Appreciations
View(s):Remembering the shelter of the giant shade cast by my father
K.L. Ariyananda
Growing up in the shelter of a giant human being who harnessed nature to serve mankind, my sibling and I had the mighty Mahaweli and the best and most optimistic era of the post-independent development history of Sri Lanka as a backdrop to measure ourselves by. In the shelter of the giant shade cast by my father we grew to love this land of ours. Bowatenna, Ukuwela, Kotmale, Randenigala, Rantambe, Polgolla were childhood playgrounds. “Damn Dams” was a hushed swearword in the home at Dehiwela we grew up in. School vacation spent in circuit bungalows all over the island are nostalgic memories. Norton Bridge, Luxapana, Castlereigh, Moussakele were our infant stamping grounds.
My father was a top technocrat who never misappropriated a cent of the millions that passed through his hands. He was a loving guru to a generation of young engineers at CEB, CECB and Katubedda University. He moved with high intellectuals but retained the common touch and had the most uninhibited sense of humour and camaraderie. Loyal to a fault to friends, he epitomized all that was good in the educational system set in place by giants like Sir Ivor Jennings and C.W.W. Kannangara.
The sobriquet “of the Mahawelai” is a much vaunted one, but as many of his colleagues of that period will affirm, this honorific appellation uniquely fitted my father.
A southern gentleman to his boot straps or rather to the sandal straps he favoured, his ancestors hailed from the deep Southern village of Kamburugamuwa, mentioned in the Culavansa chronicles.
My father Kamaburgamuwae Lokuruge Ariyananda hereafter referred to as KLA was born in Galle on May 22, 1932. His father K.L. Paulus, government surveyor from Elliot Road was married to Yahathugoda Badalge Lasin Nanda from Millidduwa.
As a student of Mahinda College he excelled in studies and sports such as cricket, boxing and cadetting. Having lost his father to illness at 14 years, he moved to Ananda College Colombo for higher studies. Entering the University of Colombo to study medicine, KLA soon realized that this was not his future and switched on to a BSc Hons degree in Engineering and was transferred to the new University of Peradeniya as part of the first batch of engineering students there.
Upon passing out in 1957 as an engineer, he further qualified as a chartered Engineer in the civil and electrical fields and furthermore as a diplomat of the IEE (London).
Thereafter KLA was appointed to the Laxapana Power Station then under the Department of Electrical Undertakings, the predecessor to the CEB. In 1961 he married my mother Kamala Indatissa from Dehiwela who had studied at Kundasale Agriculture school and at USK in Wales, UK under a Commonwealth Scholarship and upon return to Ceylon was teaching at Buddhist Ladies College.
Soon after marriage my parents flew to the UK, since my father had received a Colombo Plan scholarship as a graduate trainee. He received his training in Hydro Electric Machinery at North of Scotland HE Board and at Edinburgh and Huddersfield and Festinog in North Wales. He returned to the island with his pregnant wife to give birth to their eldest son (the writer).
KLA was appointed as engineer at Wimalasurendra Power Station at Norton Bridge. In fact my earliest memories are of the lush lawn and rose filled gardens of the Electrical Engineer’s Bungalow at Norton Bridge surrounded by the misty mountains of the Seven Sisters range. While at Norton KLA was also involved in the Kelanitissa 50 MW oil-fired steam power station in Colombo. During this time two additions, a daughter Tanuja and son Jagath joined the family.
From 1970-75 KLA was appointed the Chief Engineer (Mechanical and Electrical) at the Mahaweli Development Board at Jawatte Colombo, where he was responsible for the conceptual design of a Barrage across the Mahaweli river at Polgolla in Kandy and was also involved in the supervision and installation of all equipment at the Bowantenna diversionary project including the spillway and bulkhead gates etc. He also had to design an operation room with remote indication communication network to control the discharge of water to the irrigation system of the North Central province, that still provides sustenance to the Rajarata farmers. The preparation of the technical report for the Samanalawawe 120 MW hydro power stations and 100m high dam was another project undertaken by KLA and his colleagues at MDB.
The supervision of building of the Radial gates and Kalawewa and Dambulu Oya reservoirs was also undertaken for MDB and CECB by KLA. Supervisory consultancy for installation of turbines at Canyon Power Station was done by KLA as Deputy General Manager (Mechanical & Electrical) at MDB.
In 1977 KLA decided to move to UK with his growing family of teenagers and baby daughter Tanju as senior project engineer with Kennedy and Donkin Power System of Woking Surrey. While at K&D, KLA undertook as Senior Resident Engineer & Senior Design Engineer a number of projects all around the world in countries as diverse as Spain, Turkey, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Malawi etc. Indeed during this period he was seconded to Sri Lanka under special cabinet approval as expatriate Engineering Consultant to work at Kotmale, Randenigala, Rantambe, Victoria and Kukule Ganga projects. Setting up of the Mahaweli complex to coordinate and control all the Mahaweli reservoirs and power stations was done by KLA as manager of Mahaweli complex at Digana in Kandy.
Again back in the UK during 1989-90 KLA was responsible for work undertaken in Malawi Southern Africa, Syria, Sudan, Spain and Ethiopia and the London underground rail system and at Enfield Power Centre.
In 1996 KLA was recalled to Sri Lanka and appointed by the then government to replace Dr A.N.S. Kulasinghe who was retiring as the Chairman of the CECB. During his tenure at CECB KLA was responsible for making the CECB one of the few profit making government bodies. He initiated the Architect Unit at CECB where his youngest daughter Tanju, a Chartered Architect now works.
Later KLA was appointed as Vice Chairman and later the Chairman of the CEB., upon request made by the Engineers Union of the CEB to the then Minister of Power and Energy. In 2002 KLA retired from the CEB and formed his own company Power Consult Ltd. to develop mini-hydro projects, the first of which was commissioned at Kumburutenlawela in Belihuloya.
After a period of illness KLA passed away under the loving care of his wife and children on September 22, 2017. He left behind his wife Kamala, sons Kapila and Jagath and daughters Tanuja and Tanju, daughters-in-law Sanji and Chamila and son-in-law Manu and five grandchildren.
May my father attain the supreme bliss of Nibbana that he so earnestly wished for by virtue of the development work he did to dispel darkness in his own land of birth and many other lands.
Son Kapila
Always meticulously dressed, visitors were welcomed at her home anytime
Carina Antoinette Maryanne Corea
Carina Antoinette Maryanne Corea was the only child of the late Dr. and Mrs de Sampayo, popularly known as ‘Toni’ by all.
Toni was born on October 23 1934 and had her early education in several government schools, because her father was a transferable government servant. She completed her education at Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya and entered the Ceylon University where she studied for two years.
She was initially employed as an assistant in the Economics Research Unit of the ‘Daily News’ and was later appointed a sub-editor of the Ceylon Observer.
She subsequently went on vacation to the United Kingdom, where she met and married Malcolm Corea in the early 60s. She followed a course in textile designing in UK. They returned to Sri Lanka in 1969. Mr Corea passed away in 2006.
For many many years Malcolm and Toni were cared for by a caring couple. Since, Malcolm and Toni had no children, they adopted two boys, Suresh and Prakash, whom they cared for like their own children, and had them educated at St. Peter’s College, Colombo.
Toni was a softspoken, gentle, compassionate and loving person. She was always meticulously dressed and visitors were always welcome to her home in Lucky Plaza.
On the morning of her demise, we were summoned to her home as she had been quite restless and in pain from the early hours of the morning. However, by the time we rushed to see her, Toni had already passed away peacefully. We at Lucky Plaza are all going to miss Toni very much indeed.
May her soul rest in peace and rise in glory.
Anandi Balasingham
Sylvia Perera
Mary Babapulle
To all those b’days we celebrated together
JAMES CHRISTOPHER BENJAMIN MIHINDUKULASURIYA
On October 2, 2018 you would have celebrated your 100th birthday with us if God did not call you on that sad day, September 3, 2007.With gratitude in our hearts we praise and thank God for giving us the opportunity to have shared our lives with you for 89 long, happy and memorable years.
God blessed you and Mummy with seven children and I was privileged to be born on your birthday. Throughout the years our birthdays were celebrated with a family get-together organized by Mummy every year. I had the privilege to hold your precious hand and cut our birthday cake together for 53 years surrounded by family and friends, a memory I cherish to this day.
As you celebrate your 100th birthday with God surrounded by angels in Heaven for which I am very happy, yet with a deep sense of sadness I pen this message to let you know how much I miss cutting your 100th birthday cake with you holding my hand like we used to.
Darling Daddy, you were the light of our lives.You were a father in a million with gentle, loving and admirable qualities and sincerity and you meant the world to us. Now all we have are cherished memories and a photo of you in a frame. Years may pass but your memory is a keepsake from which we will never part.
A bouquet of flowers sprayed with tears we place at your grave on October 2. Wishing you a very happy 100th birthday Daddy till we meet again.
Sweenitha Fernando