The stentorian voice which reverberated in the country’s court houses with the words “Me Lord! The facts are intrinsically interwoven”, has been stilled forever. It epitomises the very spirit of my dear friend Chitta Ranjan de Silva (more affectionately known as Bulla) and to the extent his life was so “intrinsically interwoven” with family, friends, colleagues, associates and all whom he came in contact with. I went to his Edmonton Road residence where his remains lay on the day he crossed the great divide, to condole with his wife Kamalini. Between sobs, she said, “he was too young to go”, which I believe, echoed the sentiments of everyone who knew Bulla. A wonderful human being, he was loyal to a fault and at times even to some who did not deserve such unreserved loyalty.

He was two years my junior at Royal College, but my association with him began in 1966 on the rugby fields with both of us representing the school’s First XV team that year. Two years later in 1968, he captained the college rugby team – leading and moulding the side into a champion outfit to regain the Bradby Shield from Trinity College, Kandy after two years. According to Bulla, although the First Leg was won by the record margin of 19 points, the second leg played in Kandy that year which Royal barely won 5-3, was one of the finest games he had figured in. With a flanker in his team being carried off the field within the first 10 minutes with a broken arm, the fly-half intermittently getting on and off the field in a daze due to concussion, the full-back hobbling about with a crocked ankle and being reduced to a limping No. 15, skipper Bulla marshaled a virtual 12-man team, in an era where no replacements were allowed, to stoutly defend Royal territory against a marauding Trinity side and win by a whisker.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa with C.R. “Bulla” De Silva and his wife Kamalini.

After leaving school we went our separate ways with Bulla opting for a legal career. Much has been written and is known of his stint in the AG’s Department where he rose to its pinnacle as Sri Lanka’s 24th Attorney General.

In later years we came together again with our two progenies emulating the fathers in the game with the oval ball. But what drew me closer to him was when I had the opportunity of working with him in the Royal College Rugby Advisory Committee from 2000/2001 to 2005/2006. When the Royal rugby team was going through a bad patch, he was elected as Chairman. Bulla got into immediate action to reverse the trend. I may not be far wrong if I were to say that his entry into the helm of the college rugger arena brought about a dramatic transformation paving the way for Royal’s “Golden Decade” of rugby during which period the coveted Bradby Shield for the two-match encounter with Trinity College was won seven times out of ten. From 2001 to 2004, during Bulla’s tenure as Chairman of the Advisory Committee, Royal were a champion side winning the Bradby Shield four-in-a-row and this was the first time the college has done so. Besides, Royal also won the Michael Gunaratne Trophy defeating S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia in these four years.

Each year, up until recent times, a group of us including Bulla would go up to Kandy for the hill country leg of the Bradby Shield encounter. We would leave on the Friday before the Bradby in a 26-seater air-conditioned coach carrying just nine of us! We would witness the game on the Saturday and return to Colombo on Sunday. Each year it was three days of fun and enjoyment with Bulla’s vocal chords being used to good effect in castigating the others in a most non-malicious manner. It was all good fun and bonhomie to such an extent that we would look forward to this Kandy trip each year. Bulla had nick-names for many of us ranging from Drug Baron, Jailbird, Burgher-Muslim, Kaffer to Jamaican.

In 2008, when he was Attorney General, he told his security detail that they were not required when he was going up to Kandy for the Bradby. The usual bus ride to Kandy on the Friday was very eventful with Bulla taking centre stage. The following day when we went for the match, I observed that his security detail from the Ministerial Security Division was at the ground manning every entrance to the Bogambara Stadium. On spotting Bulla making his entrance to the VIP box, the whole detail of about eight officers converged into the enclosure where Bulla was seated keeping an eye and protecting the country’s Attorney General. Later on we were made aware by Bulla that the Deputy Inspector General of Police in Charge of the MSD, on being told that the AG had dismissed the security squad, had virtually “blown a fuse” and had immediately dispatched the officers to Kandy to seek, find and protect the AG! On the way back to our lodgings after completion of the game, we had no problem with the post match heavy traffic, with the Security squad in the jeep piloting a clear path for the coach with the “precious passenger” on board, to follow.

We would meet often at our watering hole, the SSC to imbibe the brew that cheers and for a good laugh. He had his way about things and one evening, phoned me to say, “Branu…we have a serious problem and I want you to come for a discussion IMMEDIATELY. Also, on your way pick up the Jamaican. It is important.” I left whatever I was doing and rushed to pick up our “Jamaican” friend and make my way to Edmonton Road only to find Bulla at his roof garden perfectly relaxed and getting ready for a convivial evening.

A few years ago, I was delighted when he accepted my invitation to attend my eldest son Reza’s wedding and to propose the toast to the couple. What a hilarious speech it was and he had the guests in stitches of laughter. In a humorous broadside at me, he quoted Professor Paranavithana in delving into the history of ancient Sri Lanka and how Queen Tiloka Sundara Devi the mother of King Parakrama Bahu was a Malaysian Princess with the conclusion that I was therefore a Govigama Burgher Muslim!

For the past many years, he would invite my wife and me as his first visitors and guests for the Sinhala Avurudda and for the traditional “Ganu Denu”. After partaking of the first meal in the New Year with his family we would perform the Ganu Denu. We would previously agree on the amount that would exchange hands and for me to give him Rs. 10/- more than what he would give me. At the auspicious moment, for the benefit of his family and my wife, he would state with a broad grin, “This is the only time I am able to play out a Thambiya!” and do the Ganu Denu. Being the large hearted man he is, having ‘played me out of a measly Rs. 10/-‘my wife would be the beneficiary of his largesse with a “denu” many, many times more!

When I recently went to see him and wish him before he went to Singapore for treatment of his illness, it was sadly to be the last time I saw him alive. Our friend Doc J.C. Fernando and I went to wish him and on seeing us Bulla philosophically said, “This is life machang”.
It was Doc JC who broke the news to me of the untimely demise of our dear friend and for a moment I was shattered. Like the many courtroom battles he had fought and won, the fighting spirit remained in him to the very last, but this was one fight in which he did not end up as the victor. All this has happened when there was so much more Bulla could have done and given.

Although he is no more, I believe Bulla would not have wanted to be idealised, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life – just to be remembered simply as a good and decent man. What matters now is his loss and the grief that envelopes the many of us who were very close to him, seeing him go at the prime of his life. While we mourn the loss of a very dear friend, I am certain the family must still be in a state of despair. His dear wife Kamalini, whom Bulla adored, has lost a wonderful husband; his three sons and two daughters-in-law a caring Thaththi and his grandson a doting Seeya.

In the final days of his life, Bulla’s mind was clouded by illness. That cloud has now lifted. He is himself again – more himself than at any time on this earth. And as his last journey took him beyond the sunset, I am reminded of these words from John Bunyan’s book, The Pilgrims Progress, that for Bulla “all the trumpets sounded on the other side”. Farewell dear Bulla! May your journey through Sansara be devoid of all obstacles and in the fullness of time, may you attain the supreme bliss of Nibbana. – Branu Rahim