Features

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Published

4 years ago

2021/01/10

by Chandra Arulpragasm

As a disclaimer, I need to state that I am not a Catholic, although a Christian. Nor do I claim to have walked in the spiritual footsteps of this man of God. I seek only to narrate my own experiences when I tried to trace the physical footsteps of St. Francis during his peregrinations in Italy. I must also state that whereas St. Francis walked all the way up and down the Umbrian and Tuscan Apennines in the summer sun and the rainy cold of winter, I had the relative luxury of doing the same journeys by car. I had this opportunity only because I happened to live in Italy for many years. For readers who know little of St. Francis of Assisi, I provide a brief biography, but only as background to my personal story of following the physical footsteps of this remarkable saint.

St. Francis was born in 1811 to the family of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi in the province of Umbria, near the Tuscan border. He was named ‘Francesco’ (little Frenchman) because of his French mother. He grew up among the idle rich, spending his youth in carousing and rowdy partying. Although his father wanted him to follow in the footsteps of his successful cloth trade, Francis only wanted glory at that time, in pursuance of which, he set out for the Crusades. But he already seemed to be undergoing a spiritual transformation. For he had hardly gone a few miles from his home, when seeing a poorly clad beggar in Spoleto, he stripped off his expensive clothes to wrap them around the beggar. (There is a graphic painting of this scene in Assisi). He was thus compelled to return to his family in shame and dishonour, for which his father never forgave him.

Meanwhile, his spiritual proclivities increased and he spent more time in prayer and penance. One day, while praying before an old Byzantine crucifix in the abandoned church of San Damiano in the woods, he believed that he heard the voice of Christ speaking to him from the cross asking him ‘to repair my church’. (I still have a small copy of this crucifix in my room).Taking the words literally, St. Francis soon went to work to repair the decrepit old Church of San Damiano with his own hands, brick by brick. It was only later that he realized that the call was to repair the mission and fabric of the Catholic Church, which was fast losing its way through wealth and corruption.

Taking to heart Christ’s teaching, he embraced the vow of poverty, assuming the model of poverty and service to Christ by tending to the spiritual and physical needs of the poor. He was a happy man doing God’s work, singing all the while, even when derided in the early days as being ‘God’s Fool’. Despite untold hardships, he and his twelve early followers were able to attract 5,000 friars to their calling within a period of 10 years. Being a born leader, Francis even went to the Church in Rome where, through his sincerity and holiness, he was able to convince Pope Innocent III to initiate a Franciscan Order, pledged to the ideals of poverty and service to God. Francis was not a rebel against his own Church: he was only trying to restore it to its original values of Christ’s teaching. It is heartening to see that the new Pope, Francis I has not only taken the name of Francis, but is also trying to do the same for the ideals and direction of the church. St. Francis stressed God’s brotherhood with man, with all people, rich or poor. In fact, he widened this spiritual embrace to all creation, including the birds of the air, the beasts of the field and to the entire universe. It is for this wider vision that he is now acclaimed as the patron saint of animals, the environment and indeed of all nature itself.

I now try to paint a picture of his life, as revealed to me by following in his physical footsteps. I start with St. Francis in his little church of the Porziuncola, which is associated with the start of his ministry. The Porziuncola was the shell of a little old church dedicated to St. Mary of the Angels, which Francis restored with his own hands. It is here that he later gathered his followers to start his small Order of Friars Minor. It is also the place where he received Clare (later Santa Chiara) into the service of God. The Porziuncola itself is very small, measuring barely 11 x 7 metres. Although gracefully adorned with paintings and frescoes, it is its stunning spiritual vibration that takes one’s breath away. It has made an indelible impression on me, compelling me to return to its spiritual space (the Proziuncola) repeatedly. It was also the place closest to St. Francis’ heart. On his deathbed, he was brought here and actually died within yards of it. Today this unassuming little church is covered by the massive Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (St. Mary of the Angels), which not only dwarfs but almost devours it. Nowadays one has to navigate this great and graceless Basilica to get to its vibrant spiritual heart, the Porziuncola. But it is still a visit worth making.

From there we go again to San Damiano, a church restored with Francis’ own hands. It was during these visits to the woods that he started communing with the birds and composed his famous canticle to the birds. He asked them to praise the Lord for their freedom to fly, for not having to sow or weave in order to feed and clothe themselves. Completely blind in his dying days, he composed his famous Canticle to the Sun in which he praises all God’s Creation, including Brothers Sun, Moon and Stars, Brothers Wind, Fire and Water, praising them all as part of God’s Creation. It is this universality of humankind and its bond with the rest of the universe that has made him the patron saint of nature and the environment.

Adjoining the Church of San Damiano is the nunnery where Santa Chiara (St. Clare) lived in a single-room dormitory with her sister-nuns for more than 30 years. In her last years, afflicted with tuberculosis, she moved to an adjoining room with a balcony. It is from this balcony that she is reputed to have stopped the invading armies of Frederick II and later of Muslim invaders by holding up the monstrance (the host) while praying for God’s intervention. (This scene is captured in a famous painting in Assisi). Most touching of all is the refectory table where the mark of St. Clare’s plate for 40 years has left a deep indent in the 700 hundred year old table! A bowl of fresh flowers marks the spot, as a poignant reminder of her dedicated life. The nuns’ quarters also possessed a picturesque cloister, around which the sisters walked in meditation. Their cloistered courtyard still holds the 13^thcentury well from which they drew their water.

Much of St. Francis’ life is brought to life by the frescoes and paintings which adorn the walls of the Basilica in Assisi. No attempt is made here to describe this treasure trove of religious art, since the reader can access it in any travel book. Hence reference will only be made to a few which illustrate particular aspects of his saintly life. The Basilica of St. Francis is actually comprised of three parts: the Upper Basilica, the Lower Basilica and the Crypt, where the remains of the saint lie buried. The Lower Basilica contains a number of frescoes and paintings, including one by the 13^th century master Cimabue, who lived closest to Francis’ time. Unfortunately these frescoes are fading away; but we do have a contemporary 13^th century portrait of St. Francis by Cimabue (a copy of which I still retain in my room). The Lower Basilica also contains the painting by Pietro Lorenzetti known as the Madonna of the Sunset because a wayward ray of light from the setting sun finds its way into the dark interior to light up this picture in brilliant gold. (My wife and I retained a framed copy of this painting in our bedroom for over 30 years). The Upper Basilica has the famous frescoes of St. Francis, attributed to Giotto, including especially his communion with the birds. The frescoes go on to illustrate further events in St. Francis’ life, including his receipt of the stigmata, the wounds of Christ in his own body.

There is also a painting of St. Francis’ encounter with the fierce wolf of Gubbio. The latter is a picturesque medieval town near the border of Umbria with Abruzzo, quite far from St. Francis’ usual haunts. It is a completely walled-off town, with steep cobbled streets which it strives to keep alive in its medieval splendour. It is said that in St. Francis’ time, a savage wolf used to attack the villagers, even carrying off little children to feed itself. When St. Francis visited this village, the people beseeched him to save them from this ravenous wolf. Addressing the animal as ‘Brother Wolf’, Francis was able to pacify it. He is even said to have made a pact between the wolf and the village, whereby the wolf undertook not to harm the villagers, while they undertook to feed and look after it. The wolf ultimately died of old age, as the village pet! There is even a painting of St. Francis accosting the wolf at the entrance to the town. Today the town of Gubbio is touted to tourists as a medieval town that is frozen in time. Archery contests are held here in imitation of old times, with the men dressed in medieval costumes unfurling their different cantonal flags, while the women parade the streets in their medieval finery. Heralds with banners and trumpets issue the challenge of Gubbio to an archery contest (on parchment written in 15^th century style) to other medieval towns such as Sienna and San Marino. Then the rival archers, armed with old-style crossbows (but jazzed up with high-tech telescopic sights) vie with each other in the highly decorated central piazza. It is a lot of fun – and attracts much tourism.

My main interest centered, however, around St. Francis’ activities in La Verna. The latter was hardly habited in St. Francis’ time, being set in woodland forests littered with mountains and caves. It is a long 123 km climb from Assisi, climbing high into the Apennines of Tuscany through many miles and mountains of slippery slopes in winter rains. St. Francis used to spend some months each year meditating and praying in these caves. There are many stories about those times, one of which is about a hawk that used to fly into his cave to wake him up at 3 o’clock every morning. Instead of upbraiding the hawk, St. Francis sang an ode thanking ‘Brother Hawk’ for waking him up in time to praise the Lord! There was also a rough robber named Rufino (Rufus) who came to rob Francis while he was praying. Francis spoke to Rufus in words to this effect: ‘Brother, I have no money to give you; but come pray with me, so that you will find even greater riches in the Lord’. So Rufino knelt and prayed with Francis, and thereafter became his staunchest follower. So much so that Brother Rufus is now buried opposite the Saint in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.

The whole area of La Verna is heavily wooded, adding to its sylvan beauty. Nearby is a Franciscan Sanctuary with its white-pillared arcade set into the side of a hill, while fluttering white turtle-doves provide a further peaceful picture. On the adjoining hill lies La Verna with its Basilica of the Sanctuary of La Verna. My wife and I have been visiting La Verna for 20 years (till we left Italy) when the place was unheard of and largely deserted. Now it has been built up with so many additional buildings, including tourist accommodation.

When we were reconnoitering around, we chanced upon a small cell in which St. Anthony, also of the Franciscan Order, used to meditate and pray during his stay at La Verna. It was a very small cell, hardly 8 ft x 8 ft, but with a wonderful view of the valley below. On walking farther on the hilltop, we stumbled upon an embedded rock whose writing proclaimed it to be the spot where St. Francis received the stigmata or wounds of the crucified Christ. The stigmata are wounds of nail-pierced hands and feet like those of Christ, with an added wound on the side. St. Francis was the first person to receive such a manifestation of his faith, but suffered greatly from these wounds.

Walking farther on the hill, we came across a quaint little chapel, seemingly frozen in time. Not knowing what it was, we nosed our way into its dim interior. It is now known as the Chapel of the Stigmata. We just had time to note the ornate choir stalls when we heard the sound of sonorous chanting in the distance, but coming ever closer to us. Soon a little old friar bustled in, fissy-fussing to tidy up before the oncoming procession. He almost died of shock to see us there: for no one was supposed to be there, least of all a woman (my wife). Although outraged, he could not chase us out into the path of the oncoming chanting procession. Not knowing what to do, he shoved us behind a narrow curtain and hushed us with fierce warning signs. Soon the procession entered. Not being a church man, I had never seen the likes of this before, and stood transfixed! The monks had apparently taken the vow of silence, coming out of their cells once a day to this chapel to sing praises to their Lord. They filed in two by two, heavily cowled so that one could not see their faces, looking rather sinister to me in the dimly lit church. There was pin-drop silence, except for their deep Gregorian chants. Entering the chapel, the monks peeled off to the left and to the right in well-known order, with each side taking its stand in the ornate choir stalls facing each other. Their faces could not be seen, nor was any word spoken: their leader only called out a line and the friars chanted their response. After about 20 minutes, they suddenly stopped without any word or sign, and peeled off in formation with cowled heads bowed, one following the heel of the other, with no word spoken! It left me breathless! It was not long, however, before the officious little friar descended upon us, berating us for our intrusion on this sacred ritual. It was an experience, however, that I will never forget.

And so we come to the death of this immortal saint. He was ailing for a long time, blind and suffering from his stigmatized wounds. In death, he wanted to be brought to his beloved Porziuncola, his spiritual home, where he was attended by his spiritual partner St. Clare (Santa Chiara). In his dying days he composed his wonderful Canticle to the Sun, which is a song of praise for God’s whole creation. He died in the year 1226 at the age of 44 and was canonized two years later. The government of Assisi had to send soldiers to guard his remains, for in the medieval superstition of those days, everyone wanted a piece of the saint! Thus ended the earthly life of this saintly man, whose physical footsteps I was privileged to follow. I can only conclude with the prayer attributed to St. Francis: a prayer relevant to all religions and one which I continue to keep by my bedside:

Lord, make me the instrument of your peace; Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is error, the truth; Where there is doubt, the faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek To be comforted as to comfort; To be understood, as to understand; To be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

(The writer, a member of the former Ceylon Civil Service, lived in Italy working for the FAO in Rome for many years)

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Features

Failed institution

Published

13 hours ago

2025/06/15

Thilina Walpola

Formed in 1945 by the victors of World War II, the main aim of the United Nations was to preserve international peace and security. The UN Charter provides for pacific settlement of disputes between members, and, if the parties fail to settle the dispute by peaceful means, the Security Council may step in, and adopt coercive measures ~ ranging from diplomatic and economic, to the use of armed force.

Coercive measures were seldom applied during the Cold War period, because of liberal use of veto by the United States or the Soviet Union. Post-Cold War, till recently, USA was the only superpower left, so it rampaged unhindered through Iraq, erstwhile Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Syria ~ to mention only some of its misadventures. Former US President Barack Obama succinctly observed: “In the middle of the Cold War, the chances of reaching any consensus had been slim, which is why the UN had stood idle as Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary or US planes dropped napalm on the Vietnamese countryside.

Even after the Cold War, divisions within the Security Council continued to hamstring the UN’s ability to tackle problems. Its member states lacked either the means or the collective will to reconstruct failing states like Somalia, or prevent an ethnic slaughter in places like Sri Lanka” (A Promised Land, 2020). In its early days the UN actively promoted decolonisation, hand holding the eighty colonies that gained independence in the aftermath of WWII. The UN, through its agencies like the FAO, IMF, World Bank and programmes and funds like UNDP and UNICEF actively supported the newly independent countries, helping them tide over food shortages, droughts, medical emergencies, etc.

All countries, developed and undeveloped, are immensely benefited by UN agencies like ILO, ICAO, UNESCO, WHO, UPU, IMF, World Bank etc. as also UN sponsorship of nuclear arms control treaties and environmental initiatives. However, now with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in its fortieth month and the Israeli invasion of Gaza in its twentieth, the failure of the UN to stop hostilities in either case highlights its increasing irrelevance. The ongoing war in Ukraine began in February 2014 when Russia occupied and annexed Crimea from Ukraine and then occupied eastern Donbas region in 2018, followed by a full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Ukraine war has resulted in a refugee crisis for both Russia and Ukraine, as also a million dead and injured on the Russian side and 700,000 dead and injured on the Ukraine side ~ all for a gain of around 113,000 sq.km. of Ukrainian territory by Russia.

The Security Council has been unable to act ~deadlocked by the veto power of Russia. True, the UN General Assembly has debated and condemned the Russian role in the war, but unlike the Security Council, its resolutions are not binding on member states. In the UN session called to mark the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US twice sided with Russia. Firstly, the US opposed a European-drafted resolution in the General Assembly that condemned Moscow’s actions and supported Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Then, the US sponsored a resolution in the Security Council, which called for an end to the war but contained no criticism of Russia. The ongoing invasion of Gaza strip by Israel since October 2023, has resulted in an unprecedented tragedy; according to official figures of the Gaza Health Ministry, as of 4 June 2025, almost 57,000 people (55,223 Palestinians and 1,706 Israelis) have been killed. The dead include 180 journalists and media workers, 120 academics, and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, which include 179 employees of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Scholars have estimated that 80 percent of Palestinians killed were civilians. A study by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR), which verified fatalities from three independent sources, found that seventy per cent of the Palestinians killed in residential buildings were women and children. The Gaza war has led to extreme famine conditions in Gaza Strip, resulting from Israeli airstrikes and the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, which includes restrictions on humanitarian aid. More than two million Gazans ~ about 95 per cent of Gaza’s population ~ have been displaced, and are categorized as facing acute or catastrophic food insecurity. There are currently no functioning hospitals in Gaza. After the end of the two-month ceasefire with Hamas on 18 March, Israel resumed attacks on Gaza.

According to a U.N. assessment, since then, the Israeli military has dramatically altered the map of the enclave, declaring about 70 per cent of it either a military “red zone” or under evacuation orders, and pushing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into ever-shrinking pockets. A fortnight ago, the Israeli government approved a plan to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip, which would, eventually, include occupation of the entire Gaza Strip. Israel intends to move Gaza’s civilian population southward “for its own defence,” though forced displacement is a crime under international law. Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief, said: “We will operate in additional areas and destroy all infrastructure ~ above and below ground.”

The Israeli cabinet also ratified a plan to take control of and sharply reduce the distribution of food and lifesaving aid. As of now, Israeli soldiers sometimes fire on crowds assembled to seek food. Images of starving Palestinians scrambling for paltry aid packages, herded in cage-like lines and then coming under fire have caused global outrage. Israel’s actions have the complete backing of the US, which is bankrolling its invasion and providing weapons and intelligence for the genocide of Palestinians. US President Trump seems to have provided the roadmap for the future of the Gaza strip; in a video posted in late-February, President Trump outlined the concept of a plan for the U.S. taking ownership of the Gaza Strip and turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

The question naturally arises as to what the UN is doing when such egregious violations of its underlying principles are taking place? As early as December 2023, to draw attention to the Gaza crisis, in the first such move in decades, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter; the UNSC failed to act because a US veto blocked a ceasefire resolution, supported by more than 150 countries. Every time the issue came up in the Security Council, similar US vetoes stalled action against Israel. As late as 4 June 2025, the United States has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Notably, the US was the only country to vote against the measure, while the 14 other members of the Security Council voted in favour.

The dangerous impasse in the UN, is part of a larger problem of incompatibility of 20th century multilateralism and 21st century geopolitics, and quest of a global balance of power, between a West on the defensive, rampant authoritarian powers, and an emerging South, demanding its place at the high table. The world over the UN is perceived to have failed in its objectives ~ even in the US ~ which has strengthened its hegemony through the UN; a Disengaging Entirely from the United Nations Debacle (DEFUND) Act was introduced, in the US Congress in 2023. However, the failure is mostly of the Security Council, which is extrapolated to the entire UN. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres noted that “the U.N. is not the Security Council,” but all U.N. bodies “suffer from the fact that the people look at them and think, ‘Well, but the Security Council has failed us.”

A more correct assessment is that members of the United Nations have failed it ~ while big powers pursue their rivalries through the UN, poorer countries are only interested in the money they can get from the UN and its agencies ~ which is mostly eaten away or spent on unconnected purposes. A quick fix solution could be to abolish the veto in UNSC, or to empower the General Assembly to override a veto in specified circumstances. The second secretary general of the UN, Dag Hammarskjöld, observed that the UN wasn’t designed to take humanity to heaven, but prevent it sliding into hell. Let’s hope it can do that at least, before the flames engulf us. (The Statesman)

(The writer is a retired Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax.)

by DEVENDRA SAKSENA ✍️

Features

A personal note

Published

13 hours ago

2025/06/15

Thilina Walpola

All my life I have been a family man. So, I have been close to my sister and brother and we enjoyed our growing up years together and remained close throughout. As a husband, father, and grandfather too, I have always found time for my family members even in the amidst my busy days as a parliamentary official and now in retirement make it a point to spend time with my loved ones as much as possible, especially with my son, daughter, their spouses and beloved grandchildren, all girls and now all teenagers.

MY SISTER IRANGANIE & BROTHER PROFESSOR NISSANKA

Both my sister and brother were born in Deniyaya where my father was stationed as the only doctor there. As my father was transferred from time to time to Elpitiya, to Galle and Police Hospital, Colombo, they too moved with our parents. Iranganie was educated at Southlands College, Galle and Ladies’ College, Colombo. She excelled at music and completed her LRSM professional diploma in music.

My sister married D.G. Atukorala from Panadura. He worked at the State Engineering Corporation and ended as its Chairman, after many years of service. They had three children, two sons and a daughter. As a son and daughter migrated to Australia 15 years ago, they persuaded my sister and her husband to join them there. They live in Sydney and the daughter and son who live close by look after their aging parents with absolute dedication and loving care.

My sister is now 94 and brother-in-law 97 and thankfully they are in reasonably good health. As a close-knit family, their elder son who is in Edinburgh keeps in constant touch with the parents. All the children are well educated and are doing exceptionally well in their chosen fields.

My brother was at Royal College and then Medical College. Having passed out of Medical College, he joined Government service for the first few years. He later joined the Physiology Department of the Faculty of Medicine in Colombo. Thereafter he was sent to Edinburgh University for further studies and obtained his doctorate from there.

He also had another important acquisition there when he fell in love and married Alison Alexander, the daughter of the Professor in the same University. They had no children.

He was handpicked by Minister George Rajapaksa, Minister of Health in the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government, to set up the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine as its first director. The PGIM is well regarded even today. A few years later he was chosen to join the World Health Organization (WHO) in New Delhi as its Manpower Director. He had just completed five years there when on an official assignment to Bali in Indonesia, he suffered a fatal heart attack. I was instrumental in getting his body back to Sri Lanka with help from the WHO. He was cremated in Colombo. Our families, especially my son and daughter, miss him very much as he was a tower of strength in our small family and had an outstanding personality.

HUSBAND, FATHER & GRANDFATHER

On 10th January 1962, I married Srima Kodagoda, the daughter of Albert and Margi Perera of Kalyani Road, Colombo-6. I had known Srima for a few years previously, having met her through common friends. The reception took place at the residence of Dr. P. R. Anthonis who had very kindly agreed with my in-laws to have the reception there because of the close friendship between them. My boss Ralph Deraniyagala, Clerk of the House of Representatives and Dr. Anthonis were the attesting witnesses. Our first home was a small two-bedroom apartment down Swarna Road off Havelock Road, belonging to the family of eminent historian Dr. G. C. Mendis.

It was a place with basic amenities, and I remember having to use it as a dining table, a box covered with a tablecloth. We stayed in this house for only a year and then shifted to our present residence 138/1 Havelock Road, Colombo-05. Satyajit Nilkamal, our son was born on November 9, 1962. Regrettably, I was not present at his birth as by then my boss Ralph Deraniyagala had sent me for a three-month assignment to the House of Commons, London, U.K. I was visiting Srima’s cousin Prof. Upali Kuruppu at Cambridge University when I got the wonderful news. Srima was living with my mother and brother Nissanka Seneviratne and his wife Alison at No.200 Havelock Road, Colombo-05 in my absence. I returned to Sri Lanka in May 1963 when my son was six months old Needless to say it was an unforgettable reunion.

Our son Satyajit was educated at Royal College throughout beginning with the Royal Junior School and later Royal College proper. After leaving school when he was under 18, thanks to a family friend Sarath Vidanage, the Royal cricketer, he proceeded to the USA and started his secondary school at a Junior College in San Jose in California. After Junior College, he got admission to the University of Texas in Austin to complete his studies leading to a Bachelor of Engineering Degree which he completed in three years.

I was lucky enough to visit him during his studies, taking time off from my parliamentary trips and paying my way there to visit him. On completion of his studies, I encouraged him to do a Master’s Degree and together we applied to two or three universities. Fortunately for us he received admission to the University of Clemson’s in South California to commence his studies, which led him to graduate in two years’ time with a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering. On completion he was lucky to gain employment at the House of Representatives in Washington D.C. So coincidentally, father and son commenced work on the same day, June 15, myself at the then House of Representatives

in Sri Lanka and my son at the House of Representatives in the USA, working as an Assistant to the House Information System Department. If he remained with Congress in the USA, he would likely have got his Green Card leading to US Citizenship. Instead, he returned to Sri Lank a year later and was lucky to join Millennium Information Technology Campus at Kotte. He worked there until he retired at the compulsory age of 55. Now he works at Iron One Technologies, started by Ms. Lakmini Wij esundera, incidentally a close friend of my daughter at Ladies College, who has set up a very successful enterprise in Computer Technology and Management, now having branches in many countries abroad.

In January 1995 he married Udeni Wijeratne, a graduate in Tourism Management from the U.K. Coincidentally she is the only daughter of Cuda and Manel Wijeratne. Cuda was my classmate and close friend at Royal College, belonging to the 45 Alumni Group. Sadly, Cuda and Manel passed away some years ago. My son and daughter -in-law have been blessed with two adorable daughters Aleyha ,16 and Taheli ,13, both doing extremely well at Ladies College and intending to do further studies in the U.K.

Our daughter Shanika Anjali was born on 11 April, 1969 and was educated throughout at Ladies College. When she finished her studies, she was fortunate to join the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (SLIA) for one year. She was admitted to the prestigious Architecture School in New Delhi, India- the School of Planning and Architecture. After three years, on graduation, she returned to Sri Lanka to complete architectural studies and become a qualified architect.

She married old Royalist Malik Wickramanayake, son of Sonny and Nirmalee Wickramanayake from Baddegama, the former running a successful tea firm in Colombo, the latter doing a successful job as a leader in fashion designing and shop owner in Colombo and a clever journalist. Malik was a banker with HSBC and worked many years in Colombo. They are blessed with their only daughter Sehanya who was born on 24 January 2004. When their daughter was only three years old, he was successful in getting employment in Dubai as Manager with HSBC. They spent ten long years in Dubai, U.A.E. and my wife and I had the immense pleasure of visiting them in February each year, when the weather was comfortable.

On their return to Sri Lanka, Malik joined Seylan Bank as a Deputy Manager where he still works. Though my daughter was keen to admit her daughter to Ladies College where, as a young girl she had studied for two years, they finally admitted her to Elizabeth Moir School. She now awaits sitting her Advanced Level Examination in May 2022, before proceeding abroad for higher education.

by Nihal Seneviratne
Advocate of the Supreme Court
Retired Secretary General of Parliament
(From Memories of 33 years in Parliament) ✍️

Features

Family bereavement and heavier workload

Published

13 hours ago

2025/06/15

Thilina Walpola

Lalith: “In 1978 the Minister of Trade and Shipping Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali appointed me to the Board of Directors of the Ceylon Shipping Corporation.”

(Continued from last week)

Death in the family

In the meantime, in spite of the time spent at conferences and meetings relating to food policy reforms, I saw to it that our regular Tuesday afternoon review meeting with the Minister and Deputy Minister took place. By early 1978 my father’s condition was deteriorating. He was gradually losing interest in food and getting very weak. He was almost 89 years old and the doctors felt that the system was beginning to shut down due to age. Towards late February, he also began in a weak voice sometimes hardly audible, to say, what was for him, very unusual things.

He said he saw a collection of beautiful birds with the most colourful plumage. Sometimes he said that he heard the most beautiful music, and one day he said that he was present at a very pleasant musical show. What was most surprising was that I had never known my father to listen to any music. He showed no interest whatsoever in this area. Neither did he show any interest in birds.

The only interest that he and my mother showed in birds was when men came around occasionally, selling birds, whether they be parrots, mynahs or house sparrows. On many such occasions they used to bargain with the seller on a wholesale price and release the whole lot from captivity.

For months afterwards we saw large numbers of them on our roof and the roofs of surrounding homes. These visions of my father were very unusual and we were wondering whether there was any significance to them, particularly when on some days he referred to “Heavenly” birds. His sunken eyes used to light up at these recollections.

On Tuesday 14th of March we were at our weekly meeting with the Minister and Deputy Minister. There were a number of items to be discussed and by 9 p.m. we had not quite finished. At 9.15 p.m., we were about to finish when I received an urgent telephone call from home to say that my father’s condition had taken a serious turn, and asking me to come immediately. I rather suspected that all was over, and left immediately. The Minister and others were very upset that I was not at home at a time anyone should normally have been there.

As I suspected, I found when I reached home that my father was dead. He had died whilst my mother was feeding him. His eyes had suddenly gone up and that was it. There had been no struggle or pain. He had a serene expression on his face and his body was still warm. I spent a few minutes alone with him in the room.

When I came out of his room, the immediate issue was to contact Dr. Hudson Silva’s cornea bank, because my father was keen that his corneas should be gifted. This was done and soon someone came around with a box packed with ice. Thereafter, we had to discuss funeral arrangements and we decided that it should be on Thursday the 16th. The crematorium had to be booked and we were contemplating this when the Minister Mr. S.B. Herat, the Deputy Minister and some of my colleagues arrived.

The Minister was still upset. In spite of my protests he said he would immediately personally go to the residence of Mr. B. A. Jayasinghe, Colombo’s Municipal Commissioner and ensure that the crematorium was booked. I later found out that when the Minister arrived at Mr. Jayasinghe’s residence he was asleep, and since banging on the gate and tooting the horn brought no response, he had jumped over the wall, banged on the door and woken him.

As I had referred to earlier, the Minister had been a racing motorcyclist during the not too distant past and was still energetic and fit, although some poison administered to him by a political rival, about which I will relate later, had undermined his constitution to an extent. The Minister, one of the most decent human beings I have met, had openly appreciated my work and felt distressed that I had to be in office at 9.15 p.m., when my father passed away.

He was therefore, determined to render whatever assistance that was possible to lighten my load in making the funeral arrangements. He was aware that I was an only child and had no brothers and sisters to share the load. This was the reason for his extraordinary nocturnal adventure of scaling walls. He phoned me later that night and said that the crematorium was booked.

Deputy Minister, the M.P. for Dompe Mr. Saratchandra Rajakaruna, was also very concerned at what had happened. He had to go out of Colombo on a fairly long journey the day after my father’s death. But he came home at about 9.30 p.m. and announced that he had come to stay the whole night. He said “Just get me some coffee and you go to sleep.” My protests were useless. He had come to stay the whole night, and was determined to stay.

He was equally determined that both I and my wife should sleep. My wife and I were packed upstairs to sleep and Mr. Rajakaruna stayed the whole night along with a few of my relations. These gestures of concern and support by both the Minister and the Deputy Minister were appreciated by all who knew what they had done and was a source of solace and comfort to me at a difficult moment.

Director, Shipping Corporation

Things settled down and in late March 1978 the Minister of Trade and Shipping Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali appointed me to the Board of Directors of the Ceylon Shipping Corporation. The former Commander of the Navy, Admiral Rajan Kadirgamar was the Chairman and after his sudden death, Mr. M.L.D. Caspersz of the former Civil Service was appointed Chairman. An important issue we faced during this period was containerization. This also went along with the energetic port development policies of the Minister.

The ordering of vital equipment such as gantry cranes had to go hand in hand with the pace of containerization. In this respect my batch mate in the Civil Service Harsha Wickremasinghe, the Additional Secretary responsible for shipping in the Ministry of Trade and Shipping played a key role. He had developed both a knack for and a degree of specialization in the whole area of port development and shipping.

It is my belief that but for his own vision and his energetic pursuit of the Minister’s policies, we could not have achieved the rapid development that occurred in this sector. The Corporation went in for container vessels and the port of Colombo had gantry cranes before Bombay or Karachi.

In June, Harry Guneratne, an officer very senior in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service and former Controller of Imports and Exports joined the Ministry as Additional Secretary with responsibility for the co-operative sector. This was a strength to me. Harry was responsible and balanced. He also possessed a temper which was very useful at times. On one occasion, he got very angry with a Member of Parliament who was complaining to the Minister about some alleged negligence on his part. More than the content, Harry resented the disparaging tone adopted by the MP and at one stage fixing the MP in a steely gaze said “Remember, I am a public servant. Not a domestic servant.

” It was splendid stuff. His towering six-foot presence added emphasis to his manner. The Ministry at this time had both a Secretary and an Additional Secretary who were six feet tall and well-built, not the best combination for the negotiation of food aid programmes. On the subject of Additional Secretaries, it was interesting that the Ministry never had an Additional Secretary handling Food. The reason for this was, that food was a subject where decisions had to be taken very quickly, if not, sometimes immediately.

Therefore, there was no time for matters to be filtered through another layer. The Food Commissioner and the Secretary had to be on the phone several times a day, and many matters were decided on the phone. We recorded the decisions so reached in our respective files, for the purposes both of record and further reference. If the matter was important enough, I sent across a formal note to the food

Commissioner confirming the conversation and the decisions. Such working arrangements were necessary, because often decisions had to be taken before a market opened the following day, or because you could not risk a Currency fluctuation, or could not idle whilst a master of a vessel containing 10,000 tons of your cargo, had radioed that his ship had broken down in mid-ocean. In such instances, a delayed or a careless decision could lead to financial loss, legal problems or stock problems.

Wheat Tour to the US

In June, the US Wheat Associates, the umbrella organization of wheat farmers enjoying official status with the US Department of Agriculture invited me and a delegation from Sri Lanka for a Wheat Tour of the United States. By this time, most of the urgent deadline-oriented work was successfully completed, and the Minister was keen that we should go. The visit proved both useful and relaxing. We left in July. The team consisted besides me, of Captain Hayward Fernando of the State Flour Milling Corporation, Mr. Ramanathan who headed the Corporation’s laboratory; and Mr. Pulendiran, Deputy Food Commissioner (Imports).

In a near three-week tour we visited Portland, Oregon; Spokane, Washington; Idaho; Lincoln, Nebraska; Kansas; Oklahoma and Washington D.C.

The visit entailed a great deal of travelling and field visits. During the course of our journey, we had discussions with Grain Exporter’s Associations; viewed trading sessions at Grain Exchanges; visited Grain Elevators and bulk wheat loading facilities; went to railway yards and viewed the discharge of wheat from 60 ton box cars which were raised from the ground on a hoist and then tilted in two directions; viewed the discharge of wheat from 300 ton barges; visited grain laboratories, including the well-known DOTY laboratory; saw the operation of feed mills; visited university research laboratories and agriculture faculties.

visited farms and travelled on huge combines whilst harvesting was being done; saw experimental wheat plots; food and nutrition research centres; noodle and pasta making plants; grain marketing research institutes; and circle irrigation methods. We also saw sights that could not be seen in Sri Lanka such as a train with three engines pulling over 112 very large wheat loaded waggons. The waggons kept coming and coming. One thought that one would never see the end of the train. We used to laugh and say that the lead engine must be in the next town, by the time the last waggon passed this town.

The visit also gave us an opportunity to widen our general knowledge and experience. We therefore, whenever possible visited facilities such as museums and planetariums. In Oklahoma, we visited an oil well that had been pumping for 16 years.

The oil was being pumped from over one mile down. As the leader of the team, I had extra duties. I had to make numerous speeches after official lunches and dinners and give several TV and radio interviews. We also met important people such as Governors and Lieutenant Governors of some of the states we visited, as well as others in industry, trade and government. This gave us productive opportunities to talk about Sri Lanka.

We ended our tour in Washington D.C. We had travelled from San Francisco on the West Coast to the capital in the East, taking in some important areas of the mid-west. In Washington too, we had a number of meetings with important organizations such as the US Wheat Associates our hosts and the Flour Millers National Federation. We also had a round of meetings with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Ambassador hosted a lunch in our honour. Whilst in Washington I was able to have lunch with Ambassador Chris Van Hollen, former US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, about whom I had written in an earlier chapter. It was a pleasant and interesting two hours.

On the way back, we were briefly in London, and took the opportunity to visit the Sugar Terminal and see sugar trading being conducted on the floor. We also went to the Baltic Exchange, connected with shipping and freight. Overall, this visit was a tremendous education. I was fortunate that I had this exposure so early in my career as Secretary Food. It deepened my knowledge and gave me new knowledge and insights. Subsequently, when I chaired a tender board to purchase flour and later wheat, I had much greater awareness of quality and other aspects. I knew enough to ask pertinent and relevant questions even on technical matters and insist on proper answers.

Local agents couldn’t fool me with excuses and stories generated in their imaginations. We were also able to obtain information directly from the contacts we had made, including the USDA. This visit proved invaluable for another reason. Prima Singapore was constructing the flour mill in Trincomalee. We in the Food Ministry were on the verge of switching over from flour purchases, about which we knew a great deal, to the purchase of whole wheat for the mill, about which we knew nothing.

(Excerpted from In the Pursuit of Governance, autobiography of MDD Pieris) ✍️