Along with the news of her demise, Aunty Nalini Wickremesinghe was portrayed in the media somewhat essentially as the daughter of D. R. Wijewardena, the wife of Esmond Wickremesinghe and the mother of Ranil Wickremesinghe.
No doubt that she was uniquely positioned having been born the eldest daughter of a press-magnate and a freedom fighter in Sri Lanka's struggle for Independence from the British. No doubt that she was married to a man who was acclaimed as a giant in his profession as the editorial director of Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd., a long-standing political advisor to the United National Party and a former Chair of the International Press Institute. No doubt that she was also the mother of Ranil Wickremesinghe, the leader of the United National Party, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and a former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.
Of course, Aunty Nalini could have simply rested on the laurels of her family members, but she did not. Not only was she a woman in her own right (as we all are), but she was also an exceptionally astute, talented, strongly independent, innovative and inspirational woman in her own terms. It is in these terms of an independent, inspirational and strong woman that I would like to remember and pay my respects to my mother-in-law, Aunty Nalini (as I called her).
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| An affectionate embrace from mother to son Ranil on him becoming prime minister |
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Nalini Wickremesinghe and her husband Esmond at a lunch hosted in honour of the visiting Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru. Others at the table include Dudley Senanayake
and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike |
While the privileges of arresting good looks and a dignified, elegant demeanour as well as wealth and social standing may have given her a degree of public and media visibility, Aunty Nalini never used it for personal aggrandizement. Instead, she was a woman who maximized on the opportunities freely available to her — to expand the promises and the possibilities of her keen interest in the media, politics, arts, aesthetics and the Sinhala culture of Sri Lanka.
Aunty Nalini's passion for politics began from experiencing the political reality of her childhood. In fact, what was an everyday reality to her at the time is history to us.
Her father's household in the 1920s and 1930s were peopled with the vibrant political leaders of the period — D. S. Senanayake, D. B. Jayatillake, Sir Francis and Adeline Molamure. Her own house and society included equally notable figures such as Dudley Senanayake, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, SWRD and Sirima Bandaranaike, Sir John Kotelawela, M. Tiruchelvam, J. R. Jayewardene, Philip Gunawardena, Sir Oliver Goonetilake, Dr. N. M. Perera, Bernard Soysa, Monty Jayawickrema, A. C. S. Hameed, E. L. Senanayake, Cyril Mathew, M. H. Mohamed, N. G. P. Panditharatne, Ranasinghe Premadasa, Lalith Athulathmudhali, and Gamini Dissanayake.
As a result, she had, for instance, a first-hand understanding of the political strategising of Ceylonese leaders vis-à-vis the institution of the State Council in the lead-up to national independence. She was also privy to the inside stories of the dynamics of government for more than five decades — often observing the pendulum of power between the UNP and the SLFP. Given this background, she had an insatiable ear for a good political story and in turn, was often able to give fascinating insights from her personal experience to those conversing with her. Some of her political accounts were eagerly absorbed by her second son, Ranil and her daughter, Kshanika, as children.
Aunty Nalini formed an equally fervent commitment to the media — influenced by the ground-breaking initiative of her father in founding ANCL, the first mass-circulation newspaper group in the country. The print media was a burgeoning field of political/social/cultural activity in Ceylon, and from the 1930s to the 1970s Aunty Nalini lived and breathed the ink off the newsprint in the red-hot presses at Lake House — during the time that her father, husband, and brother (Ranjith Wijewardena) guided editorial policy at ANCL.
From 1968 to 1973, she worked as a director of ANCL, supporting her brother in the editorial department of Lake House. It was a great blow to Aunty Nalini when the Bandaranaike government took control of Lake House under the guise of 'nationalisation' in 1973. It was even more distressing because Aunty Nalini had often worked alongside Ms. Bandaranaike in the 1950s, in the Mahila Samiti — the leading women's organisation in the country at the time (that worked for the advancement of rural women).
But Aunty Nalini was soon to be at the forefront of a new force in the increasing diversification of the media from the realm of the print to the electronic. By 1979, she took the substantial risk of backing her eldest son Shan and Anil Wijewardena to become pioneers in the electronic medium of Television in Sri Lanka; and soon ITN (the Independent Television Network) was beaming its images and sounds to the Sri Lankan public.
Later on, she funded another of Shan's ventures TNL (Teleshan Network Ltd.) and was a director of the company, which started broadcasting TV (under Shan) and Radio (under her third son Niraj) once the UNP government liberalized the media. When the electronic media diversified further to include the Internet, Niraj's TNL Radio was to become one of the first radio stations in the world to be accessible on-line in the 1990s. In this sense, Aunty Nalini was not only a bystander of the various transfigurations that took place in the Sri Lankan media throughout the course of the last century but she was also a lively player in some of them.
But it was in the sphere of the arts, aesthetics and local culture that Aunty Nalini came into her own. As a schoolgirl at Bishop's College, she frequently found time to write poetry — despite her considerable duties as head girl. Here, I would like to take the license to cite a fellow 'Bishopian' in commenting on her stint as head girl of Bishop’s College, 'it not
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| Nalini with son Ranil and husband Esmond |
only said a lot about Nalini, but it also said a lot of the times that we lived in where a Buddhist girl could be appointed the head girl of a Christian school'. Some of Aunty Nalini's poetry conveyed her time at Bishop’s, as well as an abiding consciousness of the heights of nature's beauty and spirit, a deep sensitivity to its extents of passion and violence as well as a constant mindfulness of the darkness of life.
As an adult, Aunty Nalini was fascinated by Sinhala arts and culture. The young team of Chitrasena and Vajira was invited to perform at Aunty Nalini's and Uncle Esmond's wedding in 1944.
At a personal level, she was instrumental in filming Henry Jayasena's Hunuwate Kathawa as well as producing the first-ever recording of the Jayamangala Gatha and the Maha Piritha on 331/3 rpm and 45 rpm. In the 1950s, she, along with Stanley Jayawardene, Erin Senanayake, A. D. H. Samaranayake and Lorani Seneratne, was a founder member of the Sinhala Institute of Culture and was subsequently awarded lifelong membership of that institution for her service.
As a livewire of the Institute, she introduced a number of exciting programmes that led to a blossoming in Sinhala culture. These included Kandyan and Low Country dance classes, which trained students like Chandrika Kumaratunge and Ranil Wickremesinghe, and regular dance features that included outstanding artistes of the era like Sri Jayana, Basil Mihiripanne, Sesha Palihakkara, Somapala Mudhunkothege and Heenbanda.
Aunty Nalini provided sponsorship through the Institute for Ediriweera Sarachchandra's dramas to be performed in Colombo and recorded the lyrics of Maname and Sinhabahu. This gave the dramatist (widely considered to be the originator of Sinhala modern drama), who was initially based within the university domain of Peradeniya, the much needed public exposure in the capital Colombo. She also supported a number of other theatrical productions including Dayananda Gunewardene's Naribana, Somalatha Subasinghe's Vikurthi, and Gunesena Galappaththi's Mudupuththu.
With Aunty Nalini's initiatives, the Institute revitalized Sinhala cuisine through regular demonstrations of forgotten culinary arts and dishes, as well as a cookbook 'Ewum Pihum'. Another of her chosen projects was the Handloom Weaving Unit of the Sinhala Institute, which she initiated after Ms. Bandaranaike's first government banned the import of saris to the country. The unit researched traditional handloom designs and invigorated the industry with new innovations and quality work. The Institute at the time frequently hosted exhibitions and competitions to galvanise local creators and designers, not only of handlooms but other arts and trades, such as the craft of Gokkala, silver jewellery and brassware. Her work with grassroots creators has motivated her daughter Kshanika to work for the economic wellbeing of rural Sri Lankan women.
As acknowledgement of her service to Sinhala culture, Aunty Nalini was appointed the Chair of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka in the 1980s and the Chair of the Lever Brothers' Cultural Fund. She was then able to continue her work tirelessly, rejuvenating the traditional and arts/crafts of Sri Lanka, working together with Lester James Peiris, Anton Wickremasinghe and Sujatha Jayawardene. Due to her wide range of personal contacts she was in a position to pursue her work informally, often with a modest phone call rather than through officious meetings.
At the same time, Aunty Nalini was also involved in several family ventures of which she became Chair after the death of her husband. She gave Channa, her youngest son her complete support in running Varna and Siththara.
She was also a director of Lake House Printers and Bookshop until such time that the Lake House Bookshop went into partnership with Stanford Publishers and her sight started deteriorating in the early 2000s. During her time there she initiated the publication of a number of books including the biography of her father, Huluglle's DR Wijewardena; a classic coffee table book on her beloved country Sri Lanka — An Island Civilization by Christian Zuber and Senaka Bandaranayake, the highly acclaimed The Rock and Wall Paintings of Ceylon by Senaka Bandaranayake, as well as reprints of The Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold (exquisitely illustrated by Sumane Dissanayake) and Marie Museaus Higgins' Jathaka Stories which she remembered from her childhood.
Hitherto I have briefly charted and condensed into a public column the facets of Aunty Nalini's life that struck me as worthy of tribute. On the other hand, to her sons and only daughter, Aunty Nalini was a beloved and highly esteemed mother who was the bulwark of their lives; who inspired their various achievements in their chosen careers. To her daughters-in-law, she was a much loved and highly respected mother-in-law, with whom she shared an interest in design and aesthetics; and to her grandchildren, she was an affectionate grandmother who was very proud of their academic accomplishments.
She was also fortunate enough to live to see her great grandchildren play in primary age. Those who knew her would say that Aunty Nalini was an extremely self-contained and private person who was not given to showing her emotions in public.
In an era when the public expression of emotion is given a high premium, I salute you for your dignity, your quiet strength and your individuality of self; for your lifetime of service to your country; for your spirit that was always down-to-earth and your wit that was hard-hitting. I speak for her family when I say that while our grief at losing you is profound; we celebrate your life, and treasure in our minds, the image of you; and in our hearts, the memories we have of you.
Let me close this appreciation of the woman who was Nalini Wickremesinghe with her own words on death, quoted from one of her poems.
The Buried Flame
To burst these bonds
To rise, to rise,
So fiercely
An eager tongue of flame
To shoot through night
To white hot light
To pierce and cleave
The wild black night.
To feel no more
The urgent press
Of earth
Upon my immured flesh
To curb nor fit
The passion of my spirit
To its narrowness.
To burn through these
To stab with light
The stifling earth
The cruel night,
To rise triumphant
To the skies
And kindle all the world
With light. |
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