Tell us What you like…
The Sunday Times, the newspaper with special sections for kids, teens,
adults, business people, sports fans and artistes; the independent newspaper
with the highest circulation and readership is launching a readership survey
beginning with the popular PLUS section a.k.a the Features section. We're
taking stock and this is where our valued readers can help. Now, we'd like
YOU to take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us. Tell us what
you'd like to see or see more of in our pages. So please fill in the following
coupon and send it in to:
The Editor,
The Sunday Times,
P.O.Box 1136
Colombo.
THE SUNDAY TIMES READER SURVEY
Would you like to see;
1) More light articles
2) More human interest stories
3) More letters to the Editor
4) More humour
5) More fashion
6) More people and events
7) Any other ..............................................................................
..............................................................................
..............................................................................
Please indicate your order of preference by inserting 1,2,3,4 next to
the ticks
Name (optional):.................................................
Age (optional) :....................
A young life blasted
By Laila Nasry
"Came to office around 7.55 a.m. Around 10 a.m. left office to University
of Kelaniya with Nalaka...... Back at office by 11.15 a.m."
It was the last entry Anusha Perera made in the diary she so faithfully
maintained. But "Sumathi's dinner" that night or "Loku Akka's place daane
on Saturday", were dates she was not destined to keep. For at 1.45 p.m.
on Thursday, October 18, fate had other plans for this clever 36-year-old
Assistant Government Analyst.
Anusha Perera described by one of her superiors as 'the best', was till
that day, the right person in the right place, doing a man's job, of examining
and assessing explosives and explosions, with both dedication and devotion.
As on previous occasions the parcel that came to her desk was a sealed
court production, containing a hand grenade. Like the many that had come
before, ascertaining its live element was the task at hand. But unlike
other occasions, the task was over before it began. The price: two innocent
lives. Anusha's and that of her unborn child. She was four months pregnant.
Nalaka Kariyawasam, an engineer at IBM and Anusha's husband of seven months
is a shattered man today. Hope lost, he grieves for his bright and beautiful
wife and their unborn baby.
"There has been a small accident and Anusha has been admitted to the
Accident Service," a voice had told him over the phone just a couple of
hours after he had waved her goodbye. His first fear was "she must have
had a fall". He rushed to the Accident Service of the National Hospital
never expecting the nightmare that awaited him.
"There were nurses and lots of other people there. They were all staring
at me, very reluctant to talk and when I asked about my wife they told
me so many things, 'tikak amarui', 'balanna oneda?' Having insisted on
seeing her immediately, "I thought they were leading me to the ICU", he
recalls. Instead it was to a small room where Anusha's lifeless form lay
on a trolley. "I wanted to anyhow go into the room because my mind kept
telling me it must be somebody else and not her," he says sadly.
Her work at the explosions and explosives section of the Govt. Analyst's
Department, involved visiting scenes of explosions, taking samples of the
devices used and submitting a report on them. She was also sent weapons
seized by the Police or CID from underworld or LTTE suspects for examination,
to ascertain the 'live' element and determine whether they could cause
damage, so that the suspects could be prosecuted under the Offensive Weapons
Act if necessary.
"I knew there was an element of danger in her job although she used
to tell me it was one hundred percent safe and only defused devices came
to her," Nalaka recalled. Safety was a constant topic of discussion between
them, Anusha having visited many sites including Town hall and Katunayake."When
I asked her whether it was safe to go to the site of an explosion she always
said the place was thoroughly checked before they arrive. But she loved
her job and was very dedicated to it." Chemistry being her first love,
Anusha, an old girl of Visakha Vidyalaya went on to do her B.Sc and M.Sc.
Her job at the Government Analyst's Department was a dream come true for
her. "We had hired several people before but no one stuck to the job,"
says Government Analyst T.W.P. Peiris. "But Anusha was a dedicated lady
who within a short period of three years became a real expert on the job."
Anusha received several calls from Magistrates regarding various cases,
all of which she looked into single-handedly. Concerned about her safety
Nalaka tried his best to persuade her to quit her job, or take up one in
the computer field in which she had excelled. She had completed the Australian
Computer Society (ACS) and British Computer Society (BCS) exams obtaining
the highest marks in the world for the latter. Most recently he tried to
get them to migrate to Canada. But destiny intervened sooner. "The explosion
is an unusual case. It has never occurred before," says Mr. Peiris. But
the reasons will never be known. "Maybe the grenade was not packed properly,"
he says recalling one, which had been sent to them without a pin, wedged
in a tumbler. "Maybe she was under a lot of pressure. This is not a job
you can do under pressure. Even losing your concentration for one hundredth
of a second can cost you your life." |
