Appreciations
View(s):Hulftsdorp may never see the likes of this gentleman ever again
N.R.M. Daluwatte, PC
Early on May 29, I received a heart-rending message of the demise of N.R.M Daluwatte, PC. I knew it was inevitable yet I felt distressed and was reluctant to accept that our beloved Sir had departed forever.
N.R.M. Daluwatte, President’s Counsel, ex- President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka hailed from Tangalle in the deep South. His father was a civil servant in colonial Ceylon. He had his primary education from Mahinda College, Galle and attended Ananda and Royal Colleges in Colombo later on. He entered the University of Peradeniya in the first batch to earn a law degree before passing out as an Advocate in 1956. He initially sharpened his skills at the law chambers of H.W Jayawardene, QC before excelling in civil appellate courts.
During his long career on Hulftsdorp hill, he commanded the utmost respect of the Bench and the Bar as an ever-reliable authority of partition and land law in the country, to which countless reported cases from NLR days to SLR spanning over 60 years provide testimony.
I joined Mr. Daluwatte’s chambers in January 1997 with my batchmate Shamila as a raw 22-year-old to take up my apprenticeship after completing my Bar exams. At the very outset, I realised Mr. Daluwatte was a genuine, honest yet tough, no-nonsense lawyer. At the same time, I felt he was a fatherly figure that I could look up to. I still recall how in the same year, after the sudden demise of my father during the court vacation of August, I returned to work feeling devastated. He had only later come to know that I had lost my father during the vacation and apologised profusely that he was not aware of my loss and advised me gently yet sternly how to carry my life forward while maintaining dignity and respect to my late father. I remember to this date what he told me; live a life without bringing any disrepute to my father. I fondly recall how he set me on the correct path to become the person I am today.
The day before his funeral, Samantha, one of his much loved juniors recalled how he yelled at us and chased Shamila and me away when we tried to offer him a token of appreciation at the completion of our apprenticeship. I can vouch for his integrity; our Sir was incredibly honest and sincere in all his dealings. I was in his chambers from 1997 to 2003, during which time I witnessed how he treated his juniors, clients, colleagues and support staff. He was so modest and simple in his dealings and had a heart of gold even though he was one of the most eminent and celebrated civil appellate counsels that this country has ever seen. I still recall the laughter when he took his chamber- mates to the DC canteen and offered whatever we wanted while he had a wade and plain tea without sugar. When we did well in a case he would buy a round of boiled cashew wrapped in green leaves for everyone around.
He was a principled and honourable person at all times. He never went after money, he accepted a brief, irrespective of who the client was for a nominal fee. During consultations, after reading the brief he would tell his clients what his fee would be openly and ask for one third of that as his junior fee for us. I still recall with much gratitude how he carefully placed our fee into an envelope after writing down our name and case details in his beautifully crafted small cursory letters. At the end of each term he used to give us a cash cheque drawn from his personal account. He did not accept any appeal brief without the instructing attorney’s letter to go ahead. He was meticulous, and took painstaking efforts to do justice to the briefs he took. He studied the brief copiously and submitted well structured, to the point written submissions whenever it mattered.
I observed many a time how respected judges like late Justice P. Edussuriya, Justice T.B. Weerasuriya, Justice Udalagama, Justice Sarath N. Silva, Justice Nihal Jayasinghe, Justice A.S. Wijethunga, Justice Ameer Ismail paid glowing tributes to Mr. Daluwatte. I saw many of these Justices chase away pompous senior lawyers requesting for extensions and the like in their cases, but when it came to Mr. Daluwatte they always trusted his word. Once, he openly objected to an appointment of a judge to the Supreme Court, and thereafter never appeared before that judge. He followed the highest traditions of the profession, never said a word against any senior fellow practitioner in the appellate courts.
Mr. Daluwatte was very proud of his juniors and maintained a good relationship with them throughout. If I were to name a few among them, High Court Judges Pradeep Keerthisinghe, Prasantha De Silva, as well as appellate court practitioners Manohara de Silva PC, Rohan Sahabandu PC and Champaka Ladduwahetti who built up good practices in appellate courts. Further, Gayathri de Silva who worked as his junior until the end took good care of Mr. Daluwatte.
I felt really bad when I missed the celebrations of his 50th anniversary in the Bar due to my infant son’s high fever. Later our lives moved on and I was abroad and didn’t meet him for nearly a decade. When I visited him with my husband a year ago, he was delighted to see us and asked why I didn’t bring my sons. Even in this last encounter, I realised what an indelible mark he had left in our lives as he valued simplicity, happiness and integrity.
On May 29, just 20 hours short of his 90th birthday he passed away peacefully at home surrounded by family. His family had taken excellent care of him. During those final moments, in the midst of this catastrophic pandemic, I found that almost everyone whom this great man had associated with through many long years had come to say goodbye to him. He was worthy of worship in every sense but never allowed us to kneel down. With a heavy heart, we bid farewell to this wonderful man on his final journey. I doubt that Hulftsdorp may ever see the likes of this gentleman par excellence ever again.
Sir, may you attain the supreme bliss of Nibbana.
Vibhavi Ranasinghe
His contribution to the country and community were unique and significant
Dr. M.A.M. Shukri
With the passing of an outstanding scholar Dr. M.A.M. Shukri, we have lost a legend. The loss to the Muslim community and to the whole country is immeasurable. His contributions were unique and significant.
The governments of the day invited him to be a member of various committees namely the Educational Reform Committee, Sri Lanka National Library Services Board, the Literary Panel of Sri Lanka Sahitya Mandalaya and also the Sri Lanka National Commission of UNESCO, the Muslim Renaissance Movement and many more.
My close association with him goes back more than five decades. We both were students of Zahira College, Colombo, under the tutelage of our great principal, Senator Dr. M.A.M. Azeez.
He entered the University of Peradeniya and obtained a first class Honours in Arabic and was awarded the Commonwealth scholarship to pursue his post-graduate studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK, under the internationally reputed Prof. W. Montgomery Watts. Dr. Shukri was conferred the doctorate in philosophy. He returned to Sri Lanka and accepted the post of lecturer at the University of Peradeniya. Later he was made the Head of the Department of Arabic at the University of Kelaniya.
Several countries including the UK offered him prestigious posts in their universities which he politely declined as he was more interested in serving his motherland. If he was financially motivated, he would have surely accepted those lucrative offers.
At this crucial juncture, he was invited by the prominent philanthropist Naleem Hadjiar to be the director of Naleema Institute, Beruwela which he accepted because he was fully committed to serving the underprivileged youth. Within a short period, he was able to raise it to university level. A vocational unit was also set up to professionally equip the students with various skills. Hundreds of students from many parts of Sri Lanka joined Naleemiya to achieve their goals in life. Today they are working in various departments, corporations and boards.
Dr. Shukri as a patriotic citizen of this country yearned for national unity, racial amity and communal harmony for rapid development of this beautiful country. He often cited Singapore and Malaysia as classic examples. During the course of conversation, he often said “Islam means peace and no harm should be done to any person verbally or physically. Even hurting the feelings of a person is forbidden.” He emphatically rejected extremism, terrorism and violence in any form.
He genuinely felt that there was a dire need to publish an accurate and comprehensive history of Muslims in Sri Lanka. To achieve his noble objective, he organized a five day seminar/workshop inviting locally and internationally renowned eminent historians like Prof. K.M. de Silva, Dr. Lorna Dewaraja, Dr. Abeyasinghe, Dr. Indrapala, Dr. Sirima Kiriyamuna to submit research papers and Dr. Shukri took painstaking efforts to edit the book.
“Muslims of Sri Lanka” edited by Dr. Shukri is his masterpiece which should be read by everybody interested in national unity – it is available in public libraries.
Dr. Shukri even as a teenager in Matara had a keen interest in the welfare of students and involved himself in forming a student association which functions even today.
In the recent past, a group of persons headed by M.H.M. Nassaar approached Dr. Shukri and sought his advice and assistance to form an association called “OSDEM’ to which he readily agreed. He was made a patron of this association. It was a success story within a short period, fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Dickwella educationally, socially and economically.
When I was serving as an education officer in Matara and Hambantota districts he always extended his assistance in organizing educational programmes, seminars and even sports meets etc.
Dr. Shukri comes from a well known family in Matara and was married to my uncle Dr. Salahndeen’s daughter Bushra who was his strength and inspiration.
Dr. Shukri was a multifaceted, charismatic, down to earth, humble scholar. He possessed incredible patience. I have never seen him losing his temper even once. This is a rare gift given to him by God.
He will always live in the hearts of the people who knew him well.
His body was brought to his residence in Matara from Colombo where a sizeable crowd gathered to pay their last respects despite the curfew. If not for the unhappy situation in the country due to COVID-19, the people of Matara could have witnessed an unprecedented crowd flocking from all corners of Sri Lanka thronging the streets of Matara to pay their last respects.
May Allah grant him Jannath Firdaus.
M.H.M. Shamsudeen
To our mum and all those cherished memories
Linnette de S. Wijeyeratne
To write an appreciation of someone whom we loved and who was always by our side, a year after her demise is not easy, as every word we write reflects her face and silent tears still flow.
Our mum was a warm and compassionate person who would go out of her way to help others – no matter what. Her spiritual upbringing, the principles instilled in us and the frequent checks whether we have done our share of charity have paid rich dividends in life.
She was brought up with traditional values where a woman’s place was the home, taking care of family. Like many young ladies of that era, she too was required to polish her culinary and sewing skills. Her hand embroidery was out of this world and she spent hours making beautiful outfits for her six daughters. As kids when we wore coloured dresses to school the teachers would admire the embroidery and ask ‘who did it’ and we would proudly say ‘it’s our Mum’. The appliqué, French knots, feather stitch and cutwork designs done for baby layettes for her grandchildren were admired even by the doctors and nurses. Some of my sisters and sisters-in-law still treasure them even today. Mum was more than happy to help any of our friends with their baby layettes in the midst of stitching for her many grandchildren.
The chaos in the kitchen began when she baked the rich cake at Christmas time and sumptuous desserts beautifully decorated with snow men and ducklings that we found so amazing as kids. Mum also practised the tradition of placing a coin or a thimble in the plum pudding and it was with much delight that we would dive into the pudding and eat hurriedly, until one of us bit the hidden coin or thimble and proudly announced the winner.
Our Mum’s home town was Moratuwa, a place famous for rhythm and beats and many social events. She was an exceptional dancer and many longed to partner her at get-togethers. Dad too was invited for these gatherings due to the family connections although he lived in Colombo. Perhaps it was during these parties that they fell in love. They married in October 1951.
During school holidays, Mum made us prepare skits to perform after dinner. The purpose was to make us think out of the box and show our hidden talents. The conclusion was always Mum and Dad dancing the fox trot, waltz or jive – we watched in awe and tried to imitate them.
As a family there were times we hugged, laughed and cried. Sometimes it was more than she could take – losing an offspring at a young age, seeing her eldest son widowed and to leave behind her special child. Her faith kept her going and towards her later stages she was content and happy to have her children living in the neighbourhood. We would visit her often with her grandchildren which she really looked forward to. If someone did not turn up she would worry and would never fail to call. We used to tease her saying, “she is marking a register of the visits of her children living in Sri Lanka during the week”.
We as a family thank and praise the Lord for giving us an inspiring and vibrant mother who taught us to live every day as if it is the best day and showed us the right path to be valuable citizens to our motherland! Mum, we know you will want us to mourn no more but the gates of memories will never close. You have a special place in our hearts and that’s where you will always stay until we meet again on that beautiful shore.
Vinodini Jayawardena
No employee who worked under this banker will ever forget him
W.H. Solomons
Wilmir Herft Solomons who passed away on May 11, 1970, was the first General Manager of the People’s Bank.
He was educated at Kingswood College, Kandy and later at Wesley College, Colombo. He obtained a BSc (Economics) from the University of London and became the first Ceylonese to be a Fellow of the Institute of Bankers, London.
In 1961, prior to becoming General Manager of the People’s Bank, he was Chief Inspector of the Bank of Ceylon. Solomons who joined the Bank of Ceylon in 1938 had been Manager of all departments of the Bank of Ceylon as well as of several branches. He had worked in five prestigious banks in England such as Barclays Bank, Bank of Westminster, Lloyd’s Bank, Bank of England and the Manhattan Bank where he gained wide knowledge of the banking system. Later to gain further expertise, he was sent by the government to the State Bank of Russia.
As GM, People’s Bank he served with courage and devotion, working day and night to ensure the progress and improvement of the bank. He worked hard to ensure the improvement of the rights of employees while providing a clean administration.
No employee who worked under him can forget him even though 50 years have passed since his death.
He was an active social worker, a member of the FOCH movement which had its beginnings in the battlefields of France during the last stages of World War II. He spent his own personal funds for this work which involved running boys’ clubs in several parts of the island, the beneficiaries of which were poor boys who were encouraged to become good citizens.
A teetotaller and non-smoker, he was an unassuming personality, an intellectual and gentleman through and through.
H.W. Rathnayake
I can only strive to be a man like you
Dr. Dennis J. Aloysius
Daddy dearest
It’s been a year since you left but it seems like yesterday
When you were with me, we had good times, it’s all in my memory
The many hours that you spent with me are so precious to me now
You are my hero and best friend, our bond was very strong
You touched so many lives and helped everyone in your special way
I found out about the many things you did after your final day
So many letters, so many calls of friends and foe you helped
If God looked down at Dennis, ‘he’s my man’ God would say
You met Crissy on a fateful trip and it was love at first sight
She walked up to you and poured you tea and you both fell
In love
You both underwent opposition helped by your good friends carrying mail
Eventually you both married that was a beautiful day
You built a medical practice with Crissy by your side
Working long hours, burning midnight oil, healing all who came
The patients came by hundreds to see a doctor so kind
They swore by him and followed him like a prophet who
had a golden touch
You found time for five children with Crissy bearing the load
I wonder if it was lack of TV, or your Roman Catholic belief
Boy, I am glad you did and loved us all the same.
Brought us up to be all-rounders and tough to face the world
You both had a setback when a car knocked Ruvani down
I still remember you forgiving the driver – it shocked me to the core
But you are a better man than I ever will be, I can only hope and try
And both of you struggled for years with this blessed child
To get your mind off the excruciating pain you took part
In medical association work
And before long you were on the top of all councils islandwide
You had time for every meeting and made your presence felt
One day if I join you, my circle will be complete
We can sit together drink cold beer
While Crissy prepares food and snacks
We can talk long hours and chat together
Of God and saints and angels and the rest
Finally fall sleep together among the stars.
Rohan Aloysius