A charity event in aid of the Peter Weerasekera Children’s Home, Yakkala, was recently held at The International Women’s Club Auditorium, Colombo 7. The evening, dedicated to Sri Lankabhimanya, the late Lakshman Kadirgamar, was a heartfelt tribute celebrating his remarkable contributions to Sri Lanka and enduring legacy.

The program opened with an instrumental performance by Dr. Prashanthi Mendis and Ms. Indrani Wijesundera, followed by Kamil Weerasekera, Chairman of the Peter Weerasekera Foundation, introducing the foundation’s mission. A captivating musical performance by Dr. Manella Joseph added to the evening’s charm.

A special segment, ‘My Journey at Trinity’, by Nimal Cooke, Executive Director of the Capital Maharaja Group, reflected on the influential experiences from Trinity College, Kandy. This was followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Dr. Sakuntala Kadirgamar, and Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, highlighting Kadirgamar’s lasting national impact.

A video presentation showcased the foundation’s dedication to supporting underprivileged children. The event also included a heartfelt speech by Ms. Mala Weerasekera and concluded with the Trinity College School Song in tribute to Kadirgamar’s alma mater.

The event not only honored a national icon but also underscored the power of music and collective goodwill in supporting a meaningful cause. Proceeds will go toward the welfare and development of children at the Peter Weerasekera Children’s Home.

The Panel Discussion : The life and times of Sri Lankabhimani Lakshman Kadirgamar

The Panel of eminent speakers:

Dr. Sakuntala Kadirgamar

Executive Director of the Law and Society Trust, Constitutional Lawyer and Human Rights Activist, who has worked with the United Nations and international organizations in Sweden, South Asia and Africa. She is the daughter of the late Sam Kadirgamar and Saro, and niece of the late Lakshman Kadirgamar.

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

Former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, former Ambassador to the Russian Federation and France.

Professor Rajiva Wijesinha

A former Member of Parliament, and he is a Sri Lankan writer distinguished for his political analysis as well as creative and critical work. An academic by profession, he is an emeritus professor of languages at the Sabaragamuwa University.

Dr. Sakuntala Kadirgamar :

“…The cake that was baked at home, that was the way Lakshman Kadirgamar, my uncle, described himself when he went to the Oxford Union, several decades after he was the President of the Oxford Union. He was then Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka and invited for the unveiling of his portrait and Oxford was obviously ready to claim him as their own. I think he put them in their place saying, you are the icing on the cake but the cake was baked at home. So, this made me think a little bit about cake making. I’m not the best cook in our family, but I made a cake or two and I was thinking, well, good cakes depend on the ingredients. The right proportion of fruit and nut, if it’s a fruit cake, or whatever, good quality ingredients in the right proportion. The whisking, the mixing, all that matters. The pressure you use. The light touch or the heavy churning and of course, the heat of the baking. Too hot means it will burn. Too cool, it will flop. So all this goes into cake making and I thought about my uncle’s life in those terms as well.

My uncle, first of all, I must talk a little bit about his beginnings. Apparently, when his mother was expecting him, he was the sixth, the youngest child in the family and though she had started having children at the age of 18 or 19, when Lakshman was born, she was a little more settled and more mature. Someone had told her, it’s not only the food you eat and the rest you have, but also the books that you read. And though my grandmother was not formally educated, there was she with great thoughts and philosophers on her lap reading these books and my father was very amused. He said, Mom, you normally read fashion magazines. She said, no, no, I must read great thoughts. It will make a big difference to my child. And true enough, it seemed to make a difference.

Anyway, Lakshman was the youngest son of Sam Kadirgamar, Sr. and his wife, Edith Parimalam Medha and my grandfather himself had struggles in his life. His father died when he was very young. He was a talented boy, so he got a scholarship and came to St. Thomas’ – sorry, Trinitians. He was sent to St. Thomas’. After that, he never really returned to Jaffna but he was struggling to make his way in colonial Ceylon and I think the value of hard work and persistence and all that was deeply ingrained in his ethos.

He married my grandmother, who was born to a very well-established businessman and devout Christian in Jaffna, who was very comfortable with her place in her society in Jaffna. But when she came to Colombo, as a young bride with, I think, an ambitious upwardly mobile lawyer as a husband, she had to fit into a different world and she had to grow up fast. When she went back to Jaffna to have her first child, my father, her mother was continuing to have babies and so she realized she had to look after herself. She could not fall back on her family.

So they were independent and resilient and of course, when Lakshman was born, he was the youngest of six children, the family was well settled. So there was a lot of time to pamper him and pet him and shower him with love, which is what he grew up with. But their world fell apart six years later when his mother died.

And truly, I suppose in any family, a parent dying and especially a mother dying is a big loss but I think my grandfather was just not able to cope emotionally and so Lakshman was really in a very difficult place, loved by his brothers and sister. But the war was looming and they were busy in their careers and so the decision was made that he should go to Trinity.

Now I had a quiet chat with Nimal and I told him I thought boarding schools are total institutions and tough places to be in and I was quite critical about boarding schools but literally to Nimal, they seemed to be rosy places and no one remembers the canings and whatever. In retrospect, I suppose all things are good but Lakshman too, I realized what a lot Trinity meant to him from his friends. There he met Singha Weerasekera who was emerging from his own tragedy in his family and they bonded almost as brothers do. And his house, his home, whenever he came to Sri Lanka, was flooded with friends who wanted to see him and claim his time and, you know, he was very much a social animal in that sense.

To us in his family, especially when I was reading the letters that he has written to my father and my father had written to him, I realized, you know, what a thoughtful, I mean, he was the person who kind of appreciated his place in life as it were and he was very, very focused in what he did. I was quite amazed as a university student to see him planning his next steps and, you know, planning his career. I never thought of anything in those terms. So things did not happen by accident to him. He really planned his life in a very intense kind of way. Of course, when he went to Oxford, he had the advantage of being at the Oxford Union, and that is where he met and married his first wife, Angela. And when he came back to Sri Lanka, still Ceylon at that time, he was really ready to go into politics and he had asked my father for advice about joining the Federal Party.

Continued Tomorrow