Appreciations
View(s):Alas! Politicians of his calibre are no more
M.L.M.Aboosally
It is over seven years since Mr. Aboosally, my maternal uncle passed away. When I last saw him he made it a point, before I bade him goodbye, to walk alongside me at dusk slowly in silence to see me off for I was returning to France the next day. Something told me that this was the final “au revoir” and only memories would remain.
My uncle’s services to the country, its people and especially to his beloved electorate Balangoda are legion, well documented and hopefully duly appreciated. Alas, his name and that of the family have come up recently in the Kuragala incident with his role, efforts and motives in preserving the “Jailani” precincts as a place of Islamic interest being questioned. I wish to add that Mr. Aboosally was a man of integrity, social responsibility and justice born from strong convictions to whom bigotry was completely anathema.
Mr. Aboosally, endearingly referred to by his nephews and nieces as “Periya Mama”, as the eldest uncle, upheld all the family traditions and values of old. He inherited the patience, intelligence and the wisdom from his father that coupled with the courage, forthrightness and discipline of his mother gave him the necessary ingredients to meet the vicissitudes of life with equanimity. As a child I remember first reading Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” that was framed and hung up in his office and now I realise that every word of the famed poet was personified in my uncle!
I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my uncle who, apart from his role in my education, fashioned my life through his personal example of generosity and thoughtfulness, influenced no doubt by his leanings towards Sufism, exemplified by the great Sufi scholar Abdul Qadir al Jailani and his followers whose association with Kuragala he strove to maintain.
At a time of turmoil in inter-communal and religious relationships in the country I have no doubt that were my uncle alive today he would have averted the tensions and the turmoil through his courage, wisdom and diplomacy which are sadly missing in politicians today.
My thoughts and sentiments go to my aunty, children, grand-children and other family members of my uncle who deeply cherished him. I am sure Allah has a niche in Firdaws for those who sacrifice and serve humanity. A grateful nephew
Marking a golden era in the history of the Bank of Ceylon
D. N. Wanniarachchi
Deepa Neelamani Wanniarachchi, retired Deputy General Manager of the Bank of Ceylon served the bank for 37 years and her unwavering commitment and unshakeable strength marked a golden era in the history of the bank. The eldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Valentine Dabare, she lived a well-accomplished and purpose-driven life. She had her education at Devi Balika Maha Vidyalaya where she demonstrated extraordinary skills and went on to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree in commerce from the University of Peradeniya in 1974 and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business and Financial Management from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka in association with the Cranfield University School of Management, UK in 2004.
She joined the Bank of Ceylon in 1975 as a Management Trainee and thereafter, all of her career was spent in the service of the bank. She had an indefatigable work ethic and put in a prodigious amount of work to bring any task in her hand to a successful completion. She was appointed Deputy General Manager (Finance & Planning) in 2008. She had wide experience in diverse fields such as managing large technology projects, bank restructuring under financial sector reforms, credit and recovery management and corporate and retail banking activities.
She provided leadership in the restructuring project designed to implement the core banking system covering all branches, which provided Bank of Ceylon with the largest online branch network in Sri Lanka. The world-renowned Fiserv & IBM selected this project as the fastest implemented core banking project in the Asia Pacific region and presented two awards to the Bank of Ceylon in November 2006. She imparted her knowledge by conducting extensive training courses in corporate and sales related areas. She was a Non-executive nominee Director on the Board of BOC Travels (Private) Limited and served as a non-executive nominee Director on the Board of Property Development & Management Limited. She was also a Trustee of the Pension Trust Fund and the Humanitarian Trust Fund of the Bank.
Her dedication and integrity towards work was exemplary to many and her business acumen was a motivator to the staff. She was always focused on updating her knowledge and making herself aware of technical developments. She was in the forefront in introducing new concepts to the Bank. She had three distinct phases in her career at the Bank – first as a Corporate Banker and then in charge of the Core Banking Projects and finally as the Head of Finance & Planning. In all instances, she demonstrated that she could move with kings without losing the common touch. She was extremely courteous, magnanimous, and sincere and above all, honest to the hilt.
True to the meaning of the word, she served the bank with utmost dedication and devotion and retired in March 2012. She provided guidance, controlled and managed colossal amounts of financial resources of the bank to the satisfaction of everybody and earned plaudits and encomiums from superiors and many others.
She was married to Ananda Wanniarachchi and was blessed with a dutiful daughter and three grandchildren all of whom are now residing in Japan.
She was a tower of strength to our family. She had the ability to remain unruffled by life’s ups and downs. Apart from being the eldest child, she was a mother figure to her young siblings. She harboured extraordinary dreams for our family. Her indomitable strength will live on and on and the dreams will come true one by one.
A devout Buddhist, she has done a lot of meritorious acts in her life. Construction of three wells to supply agricultural water to the farmer community in Thantirimale, donation of a ‘Dana Sala’ to the Piyangala Senasanaya – a temple in a very backward village in the Ampara district and donation of a food warmer set to YMBA, Maharagama for the benefit of cancer patients are prominent among them.
After a brief illness, she breathed her last on September 13 this year creating a vacuum which can never be filled. The third month remembrance dana was held on the 14th. May she realize the supreme bliss of Nibbana. - Sunethra Wickramasinghe
He paid with his life for his honesty and integrity
SHIHAN NANAYAKKARA
Gerard Shihan Nanayakkara was born on December 17, 1972 and had his education at St. Benedict’s College, Colombo 13. Strikingly pleasant in both appearance and manners, Shihan had a laudable all round record as a young Benedictine. He showed both intellectual and physical prowess. He did consistently well in his studies throughout his school career and made his mark in the playing field too. Every prize giving saw him being awarded a number of prizes.
Chess, gymnastics, basketball and athletics were his fields of achievement in sports. He represented the college at the all island district and circuit meets in athletics. In chess too he participated in the all island tournament. He was awarded colours in athletics. A College prefect in 1989 he was re-elected in 1990.
He had an innate sense of discipline, integrity of character, deference to elders, amity with his colleagues and a spirit of service and loyalty. Having passed his ALs in biological studies, he was selected to the University of Colombo in 1993. But since he was already employed at Seylan Bank he opted to forego university and continue his banking career.
In 1995 he was promoted as a Junior Executive and in 1998 as an Executive Officer. He was also a lecturer in Credit Risk and Staff Training at Seylan Bank.
He joined Nations Trust Bank in 2000 as Manager Credit Risk and was promoted as Senior Manager Credit Risk. In 2006 he joined ICICI Bank as Senior Manager Credit Risk and was promoted as Head Retail and Credit. He was instrumental in setting up new credit processing agencies, streamlining the credit approval process to ensure that turnaround times are improved as well as supervising the recovery functions to achieve a very low default rate. He had been able to achieve the lowest N.P.A. in the Banking Sector for a retail portfolio. His leadership skills motivated his team to achieve the desired results.
He joined Softlogic Finance in 2011 as D.G.M. and was promoted as Chief Operations Officer the next year in 2012. During this short period of time he was responsible for increasing the volume of business by over 100 percent. Due to his integrity, loyalty, honesty and efficiency he received rapid promotions.
In 1998 he passed the AIB in banking and in 2004 he obtained an MBA from the Sri Jayewardenepura Campus.
He loved us, his parents, and always cared for us. He was obedient and always consulted us before he took any decision. He visited often and never failed to call daily and inquire about our health and needs. He was a loving husband and father. He adored his two children Randil and Venuje. Whatever they asked for he promptly gave them. He spent his vacations taking the family abroad to Singapore, Bangkok, Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai and to almost every holiday resort in Sri Lanka.
Shihan led an exemplary life. He was much respected, loved and held in high esteem. His short span of life was committed to the service of his fellowmen with no expectation of appreciation or reward. He served his employers with absolute integrity and devotion. His resourcefulness and honesty in all his dealings and his loyalty to the organisation he worked for made him one of the most trusted Senior Executive Officers.
He was lovable, jovial and the lifeblood of any social gathering or party. It would be almost impossible to find anyone who would say anything bad about him. He would go out of his way to help friends, neighbours, relations and family. He had to pay with his life because of his honesty and integrity because he refused to do anything against his conscience.
Your Thathi and Ammi miss you darling Son. We will always remember you for the rest of our life. Rest in Peace till we meet again. - Vernon E. Nanayakkara
A great big thank you to Smokey’s vet who loved all four-legged beings
Dr. S.S.B. Dissanayake
I came to know Dr. S.S.B. Dissanayake, Veterinary Surgeon from Nugegoda, around 2003, when he began treating my five-year-old German Shepherd cross ‘Smokey’. Dr. Dissanayake was a compassionate man, who loved animals and his profession of treating them. One could see this from the way he spoke and handled them with that soft and gentle voice of his. I often saw him get his helper in the dispensary to cook rice and fish curry to feed the street dogs. Sometimes you would see him in the evenings going in a three wheeler and whistling to the dogs like the Piped Piper of Hamelin, (in this case Nugegoda) and the hungry dogs would come running, barking and whining when they heard that piercing whistle. He would also visit the Animal Shelter in Kalubowila during his afternoon rounds to attend to the sick and sometimes to do surgery on animals, armed with packets of biscuits. The dogs loved him.
After I shifted to Kandy, there were a couple of occasions when I had to get him to come from Colombo to Kandy when Smokey needed emergency treatment. He would come around 10 p.m. in the night after closing his Animal Practice and winding up his long day’s work there. He would not accept his doctor’s fees for the care and service rendered to Smokey. He said that I was paying for the vehicle as well, and that was enough – This was the kind of doctor he was.
Smokey was a fierce dog, but he sensed that the doctor was there to bring him relief. I would call him at all odd hours of the night in a panic. Dr. Dissanayake was always obliging, never once annoyed. He would always prescribe some medicine for Smokey and tell me to call him back in an hour’s time and let him know his condition. I had only to describe Smokey’s symptoms and the doctor knew at once what ailed the dog.
I am so grateful to this wonderful doctor who treated Smokey for the past nine years. Smokey lived to a good age of 13 years. The only time, however, that the doctor could not help him was when this good man himself fell ill at the beginning of this year, even then he did manage to prescribe medicines for Smokey despite being very ill himself. He also told me that according to the symptoms that Smokey had, he had suffered a stroke.
I was not aware of how serious an illness the doctor had and kept messaging and calling him frantically, because I was worried about Smokey’s deteriorating condition. Sometime around the end of July, Dr. Dissanayake managed to call me once again, this was the last call that I got from him. He was I think, very ill himself at this time, but had been discharged from hospital for a brief period and putting aside his own illness asked me how Smokey was and gave a further course of medication. By now, Smokey refused to take all meds, as if he knew that his beloved doctor would no longer be there for him.
After a futile attempt at the Getambe Veterinary Hospital, Kandy, Smokey passed away on August 9. I messaged Dr. Dissanayake and informed him and thanked him for all his care and help for Smokey. I did not hear from the Doctor until about three weeks later, when he messaged me to say that he was sorry that he could not save Smokey.
Three months later on November 7, Smokey’s beloved vet passed away. This is my grateful thanks to a great and dedicated doctor.
He will be missed by the community of Colombo and Nugegoda, and mostly his beloved animal friends on the streets and in the shelter.
May you attain the Supreme Bliss of Niravana !
Shari Atukorala