Features

The first rung of my career

Published

4 years ago

2022/02/27

by Sumi Moonesinghe narrated to Savithri Rodrigo

It was much later that I learned I missed a first class by just one mark. But it didn’t matter. I now had my engineering degree and was ready to take on the world.

For one year, I worked at the university as an instructor. This was not a lecturer position but involved helping others conduct experiments in the lab. I moved to Ramanathan Hall because I was no longer a student and there became great friends with the Warden of the Hall, Vajira Cooke.

I also took charge of my sister Roni’s education at the time because I was now earning a monthly salary as an instructor. My parents had done so much for us that I really wanted to lighten their load. I was very conscious of the sacrifices they had made throughout my time at school and university. This sense of responsibility made me aware that I must become self-sufficient and during university, I never once asked them to fund anything, not even textbooks. I would go to the library and use the books there for reference. It was not easy but I managed.

My next job was as a Telecom Engineer at the Dickman’s Road Switching Centre. The telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka was in its fledgling years, having commenced in 1958 when the first telegraphic circuit between Colombo and Galle was launched. Coming under the Department of Telecommunications, this may have been a dream job for many, but not for me. It was utterly boring and I hated it.

My sights were set on broadcast engineering as communications engineering was fascinating. Sri Lanka only had radio at the time; television hadn’t been introduced and mobile phones were unheard of. The only phones were the landlines and I didn’t find those exciting.

Never to be deterred, I kept applying and finally got what I wanted – a transfer to Radio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia and second oldest in the world. This was a station that enjoyed the title of ‘King of the Airwaves’ with millions tuning into radio broadcasts from around the world, playing a seminal role in the advent of broadcasting alongside Great Britain, the USA and Germany. And this is where I wanted to be.

The Chairman of the Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation and Director General of Broadcasting was Neville Jayaweera, a smart, impeccably-dressed man who had an excellent command of the English language. A member of the prestigious Ceylon Civil Service, it was Neville who was handpicked by Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake at the time to head the Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation, and drafted the pioneering legislation for setting up the CBC and the subsequent name change of Radio Ceylon to Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation in 1967.

It was in this pivotal year, when I turned 22 that I began working at CBC as an Engineer in Charge of the Studios and Training School reporting to Chief Engineer David Buell, a very soft-spoken, quiet gentleman. My salary was a princely Rs. 720, which was plenty in those times.

Neville would often mention that I had potential to study further and venture into more training. Armed with only my BSc in Engineering, working alongside others who were more qualified and experienced, he nevertheless, seemed to think I was doing a good job, far in excess of the academic knowledge I had gained. He called me into his office one day and said, “Miss Senanayake, there is a scholarship to go to England to do a Masters, followed by training at the BBC. I will be nominating you.”

I think my jaw dropped in surprise and my heart did a little flutter, but I retained my composure. Tongue-tied for once, all I could say was, “Thank you, Sir,” ever grateful that he had given me this opportunity because I was still a rookie in the ranks. The only blot in the plan – I had to leave by the end of the month.

This sudden turn in my life was predicted earlier although I didn’t take the prediction seriously. When I was visiting my parents earlier that month, we came across a soothsayer in the Kegalle town. She looked at me pointedly and said, “You will be going abroad by the end of the month.” In the 1960s, going overseas was a luxury as it was just too expensive and only a privileged few could afford it. I remember thinking the woman was crazy and brushed her off. These weren’t times people could simply get on a plane and take off.

While I had been quite adamant not to get distracted from my studies with any serious romances while at university, in my final year, that principle was quickly put to the test. I had developed strong feelings for a young man who was working at the State Engineering Corporation. We would meet whenever I came to Colombo, occasionally going to the cinema. He was not a Sinhalese and given Sri Lanka’s ethnic divide running deep, in my heart I knew the relationship may not be looked upon kindly, especially by my parents. Thus it was kept under wraps except for a few friends who were in on the secret.

I broke the news to my boyfriend about the scholarship and he in turn had good news. He had been conferred a Fulbright scholarship to go to America.

When I moved to Colombo from Peradeniya, I was staying with Loretta Gunaratne at Sulaiman Terrace, Colombo 5. With my impending trip to the UK, Loretta took charge of getting things ready for my departure.

As I mentioned, few people were fortunate to travel and more so to countries like the UK and the USA which were considered the creme de la creme where streets were believed to be paved with gold. For those around me, I was now among the privileged few. London was definitely paradise in waiting. There were also some unwritten rules; don’t squander your money buying unnecessary things, take everything you will need from Sri Lanka and save all that money to bring a car from England when you return. The only path to money was in this car, which would fetch a tidy sum in Ceylon. And the car of choice was the Peugeot 504.

So there we were — Loretta and I, packing everything from soap to toiletries, linen and underwear, so I wouldn’t have to buy anything in ‘expensive’ London and could save up my money to return with the car.

My parents arrived the day before I was to leave to bid me goodbye. That night, we dropped in to bid farewell to Neville Jayaweera who was surely an architect of my dreams. My good friend Asoki Gunewardene, who had found Loretta’s home for me to stay in, accompanied my parents and me to Neville’s home. My parents had also met my ‘boyfriend’ although they didn’t know that at the time. I simply introduced him as a friend. This was nothing new to them as I always had lots of male friends during my university years and they were used to seeing me in their company.

After visiting Neville, Asoki who was in the car with us and obviously couldn’t keep a secret, blurted, “That boy with the beard is her boyfriend!” Needless to mention, I was livid with her. The rest of the car ride was spent in silence.

My parents returned to Kegalle and I took my flight to London the next day. Several of my batchmates, boys of course, came to see me off that morning and some even accompanied me to the airport. I remember tears streaming down my face when I left because I was leaving both my boyfriend and my family behind. I was missing them already.

I had never left Sri Lanka before this, let alone been on a plane. Everything was very new to me, but it also brought a shark reminder that I was now very much on my own, far away from everyone I knew and everything I was familiar with. The pensive feeling remained with me throughout the flight and when the BOAC flight transited in Rome, I had to make a connection with Sri Lanka to shake off some of my blues. The first object I set my eyes on was a large doll at the duty free shop. I purchased it and gave it to the air hostess on the flight to give it to my niece Chinthi when she returned to Colombo.

In the meantime, there may have been silence in the car on the way back from Neville’s and nothing may have been said by my parents about Asoki’s revelation when they bid me goodbye, but the boyfriend matter was not to be swept under the carpet. The first letter I received from my father after I arrived in England stated: If you are thinking of marrying anyone other than a Sinhala Buddhist, then you better stay there. Don’t come back here.

(To be continued)

(Excerpted from Sumi Moonesinghe’s Memoirs)

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Features

The challenge of keeping value-based politics alive

Published

5 hours ago

2026/05/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Anti-migrant protests in Durban, South Africa. BBC

The current outbreak of anti-immigrant protests in Durban, South Africa is bound to have taken many a subscriber to value-based politics or political idealism quite by surprise. After all, this is evidence that despite the historic accomplishments of nation-builders of the stature of the late President Nelson Mandela it cannot be taken for granted that identity politics, including racism in its worst forms, is no more in South Africa.

At the time of this writing details are scarce on the substantive root causes of the protests but it could very well be that economic grievances, particularly on the part of the majority community in South Africa, are contributing considerably to the disaffection. Shrinking employment and material prospects are likely to figure majorly among the factors igniting the unrest.

Fortunately, the local authorities in Durban are losing no time in calling for peaceful co-existence among the relevant communities and are pointing to the vital importance of stepping-up national integration processes. Apparently, immigrants in sizable numbers from neighbouring countries are present in Durban. However, international TV footage of the protests quoted some local authorities as saying that the majority of the immigrants in some centres that housed them were not illegal migrants and had the documents that entitle them to be in Durban.

In the Durban protests the world has fresh proof of the socially divisive consequences of the gathering globe-wide economic disaffection, touched off particularly by the continuing crisis in West Asia. Going ahead, the world would need to brace for increasing identity-based unrest of the kind it is just witnessing in South Africa.

Considering that the material lot of ordinary people everywhere could only aggravate progressively, with the US and Iran showing no signs of negotiating an end to their confrontation any time soon, it will be left to the more democratic and progressive sections of the world community to initiate positive measures collectively to bring a measure of relief to the discontented.

The swiftness with which such relief will be provided would depend crucially on the importance those sections taking up these undertakings attach to value-based politics as opposed to Realpolitik of power politics.

Going by these yardsticks, Italy could be considered to be moving in the right direction. Recently Italy came to the fore in initiating the collective named, ‘Rome Coalition for Food Security and Access to Fertilizer’, which has as one of its aims the swift provision of fertilizer to economically weak African countries.

In a recent statement Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, said that a principal aim of the project was to ensure that the farmers of Africa gained easy access to fertilizer, considering that food security is a growing concern among some of Africa’s economically vulnerable countries.

The statement went on to mention that some 30 countries hailing from the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, the Balkans as well as the FAO had been invited to join the coalition. The venture is far-seeing in that food security is main among the reasons for social discontent which in turn could degenerate into endemic political turmoil and bloodshed. Separatist violence and geographical fragmentation of countries wouldn’t be too far behind these developments, as Africa itself has often proved.

It is hoped that more G7 countries would take the cue from Italy and do what they could to ease the hardships of economically distressed countries, particularly of the global South. In these efforts they would need to break rank with the US, which is today brutally indifferent to the consequences of its policy of making ‘America First’, come what may.

Going by current developments, the Trump administration seems to be blithely oblivious to the wider, deleterious effects of its policy course in West Asia. Besides rendering Iran militarily and otherwise impotent nothing else seems to matter to Washington, as regards West Asia. This is policy short-sightedness of an extreme kind. After all, right now West Asia could be said to be sitting on the proverbial powder keg.

On the other hand, Iran is not giving the world the impression that it is doing anything constructive to get out of the policy straitjacket that it wove for itself decades ago. Rather than enter into a policy of ‘live and let live’ in relation to Israel in particular and initiate a process of reconciliation with the latter, it has chosen to operate within policy parameters that continue to damn Israel. This has put Israel always on the ‘defensive’ so to speak and prevented the opening up of space for meaningful dialogue.

That said, Israel is obliged to explore the possibilities of entering into a negotiatory process with the Arab-Islamic world that could lead to a de-escalation of tensions and bloodshed. It cannot continue to look at its neighbours through lenses that distort them as archetypal enemies who should be ‘wiped off completely from the face of the earth.’

In other words, the need is urgent for Realpolitik to give way to value-based politicks. Italy is beginning to prove that the latter approach could be pursued with some success. May be the EU and the UK could throw their weight behind these initiatives as well and establish that international politics could be refashioned on the basis of humane, civilized norms. The UN would need to be fully supportive of these moves and prove an organizational nucleus of the operations that follow.

In fact the time is ripe for people of conscience to collectively stand up on the side of peace and say ‘No’ to war and violence. Organizations such as the ICRC, the WHO and Medicines Sans Frontiers have already taken up this call. Referring to the widespread destruction of health facilities and their dehumanizing results these organizations have said, among other things, that ‘This is not a failure of the law. It is a failure of political will.’

True, ‘failure of political will’ among those powers that matter accounts for the runaway, uncontrollable nature of war and destruction in contemporary times, but more fundamentally it is a failure of the human conscience. It could very well be that the phenomenal levels to which violence and war have been unleashed today have had the effect of deadening consciences. This is a matter for urgent study and wide discussion.

Features

Vesak celebrations … with Cuteefly

Published

5 hours ago

2026/05/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Perfect for celebrations, gifts, and meaningful occasions // Gift pack

I would describe Indunil Kaushalya Dissanayaka as innovative and creative, and she operates under the name of Cuteefly.

Indunil always comes up with something novel to celebrate special occasions, and she does it with candles … and that’s her profession.

She was in the spotlight when she created a happening scene, with candles, for Christmas, Sinhala and Tamil New Year, and Valentine’s Day.

As lanterns light up Sri Lanka for Vesak, the Colombo-based candle maker is quietly turning wax and wick into little pieces of the festival.

Candles reflecting Vesak themes

Her candles reflect Vesak themes – light, peace, remembrance, giving, etc., to enable you to fill your Vesak celebration with devotion and beauty.

Among her Vesak creations is a lotus-shaped soy candle, scented with sandalwood, lavender, etc., meant to burn during this Vesak Poya Day.

Indunil Kaushalya Dissanayaka: Customers
praise her for her creativity

These handcrafted Vesak candles are perfect for offering at the temple, she says.

What makes her creations so novel is that they come in different shapes, scents, themes, and all are handmade.

What’s more, her customers have heaped praise on her for her creativity.

According to Indunil, her creations are perfect as a thoughtful gift … to bring beauty, unity, and light into every moment.

Says Indunil: “Our beautifully handcrafted Unity candles are designed with premium detail and love, making them perfect for celebrations, gifts, and meaningful occasions.”

Cuteefly, says Indunil, is available online.

Readers could contact Indunil on 0778506066 for more details.

He Facebook Page is: Cuteefly.

Handmade with love

Features

Dark Spots …

Published

5 hours ago

2026/05/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Yes, dark spots do crop up on the skin, especially with sun exposure and, of course, as the skin ages.

However, these tips should be of immense benefit to those who are faced with dark spots.

* Lemon and Honey Glow Mask:

You will need 01 teaspoon lemon juice and 01 teaspoon honey.

Mix the lemon juice and honey well and then apply this mixture, only on the dark spots.

Leave for 10–15 minutes and then rinse with cool water.

Benefits:

Lemon helps brighten pigmentation.

Honey moisturises and heals skin.

Gives a natural glow.

* Aloe Vera Gel Treatment:

All you need is fresh aloe vera gel.

Apply the gel apply on dark spots, before going to bed.

Leave overnight and wash in the morning.

Benefits:

Reduces acne marks and pigmentation.

Soothes irritated skin.

Helps skin repair naturally.

* Turmeric and Yoghurt Paste:

You will need 01 teaspoon yoghurt and a pinch of turmeric

Mix the yoghurt and turmeric into a smooth paste and apply on affected areas.

Leave for 15 minutes and then wash gently with lukewarm water.

Benefits:

Turmeric brightens skin naturally.

Yoghurt removes dead skin cells.

Helps fade dark spots gradually.

Use these packs 02-03 times a week as results are generally seen over time.

You can also try this out: Mix a ripe papaya into a smooth paste and apply to the face, or directly on to the dark spots. Leave for 15-20 minutes and then wash with lukewarm water.