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In the years gone by...:

The Works Department staff busy as bees

The Works Department was one vast working area, the largest in Lake House. It was divided into three compartments, the English, Sinhala and Tamil production floors. The Photo - Engraving Department headed by the legendary M.T. Ramzjan formed the rear from where all the pictures were produced and blocks cut and sent to the respective production units.


Newspaper printing machine in the by-gone days. ANCL library photo

The Sinhala and Tamil advertising production floors were confined to two narrow strips in the far side of the department. The English advertising production floor was in a larger and separate area away from the main floor. The English, Sinhala and Tamil proof reading room was air-conditioned and was located at the opposite end. The Rotary Department or the Pressroom was situated in the basement, all of which went up to make the Works Department.

The entire department was one mess of lead and so untidy that were anyone to stray into it by mistake would be greeted at the entrance by a strong gust of heat and then led into a vast area flooded by hundreds of overhead fluorescent lamps and whirring fans which hardly stood any chance in providing any measure of relief from the oppressive heat.

The clatter of machines and other assorted sounds would add to the confusion. Yet in the midst of all these it was amazing to see the production staff going about their task in silence and busy as bees. I have seen many a visitor gasping in amazement at what greets him possibly to wonder whether he had strayed into a wonderland rather than a production room of a newspaper office.

Terms like hot lead, letter press, lino type machines, slugs, lead ingots, galley proofs and flongs, were familiar terms in an era which looks outdated today given all the modernized printing methods available to make life a bed of roses for printers. Yet even before there was the more tedious hand composing era which helped to produce the Daily News and Dinamina to reach our homes each morning like they do today.

Presiding over this vast confusing and humid enclave was Sumana Gomes the Works Manager. What he knew of printing no one would ever be able to match. And all of us who learned some aspects of printing at his feet would learn to look out for the printing errors that we can spot even today.

I can well imagine how outraged he would be to see some of these newspapers that are produced and printed today which pays least attention to perfection. Sumana Gomes was a part of our discomfort. He spurned air-conditioned comfort or cubicle aloofness. He shared our stress and strain and was a part of our stuffy working conditions.

This was what endeared him to all of us who gave our best at all times. He was a little man with a loud voice, so loud that he could blast a miscreant hiding behind a lino machine a good distance away. I recall old hands telling me that on his way to the Press he would raise his voice over the din to give those playing truant time to get back to their posts. Indeed that was one such example of that wonderful man's art of getting the best out of his men.

Though every one of us worked under difficult conditions we enjoyed our work with endless cups of tea and fun and laughter which helped us to retain I should say our sanity. The leg pulls that colleagues like Lylie Pieris and Mahintha Vaikuntanathan pulled off was at times outrageous and that Sumana Gomes himself was a part of all those outrages was the solidarity that bound us all. Neil Armstrong's famous statement from the moon - One small step for mankind created excitement and wonder world over.

We too had our moments of awed wonder at this great feat and with news flowing in from the Editorial end we would be inundated with phoned in inquiries from all parts of Lake House. One such inquiry was taken by Lylie Pieris. It was from a lady attached to the General Administration Department. Hardly had she completed her question Lylie told her in all seriousness that Armstrong was stranded in the moon and sailing around it nonstop and NASA had given up all hopes of getting him back to earth and home. It was Lylie at his best.

She went all agog listening to this extravagant leg pull and then set fire to the story. She ran around spreading it as would an ignited fire and then sat back worn out with her effort.

It was then that someone had the sense to ask her from where on earth she got hold of this terrible news. When she said the Works Department and Lylie Pieris, all burst out laughing. The poor lady had cried in shame till closing time. She stopped talking to us and avoided us like the plague and had Sumana Gomes complaining bitterly that she had even stopped talking to him even over official matters.

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