To Moscow with love

THEATRE: Reggie almost said 'You fool', avoided doing so with difficulty and addressed me still laughing. "I say, Henry, Breckenridge in not a Soviet play or any other stage piece.

He is our man in charge of cultural activities in the Moscow embassy. Have you never heard of R. R. Breckenridge - the famous teacher from Trinity College, Kandy? Well, Breck is his son. He is one of our brilliant men in our foreign service.

He will be very happy to have you in Moscow and help you in your affairs there," said Reggie, now very much in control. "And don't forget, my brother in law T. B. Subasinghe is our Ambassador in Moscow. That should be of some help too...," he added.

"That I know sir," I responded. "I am sorry I did not know about Breckenridge." I was getting a little warm under my collar too, with the drink. Anyway after a few more 'protests' from me, which were simply waived away by Reggie, and after one more drink, I was a convinced man - quite convinced in fact, that the Soviet Union was the place for me.

I got back to my dusty Record Room, my office, a happy man. Reggie had promised to give me letters of introduction to the Ambassador as well as to his good friend, Karen Breckenridge. After all the previous hassle, things were on a smooth path, at last.

During the days that followed, my good friend and mentor, Senator Reggie Perera supplied me with loads of magazines and publications about the Soviet Union - especially about their ballet, theatre and cinema.

I read them carefully, visited the Soviet Cultural House too, gathered some information about theatre institutes etc. in Moscow and other major cities such as Leningrad (now Petrograd) and Riga, and prepared an itinerary as best as I could. This, I submitted to the Ministry of Education to be sent to the sponsors. UNESCO head office in Paris.

Foreign exchange

There were other matters such as getting Foreign Ministry approval, (which meant the Prime Minister's approval - any Govt. servant going abroad on whatever reason had to obtain this approval. I believe the requirement still prevails) obtaining leave from my place of work, and above all squeezing out some foreign exchange from the Central Bank.

This was a very difficult commodity to get in those days. One had to move heaven and earth to squeeze out something from those chaps those days. My friend Reggie, being a Senator, was able to help me in this matter too.

The PM's permission was granted, this being a Govt. approved fellowship and there was not much difficulty in obtaining leave from my place of work either. After an immense amount footwork between my office and the Central Bank, I was able to get some foreign exchange too - a princely sum of fifty sterling pounds!

My office was good enough to give me a loan to pay for the foreign currency.

I am aware that all these harangues could irritate any reader of the present day. I want to assure them that 'going abroad' - especially for a poor Govt. servant - was no cake walk in those difficult days. Nowadays, we can see even children flying about all over the globe with the least amount of fuss.

Dear readers - especially you young men and women - it was not so easy for our generation and I am saying this only for the record, I am not complaining. Times were difficult those days and there were many restrictions.

We were trying to rebuild our country, after the war and things like foreign exchange were touchy items. We accepted these difficulties although I am not sure whether these problems were handled in the most efficient manner, what with changing Governments and policies every few years. This particular time was one of political coalition and 'socialistic' approaches of governance.

Be that as it may. There were happy things too. For instance, the number given to my new passport was 55555, which proved to be a lucky number on more than one occasion.

Then there was the question of clothes - I mean warm clothes. I was going to Moscow almost at the onset of winter and friends who had been through a Russian winter warned me that I should be well equipped with the right clothes from head to toe. Not only did they warn me, they came to my help too.

Chitrasena, my good friend, who had been to Moscow early that year (1964) presented me with a heavy woolen over coat. "Don't take this in your luggage." He warned me. "Take it with your hand luggage. You will need it the moment you disembark at the Shrimativayo airport."

Cultural values

Manel and I made a special visit to our Gurudev Martin Wickramasinghe. He had been an honoured guest of the Soviet Union on more than one occasion. I wanted to get his blessings before I departed. He and his wife welcomed us most warmly.

Mr. Martin Wickramasinghe gave us an account of his travels in Moscow and other cities in the Soviet Union. He was full of praise for the Soviet people, their culture and arts and their high cultural values. He had been to the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and also seen a number of Soviet plays.

He was a great admirer of Chekhov and Gorky and had made it a point to see some of their plays in Moscow. He was enthraled by a production of 'The Cherry Orchard' he had seen there.

Mr. Wickramasinghe presented me with a black woolen T shirt - quite a smart one. It felt warm even to the touch.

It is one of my treasured possessions up to this day. He also gave me a silkish neckscarf. "You must wear it over your tie," he insisted. "It could be very cold over there." Mrs.

Wickramasinghe gave me some rouble notes and some Russian coins - monies left over from their visit a few years back." If you can, please bring me a film roll of this make and she showed me a 'Fed II' Russian camera. "These film rolls are not available here," she added. I promised to bring her one.

You may laugh, but those days it was quite usual to go 'visiting' - especially elders whom you respected - before setting out to go abroad.

We visited the Sugathapalas too - meaning Mr. H. D. Sugathapala and his wife, Gertie, who had been so helpful to us. Again, we were welcomed most warmly, embraced and kissed.

"I am not going," protested Manel when she was kissed. 'You will, in your spirit ...!" Mr. Sugathapala insisted. "In any case, you will hold the fort here ...! And that deserves a kiss ....!" Added Mr. S. with his mischievous smile. Gertie Sugathapala presented me with a hand-knit pull over with long sleeves.

It was cream in colour and had a light green and yellow design in the chest area. When I accepted it from her with my profuse thanks, I did not know that this was going to be a much admired piece of my attire in Moscow and other places I visited in the Soviet Union.

Most men there wore rather dull coloured roll-collar pullovers and mine with a special chest-design became quite an attraction and even a topic of conversation among the women.

Fluffy hat

No, I am afraid my warm apparel hunt is not yet over. The next stop was at my friend Senator Reggie Perera's home. Actually the visits were not for warm clothes hunting. They were friendly 'leave taking' visits mostly.

But invariably I was presented with one item or another of my requirements during these visits. What Senator Reggie presented me with really baffled me.

I had never seen anything like it in my life. It was a kind of wool covered fluffy hat, rather like one of those felt hats with a dip on top, but with a double band at the bottom.

It also had attached ear-flaps. The thing looked like a circus item, i.e., until I found out its worth in the thick of the winter, later, in Moscow. I still have this hat around.

It is used by the character of 'Lavrenti' in my Hunuwataye Katawa and has become thread bare due to this stage use.

Then there was the problem of proper shoes. Our leather shoes - even the famous John White shoes would simply not do, in Moscow, they told me. You had to have well insulated ankle boots that would protect your feet from the stinging winter cold. That was one item I could neither borrow nor buy from here. In any case none of my fiends possessed any winter boots.

They were either discarded or given away to someone, before you left your cold climes. So I visited 'Art Shoes' (no longer there) at Bambalapitiya, whose proprietor, Mr. Kongahage, I knew personally and asked him to design a 'warm' pair of shoes for me. (This was done but it was woefully inadequate for the relentless Russian winter).

So, here I was in mostly 'borrowed or gifted plumes' so to say, all ripe and ready to go to Moscow. We were just about two and a half years after marriage and I don't really know what Manel felt about being alone for nine long months.

Whatever she felt, she did not let me feel bad about it, but seemed quite happy to see that I had at last received a chance that I deserved and was going away to enhance my knowledge of theatre, drama, the stage and all its wonderful possibilities.

She was to look after all our stage activities here and that was quite a lot with three of our plays - Janelaya, Kuveni and Tavet Udesanak doing the rounds in the country. We had our Cecelin Amme at home with 'Whita' the blackdog as sentinel. Manel's mother and sister were not far away. They were at Wellawtte and could visit Manel on and off. And we had very protective neighbours at Dehiwela.

And so on 19 October 1964 I set off to Moscow in the dead of the night on an Aeroflot flight, from Ratmalana. Lots of my friends had come to see me off.

Don't worry, we will look after Manel and help her carry with our work while you are away," they said and I was happy. Parting was not that easy though. Both of us managed to hide our feelings, and smile. I was grateful to my dear wife for letting me go without tears.

Thought of the week

Two of our eminent men who had contributed immensely to our life and times for over a half a century, passed away recently. The one was Deshabandhu A.N.S. Kulasinghe who revolutionized the Engineering Industry in our country and took his expertise to countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. We are sure that his revolutionary concreting methods would have been emulated in other countries of the globe too.

We remember him every time we see the State Engineering Corporation, the Sky Pagoda on the way to the harbour and the magnificent Dagoba at Kalutara. Here was a son of Sri Lanka who could hardly ever be replaced.

A week later we lost another giant of Sinhala culture - particularly of stage and screen designing, painting and sculpting.

Kalasuri Somabandhu Vidyapathy was a contemporary of the great Chitrasena and was responsible for designing almost all the background stage sets and costumes of giant productions such as Nala Damayanthi, Karadiya, Kinkini Kolama, Hapana and Bera Handa. I was fortunate to obtain his expertise in my productions of Kuveni and Tavat Udesanak in costume and stage designing.

He was also associated with the massive production of Siri Sangabo in 1978, commemorating the opening of the New Tower Hall under Prime Minister Premadasa, as designer and costumer.

The splendour of his designs and creative costumes caught the attention of audiences - particularly of foreign diplomats.

The production was invited to be performed in China, Thailand and Hongkong.

Somu, as we refer to him endearingly, was also responsible for the present gallery of wall paintings in the Shrine Hall of Bellanwila temple.

A special book was put out recently by the temple authorities with graphic reproductions of Kalasuri Somabandhu Vidyapathy's paintings in the temple, which have become a collectors' item.

I would like to record my humble veneration to these two great men of Sri Lanka.

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