Lake House: Then and Now:

Lake House: The muse, cradle of Lankan journalism

Premil Ratnayake reminisces.....

Lake House was the whipping boy of all political parties be it the conservative Right or the revolutionary Left. Because it was their bete noire the old Samasamajists disparagingly and uncharitably dubbed it the Beira Gedera-nothing wrong with that for Beira Gedera is a nominal and direct translation of Lake (Beira) House (Gedera), except that the Lake House - hating Sahodarayas in their Red shirts and militant slogans extended it with a devastating appendage “Beira Gedera Pachapatra.”

It had no realistic effect - Lake House journalists continued to write and the papers sold. It was the continuation of the national press founded by the great pioneer an nationalist D.R. Wijewardena.

Operating the Lynotype machine

The Founder had no illusions about the politicization of the empire he nurtured and built bringing in the cream of writer talent in the country but because of this phenomenon Lake House publications were avidly read by the populace.

Lake House established a unique identity of its own, unrivalled by any other newspaper and people from all walks of life referred to the monolithic edifice as Dinamina Kanthoruwa. Reading the Daily News or the Dinamina became a ritualistic national habit like the addiction to the morning loaf of bread. No wonder the impact was phenomenal on the national milieu.

With the monopoly it held over newspaper publications, Lake House naturally created its enemies - mind, you not rivals.

It was an evil combination of jealousy and envy. People sought exclusive publicity in Lake House newspapers: an obituary was not widely read and reached the bereaved in full measure unless it was published in the Daily News or the Dinamina; producers of Sinhala films felt inadequate unless their films received publicity in the English daily Daily News; film reviews; Sinhala singers and musicians craved publicity in the Daily News or Observer though you thought (mistakenly may be) that English readers were not the ideal audience for Sinhala music. (I am sure Viranga will endorse this).

And it was Viranga (Nihal Ratnaike) who introduced to the anglicised theatregoers the Sinhala drama at the poor, lonely Lumbini which brought forth the Thespian genre of Henry Jayasena. I should venture to think that Viranga also pioneered in converting the English educated class into Sinhala lovers of the Fine Arts.

Political party

Thank you, Viranga though you are mutely silent now! Lake House was also the punchbag of politicians, especially of the pseudo-Left and the so-called anti-capitalist progressives. If the UNP won an election Lake House got hit; if the SLFP were elected Lake House pummelled. We reporters were the victims; we were not sympathisers of any political party - we were apolitical, yet we got the brunt of the attacks too.

In one of those ugly post-election bravado of the winning political party euphoric of the triumph a monk in yellow robes climbed the roof top of Lake House and planted the symbolic flag of the party. In a similar celebration of electoral victory the hooligans and goons went on rampage storming Lake House. I was inside reporting for night duty, the tear gas nearly blinded me and some sympathetic policemen bundled me into a Black Maria and sent me home.

Despite the near-murder physical attacks Lake House survived. The survival was miraculous may be because as a colleague remarked to me the other day because the Founder had consulted and chosen the most auspicious hour to lay the foundation stone for the imposing building.

Among journalists Lake House enjoyed a wide and enviable reputation. Some of our journalist friends from other newspapers roundly condemned us for working for a capitalist press concocting and writing lies, but, secretly they envied us and dreamed of joining Lake House to write lies.

Lake House was the birthplace of great journalism. D.R. Wijewardena had the uncanny, unerring gift to spot and discover talent. One such discovery was Martin Wickremasinghe who Wijewardena made the editor of Dinamina. Wijewardena’s respect for his find (Wickremasinghe was then a beginner an unknown writer. It was said that there were only two individuals at Lake House who were served tea in a pot-one was Wijewardena and the other Martin Wickremasinghe.

Almost everybody who was somebody in the world of art and journalism sprang from Lake House-the list is endless, but to quote a few, Tarzie Vittachi, Denzil Peiris, Mervyn de Silva, Clarence Fernando, Meemana Prematilleka, J.L. Fernando.

Salary

Another stalwart we cannot forget because of his rather colourful and queer entry to Lake House was Piyasena Nissanka who lastly edited the Budusarana, the Buddhist weekly founded by him. The Gulliverean writer with a walrus moustache, always in thick tussore suit was driven to Lake House by his giant son an old Anandian.

Nissanka came to Lake House and was interviewed by D.R. Wijewardena who had accosted another of his journalistic finds. Wijewardena asked Nissanka how much salary he expected. Nonchalantly the young six-footer replied: “I don’t need salary. I will bring money from home to work. I only want to write”.

Wijewardena may have been flummoxed yet possibly floored by the naivety of the youth. Nissanka was immediately hired. And Wijewardena insisted that Nissanka’s personal file should carry a provision the young man who obviously had seized the heart of the Lake House boss (as unprecedented as Nissanka’s offer for free service) to keep him in employment as long as he wished to remain at Lake House.

Piyasena Nissanka, a close friend of Martin Wickremasinghe wrote several Sinhala novels but he was a continuing journalist at Lake House. He was a gregarious man who had a penchant for good living in equal measure as was for journalism. Around noon, full-suited he used to walk up Lower Chatham Street to Lord Nelson and standing at the counter like some heavy weight guzzle down several drams of arrack and walk back to Lake House for lunch. He was a healthy man but curiously after some minor ailment they admitted him to a private nursing home.

They opened him (he was way past sixty) God knows why, and then he died on the operating table. It was all pathetically unnecessary. He was not too terribly ill to undergo surgery. His young colleagues at Lake House were horrified. It may have been a surgical misadventure but it was an unnecessary sad death.

To be continued