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Wednesday, 19 January 2011

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Sharing and caring as a way of life

Today's column is about two very special people I had the fortune to come across in my professional life in tourism. Late Alec Robertson, Buddhist scholar and lecturer, with a vision to spread the Buddha word and his profound knowledge of our own history and civilisation with others. His eighth death anniversary fell on the last day of last year.

The other is the much active culinary expert and proponent of the merits of Sri Lankan cuisine, Chef Dr Pablis Silva of the Mount Lavinia Hotel. In his 74th year now, his vision is to position the uniqueness of our own cuisine on the top pedestal in the international arena. For his unique contribution and service, he was conferred the President's award as a Tourism Legend in 2009.

Walking encyclopaedia

Alec Robertson Pablis Silva

I got to know Late Alec Robertson in the early 1980s as an invited lecturer contributing to the Guide Lecturer Training Program conducted by the Ceylon Tourist Board. Most knew him for his discourses on Buddhism and little did we know that he was also a walking encyclopaedia on our civilisation and history. Born to a Christian family, he was exposed to works of comparative religion as a child, at his home. His father had a collection of books on the subject and young Alec's mind was shaped with the exposure he had and an insatiable drive was created to learn more and more about the merits of the Buddhist way of life and of our civilisation.

Master of ceremony

I first met Chef Publis also in the early 1980s and that was at the Mount Lavinia Hotel. Each year, at the time of Sinhala and Tamil New Year, the Chairman and proprietor of the hotel Late U K Edmund held a gathering for all the staff, well wishers and their families around the hotel's swimming pool. Kiribath, Kavun, Kokis and other traditional sweetmeats were served and as a young officer on the staff of the Tourist Board, I was invited to attend.

Chef Publis was a prominent member of the team and was the humble master of ceremonies at the event. A Bastille of the British tradition of the then Ceylon, the Mt. Lavinia Hotel had been purchased by Edmund in the mid 1970s and the celebration of the traditional New Year within the hotel's domain each year, was indeed a unique happening.

Humble beginnings

What strikes me most about both these individuals is that they are both self-made persons in their chosen areas of expertise. They did not begin acquiring diplomas or degrees, but excelled in the spheres they chose to master them through sheer grit, determination and hard work. They acquired knowledge and experience through research, exploration and experiment. Most importantly, each had a vision of where they wanted to take their sphere of expertise i.e. to the pinnacle of achievement. When doing so, they humbly demonstrated that they deeply cared for whatever they did and wanted so passionately to share their knowledge and experience with others.

Passion and pride

Late Alec Robertson worked at the Auditor General's Department.

For 29 years he had served as the President of the Servants of the Buddha Society, which regularly meets every weekend to hold discourses on the Dhamma, an event and practice that has gone on, for the last 80 years.

I remember listening to him grooming the guide lecturers and his presentations oozed with passion and pride of the traditions and the ethos that has made us to be what we are.

Just about two weeks before his last death anniversary, I had the chance to meet one of his daughters at my bank branch where she works, and she told me that he had always spoken well of the days he shared his knowledge with the tourism industry. He had seen it as an opportunity to pass on his knowledge to the visitors to our land through the guide lecturers.

Nutritional values

Earlier this month, we had Chef Publis and his wife visiting the village of Kiula, where we live. It was at a request made by me to him, to share his wisdom on the nutritional values of our cuisine, with the mothers and fathers of the village.

As we discussed at the time of my invitation, there is a dire need today, even in rural settings, to regain knowledge and understanding on the merits of our own food and how we could benefit from using what is so richly abundant in our own natural environment.

The production and promotion of fast foods of convenience and the influence of television advertising has created a crisis situation in our belief system of nutritional values.

There is an urgent need to address it head on to ensure that Sri Lanka does not become a nation of ill-nourished persons in the future.

We all know what ill-nourishment can do to the well-being of a people, where the growth of the mind and body can be stifled, turning us into being unproductive citizens.

Nation's well-being

The likes of Late Alec Robertson and Chef Publis Silva have taken on a mission in life to care for the well-being of our nation. Their humble way had been to share their knowledge and experience with the society at large without expectation of anything in return. One served our spiritual needs, while the other continues to crusade to achieve a desired state of mind-body wellness for our people.

Both known for their humility and strong convictions chose sharing and caring as their way of life, leaving everyone who came in contact with them with invaluable life-skills.

I recall the memory of late Alec Robertson with much affection and wish Chef Publis even more strength and resolve to carry out his mission.

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