Ajith bids goodbye today

COLOMBO: The funeral of veteran journalist Ajith Samaranayake will be held today at 4 p.m. at the General Cemetery, Kanatte.

Ajith, who died aged 51 on Wednesday after a brief illness, began his brilliant career in 1975 at Lake House.

He enroled as a cub-reporter with the then evening daily, Ceylon Observer and the Sunday Observer, and later became the Lobby (Parliamentary) correspondent for the two newspapers. Before long he earned a name as one of the best lobby correspondents in the country.

In 1981, he was appointed news editor of both those newspapers.

He joined The Island at its inception later that year. He soon became Deputy Features Editor and then Deputy Editor and went on to edit The Island Sunday Edition. Ajith 'came home' to Lake House to edit the Sunday Observer in 1994.

At the time of his death, he was Editor of Friday and the Managing Editor, English Newspapers at ANCL.

He was also a prolific writer on the arts, drama, cinema, literature, on current personalities and contemporary events. He was also renowned as one of the best leader (editorial) writers in the country and as a political commentator.

He frequently wrote to Sinhala newspapers and some of his articles were translated and published in Tamil newspapers.

His death leaves a void in local journalism that can hardly be filled.