Appreciations

Joyce Perera

I came to know this lady about 60 years ago when my elder brother married her. From that day up to her demise I have not seen her without a smile and her ability to take life with a smile, humming a tune or cracking a joke.

She was never a daughter in-law, sister in-law or a mother in-law. She was a loving daughter, sister and a mother. This was quite evident from her only daughter in-law in Sri Lanka — Ayomi, who loved her and was of great support to my niece Nilu, the only daughter in Sri Lanka. Here I will be failing in my duty as an uncle if I do not express how supportive and cooperative the three children abroad and the son in Sri Lanka who coordinated well from the time of my brother’s death.

I happened to be present at my nephew’s birthday party on the 4th of February where one of the daughters from Australia was present and how happy sister Joyce was. As usual she was enjoying the music and since she was not too well to dance or sing she was keeping time to the music. She had a marvelous voice, trained by Mrs.Spencer Shepeard. She led the St. Anne’s Church choir for many years. She took part in many charitable and social activities; she was the president of St. Vincent De Paul’s Society and was vice principal of St. Anne’s Convent, Wattala.   She passed away on the 8th of April and her remains were laid to rest in their family burial grounds at Wattala on the 12th of April. Hoping to meet you once again with our Creator and Mary the Mother of God to listen you singing the Ave Maria.

May she rest in peace.

Maurice A. Perera

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Bernard  Fernandopulle

The late Bernard Fernandopulle (J.B.N.), my grand dad, had an insatiable love of the game of cricket. As a player he excelled in the art of wicket keeping; a skill he imparted to anyone, young or old, prepared to don the gloves.

The 20th of May marks the hundredth birth anniversary of my dearest Papa. He was the eldest in a family of nine, all boys of Christopher and Roslyn Fernandopulle. Their ancestral home was in New Chetty Street, Kotahena, just opposite the landmark The Mother of Seven Sorrows (“Mater Dolorosa” ) Church.

He married Grace Rodrigo Candappa who also came from another stalwart Colombo Chetty family. In time, they had five boys with all of them doing well to this day while three of them have migrated to Australia. His grand and great grand children now number 13 and still growing.

He was born before the First World War and schooled at St. Benedict’s College Kotahena. Cricket was the most popular game among boys even at that time and presumably, boys dreamed of playing for their college(s). In Papa’s case, it was no big deal and cricket came naturally and instinctively. He was, I know, a wicket keeper par excellence at 15 plus years, the “babe” in the first eleven college team of 1926 and continued through till the end of 1928’s cricket season.

He was the ‘Stumper’, the regular opening batsman, and well established in the side before he was even 16 years old, this was a very rare occurrence in the early days.

I understand that in those calm and balmy days as compared to the rat race of the present time, it was the ambition of school leavers to get a pensionable government job, work for 30 plus years and live happily ever after. Papa was no exception and after flying through a very competitive public examination, he joined the Local Government Service Commission (LGSC) and worked in the then very prestigious Colombo Municipal Council.

At the Colombo Municipal Council he worked in many departments and a major portion of his 42 years of service there was with the Water Works Department. This was where he made a countless number of friends. He was very helpful and prompt in getting pipe borne water connections into homes without any constraints to the applicants for this luxury utility in those days.

Cricket continued to figure in Papa’s life for a long, long time after he left school, immediately after which he once again became the ‘baby’ of the team and stumper of the Tamil Union C&AC teams for several years .  He continued to play cricket for the Municipality in the highly competitive Government Services Cricket tournaments well into the late-fifties.

Papa once again toured South India with this team in 1957 when the team was rewarded for excellent showing in the Local tournament.
Each of his sons Nihal, Neville, Mahen, SriRajan and Prakash also inherited their father’s sporting spirit. While Nihal, Mahen and SriRajan played in the St. Benedict’s College first eleven teams in 1959 and 1964 respectively, SriRajan and the youngest Prakash were both good athletes and represented their College in the Rugby First XV teams. Prakash went on the play rugby for CR&FC from 1968 to 1971.

During the 28 years in retirement he enjoyed playing Contract Bridge and was also a keen punter which helped him while away his spare time gainfully active among his family and with his host of JPs (Jolly Pensioners) in and around the neighbourhood. He sang a great many old time favourites drawn from the ’30s to the ’50s with a great aplomb and had a wide repertoire of naughty little ditties like Nellie Blye, “Po Nalaki wa”, the Ballad of Adolphus John and John Adolphus and many others, far too many to mention and was certainly a live wire at parties and get-to-gethers.

He bade farewell peacefully and in a happy frame of mind at dusk on the 30th of December 1998 at the age of four scores and eight and a bit more, a content life, a life well lived.

I am one of the older grand children — his sons; grand and great grand children also close relatives truly cherish his memories. His soul has earned its due reward.

Mahen