THE GREATEST LOVE – Part 11

CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY

By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil

President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada

Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum

chandij@sympatico.ca

Love at First Sight

Sixty years ago, it was love at first sight. From the first time I saw Mount Lavinia Hotel (MLH) during a childhood family walk on the beach, I fell in love with this iconic building. I found the waves of the Indian Ocean aggressively breaking on twenty natural boulders in the front of MLH and that was exciting. I was fascinated to hear that the central section of the hotel was built as a mansion early as 1806 by the second British Governor General of Ceylon, Sir Thomas Maitland.

I wondered why he built a mansion just six miles south of his official residence in Colombo. My father then told me that the Governor did so to spend weekends with his mixed-race (Sinhala and Portuguese) secret lover – Lavinia Aponsuwa. As the legend goes, it had been love at first sight for the Governor who had been a confirmed bachelor. He had to keep this romance a secret from his superiors in England. Therefore, a secret tunnel had been built from the mansion to Lavinia’s nearby shanty house. Lavinia had to use this tunnel to visit her lover without being noticed by any of her village neighbours, every weekend.

This mansion had been converted into a hotel in 1866. Both the hotel and the city of Mount Lavinia bear the name of Lavinia, who had been an exotic dancer, before falling in love with the Governor. It was the mansion built on the Mount for Lavinia. Numerous famous people who stayed at MLH enhanced the historic significance of this great hotel. My first visit to MLH as a child was to attend a wedding there. Stories my father told me then, created even more interest about this mystic hotel in my young mind. He told me how he saved money as a young government servant living in the Town (now a city) of Mount Lavinia during the World War II, to treat himself to an occasional sumptuous English breakfast at the MLH.

He also told me how the famous movie director Sir David Lean and the crew of ‘The Bridge of the River Kawi’ lived at the hotel in 1956. It was also used as a location for the movie. By early 1970s MLH became the first ever hotel in Ceylon to get an international brand name. Hyatt Hotels Corporation in USA managed MLH. In the early 1970s MLH was owned by a well-known Sri Lankan businessman, Mr. Razeen Sally who lived abroad. His brother Farook managed the business here.

An Opportunity at the Hyatt

At that time, to graduate from the Ceylon Hotel School (CHS), each student had to do two mandatory co-ops or in-service periods in the second year and the third year. These were timed during the peak tourist season (November to February) in consultation with the hotel industry. Having already worked at the only four-star level hotel in the country, the Pegasus Reef, I was determined to do my two official co-ops at the other two leading hotels in Sri Lanka at that time, internationally branded the Mount Lavinia Hyatt Hotel and the best new resort hotel, the Bentota Beach Hotel. Improving my grades meant that I was able to somewhat negotiate successfully to get an opportunity to do my first co-op at the Hyatt. As MLH was a 20-minute bus ride from my home, I left the CHS hostel and moved back home for three months. This made my mother extremely happy. Once again, she was able to spoil me with her excellent cooking, which she always did with the most important ingredient in home cooking – love. I did not realise how much she had missed me living at home, since I joined CHS a little over a year before.

First Impressions

I arrived at MLH with four of my batch mates on a Monday morning in November 1972. Most of my batch mates were assigned to smaller hotels around the island, and had no CHS buddies working with them during the co-op period. Therefore we (Neil, Kotte, Udda, Saibu and I) were happy to be at MLH as a team of five CHS students. The classic architecture of the old building of MLH always made an excellent first impression. We were also impressed that the American General Manager, Robert McFadden met us on our first day, during our job orientation. We were all dressed well as we wanted to make a good first impression. This is essential in the hospitality profession. One never gets a second chance to make a good first impression.

Lasting Connections

The next four managers we met were all Lankan. It was a coincidence that all four of them in later years became my work colleagues and peers. As all five of CHS students worked at MLH as trainee waiters, we reported to Lucky Wijekoon, the Food & Beverage Manager. He was a CHS graduate, three years senior to us, and had progressed very well in the industry. Lucky and I became work colleagues seven years later when we both worked for the same company. I later succeeded him at the corporate office of John Keells Hotels in 1981.

The Assistant Food & Beverage Manager, Nirmo Thambapillai had graduated from CHS three months earlier. He was two years senior to us and a good friend. Years later, Nirmo succeeded me as the Director of Food & Beverage of Le Galadari Meridien Hotel. Dr. T. Pablis Silva, the most well-known Master Chef in Sri Lanka today, was the Assistant Chef of MLH at that time. In 1990, some 18 years later, when I returned to MLH as the General Manager, he worked on my team as the Executive Chef. Palitha De Alwis, a Chartered Accountant was the Financial Controller. In mid 1980s, Palitha and I became work colleagues and peers at Le Galadari Meridien Hotel as the Director of Finance and the Director of Food & Beverage. The first time I met these four managers at MLH in 1972, it was not possible for me to imagine that I would be able to climb the management ladder rapidly to become a peer to those pioneers of the modern hotel industry of Sri Lanka, in a matter of few years.

The Terrace

We always did an evening shift from 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm. Five of us had to set up the entire main restaurant for dinner service. We did this very quickly, so that we were able to work at the world-famous MLH Terrace overlooking the Indian Ocean for a couple of hours before dinner service. Today in 2021, having tea there at sunset is widely considered as one of the “Best 100 Things to Do Before You Die.” I preferred to serve alcoholic beverages on the terrace, instead of tea. When serving alcoholic beverages, the bills were larger and the tips were higher.

As tips were better at the terrace, we tried to work there as long as possible. Our immediate supervisor, Butler Somapala was in charge of both the terrace and the main restaurant. He was annoyed whenever we returned to the restaurant only just before dinner service commenced. At times he chased us out of the terrace to the main restaurant around 7:00 pm, 30 minutes before the dinner service.

Years later when I was the General Manager, Somapala was still working at MLH as a Butler. Every time I introduced Somapala to a VIP guest, I mentioned what a great Supervisor Somapala was during my trainee waiter days. He was very happy to hear me saying that in recognition of his long and loyal service to MLH. He was very proud of me, as a one of his trainees during the 1972/1973 tourist season.

During the tourist season of 1992/1993, a difficult guest complained to me that Butler Somapala did not allocate preferred seating on the terrace for this customer’s family. As a General Manager I usually considered customers as being always right. However, on this occasion, I said to that difficult guest, “Whatever decision Butler Somapala took, stands, as he knows what is best for all our customers.” I had one unhappy customer that day, but one of my most important internal customers, Somapala, was very pleased that I had full confidence on him and did not undermine his authority. Somapala postponed his retirement until I finished my three-year contract as the General Manager of MLH in 1993.

The Greatest Love

I take the last bus home

from one of my first jobs

well past midnight …

lights are on and she is still up

waiting for me to have a chat

and listen to my fun stories

over a cup of coffee,

with lots of laughter.

I wake up to sounds of waves

of the Indian Ocean and

singing birds behind our flat …

I smell freshly cooked breakfast

which she serves me lovingly.

Rest of the day we are together

and she insists that I must eat every four hours

something prepared by her

to be fit for another long shift of

serving guests at the historic hotel.

Although long years have passed

since those memorable days

and her untimely demise,

I feel my mother’s love

almost every day …

Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena

has been an Executive Chef, Food & Beverage Director, Hotel GM, MD, VP, President, Chairman, Professor, Dean, Leadership Coach and Consultant. He has published 21 text books. This weekly column narrates ‘fun’ stories from his 50-year career in South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, South America, the Caribbean and North America, and his travels to 98 countries and assignments in 44 countries.