Features

Roots at Home and Thoughts in the world:

Published

2 years ago

2024/01/21

Thilina Walpola

The influence of Tagore on Mahagama Sekera

by Liyanage Amarakeerthi

(Text of the speech delivered at a Panel Discussion held at Svami Vivekanda Cultural Center in Colombo, on January 12, 2024 to commemorate Mahagama Sekera. Sekera was an influential a poet, a novelist, a painter, a lyricist, a filmmaker, and a literary scholar, and he died in 1976 at the age of 47)

This panel is primarily about the ways in which Mahagama Sekera’s art was shaped by Indian thought. Since ‘Indian thought’ encompasses a great deal of philosophical schools and religions, including Buddhism, there is no Sinhala art which has not been shaped, one way or another, by something ‘Indian.’ So, I must be specific and quite narrow in my focus. Hence, the focus on Tagore.

Gurudeva Ravindranath Tagore has inspired us, Sinhala people or Sri Lankans in multiple ways. As the panel today will amply demonstrate, Tagore’s influence can be seen in nearly all domains of our art scene. In the field of music, perhaps, his influence is the most pronounced. The Sinhala term for influence is abhasaya – a Sanskrit word, and it means ‘light’ or ‘reflection’. Gurudeva’s light has been quite pervasive in Sinhala art scene, though in recent times the significance of that light has been forgotten to some extent.

In this speech, I want to remind ourselves of that significance by focusing on the poetry and literary thought of Mahagama Sekera – one of our greatest modern poets. In doing so, however, I will be highlighting what I consider to be the most important lesson we could have learnt from Gurudeva Tagore. I have been arguing for more than a decade now in my Sinhala writing that Tagore’s strong critique of ethnic and cultural nationalism, a line of thought that could have enriched our cultural and political thought, failed to make a significant impact on the Sinhala language intellectual world. But it is never too late to rediscover that aspect of Tagore, and Mahagama Sekera’s work provides us with an opening into that rediscovery.

Many are Sri Lankan scholars and artistes who studied at Shanti Niketan, and all of them brought back some of aspects of Tagore’s thought. The most influential among them is perhaps, Ediriveera Sarachchandra, who later became a great playwright, a novelist, and a scholar in literature. And he is, arguably, the most important renaissance figure in the 20th century.

His days at Shanti Niketan are beautifully described in his memoir, Pin aeti Sarasavi varamak Denne. The influence of Tagore has certainly helped Sarachchandra and others to discover ‘our own traditions’ in art. Sarachchandra’s turn to folk theater to find an indigenous form of modern theater may have been encouraged by what Gurudeva did in the field of theater in the early 20^th century. Tagore’s influence on the field of Sinhala music has been pointed out by many knowledgeable scholars.

While paying tribute to Gurudeva for everything we have learnt from him, one must also recognize the fact that we have also missed one of the key lessons of Tagore. The lesson is the importance of cultivating a critical distance from nationalism, especially from ethnic nationalism, and the need of learning critically from Western modernity, especially science.

Tagore saw Western scientific, technological, and artistic achievements as human achievements that can be shared with all humanity. While critiquing Western colonialism and fighting to defeat it, Gurudeva had this to say, “Neither the colourless vagueness of cosmopolitanism, nor the fierce self-idolatry of nation-worship, is the goals of human history. And India has been trying to accomplish her task through social regulation of differences on the one hand, and the spiritual recognition of unity on the other. She has made grave errors in setting up the boundary walls too rigidly between races…”(Tagore. Nationalism. 2009: 34).

Gurudeva’s belief in our shared humanity did not make him a thinker floating in the sky, and he was an inter-culturalist thinker. The rooted cosmopolitanism of Tagore is a lesson we have either overlooked or insufficiently learnt. Sarachchandra, who was the most known intellectual to be influenced by Tagore and his legacy never mentioned Gurudeva’s brilliant critique of nationalism. The renaissance generation of Sinhala literary culture in the middle of the 20^th century, especially the intellectuals associated with the University of Peradeniya, were ready to learn from the world rather than being parochially restricting themselves to what was taken as indigenous tradition. But their openness was not articulated as it was often done by Tagore. For example, Gurudeva once said,

“That our forefathers, 3,000 years ago, has finished extracting all that was of value from the universe, is not a worthy thought. We are not so unfortunate, nor the universe so poor. Had it been true that all that is to be done has been done in the past, once for all, then our continued existence could only be a burden to the earth…( The Makers of Modern India. 2012: 188).”

Sekeara did not live long enough to articulate his intellectual positions in non-literary writings- a mode in which Tagore was remarkably prolific. But Sekera’s worldview is quite close to Tagore’s.

Mahagama Sekera, to repeat my main argument, provides us with an opportunity to revisit the Tagore we have missed. At numerous places in Sekera’s poetry one finds moving calls for an ethnic unity and harmony in Sri Lanka. For example, in Mak Nisada Yath, he imagines that Sri Lanka’s scientific and technological development would result in greater ethnic unity and stronger integration of diverse cultures:

“From the exhaust pipes
Of hydro-powerhouses
Comes out the rings of white fumes
Like an embryo of a future dream.
Seen on the other side,
Is the mountain rage of sapphire,
And this river descends from
Under the shadow of the mountain peak
Adorned with the Buddha’s footprint.
Sebastian.Nadaraja Mohamad
When this electricity
Lightens up
This country tomorrow
We will unite
At the peak of Sri Pada mountains!!

Constant call for ethnic unity is found in many other poems of Sekera. Originally published in 1964, many years before the beginning of Sri Lanka’s civil war, these poems indicate an impending danger of ethically motivated political violence. Perhaps, the resurgence of Sinhala ethnic nationalism in the decade of 1950 has made Sekera worried about the eventuality that ethnic and cultural hype would bring about.

In addition to expressing his fears about the rise of ethnic nationalism, Sekera’s rooted cosmopolitanism is seen in his openness to the literary developments in the West and elsewhere.

Sekera’s poetry during the 1960s shows that he has been interested in what was happening in Western poetry. His collection, Heta Irak Payai (1963) attests to the fact that modernist poems of Ezra Pound, E.E. Cummings, or the French symbolists have shaped his art during that decade. Sekera was one the first Sinhala poet to experiment with the way poems are printed on page. Many poems in that collection are printed to make poems to something look at rather than something to be read.

When matured as a poet, he gradually moved away from such modernist experimentalism to Sinhala folk traditions and to narrative poems but without losing touch with the literary developments after modernism. In his narrative poems, he was still within the modernist tradition by using style of free verse which came into Sinhala in the early 1940s. The ‘free verse’ is a style defended and promoted by the ‘Peradeniya School’- a group of poets and critics who were educated at Western universities. Sekera seems to have kept close contact with such Avant Garde groups in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

Though he was still using free verse style in the main, Sekera’s thematic vision was shaped by Asian philosophical traditions. For example, the narrative poem, Prabuddha, what considers to be his masterpiece, has numerous references to Upanishad, Bhagavat Geeta, Dhammapada, and other such texts. And the poem portrays a musician, who attempts to lead a refined and enlightened life without getting caught in capitalist consumerism and Westernized individualist life. Thus, Sekera has made a conscious attempt to learn from both the West and the East.

Sekera’s work, to sum up this section, demonstrates a cosmopolitan literary and artistic vision, which was not the mainstream of his time, especially during the 1970s. That literary cosmopolitanism has been directly and indirectly shaped by Gurudeva Tagore. If Sekera’s sensibilities, to be specific, are not shaped by Tagore, one sees a remarkable kinship between the thoughts of the two literary figures. Much like Tagore, Sekera was a poet, a writer of short fiction, a novelist, a lyricist, a filmmaker, a painter, and so on. In that sense too, Sekera looks to be modeling himself on Tagore. With his openness to new media, new art forms, I am sure Tagore would have made films if he were to live a decade or more.

Tagore was a rich thinker in whose fertile mind the best of the West or of modernity mingled into a fine synthesis with Asian thought. As Amartya Sen correctly puts it, Tagore was not just a rationalist objectivist. He believed in epistemological heterodoxy i.e. the existence of many forms of truth. “…While Tagore believed that modern science was essential to understanding physical phenomena, his views on epistemology were interestingly heterodox.

He did not take the simple ‘realist’ position often associated with modern science” (Argumentative Indian. 2005: 104.). In Sekera, I see a beginning of a wonderful synthesis of rationalist thought and visionary qualities found in Asian thought that cannot be rationally explained. All his narrative poems, Nomiyemi (1973) in particular, move away from naturalist realism into a realm of poetry where rationality and irrationality meet in a fine synthesis. This aspect of Sekera would have refined so much better in the next decade of his life. Sadly, that crucial decade never arrived.

In addition, in creating that poetic realm, Sekera often taps into Sinhala folk wisdom. In the famous section his mother the narrator of Prabuddha says,

‘Having walked over forests and jungles,
bringing all kinds of reeds home,
dying them in red, green, and so on
weaving mats in various designs,
You showed me, my mother,
This entire universe also has a certain design.

I did not know my mother,
That your face was a mirror
that reflected those days,
My own mind these days,
In those sunken eyes
I never saw happiness nor sadness.
Did you take in all suffering and comforts,
With a great sense of equanimity?
And, by doing so, did you gain peace and calmness of mind?
I earned money, fame, and glory.
I had palatial houses, cars, vehicles, and so on.
But none of them gave me peace of mind.
Had you realized that truth,
Without any of those material things?

Maknisada yath , (It was because..,) 1964 , the first of his long poems (or narrative poems) makes it abundantly clear that he has been heavily influenced by Ravindranath Tagore, especially by Geethanjali. For one thing, Sekera sees the divine in the everyday life of working people. For him divine is not necessarily in a supernatural place beyond this world.

“…when I open my eyes and look around
This is what I see:
Tractors
Factories
Airplanes
Machines
Electrical lights
The greatest secret of the world,
Electricity,
are gods.
The factories
Are the temples.

If there is an all-powerful god
Who creates this mother earth
And trees and plants
And all beings on it,
Who created machines
Rockets
I plead to Him
For one thing
Please grant us a powerful hand
And powerful mind.”

It is not difficult to see a shadow of Tagore’s though in these lines. Gurudeva Tagore, unlike Mahatma Gandhi, defended the technological advances of modernity. After this opening section Sekera explains why he is asking for a ‘powerful mind:’

Where there is a mind without fear
And no head is bent down [in submissiveness],
Where awareness is independent
And the world is not divided by narrow walls of indigenousness
Where there are words spring from the depths of truth

…

Where, the pure stream of water, which is reason,
Has not evaporated in the deadly dessert of outdated conventions,
Where you have led human minds forward towards
refined thoughts and actions
to such a kingdom liberation
My father, please wake my country up!! (71-2).

All of us know that the ideas and words in this excerpt are taken from Tagore- the famous 35^th poem of Gitanjali. To the contemporary reader this section might look like plagiarism. Typically, poets borrow things from other poets without being accused of stealing. After all, the idea of plagiarism is something quite modern and Western. All South Asian classics, especially the classics in modern South Asian languages such as Sinhala, have borrowed metaphors, stories, and even entire sections from the classical literary works in Pali and Sanskrit. Numerous sections of classical Sinhala poems are re-tellings of some sort. But to be fair by Sekera, when this section was turned into a song and the lyrics were published in a book, he acknowledged the fact that it was adaptation.

Though indebted to Tagore in the section above, Sekera pushes Tagore’s poetic thought a bit further.

“It was the man who,
Made the world emerge from the darkness.
It was the man who made the world fertile up to this day
It was the man who created God.
To create the mental kingdom of liberation

At least partially,
It was the man who shed
tears,sweat and blood up to this point (72).”

It is clear here that Sekera sees humanity to be more powerful than divinity. In fact, divinity is an offshoot of human efforts to make the world a better place. He goes onto celebrate the scientific advances humans have made. In fact, in the book cited, originally published in 1964, Sekera says, “in 25 years, humans will go to the moon,.. by that time, there will green grasses growing on the moon to welcome humans.’

Barely four years after the book’s publication, humans indeed landed on the moon, and, though for the green grass on the moon we will have to wait a while, Sekera’s optimism about human capabilities has a strong foundation. In that too, one can see the influence of Tagore. In many literary works of Tagore, one finds divine-like power among ordinary, working people, and the supernatural powers emerge out of extremely mundane situations. Some short stories of Tagore, such as “A single night,” are wonderful examples of such instances. This essay does not have space to deal with those stories.

Though Tagore was not entirely a rationalist thinker and an objectivist, he believed that science could help human beings to create a better life for themselves. His belief in modern science was one of the key points at which he differed from Mahatma Gandhi. Tagore and Gandhi disagreements on science have been documented by scholars and numerous times by Amartya Sen.

In 1934, Bihar was struck by an earthquake that killed thousands of people. Gandhi said that it was divine punishment for untouchability. Tagore, who was also working on untouchability along with Gandhi disagreed strongly and argued that such unscientific views about natural phenomena could propagate such interpretations among masses (Sen 2005: 103-4). For Tagore, untouchability was something to be defeated by socio-political reforms. In that sense, Sekera is much closer to Nehru than to Gandhi among the makers of modern India.

I argued earlier that Sekera’s attitude towards modernity and science is akin to that of Tagore’s. Sekera may have recognized that Pundit Nehru inherited Tagore’s appreciation of modern science and technology. In hearing Nehru’s death, Sekera wrote a song in which he correctly recognizes some salient aspects of the first prime minister of India.

The great river of thought
that comes from the past to the future
overflowed your noble heart and came forward.
Without dividing the humanity
Into segment with its many branches
That river of thought flowed treating everyone equally.
With your eyes that sees
All three times
You saw today
The world that comes into being tomorrow.

Tagore’s novels such as The Home and the World, and Gora that turn his cosmopolitan sensibilities into arresting literary expressions are much superior literary works compared even to the best of Sinhala literature. And there is nothing comparable with Tagore’s books Nationalism, The Religion of the Man among the books written by Sinhala literary writers. Sekera’s work too shows such limits. Though some of them are local masterpieces, we would expect much greater work from him. Unlike Tagore, Sekera died young. It seems to me that by the time he died, he was looking for the best modes to turn his sensibilities into literary or artistic expressions.

One can easily detect a major reason for Tagorean cosmopolitanism to be overshadowed in Sinhala cultural and political scene: the most important founding father of Sinhala nationalism, Anagarika Dharmapala, intensely disliked Tagore. And Dharmapala’s modern day disciples such as Gunadasa Amarasekara propagated for decades a kind of extreme nationalism that has no regard or understanding of rooted cosmopolitanism of Tagore.

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America at 250: Most unfitting President, Biggest World Cup Tournament

Published

15 hours ago

2026/07/19

Thilina Walpola

Messi and Yamal to face each other in Sunday’s World Cup Final

The world’s oldest constitutional democracy turned 250 on the Fourth of July, two weeks ago. It is a rather quirky coincidence that in the 250^th year of its largely successful existence, America should be having as its president the most unfitting person in history, and that in keeping with the American trait for mixing serious purposes with fun and play, it should also be hosting perhaps the largest edition of the World Cup Football Tournament. The triple coincidence – the anniversary, Trump presidency and the World Cup – is not without some meaning.

The essence of the Trump presidency has been to recast America in the mould of Trump’s own vulgar and outlandish presuppositions about who belongs in America and what the rest of the world owes to America. Internal exclusions and external isolation have always been a part of American history, but Trump’s project has been to make them America’s sole and permanent purpose. Make America great again by making it more intolerant and more imperfect, as opposed to pursuing the country’s founding purpose of striving towards a “more perfect union.”

Trump is also giving a new meaning to America’s exceptional isolationism by slashing immigration, deporting American residents whom he and his Maga cabal don’t like for the vilest of reasons, withdrawing from global agencies that America created and closing down American agencies providing global services, imposing tariffs on every country and deeming them as payment for America’s past generosity under weak presidents, and threatening neighbours with annexation while militarily attacking others.

2007: Lionel Messi holding baby Lamine Yamal

He got his nose bloodied after listening to Netanyahu and starting a fight with Iran, made a fool of himself by first announcing that he will provide safe passage to ships through the Strait of Hormuz and charge them 20% of their cargo value, and immediately withdrawing it after being told that it was a lamebrained and impractical idea. The Iranian Foreign Minister tweeted that it is a good approach but 20% is too high! The reality is that Iran has effectively closed the strait again, after Trump said his ceasefire with Iran is over, and there is nothing the might of America can do about it – thanks solely to Trump.

The world, not to mention America, are back to where it was soon after February 28. And Trump is back to February 28, with more attacks on Iran while telling Israel to keep out of it and hoping that Iran will soon come to the table. The Iranian regime is insisting that it is Trump and not Iran who will have to blink first again. For the rest of the world and the people of America, fuel and fertilizer prices are again rising along with the prices of goods and services that depend on them.

Meanwhile, the Fourth of July marking America’s 250^th Anniversary of American independence has come and gone. Every year, Americans cheer and celebrate the Fourth of July as a civic festival in their local communities. Families take their children to Washington, Philadelphia, Gettysburg and other historical sites to learn and appreciate their history. The state hardly gets involved and there are no military parades or flights of fighter jets. Trump changed it last year by holding a military parade in Washington but it did not excite anyone. The army had to go to extraordinary lengths to protect the city roads from cracking up while parading its massive tanks. This year Trump’s efforts to turn the 250^th anniversary celebration into a personal vanity affair spectacularly backfired and what was becoming a national damp squib. Not so ironically, it was rescued by the 2026 World Cup tournament that began on Thursday, June 11 and will end on Sunday, July 19.

World Cup Down to the Wire

The 23^rd FIFA World Cup hosted by America, Mexico and Canada with matches played in 16 cities – 11 in the US, three in Mexico and two in Canada – became a significant occasion for the US. It provided an antidote to Trump’s vain and unsuccessful usurpation of the country’s 250^th anniversary, even as it became an occasion to show the world that there is still much more likeable about America in spite of all the ugly MAGA makeover that Trump has been giving it from the White House.

What is unique about America is that it is the first and the only immigrant country to become a superpower in world history. An open door country with a melting pot ethos, America has consistently struggled at every stage of its evolution to defy the homogeneity of the privileged, and to celebrate across-the-board heterogeneity in every aspect of the human condition. If the purpose of Trump’s presidency has been to break this arc of American history, the World Cup became an occasion to demonstrate that the arc will continue in spite of Trump.

The World Cup was an eye opener to both resident Americans and visiting football worshippers. Except for the Olympics sporting events, competitive sports in America are dominated by (American) Football, Baseball, Basketball and (Ice) Hockey, and the competitions are all limited to American teams along with some Canadian teams especially in Hockey. The extent of any international connection is limited to allowing players from Central America and Japan for Baseball, and from Canada and Eastern Europe for Hockey. In other words, American notions of exclusivity and self-sufficiency seamlessly extend to the world of sports from the universe of politics and economics.

The arrival of the World Cup, 32 years after America hosted its first and only World Cup in 1994, was an eye opener to American sports fans and the general public. This was international sports at their doorstep and an occasion to live through the experience of witnessing the world’s best exponents of the game fiercely displaying their talents in friendly competitions. The visiting fans who thronged the games brought life and diversity and retail spin offs to the cities where the games were played. The visitors to a person, both players and fans, were enthralled by the magnificence of America’s sporting facilities and the range of amusement and entertainment the host cities offered.

The tournament also became a smorgasbord of different nationalisms from around the world but manifesting pride and passion in support of national football teams and not boastful belligerence about national militaries. The teams were also more equal on the pitch than their governments are at the UN podium. The better teams of the day won in the end but every team made each game as competitive as it could. Small countries from West Asia, Africa and little Atlantic islands went boot-to-boot with European and South American giants and kept everyone guessing until the final whistle. The really big Asian countries – China, India, Indonesia etc. – could not qualify for admission, while Asia’s two industrial giants – Japan and South Korea – acquitted themselves well even though they were unlucky not to go beyond the group stage.

The team that America fielded should not have been allowed to represent the country based on Trump’s executive negation of all DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs in government and in federal hiring. But it did and the US team would have made the 1960s promoters of cross-racial ‘rainbow’ alliances proud. Similar rainbow teams have become the norm of almost all West European countries and England.

Players of colour have become superstars in western football teams and have quite clearly internalized natal nationalism as opposed to being assimilated by them. They are all descendants of birthright citizens of the old empires, a legal tradition that is more universal and anterior to the abolition of slavery and the 14^th Amendment in the US, as Chief Justice John Roberts reminded the Trump Administration in overturning its executive order to end the recognition of birthright citizenship in America. A practice that is shared by three dozen countries.

The US Team at the World Cup began as a promising outfit playing with flair and freewheeling style and could have gone as far as the Quarter Finals to play Spain. The team was undone prematurely by Trump’s sleazy intervention with FIFA bosses to suspend the Red Card penalty ban of a US player, Folarin Balogun, for a foul he had committed in an earlier match. Trump’s role and the penalty suspension created a public uproar and in the upshot an inspired Belgium trounced the US whose players performed very poorly perhaps under the weight of the embarrassment that their President had inflicted on them.

The World Cup tournament itself is now down to the final match, the 104^th of the tournament, on Sunday, July 19^th, between the reigning World Cup champions, Argentina, and Spain, the current Euro Cup holders. The match for the Third Place will be played on Saturday (July 18), between France who lost 0-2 to Spain in a surprisingly one-sided game, and England who went down in a heartbreaking 1-2 defeat to Argentina after leading 1-0 up till five minutes before the final whistle.

The French were the tournament’s cracking team till they came up against Spain who had been belabouring until then. The English team had bestirred all of England back home with their gritty win against Mexico in its national stadium full of 85,000 spectators, but once again came up short in the penultimate game.

The final between Argentina and Spain will feature the 39 year old Argentinian maestro, Lionel Messi, looking to win his second World Cup, and the 19 year old Spanish prodigy, Lamine Yamal. The football internet is abuzz with a 2007 photograph showing then 20 year old Messi carrying Yamal as an infant during a photo session in Barcelona, Spain, where Messi played club football. On Sunday, in New York/New Jersey, they will face each other in a spirited encounter for the biggest prize in sports.

by Rajan Philips

Features

Two memorable excerpts from a former SLAF commander’s memoir

Published

15 hours ago

2026/07/19

Thilina Walpola

Prime Minister Magaret Thatcher at opening of the Victoria dam. President Jayewardene, Mahaweli Minister Gamini Dissanayake and Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel are also in the picture

These two excerpts from the forthcoming book, To Survive As One Nation, One People by Air Chief Marshal Oliver Ranasinghe. A Retired Commander of the Sri Lanka Airforce makes interesting reading. The first is of a sudden demand on the SLAF for emergency air support for the besieged Jaffna Fort when the only available helicopters were being prepared for a VVIP flight for UK PM Margaret Thatcher and her husband, Mark.

The second deals with ferying PM Rajiv Gandhi and his wife Sonia to Katunayake after a naval rating had hit Gandhi with a rifle butt.

In April 1985, the UK’s first female prime minister visited Sri Lanka to ceremonially declare open the Victoria Dam and Power Station built with aid under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth II. The completion of the project was a significant milestone for the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Programme, with the power station having an installed capacity of 210 MW. Two helicopters were stationed at Air Force Headquarters premises to fly the VVIPs at 6:30 a.m. on 12 April to Victoria Dam. I was Commanding Officer of the Helicopter Wing and assigned to fly Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband.

However, at around noon on the day before the flight, I got a desperate call from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) requesting that 250 troops be airlifted to the Jaffna Fort immediately, since “hot intelligence” had informed that the enemy had planned to attack the fort that night.

I did not have any helis in the Wing as all had been deployed throughout the North and East. The only other two serviceable helis were in the VVIP security cordon, standing by to fly Prime Minister Thatcher and the other VVIPs the next morning. According to VVIP flying procedures, the helis are kept for 48 hours before the flight within a security cordon which is well-guarded by guards and air dogs. No one is allowed to go witin the security cordon without the Commanding Officer’s approval.

I had to take a quick decision about whether to drop the troops using the two helis from the cordon and run the risk of having no heli to fly Prime Minister Thatcher the next morning. The alternative was to say “No,” to the Army and take the risk of losing hundreds of soldiers at the front, facing a humiliating defeat, loss of prestige, morale and losing the Jaffna Fort, which was the Army’s pride.

If the latter happened, our conscience would be inconsolable even today. When we were fighting the battle, we were one unit: Army, Navy, Air Force and Police. The Air Force was always there. We never said no. So, I took the decision to fly immediately to Jaffna to carry out the task using the two VVIP helis. I was taking a huge risk, jeopardizing my career in the Air Force, by disregarding the standing orders and removing the two helis from the VVIP cordon.

By 1:00 p.m., we took off from Katunayake for Jaffna, using the two VVIP helis without Air Force Headquarters approval. I was captaining one heli with Flight Lieutenant Lasantha Waidyaratne as my co-pilot. (He was the pilot who, a long time later on, landed a heli at Jaffna Fort in the impossible task code-named Operation Eagle.) Flight Lieutenant Tennyson Gunawardena was flying the other heli as captain. I had to fly as we did not have any pilots to spare.

From the Palaly airport, we flew with twenty-two passengers without seats, keeping within the maximum all-up weight, and headed into the Jaffna Fort, approaching with the wind and not headwind as usual, avoiding enemy guns.

By 5:30 p.m., Tennyson called me on the receiver transmitter unit and said, “Sir, it is raining heavily in Katunayake, and we have to go in bad weather in the night back to Katunayake. So can I leave now?” I said, “Okay,” and ensured the heli was made ready for the VVIP the next morning. In the meantime, I kept flying the balance troops.

I did not get down at all from the heli and refuelling, too, was done whilst I was sitting in the pilot’s seat. The Brigadier-in-Charge in Jaffna came up to the heli very late in the evening and told me that, if I couldn’t drop all troops that night, to do the balance first thing in the morning. I said, “No, I will drop all tonight as I have to fly back to Katunayake for a very important task.”

We dropped all 250 troops into the Jaffna Fort and, after refuelling at Palaly, left at around 10:00 p.m. to fly back to Katunayake. However, we got caught to heavy rain on the stretch from North of Mannar to Katunayake. The weather was so bad that we had to request radar assistance to steer to Katunayake. However, I decided to disregard radar advice and told my co-pilot to follow the coastline, just to be clear of obstacles such as high-tension wires. Helicopters do not fly in rainy weather, let alone bad weather, and definitely not at night, but we had no choice.

Lasantha, my co-pilot, swears that he has not done a bad weather flight of that nature, either before or since, in his flying career. In fact, he says that he matured as a pilot during the last hours of that flight!

At around midnight, we landed at Katunayake where the crew was ready to take the heli and clean it to VVIP standard, which they did throughout the night. I was relieved and happy that I could return to Katunayake the same night.

The next morning, we positioned the two helis by 6:30 a.m. at Air Force Headquarters premises to fly the VVIP. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband, Mr.Denis Thatcher, had a safe and comfortable flight to Victoria and back. In fact, Mrs.Thatcher was fast asleep when we touched down in Colombo!

As the Commanding Officer of the No.4 Helicopter Squadron, I risked my life and career because I did not want the Jaffna Fort to fall into the enemy’s hands and lose Army lives. Also, I did not want to let down the VVIP and spoil the image of the Sri Lanka Air Force. If anything had gone wrong, obviously I would have been “thrown” in the sea. I believe such life and death situations reveal the inborn/emerging leadership potential of individuals.

This excerpt deals with flying Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his wife, Sonia, to Katunayake after a naval rating on ab honour guard struck Gandhi with rifle butt.

In July 1987, I was out of the Helicopter Squadron and serving as Base Commander—Anuradhapura. The Commander of the Air Force called me one day and asked me whether I was still current on helis, and I said, “Yes.” He said, “I am sending a Bell 214 for you to do some flying training.” The next day, the heli arrived at Anuradhapura, and I got back into swing doing some flying training.

After two days, I was told to come to Katunayake to do a flight. I was told that I had to fly the visiting Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, from the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to Galle Face and back. He was coming to sign the much-talked about “peace accord.” The Indian Prime Minister arrived at the BIA, and he was ferried to the Galle Face green, from where he was taken in a motorcade to President’s House to sign the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord.

Without taking much time, the motorcade returned to the Galle Face green. There was no panic. Rajiv Gandhi was smiling, but Sonia Gandhi helped Rajiv get in first, to the inner seat of the helicopter, and Sonia sat next to the window. If not for that, everything was normal.

I started up, switched on the VHF radio and contacted the Air Force Operations Room for take-off clearance. They told me that at the Navy’s Guard of Honour parade, there had been an incident targeting Rajiv Gandhi. That played havoc in my mind. I had to think that whoever planned and failed would have a “plan B,” and that would be to target the helicopter. Then I realized that, if so, both Rajiv Gandhi’s life and mine would be destroyed by “plan B.” That was my thinking. I had to save this VVIP, our state visitor. To do that, I had to make decisions on my own.

There was no one to tell me what to do. So, I took off in the most unexpected direction and avoided the usual route and followed a different route to BIA, whilst all the time being alert. Coming over BIA, I disregarded the usual approach procedure to the surprise of the Air Traffic Controllers and approached from the wrong direction and landed, but not in the designated landing place, to avoid a possible sniper or RPG attack.

The VVIP got off and walked away to the awaiting Indian Air Force aircraft. That relieved me of the tension of delivering the “precious cargo” in one piece.

(The book is distributed by the Vijitha Yapa Bookshop)

Business

‘Giving up was never an option’: The fisherman who fought back after losing millions in SL

Published

15 hours ago

2026/07/19

Thilina Walpola

Seamax factory at Dickowita Harbour

Spanish Israeli entrepreneur Simon Max Astandoust, a fourth-generation member of the renowned Astan fishing family, has endured years of legal battles, business setbacks and the loss of millions of dollars after investing in Sri Lanka’s fishing industry. Yet, despite the challenges, he has chosen to stay and rebuild.

In an interview with the Sunday Island, the founder and CEO of Seamax Ceylon (Pvt) Ltd speaks about his struggle, the restoration of his state-of-the-art factory vessel Astan II, and his plans to introduce cutting-edge seafood technology to Sri Lanka.

Q: You began operations in Sri Lanka in 2018. What was your original vision and investment?

A: We started operations in 2018 with an initial investment of around US$1 million. Over time, that investment grew into several million dollars because we believed Sri Lanka had enormous potential in the fishing industry.

My original intention was to develop a project through the Board of Investment (BOI) and introduce new technology to the country. However, the Government at the time encouraged us to work directly with it instead. We believed that this partnership would help us move forward faster and create something unique for Sri Lanka.

Overhauled Astan II

Our goal was to operate within the harbour and establish a modern fishing operation centred around advanced technology and sustainable seafood processing.

Q: What challenges did you face after starting operations?

A: Around eight to 18 months after we began our investment, COVID-19 hit. The pandemic created enormous difficulties. In countries such as Spain and the United States, governments provided financial support to help businesses survive. Here, the Government itself was facing a difficult economic situation and was unable to provide similar assistance.

Initially, we were told that there would be a grace period and that we would not be pressured for payments as long as we maintained our workforce and kept the operation alive. But later, that understanding changed, and demands for payments began despite the fact that we had a 15-year agreement.

That was the beginning of the major conflict.

Q: How did the change of Government affect your operations?

A: When a new Government came into power, the 15-year agreement signed with the previous administration was not recognized. The factory was closed and legal action was initiated against us.

This was extremely difficult because we had invested heavily based on a long-term agreement. We had built infrastructure, brought in technology and created employment opportunities.

During this period, while the vessel was caught up in legal disputes, a group of people attempted to take control of the ship. One of the most painful experiences was that some lawyers who had been working for us changed sides and supported those attempting to take the vessel.

Simon Max Astandoust

The legal battle continued for years and only concluded in 2025.

Q: Your vessel, Astan II, is central to your investment. What happened to it during this period?

A: Astan II is not just a fishing vessel. It is a huge factory vessel with a complete processing facility inside. It was designed to bring a completely new level of technology to Sri Lanka’s fishing industry.

Unfortunately, because it remained idle during the legal proceedings, it suffered significant damage. Ships cannot simply sit in a harbour for months or years without proper operation and maintenance. The Sri Lankan weather conditions are particularly harsh on vessels.

The vessel deteriorated badly, but after we regained control, we decided to completely restore it. It was overhauled.

Q: How much did the restoration cost and what work was involved?

A: The restoration cost approximately US$1.5 million and took about one year, beginning in 2025. The vessel was almost a complete rebuild. One of the biggest technical challenges was repairing the three generators. Because the harbour did not provide electricity, these generators had been running continuously to maintain the vessel. Over time, this caused significant wear and tear.

Finding replacement parts was another major challenge. Many of these parts are not imported into Sri Lanka, so every component had to be sourced from different countries and brought in individually.

A team of around 14 to 20 people worked on the restoration, including a Sri Lankan chief engineer and local professional deck crew. Their expertise and dedication were extremely important.

Today, the vessel is in brand-new condition.

Q: You mentioned that the absence of diplomatic representation made your struggle more difficult. Why?

A: I hold Spanish and Israeli citizenship, and neither Spain nor Israel has an embassy in Sri Lanka. Normally, when a foreign investor faces serious difficulties, an ambassador can engage with authorities and help protect the investor’s interests.

In my case, I had to face everything alone. I had to deal directly with government institutions and the legal system through my lawyers. Having diplomatic support would have made a significant difference. But ultimately, I had to rely on the courts and the legal process.

Fortunately, the maritime judges understood the complexity of the situation and the importance of maritime law. Their fair approach restored some of my confidence.

Q: Your vessel uses unique -70°C “Ultra-Fresh” technology. Can you explain how it works?

A: This is one of the most exciting parts of our project. The technology comes from Japan and is only about two years old. Traditional freezing methods often affect the quality of fish because the freezing process is slower and damages the texture. This technology works differently. It uses a glazing process where the fish is frozen from the outside, creating a protective layer.

Within approximately two hours, the fish is completely frozen. This process eliminates bacteria and preserves the quality of the fish.

When the fish is later defrosted using the correct method, it is almost exactly like fresh-caught fish from the ocean. The taste, texture and quality are preserved. At present, nobody else in Sri Lanka is carrying out this type of ultra-fresh freezing technology onboard a fishing vessel.

Q: What advantage will this technology give Sri Lanka?

A: Sri Lanka has excellent fishing resources, but we need to move beyond simply catching fish. The future is about value addition, quality control and accessing premium international markets.

With this technology, Sri Lanka can export seafood at a much higher value because customers will receive a product that maintains the quality of freshly caught fish.

This is not just about one company. It is about introducing a new concept to the country’s fishing industry.

Q: After everything you have experienced, why did you decide to continue investing in Sri Lanka?

A: I come from a family of fishermen. This is my fourth generation, and my son represents the fifth generation. Fishermen are not people who give up easily. The sea teaches you resilience. You face storms, difficulties and uncertainty, but you continue. Of course, there were moments when I lost faith. Losing millions of dollars and spending years in court is not easy for anyone.

But eventually, the justice system gave me confidence again. The maritime judges understood the situation and treated the case fairly. That showed me that there are people in Sri Lanka who understand the importance of protecting investment and respecting the law. That is why I decided to continue.

Many people told me that, despite the difficulties, the Sri Lankan judiciary would ultimately deliver justice. At the time, after years of uncertainty, it was difficult to know what the outcome would be. But in the end, that is exactly what happened. The courts examined the facts and delivered a fair judgment.

The maritime judges understood the complexity of the situation and the importance of maritime law. Their fair approach restored my confidence—not only in the legal system but also in Sri Lanka itself.

Q: What are your future plans for Seamax Ceylon?

A: Our plan is to expand significantly. We intend to bring two or three more large factory vessels to Sri Lanka, along with five local fishing vessels. We also plan to establish a new processing factory near the beach. However, this time we will work through the Board of Investment rather than entering into a direct agreement with the Government.

The BOI provides a structured framework for investors, and we believe this is the right way forward. My son Sam, who is the CEO of our US-based company, will also return to Sri Lanka to help introduce successful business concepts and support the next stage of development.

Q: What keeps you motivated after such a difficult journey?

A:The answer is simple: we do not give up. I come from a family of fishermen. This is my fourth generation, and my son represents the fifth generation. Fishermen understand struggle. You cannot control the ocean, but you learn how to survive. You face storms, difficulties and uncertainty, but you continue moving forward.

I have lost money, faced difficult times and experienced moments of disappointment. But I never stopped believing in the potential of Sri Lanka. One thing that gave me strength was the faith many people placed in the country’s judiciary. I was repeatedly told that the courts in Sri Lanka would deliver justice, and ultimately that belief was proven right. The maritime judges understood the situation and gave a fair decision based on the law.

That experience reminded me that, despite challenges, Sri Lanka has institutions and people who respect justice. That is why I decided not only to stay but also to invest again.

For me, this is not merely a business project. It is about resilience, trust and proving that when you believe in something, you continue fighting until you succeed.

by Saman Indrajith ✍️