View from ninety-seven

Aditha DISSANAYAKE

How big should a cake be if it is to hold ninety seven candles? How big should your breath be if you are to snuff all ninety seven flames in one blow? What kind of wish do you make before you put out the candles?

Don Edwin de Silva could have found out if he had wanted to. But on June 8, when he celebrated his ninety seventh birthday, birthday cakes and candles were the last things on his mind. Never having cared for partying or cakes he spent the day at the Mallika Home for Elders in Bambalapitiya, hosting lunch to its eighty four inmates. “I gave every elderly mother there a present as well” beams De Silva, happy to have spent his birthday in a meaningful way, not only this year, but for the past ten years.

Don Edwin de Silva

Four days into his ninety seventh year, de Silva looks hardly a day older than seventy. He talks, ruminates, remembers and dreams as if his self; the real, true self, is ageless. “I have been to almost every country worth visiting” he says with justifiable pride. “I have been blessed by the Pope, I have had tea with the Queen and I have sunbathed on the golden beaches of Hawaii.” He quite rightly feels there is nothing more left for him to do. Except perhaps reveal the secret of his longevity and how he manages to remain so perfectly healthy with only three years to go before turning hundred.

“First I must tell you my story” he begins and invites me to travel back into the past with him. The first turning point in his life comes when he makes a speech at a function in the school he was attending at the time; Maliyadeva Vidyalaya, Kurunegala. The Chief Guest at the event was P.De S Kularatne who was more than impressed by little Edwin's repertoire and consults his father about sending him to Ananda College, Colombo. “A few days after the function, my father suggested we go to Colombo to see the tram cars” recalls De Silva. “I was thrilled as I had never seen a tram car till then. While in Colombo we travelled in a tram car and when it stopped in front of Ananda College, my father suggested we get down and take a look at the college”.

His father had then gone into the Principal Kularatne's office leaving him outside and a few minutes later walked up to him saying from now on this will be his school. “I forgot the thrill of seeing the tram cars and started to cry. What tram cars when I was told I would be living in the hostel and studying in this new school from that minute onwards”, De silva now chuckles at the memory. A peon had taken him to the classroom and he still recalls the Principal's words when his father had pointed out his son had no extra clothes to wear. “Don't worry” said the Principal. “I will look after him till you arrange things for him.” Today, De Silva says he is proud to be the oldest Anandian of Ananda College, Colombo, then grins and adds “The oldest living Anandian!”

Now to the next turning point. “I was still at Ananda when I met the girl who would later become my soulmate” he chuckles again. As fate would have it, other schools were invited to the college whenever there was a function and often De Silva was entrusted with the task of serving the student's from the visiting schools with snacks and short-eats. One day he was serving cakes to the girls from Ananda Balika Vidyalaya when he realized someone had forgotten to cut one big piece of cake into two. He said to the girl who got the special piece “You are very lucky. You got the biggest piece of cake”. The girl had simply smiled and said “Thank you”.

It was at that moment that he fell in love with the girl whom he later discovered was the sister of Walter, one of his classmates. Much later, as a young man he remembers visiting Walter's place one Sunday morning. While he was in the sitting room chatting with Walter's father, the mother and the two daughters who had been visiting the temple at Kuppiyawatte entered the room. “I saw her again after all these years and I knew she was the one for me.” Since then he had been a constant visitor to her home till one day his father brought up a marriage proposal for him.

“I told my girl about it and asked her to be ready to see my parents because I planned to drop into her place after seeing my bride to be.” After the two visits – first to the prospective bride's then to the girlfriend's he asked his mother on their way home “You saw two girls today. Whom did you like?” His mother admitted she liked the second girl. His father though, did not want to give his consent till the priest at the temple had looked into their horoscopes. “These two have been together throughout their previous births as well” declared the priest and it was, needless to say, smooth sailing since then. “We were happy, oh yes, we were happy” are his final words on this chapter of his life.

After leaving Ananda College somewhere in the 1930s De Silva joined the Health Department as a Health Inspector. Having worked in Naththandiya, Avissawella and Walahanpitiya he was given several scholarships first to England, then to America and to Japan. It was while he was in England that he was lucky to attend a garden party hosted by the Queen. During President Premadasa's reign De Silva became his Private Secretary but after sometime he rejoined the Health Department. At the age of fifty five he retired and travelled to America, where in the state of Missouri he worked for thirty three years as an Assistant Director of the Department of Health.

In 2001, after his wife's demise he returned to his homeland. His two daughters both doctors, who are also married to doctors, four grandchildren and four great grandchildren have now made America their home. “If I had stayed with them in America I would have been alone the whole day because during weekdays everyone is either at school or at work ”, explains De Silva. “Unlike here, all you see when you look out of the window in Missouri are cars and cars and cars.” He prefers the life he leads in his homeland, taking a walk on the Galle Face esplanade, reading the newspapers, and yes, chatting with the occasional journalist trying to pry out the secret of his ageless demeanor.

“It's no big secret” smiles De Silva. “Except for a daily piece of fish, I refrain from eating any kind of animal flesh.” So, hold it right there if even as you read this you are snacking on a chicken roll or are planning to buy one the moment you put this down. De Silva does not believe in snacks in between the three main meals. After he has his breakfast in the morning (a cup of oats with a banana and a little honey followed by ½ cup of Marmite) he drinks a cup of tea or a glass of fruit juice at ten in the morning.

Lunch is followed by a cup of tea at three in the afternoon and nothing else is eaten till it's time for dinner. He meditates on loving kindness (the Maithree Bawanawa) before he falls asleep at nine every night. “I have never inhaled a cigarette in my life” he says, but confesses “In my youth I used to have the occasional glass of wine whenever I attended an official function but for many years now I have been a teetotaler.” He also adds that he lives according to the five precepts preached by the Buddha. “The five precepts form the basic foundation of everything I do in my life.”

“I am for everything that is Sri Lankan” concludes De Silva. “I got married wearing the National dress and to every function I have attended here and abroad, I continued to wear the white national dress. Most of my foreign colleagues have admired my dress making me wonder why everyone wants to dress in European clothes when we have more beautiful attire to adorn ourselves with.” He also suggests the younger generations should practice moderation, especially when it comes to eating habits. “I never have a second helping” he explains. “If I am hungry I fill myself up with fruits. There are so many varieties of fruit here in Sri Lanka, which is not the case in America, it is quite easy to have a healthy diet.”

“Ninety Seven!” chuckles De Silva. “Not bad eh?”. Not bad indeed. If to be ninety seven means to be like Edwin De Silva it would surly be wonderful to get there as soon as you can.

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