London was his kind of place

Anura: rich in wit, loved books and theatre:

by Reggie Fernando

Anura is gone and what can we say about this wonderful and loveable character? Of course the manner of his going will be woven into the tapestry of Sri Lanka's history and our grief is profound.

Anura came to London almost at the same time when President Mahinda Rajapaksa, then the youngest Member of Parliament in 'Ceylon' arrived in the UK at the invitation of the British government.

In an article on the presidential victory in 2005 in my London weekly Newslanka under the headline 'What better birthday gift than the presidency of one's motherland' I spoke about the great friendship between President Rajapaksa and Anura that dated back to the seventies and earlier.

I said; 'The new President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Anura Bandaranaike were bosom pals in those good old days in London and even at that time President Rajapaksa was quiet and confidant and only occasionally tense and the one thing I admired about him was his lack of grandeur......." It was the diplomat Dhanapala Samarasekera attached to the 'Ceylon High Commission' that introduced me to Anura in the early 70s.

Samarasekera a career diplomat attached to our mission in New Delhi was also posted to London that same year. Anura lived in London for many years which include the period at London University.

London, bustling, big and filled with pageantry was Anura's kind of place. He loved the experience. He always wanted things that "feeds the soul" for instance; a good view, good company, a good film, a good book, a good friend, a tight hug when he needed it, good sleep when he was tired, a drive in the country side and most of all new places to discover. Like the majority of us he loved all types of food and I can tell you for certain, his favourite dessert in London was apple crumble.

For Anura England was a land of history and romance. His curiosity led him to many places.

Seeing some of the horse guards in gleaming breast-plates clopping down the Mall and Buckingham Palace sentries stamping and marching in scarlet, Anura asked; "How could they see from under those bearskin caps?" Such was his curiosity.

In the 70s together with present President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Dhanapala Samarasekera, Anura visited East Germany on a ten-day tour and in later years with London as his base, he saw practically every city in the west.

At the time his elder sister Sunethra was an undergraduate at Oxford considered the finest seat of learning and where in those days dons wandered the streets in gowns and tasselled caps.

At London University Anura was considered a brilliant student and according to Dhanapala Samarasekera who was his guardian, Anura's tutor had stated that an essay Anura wrote on 'The impact of the Russian revolution on Latin America' was one of the best the tutor had read and was worthy of publication.

It was around this time that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Branch (SLFP) in the UK was officially inaugurated. The branch began its activities on December, 8, 1968 when the late Donald Karunaratne (Brother-in-law of former chairman, Petroleum Corporation, the late Anil Obeyesekera) was elected the first president.

In 1972 following the reorganization of the branch Anura Bandaranaike was elected president. Anura's name was proposed by M.S.Colombathanthri an ardent supporter of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike and seconded by Jith Peiris.

It was in 1975 that honour was thrust upon me when Anura asked me to be the branch president. I am no political animal but being friends I accepted the offer and was elected as president unanimously.

Anura had a handful of selected friends and among them was the well known former Thomian and producer Jith Peiris who was by his side at the time of his death. Jith was like his aide-de-camp (ADC).

Although it was a Royal-Thomian affair, they were inseparable. On some of the occasions when Anura visited me Jith accompanied him.

Recalling Anura's glorious past in England, we once went to Shakespeare land in the month of September with Deputy High Commissioner Guy Amirthanayagam, a learned man and a member of the prestigious Ceylon Civil Service, who had been seconded to the Foreign Service.

Amirthanayagam's antique but comfortable Mercedes Benz took us to many other interesting places as well. It was a time when Stratford -on- Avon and its surroundings were truly gorgeous. That was the time of the year when the entire area brightens with every hue and the flowers attempt to show off their beauty before the autumn frost puts them down.

The smells, the sounds and the sights in Shakespeare land were all so familiar to Anura as he had read about them.

Yet Anura who was fascinated with its most famous citizen - William Shakespeare - roamed around and failed to miss a single spot. His greatest shock was when we came across a lawn in the rear of a pub that said; 'Mid Summer Night's Dream' was first performed here.

The greatest loves of Anura's life were books, the theatre and films and I remember vividly how he gallivanted down Charing Cross Road weekend after weekend looking for titles he didn't have in his library. Charing Cross Road runs northwards from Trafalgar Square to Tottenham Court Road, by way of Leicester Square tube, which isn't actually in Leicester Square.

It was great fun for him to go in to those bookshops and wander around. He always enjoyed a relaxing stroll or a leisurely walk through that historic district where rare books, scholarly and academic books, first editions, modern literature, art, poetry, antiquarian and leather bound sets were always found.

I told him that Charing Cross Road may be the home to almost every bookshop in London and that it's also the home of Foyles - possibly the largest; to which Anura replied; "If you actually want to find a book, any of the other bookshops is a better bet. Foyles probably have it but whether you can find it is another matter."

He was an avid reader who loved books and he also loved the company of those who shared his passion. Anura a master in quoting great people told me that Garrison Keillor once said; 'A book is a gift you can open again and again', and in the same context quoting Francis Bacon Anura said; "Reading maketh a full man."

Being the London Correspondent for Lake House, I had to defend my fraternity and in a jocular manner completed the quotations - "conference a ready man; and writing an exact man." However after a few moments he came back to win the round when he quoted Bacon again; "Knowledge itself is power". It was obvious that he was attempting to demonstrate that unlike writing and being an 'exact man', being a Bandaranaike,'power' was more important.

It was not surprising to catch Anura with a book curled up in front of the fireplace exploring chapter by chapter, until he was disturbed or told that lunch or dinner was ready.

As for films the theatre, he hardly missed any and whenever he had a weekend free he would go to one of the West End cinemas for a matinee.

That was not all - he had a proud possession - a large book where he recorded every little detail of every film he watched together with his comments.

As Jith Peiris told the press Anura died in peace and without pain. My own research showed that thousands came to Horagolla and some of them walked miles.

Others patiently waited many hours to spend a minute in a last tribute. It was so moving, the voices of those thousands whose admiration and gratitude Anura took away with him never rose above a whisper.

For Anura blood was always thicker than water. It was a case of family relations being more important ("thicker") than all other relations and friends,('water'). He felt that friends will come and friends will go but his family was always there for him.

Probably it was for this reason that Anura failed to give one hundred percent support to President Rajapaksa. Had he done so the banner headlines in the press announcing his demise wouldn't have been; 'Anura passes away' but 'Prime Minister Anura Bandaranaike passes away.'