The Outsiders

Geoff Wijesinghe

In 1978, I was assigned by Lake House, to cover the horrible cyclone which devastated most of Eastern Sri Lanka, for the Sunday Observer and the Daily News. I was accompanied by Udaya Manawasinghe of the Silumina and chief photographer Banduwardena. As food was scarce in the Eastern Province we carried with us about 20 loaves of bread and a few tins of canned fish. We left on a Friday evening, driven by a senior driver whose name does not now come to my mind. The car was a new twin carburetor Volkswagen beetle which was quite powerful.

Warehouse storekeeper

As we entered the Ampara District we were shocked by the ruined villages, many living in mud thatched houses, the roofs no more, their walls destroyed by the ongoing, gushing waters which swept the East.

The roads were lined with families begging for food. We were so overcome with sadness at the pathetic state of these destitutes, who had been eking out a living in abject poverty even before the cyclone, but were now deprived even of a morsel, that we distributed all our 'rations' and were left with nothing to eat.

We reached Batticaloa, now reduced to a ghost town, at night. We were in a quandary as to what next to do, and had resigned ourselves to sleeping in the car overnight, when the diminutive Banduwardene suddenly remembered that the only soul he knew in Batticaloa was a government warehouse storekeeper and surely being in charge of food distribution would have some grub.

True enough when we entered the premises we were directed to a small hut lit with a hurricane lamp. The storekeeper and his assistant were pleasantly shocked to see us, soon, we were chatting and after a few minutes the storekeeper said, “Surely you chaps must be very hungry. We saved a few tins of 'salmon' and some measures of rice for ourselves, so if you don't mind the skeletal menu we would dine together.” Soon, we had a piping hot rice and curry and a red hot pol sambol to add succulence to the menu. So we had a thumping hot feed. There was no room for us in the storekeeper's hut, so we went to a huge, absolutely empty warehouse and landed our tired bodies on the bare floor. It became very cold and chilly late in the night and Bandu who had a few shots of arrack before dinner (I was off the booze at the time) kept waking me up ever so often complaining not only of the cold but that rats were running all over his body.

Sunday newspapers

I was too sleepy and was too tired to bother about rats running over Banduwardene's body. Weary as I was, I slept soundly on the cement floor sans mat and pillows. The next morning we had a refreshing bath at the warehouse well. Then set off on our rounds surveying the damage and interviewing mainly victims. Wonder of wonders when we were thinking of where to spend the night, Udaya remembered that a businessman from Matara lived near the government school and our chances of finding refuge were distinctly optimistic. The four of us were met with open arms followed by rice and curry which more than satisfied our hunger.

Several establishments had been vandalized in addition to damage caused by the tempest. I met my old buddy Jayantha Jayaratne, colonel and competent authority. He was operating from the schoolroom, and ran the Batticaloa rescue operation including law and order from there. Incidentally Jayantha an old Royalist, Sunimal Fernando, presently senior Advisor to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and a former high official of the Oxford Union used to be regulars at the Pure Beverages flat for staff families. They were introduced to me by my good friend T A T A Samaranayake, who shared my room at no. 45, Edward Lane Kollupitiya soon after leaving school.

Sunimal, mild mannered, bright and intellectual, if I remember right was excellent at bridge. A man of great humility we have remained friends for well nigh 50 years. Above all Sunimal is very sincere. At the time “Wana” (Hamilton Wanasinghe) who became Army Commander and later Secretary of Defence was a 2nd lieutenant batchmate of Jayantha's and they used to entertain us at the army officers' mess, which before its present location was the Army headquarters.

There was also A U (A W) Weerasinghe and Sydney Wijeratne who later retired as Major General and Colonel, Dido Keertiratna, Pole vault Seniviratna and the late Richard (cigar) Jansz of STC. Anyway back to the East coast cyclone. The Lake House team arrived on Thursday night, did some hectic work and Udaya, Bandu and I had our reports and pictures ready for publication in the Sunday newspapers, with no way of getting them across to Colombo.

Fortunately President and Mrs Jayewardene accompanied by a team of officials and a senior politician flew into take stock of the ravaged areas. Close on time for departure at the Batticaloa airstrip we had our reports ready and were wondering who would do us the favour of taking our stories to Colombo and sending them to our respective editors. Suddenly I spied the affable obliging Speaker of Parliament Bakeer Marker, and he readily obliged. The next Sunday the lead stories in the Sunday Observer and Silumina were our reports from Batticaloa. Yes, Bakeer Marker was a fine gentleman not one of those hoity-toity politicians filled with self importance. They were awaiting the aircraft to fly the presidential team to Colombo when I was witness to Opposition Leader Appapillai Amirthalingam having a heated argument with Bill Devanayagam, Minister of Justice who was a Member of Parliament for Batticaloa and Mrs Devanayagam if I remember right (I stand corrected) and Mrs. Amirthalingam.

The argument ended thus:

Mrs Devanayagam, “I told you Bill not to bring these outsiders here”. Mr Amirthalingum addressing Mrs Devanayagam shot back “Madam you forget that you too are an outsider” and with that, the argument ended and soon the presidential flight was on its return to Colombo.