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| Sunday, 21 July 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Celebrating 50 years together At a time when Sri Lanka was still Ceylon and people were still savouring the joy of being liberated from British rule and a loaf of bread didn't cost the earth, a young man met a young woman in the friendly milieu of the Trinity College Grounds in Kandy.
Only it's not. Fast forward the events fifty years on and you have the couple - Augustus Charles Bandaranayake, now a sprightly 77-year-old retired Deputy Commissioner of Labour and Daphne Bandaranayake a charming 81-year-old-housewife - in the lobby of the Mt Lavinia Hotel, trying to grapple with the surprise of being offered the opportunity to go back in time.... Fifty years back. To their wedding night in fact. The golden anniversary surprise was planned by the couple's four children, three of whom are out of the country. They wanted their parents to go back in time and savour the bliss of being just married, with no worries, no kids, no hassles and no aches and pains of old age... Just the two of them, young, wholesome and carefree with a pink tinged future stretching on to the horizon. To add some intriguing zest to the drama, they booked Room No 246 - where the couple spent their wedding night - for the anniversary surprise. The Mt. Lavinia Hotel, not willing to be left out of the drama, added in their piquant might to make the surprise even more indelible. They offered the room at the rate charged in May 1952. An inconceivable Rs. 55 per night. Were the Bandaranayake's surprised? Were they ever. Staggered, surprised, flabbergasted and at a loss to describe their incredulity the claimed they had prepared to enjoy a quite evening at home, not go back in time. Grateful to their children for giving them the surprise, they recalled Mt. Lavinia being one of the few hotels in the outskirts of Colombo, although it didn't have many of the existing features. They recall having a wonderful time, but can't remember what they ate for dinner, except that it was a set course menu. Listening to them talk, you can't resist asking about their life together and the secret of their togetherness. "It's having lovely children and a wonderful wife who is an excellent mother to the children," says Augustus Charles, while Daphne gives a more philosophical explanation. "It's holding your peace and never putting yourself forward. It is giving and taking and forgiving," she claims. The more forthright and the talkative of the two, Daphne claims never to have fought with her husband, and substantiates that claim with quips like "It takes two to have a quarrel and if you hold your peace, you are the winner. And when you don't argue, the differences get diffused." Home brewed philosophy and total commitment... What better way to celebrate the success of togetherness than with a 50th anniversary, celebration. - Hana |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Although cupid didn't strike his arrow immediately, the two - he a
labour officer and she a teacher - forged a strong bond of understanding
and affection enduring enough to have them contemplating marriage. They
set a date for May 1952, chose the Mt Lavinia Hotel as the place for their
dream getaway.... And the rest, as they say, is history.
