A volume of delectable yarns of old Ceylon by a born storyteller

Little known stories of old Ceylon by Hugh Karunanayake. Sarasavi Publishers. Rs. 1,600 reviewed by Manik de Silva

Hugh Karunanayake, antiquarian, collector of old books and objects related to Ceylon, and frequent contributor to this newspaper has put together in an anthology a collection of his articles, all of them published in the Ceylankan, quarterly journal published by the Ceylon Society of Australia he helped found 25 years ago. It was the privilege of the Sunday Island to republish many of them in this newspaper and his byline would surely whet the appetites of our readers to enjoy those and many more in this new book to be launched in Colombo on March 25.

Hugh flew home in a Royal-Thomian charter from Australia on board which he was the oldest passenger and resultantly hugely pampered on what he called a “fantastic flight.” After the rigors of watching the big match in the blistering heat, this old Royalists will be personally present at the Dutch Burgher Union when his book, felicitously titled “Little known stories of old Ceylon,” modestly priced at Rs. 1,600, is launched.

Fortuitous circumstances made Hugh a regular contributor to this journal. Dr. Srilal Fernando living in Australia who shares Hugh’s antiquarian interests, married to a kinswoman of min. He co-authored with Hugh and Avinda Paul, if I remember right, an article on Ward Place drawing a lot of information of the area from old deeds. That established a link which has been of immense benefit to this newspaper and its readership, partly of an older generation who related to the subjects Hugh chooses. His innate talent for spotting and telling a good story adds immensely to what he continues to write.

A member of what is called the 43 Group of Royal College – boys who entered the school in that year -he says that most of his contemporaries including former Minister CV ‘Puggy’ Guneratne who together with his wife and 20 others were blown to smithereens by a suicide bomber in June 2000. Guneratne was leading an SLFP demonstration celebrating War Heroes Day. Notables like Upali Wijewardene and Lalith Athulathmudali were two years junior to Hugh, most of whose contemporaries are gone.

Though Hugh says “without fear of contradiction” that the group of 100 ten and eleven years-olds who were his batch contemporaries as the “most outstanding and influential batch of students to enter Royal College or for that matter any school in Sri Lanka during the nation’s long and proud history.” This included three who were later command the Army (Lt. Gen. Nalin Seneviratne), Navy (Vice Admiral Asoka de Silva and Air Force (Air Vice Marshal Harry Goonetilleke). This is but a small sample of a long list of later VIPs from this batch.

After his schooling at Royal, Hugh began his working life as what was then called a “covenanted officer” at Walker Sons and Company in Colombo. He took an external degree in Sociology from Peradeniya, worked in the Colombo office of Save the Children Fund and was later posted to Bhutan to work in their office there before migrating to Australia where he did many social service related jobs for the state government.

His story “The lost boy from Ceylon”, relates the story of Anna Florentina Dias Bandaranaike, elder daughter of Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike and sister of Prime Minister SWRD, who migrated in Britain with her adopted son, Augustine, and led a secretive life in a caravan evoked a great deal of interest in Sri Lanka when it was published here. This reviewer desists from narrating the gripping story here to give readers the pleasure of reading for themselvess its entirety as told by Hugh Karunanayake.

Another of the stories this reviewer remembers but is unfortunately not part of the published anthology is a yarn titled “From Malgolla to Mysore ‘Without Regret’” that was truly delectable. The Mysore Cup, a handsome piece of silverware, had been purchased at a Colombo auction by a friend who gifted it to Hugh. The fellow migrant friend knew nothing of its history.

But Hugh Karunanayake with the help of S. Muttiah, once of the Times of Ceylon, was able to ferret it out. The racehorse ‘Without Regret’ had won the trophy for Charles Laing, a scion of a family who had owned esates and lived here for generations at a Madras race meeting in 1940. Why Malgolla? That was the name of the plantation in Dolosbage the Laings had owned over three generations.

Hugh Kaunanayake, in a moving tribute to his late wife, Tulsi, has dedicated this book “to the fragrant memory of TULSI, my love, my life, my inspiration.”