Medley of memories and melodies
Rowena: A century old Pic by Indika Handuwala
The scene is tender………as the lilting and sometimes haunting strains of ‘oldies’ such as ‘Red River Valley’, ‘Silver Threads Among the Gold’ and ‘You Are My Sunshine’ fill the air, framed in the doorway of an apartment in Mount Lavinia are a mother and a daughter.
The roles seem reversed though. For instead of the mother, it is the daughter gently leading the other through the singing, to stop awhile and exchange a smile. The mother moves to a rhythm and sings along, the face serene. There is an air of contentment.
Over the last few days, six children, nine grandchildren and many of the 11 great-grandchildren as well as her only younger sibling who is around, are gathering for a unique celebration. For, Rowena Ahlip nee Jayah, is celebrating her birthday today and it is not an ordinary one and her loved ones are arriving from across the world, Australia and America, to be with her.
Rowena is a hundred years old.
As we walk in to the apartment and daughters Yasmine and Mumtaz introduce us, Rowena gives us a big smile of welcome. “I love to listen to music and sing,” she says, her brow creasing in thought when we ask her how old she is and she replies, “I have to think”.
Music and song have always filled her life, for it was Rowena who accompanied her father and mother to Pakistan when he was posted as Ceylon’s first High Commissioner there.
Her father was none other than educationist and also one of the few Malay statesmen of those times, T.B. Jayah, who had been the President of the All-Ceylon Muslim League; member of the Legislative Council being elected in 1924 as one of three members from the ‘Muslim electorate’ representing Muslims around the country; nominated to the State Council, founding member of the United National Party (UNP), serving in the first 14-member Cabinet of Ministers in independent Ceylon as Labour and Social Services Minister and after resigning from the House of Representatives taking up the post of High Commissioner in Pakistan. He had also guided Zahira College as Principal for 27 years which are dubbed as the ‘Golden Age’ of the school.
The pile of sepia-toned black-and-white photographs scattered on the table is testimony to the numerous Very Important Persons (VIPs) Rowena herself had interacted with – among whom were Sirimavo Bandaranaike who would later become the first woman Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and stateswoman Fatima Jinnah, the sister of the Founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who was also a founding member of that new nation. An out and out cricket fan, Rowena had been photographed with the Ceylon Cricket Team in 1952 when they visited Lahore, the only woman among all the men.
The memories are hazy, as each and every event over a century would be difficult to recall at the flick of the fingers. She does remember though that her birthday is on Sunday (we visit her the previous Monday) and that the children are throwing her a party. “There will be a nice cake and lots of sandwiches,” says Rowena, adding that she doesn’t know what else they will be organizing for her.
Rowena among the 1952 Ceylon Cricket Team when they visited Pakistan
Yes, the luncheon party will be downstairs, on the ground-floor which would be cleared of the cars and decorated all in purple and mauve as those are her favourite colours. The lanterns and the pom-poms have been brought by her grandchildren most of whom are abroad, the Rose Blanc cake ordered from a five-star hotel and the guest-list finalized.
It would be reminiscent of another occasion, much grander, of course, when Rowena married Enver Ahlip in 1940 in the sprawling and spacious home of T.B. Jayah down Skelton Road in Colombo 5, with all the famous politicians of the day in attendance.
The wedding guest-list portrayed the names of people of eminence of that era including those of Dudley Senanayake, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and Montague Jayawickrama, says Mumtaz who along with her four sisters and one brother has heard fascinating tales about those times from their mother.
“I remember as a little girl, how I used to run to my father for every little thing. I loved him so much and he loved me so much,” says Rowena when we ask her about her childhood and her father.
She was the beloved daughter and accompanied him to Pakistan to play hostess at all the functions held at the High Commissioner’s residence, for his wife (Rowena’s mother Gnei Jerrie) liked to be in the background.
Beautiful Rowena was well-accomplished having schooled at Ladies’ College, Colombo, singing in the choir and also taking on a leadership role as a Prefect. Although she had got excellent grades throughout her school career, during those times university may not have been an option.
It was also in Pakistan that romance blossomed for Rowena, with Enver being the Private Secretary to her father at the High Commission. When he left Pakistan, I left with him,” she says.
The father-daughter bond was very strong and Rowena would hold T.B. Jayah as a shining example in every way and Mumtaz reminisces how her grandfather had an open house in Pakistan which any Sri Lankan student who was over there could call home.
Rowena (far right) and Lorraine, wife of diplomat and later Postmaster General Vernon Abeysekera, chatting with Sirimavo Bandaranaike who would later become the first woman Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and the world’s first woman head of state at a meeting in Pakistan
Back in Sri Lanka, family life for Rowena and Enver settled into a comfortable routine, with six children enhancing it. The dinner-table conversation always centred on politics and the children would listen avidly.
Rowena also immersed herself in uplifting the Malays while upholding and promoting their identity by serving the Sri Lanka Malay Association, its Rupee Fund and the Colombo Malay Cricket Club. So much so that in January this year, the Sri Lanka Malay Club felicitated her “in recognition of the invaluable services rendered to the association and contributing towards the protection of the rich history, culture and legacy of the community and institution”.
Aptly, the plaque quotes Albert Schweitzer: ‘I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.’
“My mother and father were in the thick of it,” says Mumtaz, laughingly recalling how sing-songs were also very much the order of the day. “We children couldn’t repeat a single song.” (Enver had passed away the night of December 31, 1999, when the world and Sri Lanka were awaiting the dawn of the millennium.)
And Rowena was not only good at singing the popular English songs but had created a niche for herself as a celebrity while in Pakistan by giving a rendition of the heart-warming and patriotic ‘Danno Budunge’ over national radio when the High Commission celebrated the Independence Day of Ceylon over there, while her little ones sat around in a circle and listened in awe at their mother’s voice in a foreign land.
Now Rowena spends her twilight years, looking out over the balcony of the apartment she shares with Yasmine, as life ebbs and flows like the sea a stone’s throw away or listening to all the golden oldies and singing them, most probably going back down memory lane. She loves to drink steaming cups of tea accompanied by a tasty maalu paan (fish bun) or sandwich, while pappadam she cannot do without at lunch-time.
Spirited and mischievous she still is, says Mumtaz, murmuring an anecdote repeated by her carer. Among the people moving to and fro on the lane below was a ‘parana-badu’ hawker (who exchanges new stuff for the old). As his raucous cry of “parana badu, parana badu” broke the stillness of the first-floor apartment, Rowena had bent forward and asked him, “Maava gannawada” (will you take me?), leaving him dumb-founded for a few minutes and the carer in fits of laughter.
It is mid-afternoon and Rowena is becoming weary, but the smile is brilliant as ever as we bid her goodbye and wish her a Happy Birthday.
The strains of ‘Silver Threads Among the Gold’ come floating by as we await the elevator, making us subconsciously hum……“Darling, I am growing old/Silver threads among the gold/But, my darling, you will be/Always young and fair to me………. You have never older grown!”
Pakistani stateswoman Fatima Jinnah and Rowena (to her right) at a party at the High Commission of Ceylon in Pakistan
Newly-weds Enver and Rowena, flanked by her father, educationist and statesman, T.B. Jayah and mother Gnei Jerrie (both seated) pose for a family photograph
Rowena with husband Enver