Features
Life after A.F. Jones, marriage and separation
(Excerpted from the autobiography of Merrill. J. Fernando)
Having severed my connections with AF Jones, I gave myself a respite from an intense work life, literally a dawn to dusk grind, which I had sustained almost on a daily basis, over several years. In view of the nature of my disengagement from AFJ, I also took the precaution of advising all our customers around the world that I had dealt with, of the circumstances that led to my departure. Many responded to me, expressing their dissatisfaction with the manner in which they were being serviced after my exit.
There were also requests for me to return to AFJ with the assurance that I would be permitted to operate without any interference. However I did not consider that even for a moment,
During this rather troubled period, I was administered another shock, by a letter from the Inland Revenue Department, enclosing a punitive assessment for Rs. 50,000 in additional taxes coupled with a directive impounding my passport.
A close friend investigated the matter on my behalf and advised that the department had been sent a set of documents, relating to a personal investment of 600 pounds in shares in the UK; hence the assessment. I immediately realized how the file had got into the hands of the Inland Revenue.
A lady secretary at the American Embassy was the tenant of my ground floor flat and paid me a dollar rent, which I credited to a UK bank account.
From these funds I had invested in Ceylon tea estate company shares in the UK Stock Exchange. Joe Silva, a communist agitator who had created many problems at AFJ, had apparently, on the instructions of Nadesan, my supposed friend, sent an anonymous letter to the Exchange Controller, alleging that I had overseas investments. When the Exchange Controller requested me to submit details of such investment, I showed the documents to Nadesan, who drafted a reply on my behalf. He also kept in his custody the related file of documents – for safekeeping, he said – and it was that file which had found its way to the Inland Revenue.
However, Mr. Mithrasena, the Inland Revenue official who inquired into the matter, was quite satisfied with my explanation regarding the overseas account. He also assisted me in obtaining my statutory dues from the company, by ordering the company to immediately remit the relevant funds to the Inland Revenue, which he released to me soon thereafter.
During this period I had a couple of offers from companies overseas, including one in the United States of America, the latter through a friend of mine, to join his company as a partner. However, I was still passionate about the tea industry in Ceylon and, despite the disappointment with AFJ, I was determined to continue with the tea export business.
Another beginning – Merrill J. Fernando & Co. Ltd.
S_ I. Jafferjee of Jafferjee Brothers, an old and well-established family tea export company, was my good friend and had been very supportive at me during my disputes with the AFJ Board. No sooner I severed my active connection with AFJ, he invited me to join him in his business. I was grateful to him for his offer, but instead, in 1962, I launched a small company of my own, ‘Ceylon Tea Exports,’ operating out of the Jafferjee Brothers’ offices and also using their tea facilities.
The business grew steadily until a major strike by the workers of Jafferjee Brothers disrupted my operations as well. My personal appeals to the strike leaders failed to resolve the issues in contention, even though I went to the extent of visiting their homes to discuss the matter.
Finally, after discussion with “SI,” I moved out of the Jafferjee premises and set up my office at 188, Vauxhall Street, Colombo. At the same time, I also rented warehousing from S. H. Moosajee & Co, at Rs. 15 a square foot. That location is today Park Street Mews, home to a few upscale restaurants. The business of Ceylon Tea Exports was transferred to Merrill J. Fernando Company, which I had set up in 1962.
The beneficial impact of Mr. Gash’s (of National and Grindlays Bank) interventions in my business life were such that I always considered him to have been sent by God! He financed all my operations with the utmost confidence, even when business circumstances were unfavourable. In one instance, during a strike period which held up tea shipments, causing cash flows to dwindle, I visited the bank to seek temporary bridging finance, over and above the normal operational funding. However, his two assistants dissuaded me from going to Gash with my request as they were of the view that he would be placed in a difficult situation.
Seeking an alternative, I walked across to Eastern Bank — today Standard Chartered Bank — and submitted my request to its Head, Peter Bolander who, at our frequent social meetings, would solicit business from me. He asked for time to look up his rule book and then agreed to give me a substantial overdraft facility. When Gash’s assistants heard about my discussions with Bolander, they asked me not to mention my new relationship with the Eastern Bank as that would upset Gash!
Subsequently, I was compelled to take my business away from Grindlays, as its Head Office in Calcutta had taken up the position that I was over-trading and, hence, constituted a risk to the bank. Though Gash and his senior managers explained to their supervisors in Calcutta that I carried out a very efficient operation, in which the product was converted to cash much faster than in any other similar operation, the Calcutta office refused to change its view. By the time I reluctantly moved my business out of Grindlays Mr. Gash had also retired.
Messrs. Gunatilleke and Kularatne at People’s Bank solicited my business, even offering to finance the settling of my old debts, apparently a concession which they normally did not extend to other businessmen. However, I had to decline their kind offer as Grindlays arranged with Hatton National Bank to take over my account and its then Head, Mr. Dharmarajah, offered me the same generous terms extended to me by Grindlays. At Hatton National I dealt with L. S. D. “Bill” Peiris, a very sensible and fair-minded banker, with whom I enjoyed an excellent business relationship.
At that time most banks employed a cumbersome system to lend funds against export orders. This did not suit my operational style and I proposed to the bank a different system which also provided adequate protection to the bank, in the case of non-performance on my part. I gave Bill Peiris a weekly statement of confirmed orders with the corresponding funding requirements and that was accepted by him.
However, whilst I diligently honoured all my commitments to the bank, I had serious disagreements with one executive, the late Gaston Gunawardene, who was in actual fact an administrator and not a banker. His criticism of and intrusion into my operations were so frequent and vexing that I finally moved out of Hatton National, despite Dharmarajah’s appeals for me to stay on. I had to explain to him that I found it impossible to work with Gunawardene.
This depressing reliance on institutional funding for one’s operations taught me another useful lesson, very early in my life as a single entrepreneur – to build a strong cash base which would minimize dependence on loan and overdraft assistance which, even at their most beneficial, are still exploitative. I became frugal in my expenditure, saved as much as possible, and exercised great selectivity in my investments.
As a result of prudent cash and investment management, within a couple of decades I was able to build up substantial savings. The latter, invested in gilt-edged securities, provided me the stability to view funding assistance for my operations as a matter of choice and gave me the ability to fund any new business initiative from the revenue generated by my own operations.
Marriage and family
In 1964, I married Devika Jayawickrema, who came from a politically-prominent southern family. Her father, Major Montague Jayawickrema, was a proprietary planter and land-owner in the south. He had also been an active politician since 1936 and had represented the Weligama electorate on several occasions, between 1952 and 1987. He had been the Minister of Transport and Public Works from 1952-1956 and, later, from 1977-1987, the Minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs, and Plantation Industries.
Devika had been raised in a family environment in which the main preoccupations were politics and public service. As a result, the deeply-entrenched family cohesiveness and religiosity, which were both the defining features and overarching influences of my upbringing, were absent from her persona. Her outlook and worldview had been fashioned in a family ambience in which interpersonal relationships, attachments, and obligations were not as deep as in mine. These sharply-contradictory features in our respective personalities and value systems had their impact later on in our relationship.
At the time of my marriage I was living in a comfortable apartment on Turret Road and I planned to continue to live there. However, my new father-in-law was very insistent that I move into a fully-furnished home he had built for his daughter. In fact, he went to the extent of sending a few of my friends, including Bennet Medonza, to persuade me to move into this house, which was located between his house and that of Kishani, his second daughter. Finally I conceded to his appeals and moved in, but surprisingly found that instead of the fully-furnished home I was told to expect, it had only a refrigerator. I furnished it very satisfactorily on my own though.
Children arrive
Our eldest, Malik, was born on February 6, 1966, followed by Dilhan on May 29, 1968. Very early on I found out that Devika’s concept of parenting was quite different from mine, the latter fashioned within a strict Catholic upbringing, a composite of dedicated parental care on the one hand and the equally compelling response by the child on the other. The dictates of the religion that they were born to governed every aspect of my parents’ lives, even in the home. Other distractions, whether social or professional and however attractive or demanding, were not permitted to affect those responsibilities.
Thus, I evaluated Devika’s handling of our two children against the backdrop of my personal childhood experiences. During this period I was also deeply involved in my growing business, which, despite my commitment in both time and effort, was still beset by a number of operational problems. Given those circumstances, perhaps I expected a greater contribution from Devika in regard to the children, to offset any possible limitations on my part on account of the demands of my business. In short, I expected our two sons to be brought up in the same way I was raised in my parents’ home.
Eventually, my decision to end the relationship was made on the basis that the raising of my children, according to my perceptions of what was best for them, was not possible within the context of my marriage.
Separation
I purchased a comfortable and modern two-storeyed house at 61, Jawatte Road, soon after which I made a quick business trip to Europe. I was quite surprised when Devika followed me to London, possibly at the urging of her parents with advice to mend fences. However, regretfully, I advised her that my mind was made up and that she needed to chart her own course for the future.
On my return to Sri Lanka I refurbished the new home and soon settled into it, accompanied by the two children, together with their two carers, personal furniture, and the ever-faithful Alice, the best chef I have ever known apart from my mother. Thus began a completely new existence which, with very few changes, continues to this day. When Devika and I separated, Malik was four and Dilhan two.
I was both surprised and grateful that the many friends I made during my marriage continued to be my friends even afterwards. They extended to me the same love and affection as before and were also extremely helpful to me in various ways. They gave me much-needed moral support at a difficult time and still remain my close friends.
Whilst there were many such, without detracting from their caring in any way, I must make special mention of Nordeen and Shirin Esufally, who were by my side on every step of a difficult journey and were my dear, lifelong friends until their departure from this world. They opened their hearts to me, providing me exceptional love and care, sent me meals frequently, and gave me unrestricted access to their home and staff. Nordeen was my tennis partner for many years. Their children continue to be equally close to me to this day.
On conclusion of the divorce proceedings, I was granted custody of our two sons with access for the mother once a fortnight. From what I gathered, that too was not a satisfactory experience for them, but did not pursue it or try to change it, apprehensive of the impact it would have on them.
A few months later I was fortunate in being able to purchase a beautiful home in Gower Street, an old-fashioned house set in a sprawling garden with large trees and flowering plants. Both Malik and Dilhan loved its spaciousness; within, they had separate bedrooms with attached baths, toilets and a playroom and outside, the extensive shaded space where they were able to play various games with friends. Every weekend the house was full of my sons’ friends.
I recall that Malik preferred to read books in his room rather than play. Whilst playing cricket, Dilhan would display his resentment at being dismissed whilst batting, sometimes breaking his wicket, a demonstration of temperament he fortunately outgrew!
It could be quite premature to claim that the US has closed ranks completely with the world’s foremost fascist states: Russia, China and North Korea. But there is no denying that the US is breaking with tradition and perceiving commonality of policy orientation with the mentioned authoritarian states of the East rather than with Europe and its major democracies at present.
Increasingly, it is seemingly becoming evident that the common characterization of the US as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’, could be a gross misnomer. Moreover, the simple fact that the US is refraining from naming Russia as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its refusal to perceive Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia, proves that US foreign policy is undergoing a substantive overhaul, as it were. In fact, one could not be faulted, given this backdrop, for seeing the US under President Donald Trump as compromising its democratic credentials very substantially.
Yet, it could be far too early to state that in the traditional East-West polarity in world politics, that the US is now squarely and conclusively with the Eastern camp that comprises in the main, China and Russia. At present, the US is adopting an arguably more nuanced approach to foreign policy formulation and the most recent UN Security Council resolution on Ukraine bears this out to a degree. For instance, the UN resolution in question reportedly ‘calls for a rapid end to the war without naming Russia as the aggressor.’
That is, the onus is being placed on only Ukraine to facilitate an end to the war, whereas Russia too has an obligation to do likewise. But it is plain that the US is reflecting an eagerness in such pronouncements to see an end to the Ukraine conflict. It is clearly not for a prolongation of the wasting war. It could be argued that a negotiated settlement is being given a try, despite current international polarizations.
However, the US could act constructively in the crisis by urging Russia as well to ensure an end to the conflict, now that there is some seemingly friendly rapport between Trump and Putin.
However, more fundamentally, if the US does not see Ukraine’s sovereignty as having been violated by Russia as a result of the latter’s invasion, we are having a situation wherein the fundamental tenets of International Law are going unrecognized by the US. That is, international disorder and lawlessness are being winked at by the US.
It follows that, right now, the US is in cahoots with those powers that are acting autocratically and arbitrarily in international politics rather than with the most democratically vibrant states of the West, although a facile lumping together of the US, Russia and China, is yet not possible.
It is primarily up to the US voting public to take clear cognizance of these developments, draw the necessary inferences and to act on them. Right now, nothing substantive could be done by the US voter to put things right, so to speak, since mid-term US elections are due only next year. But there is ample time for the voting public to put the correct perspective on these fast-breaking developments, internationally and domestically, and to put their vote to good use in upcoming polls and such like democratic exercises. They would be acting in the interest of democracy worldwide by doing so.
More specifically it is up to Donald Trump’s Republican voter base to see the damage that is being done by the present administration to the US’ standing as the ‘world’s mightiest democracy’. They need to bring pressure on Trump and his ‘inner cabinet’ to change course and restore the reputation of their country as the foremost democracy. In the absence of such action it is the US citizenry that would face the consequences of Trump’s policy indiscretions.
Meanwhile, the political Opposition in the US too needs to get its act together, so to speak, and pressure the Trump administration into doing what is needed to get the US back to the relevant policy track. Needless to say, the Democratic Party would need to lead from the front in these efforts.
While, in the foreign policy field the US under President Trump could be said to be acting with a degree of ambivalence and ambiguity currently, in the area of domestic policy it is making it all to plain that it intends to traverse a fascistic course. As has been proved over the past two months, white supremacy is being made the cardinal principle of domestic governance.
Trump has made it clear, for example, that his administration would be close to ethnic chauvinists, such as the controversial Ku Klux Klan, and religious extremists. By unceremoniously rolling back the ‘diversity programs’ that have hitherto helped define the political culture of the US, the Trump administration is making no bones of the fact that ethnic reconciliation would not be among the government’s priorities. The steady undermining of USAID and its main programs worldwide is sufficient proof of this. Thus the basis has been adequately established for the flourishing of fascism and authoritarianism.
Yet, the US currently reflects a complex awareness of foreign policy questions despite having the international community wondering whether it is sealing a permanent alliance with the main powers of the East. For instance, President Trump is currently in conversation on matters in the external relations sphere that are proving vital with the West’s principal leaders. For example, he has spoken to President Emmanuel Macron of France and is due to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the UK.
Obviously, the US is aware that it cannot ‘go it alone’ in resolving currently outstanding issues in external relations, such as the Ukraine question. There is a clear recognition that the latter and many more issues require a collaborative approach.
Besides, the Trump administration realizes that it cannot pose as a ‘first among equals’, given the complexities at ground level. It sees that given the collective strength of the rest of the West that a joint approach to problem solving cannot be avoided. This is particularly so in the case of Ukraine.
The most major powers of the West are no ‘pushovers’ and Germany, under a possibly Christian Democratic Union-led alliance in the future, has indicated as much. It has already implied that it would not be playing second fiddle to the US. Accordingly, the US is likely to steer clear of simplistic thinking in the formulation of foreign policy, going forward.
by Upali Gamakumara,
Upali.gamakumara@gmail.com
The Clean Sri Lanka (CSL) is a project for the true renaissance the NPP government launched, the success of which would gain world recognition. It is about more than just cleaning up places. Its broader objectives are to make places attractive and happy for people who visit or use services in the country, focusing more on the services in public institutions and organisations like the SLTB. Unfortunately, these broader objectives are not apparent in its theme, “Clean Sri Lanka,” and therefore there is a misconception that keeping the environment clean is the main focus.
People who realise the said broader objectives are excited about a cleaner Sri Lanka, hoping the President and the government will tackle this, the way they are planning to solve other big problems like the economy and poverty. However, they do not see themselves as part of the solution.
From the management perspective, the CSL has a strategic plan that is not declared in that manner. When looking at the government policies, one can perceive its presence, the vision being “A Prosperous Nation and a Beautiful Life,” the mission “Clean Sri Lanka” and the broader objectives “a disciplined society, effective services, and a cleaner environment.” If the government published these as the strategy, there would have been a better understanding.
Retaining the spirit and expectations and continuing the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ project is equally important as much as understanding its deep idea. For this, it needs to motivate people, which differs from those motivators that people push to achieve selfish targets. The motivation we need here is to evolve something involuntarily, known as Drivers. Drivers push for the survival of the evolution or development of any entity. We see the absence of apparent Drivers in the CSL project as a weakness that leads to sporadic hiccups and free flow.
Drivers of Evolution
Drivers vary according to the nature of envisaged evolution for progress. However, we suggest that ‘the force that pushes anything to evolve’ would fit all evolutions. Some examples are: ‘Fitting to survival’ was the driver of the evolution of life. Magnetism is a driver for the unprecedented development of physics – young Einstein was driven to enquire about the ‘attraction’ of magnets, eventually making him the greatest scientist of the 20th century.
Leadership is a Driver. It is essential but do not push an evolution continually as they are not sprung within a system involuntarily. This is one of the reasons why CSL has lost the vigour it had at its inception.
CSL is a teamwork. It needs ‘Drives’ for cohesion and to push forward continually, like the Quality Improvement Project of the National Health Service (NHS) in England. Their drivers are outlined differently keeping Aims as their top driver and saying: Aims should be specific and measurable, not merely to “improve” or “reduce,” engage stakeholders to define the aim of the improvement project and a clear aim to identify outcome measures.
So, we think that CSL needs Aims as defined by NHS, built by stakeholder participation to help refine the project for continuous evolution. This approach is similar to Deming’s Cycle for continual improvement. Further, two more important drivers are needed for the CSL project. That is Attitudinal Change and Punishment. We shall discuss these in detail under Psychoactive Environment (pSE) below.
Aside from the above, Competition is another driver in the business world. This helps achieve CSL objectives in the private sector. We can see how this Driver pushes, with the spread of the Supermarket chains, the evolution of small and medium retail shops to supermarket level, and in the private banks and hospitals, achieving broader objectives of CSL; a cleaner environment, disciplined behaviuor, efficient service, and the instillation of ethics.
The readers can now understand the importance of Drivers pushing any project.
Three Types of Entities and Their Drives
We understand, that to do the transformation that CSL expects, we need to identify or adopt the drivers separately to suit the three types of entities we have in the country.
Type I entities are the independent entities that struggle for their existence and force them to adopt drivers involuntarily. They are private sector entities, and their drivers are the commitment of leadership and competition. These drivers spring up involuntarily within the entity.
Type II are the dependent entities. To spring up drivers of these entities commitment of an appointed trustee is a must. Mostly in state-owned entities, categorized as Boards, Authorities, Cooperations, and the like. Their drivers do not spring up within or involuntarily unless the leader initiates. The Government of a country also falls into this type and the emergence of drivers depends on the leader.
Type III entities have neither independent nor dependent immediate leader or trustee. They are mostly the so-called ‘Public’ places like public-toilets, public-playgrounds, and public-beaches. No team can be formed as these places are open to any, like no-man-land. Achieving CSL objectives at these entities depends on the discipline of the public or the users.
Clean Sri Lanka suffers the absence of drivers in the second and third types of entities, as the appointed persons are not trustees but temporary custodians.
The writer proposes a remedy to the last two types of entities based on the theory of pSE explained below.
Psychoactive Environment (pSE) –
The Power of Customer Attraction
Research by the writer introduced the Psychoactive Environment (pSE) concept to explain why some businesses attract more customers than others who provide the same service. Presented at the 5th Global Conference on Business and Economics at Cambridge University in 2006, the study revealed that a “vibe” influences customer attraction. This vibe, termed pSE, depends on Three Distinct Elements, which can either attract or repel customers. A positive pSE makes a business more attractive and welcoming. This concept can help develop Drivers for Type II and III entities.
pSE is not an all-inclusive solution for CSL, but it lays the foundation for building Drivers and motivating entities to keep entrants attractive and contented.
The structure of the pSE
The three distinct Elements are the Occupants, Systems, and Environment responsible for making a pSE attractive to any entity, be it a person, institution, organization, or county. Each of these elements bears three qualities named Captivators. These captivators are, in simple terms, Intelligent, Nice, and Active in their adjective forms.
pSE theorizes that if any element fails to captivate the entrant’s mood by not being Intelligent, Nice, or Active, the pSE becomes negative, repelling the entrant (customer). Conversely, the positive pSE attracts the entrants if the elements are Intelligent, Nice, and Active.
For example, think person who comes to a Government Office for some service. He sees that the employees, service, and environment are intelligent, nice, and active, and he will be delighted and contented. He will not get frustrated or have any deterioration in national productivity.
The Significance of pSE in CSL
The Elements and the Captivators are universal for any entity. Any entity can easily find its path to Evolution or Progress determined by these elements and captivators. The intangible broader objectives can be downsised to manageable targets by pSE. Achievements of these targets make the entrants happy and enhance productivity – the expectation of Clean Sri Lanka (CSL).
From the perspective of pSE, now we can redefine the Clean Sri Lanka project thus:
To make the Elements of every entity in Sri Lanka: intelligent, Nice, and Active.
How Would the pSE be A Remedy for The Sporadic Hiccups?
We have seen two possible reasons for sporadic setbacks and the discontinuity of some projects launched by the CSL. They are:
The absence of involuntary Drivers for evolvement or progress
Poor attitudes and behaviors of people and leaders
Remedy for the Absence of Drivers
Setting up a system to measure customer or beneficiary satisfaction, and setting aims can build Drivers. The East London NHS principles help build the Aims that drive type II & II entities. The system must be designed to ensure continual improvement following the Deming Cycle. This strategy will create Drivers for Type I & II entities.
This process is too long to explain here therefore we refrain from detailing.
Attitudinal Change
The most difficult task is the attitudinal and behavioural change. Yet it cannot be postponed.
Punishment as a strategy
In developed countries, we see that people are much more disciplined than in the developing countries. We in developing countries, give credit to their superior culture, mitigating ours as rudimental. The long experience and looking at this affair from a vantage point, one will understand it is not the absolute truth. Their ruthless wars in the past, rules, and severe punishment are the reasons behind this discipline. For example, anyone who fails to wear a car seatbelt properly will be fined 400 AUD, nearly 80,000 LKR!
The lesson we can learn is, that in Sri Lanka, we need strong laws and strict punishment together with a type of strategic education as follows.
Psychological Approach as a Strategy
The psychological theory of attitude formation can be used successfully if some good programmes can be designed.
All attitude formations start with life experience. Formed wrong or negative attitudes can be reversed or instilled with correct attitudes by exposure to designed life experiences. The programmes have been developed using the concepts of Hoshin Kanri, Brainstorming, Cause-and-Effect analysis, and Teamwork, in addition to London NTS Quality Improvement strategies.
The experience and good responses we received for our pSE programs conducted at several institutions prove and have built confidence in our approach. However, it was a time, when governments or organisations did not pay much attention to cultural change as CSL expects in the country.
Therefore, we believe this is a golden opportunity to take the CSL supported by the pSE concept.
Although they are visually impaired youngsters, under the guidance of renowned musician Melantha Perera, these talented individuals do shine bright … hence the name Bright Light.
Says Melantha: “My primary mission is to nurture their talent and ensure their sustainable growth in music, and I’m thrilled to announce that Bright Light’s first public performance is scheduled for 7th June, 2025. The venue will be the MJF Centre Auditorium in Katubadda, Moratuwa.”
Melantha went on to say that two years of teaching, online, visually impaired youngsters, from various parts of the island, wasn’t an easy ride.
There were many ups and downs but Melantha’s determination has paid off with the forming of Bright Light, and now they are gearing up to go on stage.
According to Melantha, they have come a long way in music.
“For the past few months, we have been meeting, physically, where I guide them to play as a band and now they show a very keen interest as they are getting to the depth of it. They were not exposed to English songs, but I’ve added a few English songs to widen their repertoire.
Melantha Perera: Invented a notation
system for the guitar
“On 7th June, we are opening up for the public to come and witness their talents, and I want to take this product island-wide, giving the message that we can do it, and I’m hoping to create a database so there will be a following. Initially, we would like your support by attending the show.”
Melantha says he didn’t know what he was getting into but he had confidence teaching anyone music since he has been in the scene for the past 45 years. He began teaching in 2015,
“When I opened my music school, Riversheen School of Music, the most challenging part of teaching was correcting tone deaf which is the theoretical term for those who can’t pitch a note, and also teaching students to keep timing while they sang and played.”
Melantha has even invented a notation system for the guitar which he has named ‘MelaNota’. He has received copyrights from the USA and ISO from Australia, but is yet to be recognised in Sri Lanka.
During Covid-19, Melantha showcased MelaNota online and then it was officially launched with the late Desmond De Silva playing one of his tunes, using MelaNota.
Melantha says that anyone, including the visually impaired, can play a simple melody on a guitar, within five minutes, using his notation system.
“I’ve completed the system and I’m now finalising the syllabus for the notation system.”
Melantha has written not only for the guitar, but also for drums, keyboards, and wind instruments.
For any queries, or additional information, you could contact Melantha at 071 454 4092 or via email at thebandbrightlight@gmail.com.
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