Exclusive Abode

by Prasad Abu Bakr

It is probably the most breath taking view one can have from any given entrances of a leisure property in Nuwara Eliya. Its old rustic stone wall finish tells you a tale of the days gone by when it was simply referred to as 'The Gentleman's Club'.

So it was! "And so it is" said Stanley Goonaratne who is the Secretary and also the present Manger of the club, stating that the applicants are still scrutinised thoroughly before the board of committee members give their nod.

According to Goonaratne, in 1876 landowners in Nuwara Eliya, who were mostly of british origin created the club as abode where they can hang out in the evenings after their hard days work of looking over their vast acreage tea plantations. The area was limited to a small Billiards room where the white folk gathered to drink over there boisterous chatter and billiard playing.

The word 'boisterous' stood to its true meaning probably because it is said that some of them eventually got

 so drunk that it is the horse that brought them in would take the masters back, guided by the lantern that dangled on its side, back home riding; in a deep doze.

Initially the club prohibited any ladies coming in at all and during the later stages when visitors who came up to Nuwara Eliya on holiday used the premises to entertain themselves their spouses were allowed in through a side door which stili stands. Now! as a side entrance though. However it remained taboo for ladies to be seen in public areas at all.

In the past even though there was no membership as such the entrance to the premises was restricted only to the white planters and their other white guests. But in 1973 the first Sri Lankan, Col. A.V. Ratwatte was elected as president and N.B.Dodanwala became Vice president and so the club doors were open to the locals.

However many rules of the club stayed un-changed. Though the ladies found themselves languishing beyond areas which were restricted to them, men still had to lounge in suite and tie while children under five continued to be kept away from the main club house and so were their nannies.

The Mens Bar and the Monsoon Room, where guest can relax and play a game of scrabble or watch television, both allow casual wear now. The new Chalet, which is away from the main club house, has a set of rooms and allows members to order in-house dining with a valet in attendance all around 24 hours.

Above the chalet sits the reception hall where guests can entertain by having cocktail parties and the like.

The 600 member club had within its grasp the entire acreage where today sits the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club and

 the Grand Hotel. Both properties which came up much later, after the gentleman's club of the colonial english.

Manager Stanley Goonaratne explained how the emblem signifying the Cheetah came about.

Many of the englishman were ardent hunters and the animal was found in abundance in the past, hiding within the lush forests that surrounded the hill station. But the Englishman thought they were hunting Leopards and as their passion to hunt the beast grew, they sort it also as the most suitable sign to adorn the emblem of their Billiards Club.

There are many tales which makes The hill Club of Nuwara Eliya appear to be having an interestingly mysterious past. But as at present the mystery seem to have been replaced by more joy and pleasant things in its place.

But the grand Colonial past that the Hill Club of Nuwara Eliya inherited from the white man who made it all happen still hangs in place with all its grandiose. A grandiose which only the British knew how.