Girdling the globe; the Anchor vs. Nespray competition

Sumi Moonesinghe related to Savithri Rodrigo

When I started on my bucket list travels after retirement, one of my most memorable was the European holiday I had with in girls in 2000. Aushi had just graduated and Anarkali decided to take her annual leave. We decided on the little fishing village of Portofino in Italy but given the touristy nature of the village, the hotels within were shockingly pricey. After some research, we settled on a hotel in the next bay area which was far more affordable and within walking distance from Portofino.

We flew from London into Florence, hired a car and drove, to Portofino via Pisa. As Portofino is located on the coastline of the Italian Riviera, the village began attracting affluent tourists, very evident in the large number of super-yachts lined, up in the harbour. There were plenty of seafood restaurants for us to feed our penchant for seafood, and walking about the 16th century fortress was very relaxing.

Each day the girls slept till 11 am, while I took my habitual walk along the beach, popped into an art exhibition or two and did some window shopping. I only peeked into the high-end boutiques, not daring to go inside because they were prohibitively expensive. But I gave into one temptation. I spied a shop selling Frette linen, the creme de la creme of the world’s bedding. I walked in and purchased a set for my bed.

While in Portofino I joined the tour of Cinque Terre, the five-centuries-old seaside village, which was utterly picturesque with its colourful houses, vineyards, trattorias and harbours. I’ll never forget walking along those cobblestone alleys and being fascinated by the absolutely beautiful buildings overhanging the sea.

After a week of this bliss, we drove to Milan Airport and dropped Anarkali off for her flight to London. Aushi and I proceeded to Monaco to meet a friend at the Cafe de Paris ill Monte Carlo, the open-air restaurant in Place du Casino, which is one of my favourite places. We had lunch, drove to the airport, dropped off our car and flew to Paris, staying at Hotel de Crillon. Aushi and I explored Paris for the next few days.

We would window-shop all morning and stopover for a late lunch of salad and afternoon tea in a cafe on Saint Honore. On our walkabouts, I was most upset to discover a Buddha Bar behind our hotel and called my brother-in-law, Mangala Moonesinghe, who was our High Commissioner in London at the time, protesting against this indignity. However, my daughter looked at me and said, “Buddha is a philosopher, not a god. If it was a statue of Da Vinci, would you object?” She had a point.

When I got home after this trip with my prized set of Frette linen, I asked Daya, who had been the girls’ nanny but remained with us long after they flew the nest, to wash it and put it on the bed that same night. I loved those sheets so much that I didn’t want her to place any other sheets on the bed. So each time she changed the linen, poor Daya had to launder, iron and make up my bed with the sheets, all in one day.

In the weeks and months that followed, she would incessantly ask me to get another set of Frette linen, so she wouldn’t have to perform this linen marathon regularly. I dared not tell her that the reason we had only one set was because it was so expensive and I wasn’t going to buy another set.

Even though I was working throughout the girls’ growing up years, Susil and I made sure we always took them on holiday somewhere abroad. In fact, from the time Anarkali was born and we had to travel even on business, Susil would always take her with us, no matter how difficult it was to have a baby and then a toddler tagging along everywhere we went. He wouldn’t hear of leaving her in Colombo without us, even though my sister Roni, my mother and the nannies could manage very well.

So from their young days, they were used to travel and quickly got into the groove of things. From California to Florida — with Disneyworld and Disneyland thrown in of course — to Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and France, they’ve done the rounds. We would sometimes return home via Hong Kong and Singapore, staying with our friends Primus and Helen, who were like foster parents to the girls when I had to move them to Singapore during the JVP insurrection.

From my girlhood, I have always been fascinated with driving. The moment I turned 18, I wanted to get my licence. When I told my parents, they said, “We don’t even have a car. What do you want to get driving licence for?” When I moved to Colombo, that determination to get my licence deepened. I enrolled for driving lessons at Lionel Learners, learned driving, passed my test and got my licence.

Once Susil and I started dating, I told him about my passion to drive. He took me to the Katukurunda race track. This was where I experienced my first taste of speed on a track. I was in heaven. He would take me to the track often, accompanied by his brother Nimal and his wife Sita because “four is a crowd”. These were the times when our relationship was yet under wraps and Susil and I were not supposed to be seen together as a couple. Therefore whenever we traveled, driving was what I indulged in. I would drive hundreds of miles, never once feeling tired but always absolutely exhilarated.

My thrill for speed was fueled watching all the Grand Prix races, sitting glued to the television until I saw the final chequered flag and the medal ceremony too. When Lewis Hamilton arrived on the track, I became quite obsessed. I watched each and every race and also bought his book and read it from cover to cover.

So when my friends Christina and Ong Beng Seng, who knew only too well of my obsession with the Grand Prix got the franchise for the Singapore Grand Prix, they asked me if I would like to come to Singapore. I was elated. I asked them to reserve a box for Friday, Saturday and the grand finale on Sunday.

We visited Tara in Australia before making our way to Singapore for the Grand Prix. I had invited my friends Bri and Ramani Ponnambalam, both of whom were ardent racers and race enthusiasts, as well as Duke and his family from England. Anarkali and Aushi invited their friends too. All this excitement was for Lewis Hamilton, whom we only got a glimpse of because we were close to his pit-stop – but it was a great three days at the track.

I have always vacationed with Susil, or the girls or one or a few of my girlfriends. But there came a time when I decided to travel on my own. The girls didn’t encourage this sudden streak of independence but I was rather fixed on a solo trip. The idea came about when I was visiting former Country Head of Nestle, Andreas Schlapfer, who later became worldwide Chairman of Nestle.

Andreas was married to Sandra who was American and they had one daughter. I would visit them often while in Switzerland, staying at their lovely home which overlooked the Nestle headquarters. Some may find it strange that I had cultivated this strong friendship with the head of my main rival in the milk powder business, but it was actually because of this competition that we became such good friends. He always called me “Sumi Dearest”.

Andreas was stationed in Colombo with a firmly established No 1 status for Nespray, when, in 1984, I came into the milk powder market with Anchor, vowing to push Nespray off that pedestal. I would meet him often when he was in Colombo and he would joke that Anchor was no competition for the might of Nespray. While the big battle between Nespray and Anchor was gaining momentum, Andreas moved to Nestle in Thailand.

Andreas had already left Sri Lanka, when in just two years since Anchor came into the market, Anchor triumphed in the Great Battle of the Milks. The twin forces of having Rosy Senanayake as the face of Anchor where the entire country knew her as the ‘Anchor mother’, and a slogan hyping “From the fresh pastures of New Zealand”, pushed Anchor into the No 1 slot in 1986. For years after, Andreas would jokingly say, “Sumi Dearest, ‘if I was in Colombo, you would never have beaten Nestle.”

And in hindsight I know that he would never have allowed the company I founded to be sold to the New Zealand Dairy Board either – not after I had captured 70% market share. Hence, it was while staying with them in 2018 that I decided to go on this solo trip, reliving a memorable trip that we, as afamily, had taken way back in 1988.

Anarkali and Aushi were not to be moved with their decision that I could not and would not travel alone. I was 73 years old and they kept trying to dissuade me, talking of illness that could befall me and every travel horror story they could drum up. But I wasn’t to be shaken. This was the first trip I was taking by myself and I wanted to feel that sense of independence and freedom. The girls finally relented because I assured them I would text four times a day and also had insurance for all eventualities. They were placated.

Next I told Andreas and Sandra of my plans – I wanted to travel to Zermatt, take the Glacier Express from St. Moritz and cut across to Lucerne, Interlaken and Geneva, then get to London for my return Colombo. Andreas listened patiently to my itinerary and said, “No Sumi Dearest, you are not doing the trip that way. Let me organise it for you.”

Andreas got to work. His itinerary included the very efficient Swiss rail system which traveled through the Gotthard tunnel, the longest and deepest rail tunnel in the world linking northern and southern Europe. It had just been opened and he wanted me to experience traveling through that tunnel. He also made sure I wouldn’t be encumbered with my luggage; it would be delivered directly to the hotel.

I started off on my trip, really excited and full of joie de vivre that I was doing this trip totally on my own. After having travelled through the bowels of the earth in the Gotthard tunnel, I took the boat on Lake Lucerne and then went to Interlaken by train, which winds its way down and takes multiple steep bends.

When I got to Interlaken, I visited Jungfrau – the highest railway station in the world located about 2,500 metres above sea level with its majestic backdrop of ice, snow and rock. I stayed at the Hotel Beau Rivage where we had stayed previously and held many memories for me. When I revisited each of the places we had been, I took photographs and sent them to the girls, hoping they would also relive this trip vicariously through me.