There is an air of expectancy in the apartment in Wellawatte, but the voices are hushed and the glances are sombre. The household is expecting the middle son home – but unlike other times, the youth’s mother who has gone to bring him back will only accompany his coffin.
The white flags are up and a banner with his smiling face flanks the building.
Hopes shattered, lives in despair….for a family of five is now reduced to four. Sriskandarajah Sarankan who was expected to return with an engineering degree from Nottingham University, which has a twinning programme in Selangor, Malaysia, is no more. He has met with an untimely and unexpected death in a cruel twist of fate.
“All these people will be here and then they’ll be gone once the funeral is over. But I am left with a loss that I will have to bear until I die,” weeps A. Sriskandarajah who never in his wildest imaginings ever thought that he would have to cremate his son.
The wait since Sarankan was attacked, his death, his body being brought back and his funeral today has been long. The father has had no sleep or a proper meal. “I can’t eat and when forced by relatives to rest, just as I close my eyes, Sarankan appears before me. His face is here,” sighs Mr. Sriskandarajah tapping his forehead and murmuring, “Aiyo, Aiyo,” unable to bear the grief which is wrenching his very being apart.
Although Sarankan’s attack (now called a case of “mistaken identity”) by machete-wielding men at a restaurant close to the Nottingham University, has hit the headlines, there are minute personal details behind the news that many people do not know.
“He was attacked on his mother’s birthday,” says Mr. Sriskandarajah. Strangely, he who usually telephones his mother, Sammantharani, on her birthday, called the previous day to wish her, explaining that he would be at lectures the next day. It was Wednesday, November 26 that a friend called to say that he was injured.
His body was brought back to Sri Lanka on his sister’s birthday, Wednesday, December 3. The cremation is today. His sister, Sharmila, is in shock. The tears flow no more, but the eyes reveal the agony of loss. As the middle brother, he was closest to her, bullying her in sibling rivalry but also looking out for her. The elder brother, Sanjayan, clutches the awards and certificates that Sarankan has won, mute with sadness.
Not only from the father but also from relatives comes the information that Sarankan was a “very bright” boy. The family originally from Jaffna, moved to Vavuniya and then to Colombo. Mr. Sriskandarajah is now Assistant Manager at the Bank of Ceylon Head Office, while his wife teaches music at Modera Hindu College.
Before the family moved to the apartment, they were living in a small house, says the father, and Sarankan had no room of his own where he could study, only a desk and a chair in the corridor. “But he never studied,” says Mr. Sriskandarajah. “When I asked him why, he said when he listened to the teacher it went into his brain.”
The only time that father and son would exchange words would be when Mr. Sriskandarajah found fault with him for leaving his national identity card around carelessly.
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| Father: Unable to bear
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The memories come…….. “Whenever I brought something home, like apples, he would grab the bag playfully and select the best one,” says the father.
Sarankan, a straight A student from Hindu College, Bambalapitiya, had secured a place at the Moratuwa University to do engineering.
For six months Sarankan did attend the Moratuwa University, but he always wanted to study abroad. As England was too expensive and they had relatives in Malaysia, the Nottingham University campus at Selangor, close to Kuala Lumpur was where he went. “In the second year, he went to Nottingham University in England and thoroughly enjoyed his stay there,” says Mr. Sriskandarajah.
Usually on his wife’s birthday, they make sweetmeats at home, but that day when Mr. Sriskandarajah came home there were no simple celebrations. His wife had been informed that Sarankan was in hospital as he had high fever, a story they were unable to believe because he had spoken to them the day before.
It was later that their relative in Malaysia, a doctor, told them about what had happened and how he had taken him from the first hospital to a private hospital where micro-surgery had been performed on him. Sarankan had suffered cut injuries to his arm, most probably when he attempted to ward off his attackers and then his heel, when he fell. “We were horror-struck and wanted to speak to him,” says the father and they did speak to him on Friday, November 28. “He sounded weak and murmured that he was in pain,” he says.
The family then decided that Sammantharani should leave for Malaysia. Mr. Sriskandarajah had seen his wife off at the airport and returned early last Sunday morning when the phone rang, bringing news of Sarankan’s death.
As they cremate him today, the family’s questions remain unanswered: Why was this young life snatched? Why was he at the wrong place at the wrong time? Why their son?
Victim of machete-wielding gang While Mr. Sriskandarajah Sarankan who was a student at the Nottingham University in Malaysia, situated around 40 km from Kuala Lumpur and his colleagues were dining at a restaurant outside the university premises around 5 p.m., a gang had stormed the restaurant with machetes and attacked the customers. It is understood that their target was a group of middle-aged Malaysian men of South Indian origin, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said, “The armed gang had mistaken the Sri Lankan students as acquaintances of their target and launched the brutal attack on them. While the other Sri Lankan students had managed to escape, Mr. Sarankan was caught by the gang, which had inflicted serious injuries on him and tried to slit his throat. When the gang had left the scene, a Sri Lankan student who managed to escape had returned to the scene and assisted in rushing his injured friend to the nearest hospital.
“Mr. Sarankan had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Subang Jaya Medical Hospital where he was operated on. The Sri Lanka High Commission in Kuala Lumpur had been in contact with an uncle of this student, who is resident in Malaysia. Despite the best efforts of the medical staff of the hospital, Mr. Sarankan succumbed to his injuries.” |
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