(Excerpted from Simply Nahil: Maverick with the Midas touch, biography of Nahil Wijesuriya)

It was on July 29, 2002. Nahil received a call from Mahen Thambiah at around 9:30 p.m. informing him that Roshanne had met with an accident while crossing the main road at Wattala after leaving a party celebrating the home coming of Mohan Lanerolle Jr and his new bride.

It was around 9.00 p.m when Roshanne left the party with Ryan Raymond, who was to give her a ride back to Colombo. Rayan had parked his vehicle on the opposite side of the Colombo/Negombo road and since the road was busy while crossing they got to the centre until the traffic eased when a van driven by a person under the influence, drove close past Ryan and Roshanne accidently knocking them with the side view mirror of the vehicle.

The impact caused Roshanne to fall forward resulting in a fatal injury. Mahen requested Nahil to come to the Accident Service at the GHC. He rushed there with the children assuming that it was nothing too serious, only to find out on his arrival even though a team of doctors had tried to resuscitate her, she had passed away at the hospital. This was another dark moment in his life.

He was anxious for the two children, 14 and 15 at the time, absolutely empathizing with their pain. His heart was broken for them since this was not an age to lose a mother in such a fashion, to see her lying on a hospital bed bleeding from her nose. The next few days were a whirlwind. Avril took charge of things, made all the funeral arrangements, and Roshanne was cremated two days later. Her ashes are interred in the family vault on the grounds of his family home in Galkanda Road, Aniwatte.

He believes the Negombo Road is like a very busy motorway and this accident could have been avoided had the car been parked on the same side as the lane leading to the party house.

Kavan and Anne Rambukwella

Kavan Rambukwella was a dear friend of Nahil’s, in addition to being a faithful old boy who was highly involved in the affairs of the Trinity OBA. Kavan and his wife Anne lived in a housing complex situated on the road that cuts across from Bullers Road, joining Thimbirigasyaya Road, spanned by a small bridge over the canal halfway down the throughfare.

One evening due to an emergency the normal traffic on Bullers Road was diverted through this thoroughfare. Unfortunately, a truck was transporting a bulldozer which was over and above the rating of the bridge. While crossing, the bridge collapsed with the truck tilting the dozer into the water. The next morning the owners of the dozer lifted it out of the canal and continued on their way with no thought of even volunteering to do something about the mangled bridge.

Once the Municipality was notified about the collapsed bridge, they unhesitatingly informed the community that it was not their problem; they said the bridge was the responsibility of the house owners’ community. The main Management Committee of the community, who lived on the opposite side of the bridge at the Longden Place/Borella end were elated with this situation, on account of the road instantly becoming a cul-de-sac with no traffic after the collapse of the bridge, They in typically selfish fashion, decided not to do anything about it.

Unfortunately, Kavan and Anne lived on the Thimbirigasaya side. Usually, whenever Nahil visited Kavan he would approach their residence through the Bullers Road entrance; through habit he continued to do so, only to be inconvenienced, turning back at the broken bridge, and driving full circle to enter through the Thimbirigasaya entrance.

After many more complaints, the Municipality, realizing the inconvenience the folk living on Kavan’s side of the bridge were subject to, decided to reconstruct the bridge, only for the Management Committee to discourage the Municipality from doing so. One Friday morning, on a Poya day, Nahil visited Kavan and was exasperated to find the bridge still in disrepair, which made him inquire from Kavan regarding the current situation of the bridge.

Consequent to the negative update, always being an advocate for the mistreated, especially a close friend, Nahil volunteered to repair the bridge. The next day, he got the bridge measured, and got the steel and concrete framing in place at his own expense, making sure that by Monday the bridge would be back better and stronger than before. What Nahil felt was that his friends were being harassed and this was a challenge to take on and see it to an end.

Kavan appealed to the Management Committee as to why Nahil had to pick up the tab on this repair which rightfully was the community’s responsibility. They relented and paid him for the steel and concrete although they made a last ditch attempt to hinder the progress by parking a 20 foot container across the road after the bridge was repaired, which was unceremoniously dismissed by a majority of the good and unselfish folk living in the community. The road is still a thoroughfare.

Dr. S.L. Gunasekera

Nahil has never been too involved in politics although if he hears about an individual, a leader of a political party, who makes positive sense with his or her aspirations for a better Sri Lanka, he has always tried to help. The `Sihala Urumaya’ which in Sinhala means inheritance or birthright of the Sinhala people, was launched by Champika Ranawaka with the late Dr. S.L. Gunasekera as President of the party.

He was a very sensible and upright person, a smart man who, Nahil says, never had a chance to work for the good of this country, due to a few over-zealous `Sihalayas’. Ironically the Sihala Urumaya was not a `Sinhala Buddhist’ party. It was a `Sinhala’ party that had many Catholics and Protestants who voted for the party in the General Elections held in October 2007.

They sidelined Dr. S.L. for being a Christian, which was the main criticism of the party members . He was born a Christian, and as a young man he became an agnostic after the untimely death of his father and finally an atheist. It seemed that most of the Urumaya members defined Dr. S.L. by his ‘belief’ or more rightly said, his un-belief. They overlooked his outstanding qualities and his exceptional code of ethics which guided his conduct in a manner that was patriotic, honest and socially committed among the other excellent characteristics of a good and upright human being. Nahil has copies of the entire collection of books Dr. S.L. has written, faithfully attending every book launch.

The civil war was on when Nahil first met Punyakanthi nee de Soysa, who is married to Chanaka de Silva, a strong UNPer, who was the Chairman of Sri Lanka Insurance and Trans-Asia Hotel and also a relation of his sister’s husband’s family. Punyakanthi telephoned Nahil requesting a meeting at her residence on Charles Circus. Also present was Champika Ranawaka. After the preliminary introductions and small talk, Champika remarked “Balanna may Colomba inna Demala okkoma LTTE ekata support karanawa. Koheda Sinhala businessman la ekkenekwath innawada apita udawwak karanne ne.” (“All the Tamil businessmen in Colombo support the LTTE, is there one Sinhala businessman around who can help us?”).

Punyakanthi was supporting the ‘Urumaya’ and wanted Nahil to hear this, virtually ‘straight from the source’. In the course of their conversation, noticing that there was no other vehicle parked outside Punyakanthl’s home, Nahil inquired from Champika how he commuted to Charles Circus. Champika divulged to Nahil that his vehicle had recently toppled over and had been condemned.

That very day Nahil bought him a new vehicle. Since then, whenever Champika requested financial assistance he would help him. He also helped with the Sihala Urumaya advertising, though he never got too involved with the Urumaya members.

During this period, the Urumaya ran a press advertisement depicting a weighing scale, with the minorities enjoying a more comfortable status than the majority, making the minorities behave like the majority. Nahil has been asked on many an occasion if he favoured any political party or individual. He says he does not, simply on the basis that all political aspirants are very fluid. Looking at it from his perspective today’s heroes can be tomorrow’s zeroes. A good example was SL . He was the only sensible person in the party but they got rid of him because of his religion. The burning issue was how to set about defeating the LTTE, not SL’s religious affiliations.

He was instantly irked with Champika and the Urumaya member over their petty behaviour and treatment of Dr. SL. This was it for him as he uncoupled himself from the Urumaya almost overnight although he continued to support Champika who was giving his support to the Rajapaksas to defeat the LTTE.

About 12 years ago there was a severe typhoon that affected Myanmar, a Buddhist nation, and Champika was adamant they should help, disclosing to Nahil that the nation had been severely destroyed by the typhoon with the low-lying areas flooded and the people suffering. Without compunction, Chris Dharmakirthi, Rathana Thero, and Nahil were on a flight to Myanmar to help this poor, underdeveloped country and its typhoon-hit, suffering masses.

Driving from the airport through the city, they witnessed heavy traffic and enormous buildings set in a throbbing metropolis and night life, so much so that Rathana Thero commented, “Egollanta puluwan apita udaw karanna” (“They are in a position to help us”.) Nahil’s immediate thought was, ‘What are we doing here? They are far more developed than us.’

This was the city and they expected to see worse as they drove to the villages. Their assumptions were way off the mark. It was heartening to see how well-organized the Burmese were, with roofing sheets and other aid. He strongly believes that human beings are stubborn and resilient with a God-given ability to rise up time and time again after a disaster of this nature. He spent two days of `rasthiadu’ (`wasted time’) and got back home.