Memoirs - V:

Ananda College years:

Journalists of Ananda

Premil RATNAYAKE

He asked the student wishing to leave to bring his parents for an intimate chat. In most instances he was able to persuade the parents to let their offspring stay and continue studies. Nihal was an exception, he left and joined Lake House and became a reporter in the Observer. My surmise is that Nihal would not have been happy in any other vocation; he dreamed about writing and wanted very avidly to become a journalist.

In the Observer under the editorship of the great Tarzie Vittachi he shone. Tall and lanky Nihal had a characteristic writing style; it was simple, lucid and ingenuous a prose that reminded you of Hemingway or Chekhov. It was not a manner of writing in vogue then, much was scholarly or bombastic. There was an easy rhythm in Nihal’s writing.

Before long in the Observer Nihal ran into trouble. Tarzie wanted him to go to the residence of the redoubtable N.U Jayawardena, Governor of Central Bank and interview him.

Perhaps Vittachi knew of the ‘story’ behind the story that Nihal was asked to write: the Governor of the Central Bank had had an elevator installed in his home at State expense. Nihal interviewed the bank chief who was said to be arrogant and obdurate and then the reporter ‘discovered’ the presence of the lift or elevator, considered to be a super-luxury in those days.

Nihal may have spotted the costly not-so-domestic item casually and inquired about it, but Jayawardena had apparently lost his cool. He forbade the reporter from writing anything about it - ‘you write a word about the elevator, I’ll have you sacked from Lake House.’

No doubt Nihal would have been chagrined: he was not willing to lose his much-loved job, found after tremendous toil, because of an insipid thingumajig called elevator.

He trekked back to Lake House, up the stairs to Tarzie and told the unflappable editor what happened. Tarzie was amused. He directed Nihal to write the full story including in it the scandalous item of the elevator and Jayawardena’s threat. Nihal wrote the controversial story wondering what the ill-consequences were going to be. Tarzie had it splashed the next day on Page One of the Observer with a PS added by him: We are pleased to inform that the Reporter is still with us!

Nihal was sauntering down the corridor of the Cargills in the Fort leisurely when he spotted a white man who he was sure was the famous American writer Henry Miller.

Miller was noted for his outspoken outbursts in his books that included the controversial Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn which were banned in Sri Lanka.

Miller who some American puritans had maliciously dubbed the Old Man of Dirty Letters because he dared to castigate the Yankee way of life, was an idol of Nihal and he was thrilled to find the man peering into a showcase in the heart of Fort.

Somewhat apprehensively he accosted the tall white figure.

No, he was not Henry Miller - much to the disappointment of Nihal Ratnaike.

He was only a ‘double’ of the famous American writer. However, Nihal wrote a piece about his mistaken identity - the encounter with the Miller ‘double.’

The Observer published the story and Nihal sent a cutting of it to the ‘real’ Henry Miller. Miller wrote back saying double had bamboozled many others in other parts of the world; however he enclosed a package containing several of his books, including (to Nihal’s extreme delight) the ‘Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn’ but with fervent request: Please don’t write back - I am too busy to answer.

Nihal moved over to the Daily News and became a feature writer. One of his most creative features was the art column he wrote styled Kala by Viranga.

It was typically an artistic venture: Viranga captured unbiased the work, the moods and the actual living of popular artistes such as Chitrasena, Amaradeva, Manjusri and Henry Jayasena and they were well received in the art circles and outside them for their aesthetic quality despite Viranga’s covert cynicism. They were not puffs but critical essays.

Senator Reggie Perera was Nihal’s dear friend. Reggie, an art-lover, produced a film titled Sadol Kandulu (Senator Doric de Souza the firebrand Marxist and Reggie’s bosom pal used to call it derisively Kalu Dodol on the floor of the then Upper House to the annoyance of Reggie) the script of which was written by Reggie.

Nihal did a review of the film with unkind innuendos: he was particularly harsh on the film script, Reggie’s work.

Reggie in a huff stormed Lake House and called Nihal for a fist fight. Nihal walked down the steps chuckling and then the two friends drove off to the Art Centre, not for a fisticuff but for a less violent exercise of the arms over chilled beer.

Film Director K.A.W. Perera made a film based on T.B. Illangaratne’s novel Lasanda. Viranga was assigned to review it. It was not a bad film but Nihal who had no patience with cheap music castigated it, for, the film started, as it were, with a Baila number. Of course Viranga conceded that some people liked Baila and there was no help for that! But, K.A.W. was incensed.

He wrote a long letter of contradiction, perhaps egged on by Illangaratne and called Nihal a reactionary - Nihal was anything but that. The letter was published in full in the Daily News. Nihal, typically, did not respond.

Nihal rose to great heights in his journalistic career; which was once interrupted sadly and he was without a job for several years. He came back, however, triumphantly and became the Editor of the Daily News. The PS to this story is that Nihal seems to have quit writing which is a great pity, for, he was a marvellous writer.

At Ananda, Nihal was followed by Elmo Gooneratne, Subasinghe and George Leslie Ranasinghe. Elmo and Subasinghe also joined Lake House becoming reporters in the new Sinhala daily Janatha with Denzil Peiris as Editor.

Elmo had a fine writing style and contributed to both Sinhala and English newspapers and journals. Always in tie with a puckish sense of humour (he regaled his colleagues with hilarious anecdotes) he wrote lengthily about the local cinema, the film stars and helped the late Wimalanath Dissanayake from behind the scenes in the making of Wimalanath’s maiden cinematic venture Patachara. Briefly Elmo was attached to the Daily News; later he left Lake House and joined the Times Group and became the Editor of Lankadeepa. At one time he was editor of both Lankadeepa and the Daily Mirror simultaneously.

Subasinghe, the quiet, retiring pressman who had written several books while still at Ananda, was one in a team that conceived the Sarasaviya Film Awards and its ceremonial presentation annually. He preferred to be in the background while directing the ‘show.’

Through sheer hard-work and industry he rose to be the Editor of Silumina and then Dinamina. His humour was silent but his tales evoked loud laughter. He was an unassuming simple man carelessly dressed wearing slippers instead of shoes and he travelled all the way from Weweldeniya by train. In the train ride up and down he had befriended many other commuters travelling with him.

They had faintly heard that he was working at Lake House (presumably they did not know he was an editor). Once there was a strike at Bake House and there was a scarcity of bread. In the train ride one of his commuter-friends told him: “but of course, you have no bread problem because you work at Bake House.” the man had mistaken Lake House for Bake House.

This was a story that Subasinghe related to us. We were not sure then if it was fact or fiction.

George Leslie Ranasinghe (he was my classmate, both of us joined Ananda) together joined the Times Group and became the Editor of the Sunday Lankadeepa. George was also a reputed lyricist.

To be continued