colourful character and dear friend. As for me, I dearly treasure a black and white photograph of the famous Samadhi statue in Anuradhapura he gifted me. It is prominently hung in our home - a fine token of remembrance.

Stalwart in advertising
Just as much as Rienzie was a lovable character in the journalistic world, so was Reggie Candappa in the advertising world. From the day I got to know him in the early seventies when I started handling marketing communications at Ceylon Tobacco, we worked together closely for many years. Grant Advertising which he headed, had CTC's major account, 'Bristol', which for many years was promoted on the theme "belongs to the world of today".

It was a treat to work with Reggie. Whenever we met to plan a campaign, either at his Galle Face Court office or at CTC Skinner's Road office, ideas would just flow from him. And we were fascinated by the ease with which he outlined possible creatives on a sheet of plain paper. While listening to us he would scribble with his ink pen (it was a Shaefer, if I remember right) and by the time we finish, he had done the 'home work'.
One such smart idea I distinctly remember.

When smoking was banned in cinemas (that was the time when we used to advertise heavily in cinemas), they carried a crude cinema slide with the slogan 'No smoking'. One day when we discussed designing a neater slide, Reggie came up with a brilliant idea. "No smoking - not even a Bristol" was his suggestion. Within a week, almost all the cinemas had the slide, which they gladly screened without a charge.

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