Sunday Times 2
A walk down memory lane
View(s):She told me it was not going to be a big book, but this ‘small book’ – ‘Treasured Memories’ written by Ilika Malkanthi Karunaratne has made a great and glossy impact – and not just for the quality of paper she has chosen. The book takes the reader through different eras in time. From awe of the visit of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh to the life and times the writer spent with a bouquet of relationships that have left a lingering fragrance.
Ilika has frozen the moments that matter in her walk down memory lane and framed them in sunshine and rain. The happiness is captured with the many joys she experienced as a child and as a young woman.
Giving first preference to God, the writer begins the book with a verse from Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (Revised Standard Version): ‘For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck……………….’
Ashok Ferrey in his foreword describes Ilika’s book as a an “elegiac memoir that is lit through by the lovely golden tones of the late afternoon sunlight…..”
Jill Macdonald quotes novelist L.P. Hartley “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there”; as she goes on to describe Ilika’s memoirs as a “timely reminder that the best gifts of human relationships – those treasures of love, loyalty and affection are to be cherished wherever and whenever we find them.
Ilika’s memoirs are lined with relationships – bonds formed through life. Her memoirs are all about names and happenings in life – the time she spent with people and the way they have influenced her life and thinking and in this great building of relationships there are no brickbats – only bouquets.
She writes of Sir Henry de Mel, her grandfather, her great grandpa Charles Henry de Soysa, and her father who she says “rose to the top in his field; enjoying both national and international recognistion and respect for his work. Although he qualified and specialized in western medicine at Kings College London, he was the first to use Thambili for saline.”
J.R.Jayewardene, Dudley Senanayake, Nalini Wickremesinghe, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Lalith Athulathmudali are names that seem to have an intense impact on her life.
She mentions too sincere lifelong friends as Sohli Captain, Bunchy Gunasekera, and late Ralph Fernando, T. Nirmalingam, and the Suhood family, also great school friends – Jeanne Banjamin, Sunetra Illangakoon, Goolbai Gunasekera, Chereen Dharmaratne, Indrani Atukorale, Mohini Thambaiyah, among others and goes on to say that these were ‘woman to woman bonds that no man could possibly understand’.
A much-sought after writer who today has columns in the Daily Mirror and In Vogue, Ilika remembers with appreciation Mano Muthukrishna Candappa who “first got her to write here.” She also recalls with happiness her times as a journalist with veteran Editor of the SUN newspaper Charles Rex de Silva.
Ilika has indeed had a life of with more than a tinge of royalty – her talent in cookery is a steaming topic but what we have not heard about is the cup of coffee she had made for Prince Philip when he visited Sri Lanka. She writes of her presentation to Queen Elizabeth as a debutante at Buckingham Palace as another “unforgettable experience” and being the third generation of her family to have had this honour.
Her meeting with her husband-to-be Chandra, and their shared interest in politics, their simple life and precious children – son Kishan and twin girls Anjali and Nirupa. The Kishan she held in her arms as her first-born later became Head Boy of the Colombo International School.
Ilika’s memoirs, like life itself, draws to a close with the agony of bereavement – as she a writes of her great losses – the deaths of her parents, her husband Chandra…
She also speaks of more than a silver lining when she is sad – of the rainbow of happiness – the love of her children and her grandchildren have brought to her life.
The tears she shed for her Dobermann Sasha glisten in her memoirs as those shed for a ‘special friend.’
You have to treat your memories the same way you treat your precious jewels. Put them in a safe place, where no one can steal or tamper with them, urges Ilika. And they will no doubt, be locked away in the hearts of her friends among whom she distributed the book, as they gather together this Sunday September 28, as Ilika celebrates a birthday – among precious friends – making treasured memories again.
| Book facts
Treasured Memories by Ilika Malkanthi Karunaratne. |