Ajith was a true journalist

Vijitha YAPA

TRIBUTE: Memories of the wonderful days Ajit Samaranayake spent at The Island and Sunday Island in the early eighties flood my memory while my eyes are still wet remembering one of the most versatile writers of our times.

His mastery of the English language was amazing. Each word he wrote was crafted for maximum impact and had rich meaning. He did not write for the sake of writing.

He wrote because he felt he had a mission - to make this world a better place to live in. He blossomed into a powerful writer and the freedom to write on any subject under the sun with no inhibitions freed creativity which had been imprisoned due to various real and imagined pressures.

Three words I remember which he used with great devastation were Panjandrums, pachyderms and genuflecting.

In an era when the elephants dominated every aspect of political life, Ajit was not afraid to take them on and goad them like a mahout.

To them, these were not elephants but mammoths, doomed to extinction because of the way they behaved. Who is a panjandrum? He is a self-important person, after the Grand Panjandrum, a character in a nonsense farrago written by Samuel Foote (1720-1777).

Pachyderms were of course associated more with elephants, but the correct definition would be from the Greek pakhudermos, thick-skinned.

As for genuflect, he used the word to describe public servants who preferred to worship the ministers and MPs without standing up for what is right. Those who he attacked were groveling and were servile and he had no time for such backboneless people.

Once he became involved in a long argument with Gamini Fonseka. The to and fro went on for weeks but he soon tired of it. He came scratching his head into the Editor's room and asked, "Can I finish this correspondence?"

I felt it had gone on for too long too and agreed. Instead of a long article, he has only one sentence. Which silenced Gamini. He wrote,. "Trying to convince Gamini is like playing Veena to deaf elephants" and one had to read between the lines and Gamini's style of living to understand what he meant.

On another occasion, when a well-known stage personality was detained in London on drug related charges, he wrote a full page article titled "Beg Pardon respected Sadhu Sir" which created more than ripples in Sri Lankan society.

His versatility meant he could write on any subject. As an editorial writer, a brief description of what was expected on the subject for the day was all that was needed to bring out another thought provoking editorial.

The editorial written after the July 83 riots on the need for sanity was mentioned by Maithripala Senanayake in Parliament as a must read article for those who believed in the future of Sri Lanka.

When Upali Wijewardene asked in 1981 who are those I wanted on my editorial team when starting The Island, Ajit Samaranayake of The Observer was high on the list.

What impressed me was that he was willing to risk his future on a new venture, in a paper which had not even begun publication.

His arts column and Sunday essay were eagerly looked forward to because he had the freedom to write what he felt, without pressure. It was the richest period of his life when he established himself as a writer to be reckoned with.

It was only after hiring him that I discovered his 'pol gedi' writing. Each A4 size paper would be lucky to have contained 10 words.

Wondering how he will react, I said he must learn to use a typewriter. I used the excuse that the typesetters were making so many mistakes that they were distorting his writing. Ajit accepted the challenge and within a month was producing neat typed copy.

He had an impish sense of humour. When D.B.S. Jeyraj of Veerakesari applied to join The Island as a reporter, he had told him that I do not like mustaches.

Poor Jeyraj appeared clean shaven for the interview. He got the job and it was only months later I discovered the trick Ajit had played on him. Interestingly in the latter part of his life Ajit was well known for his grey beard!

He did not let down his friends, though he had many arguments with them on current issues. Ajit believed in the advice of Polonius to Laertes in Hamlet: Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; During the July '83 riots when Jeyraj was living and sleeping in the Island office, Ajit came to me one day and said, "There are some Jathi Alaya people in the premises who want to assault Jeyraj because he is a Tamil". I immediately summoned Jeyraj and told him to come with me to my home in Thimbirigasyaya.

He was ready to argue on any point, usually with the words, "The thing is ......". He bowed to no man but like Achilles, he had a weakness. Dionysus and Bacchus exploited it fully and Ajit was soon under their spell.

He would often say that he wished he could have the conviction to be a rare teetotaler scribe like me but did not have the determination to carry it through.

His early addiction perhaps stemmed from the time when he had no fixed abode and went to bars and then spent time with various colleagues. As a news hound, he could sniff out a watering hole in any locality.

Ajit, who did not care much for his appearance, suddenly began to smarten up.I wondered what had happened and found the young man was in love, with Mano Pillai of The Sun.

Both worked as lobby correspondents for the respective papers and I was happy that had discovered romance. I was honoured to be asked to be a witness to the marriage at a simple ceremony.

Ajit was a true journalist. His veins were filled with ink and he dipped the nib and made many quiver.

They were for a cause. He had no malice against anyone, but nor did he have favourites. All were players on the world stage. When Sri Lanka's history is analyzed in the future, the impact of Ajit's writing on Sri Lankan society at the turn of the twenty first century will remain a vital chapter.

(The writer is the Founder Editor, The Island and Sunday Island and the Sunday Times)