The country has lost a star
It is now a little over two months since my friend, school and boarding mate and finally Hall mate at the Peradenya campus passed away. I first came face to face with Aloy way back in the mid forties at a boarding, the middle dormitory at St Joseph’s College, Maradana. Two of his older brothers too were there in the upper dormitory. He turned out to be a clever student of science winning prizes in physics and biology though he later changed his academic interests to arts on the advice of Rev. Fr Justin Perera, his confessor. Perhaps the good Father realised Aloy’s potential in the legal sphere. I remember nostalgically an incident in the boarding when during a boarders outing on a coconut estate in Girulla the Prefect of Boarders chose Aloy to say few words of thanks to the host and how he as fourteen or fifteen-year-old lad performed the task brilliantly. As much as he was gifted with word power, the gift of the gab, he had the capacity to enliven a conversation at gatherings of friends with wit, humour, song and even drama.
Having passed out from the University with a degree in arts with English as a subject he joined the Law College to complete his legal education in the tradition of his father and two older brothers. He served in the Attorney General’s Department as a State Counsel for a few years and turned to active private practice in the Colombo courts. His forte was criminal law. He reached the summit of his legal career when he was elevated to the position of a President’s Counsel, an honour he truly earned and richly deserved.
Aloy suffered a deep personal loss when his beloved wife passed away while the two sons were just out of high school. Like Job in the Old Testament he bore this loss heroically fortified by his Christian beliefs in God’s goodness.
Like the profession of law, politics too was close to his heart. Though he did not contest any Parliamentary elections he entered the political arena at the local level in his ancestral domain, the Kurunegala municipality where a few decades earlier his father had been the city’s Mayor. On a later occasion when sharing the stage with President Chandrika Kumaratunge at a political meeting near the Town Hall he just escaped the fury and the fire of the LTTE suicide bomber due to the fact that providentially a call of nature triggered by his diabetes removed him from the scene just in time.
During the course of his laissez faire political career while still in active legal practice he was appointed by the President as Chairman of Lake House where he served with distinction for several years using his literary talents at the high policy level. Soon during the regime of the next President he was appointed Ambassador to the Philippines. As he told his friends he did not enjoy his stint in Manila much and was happy to end his diplomatic career after the first term in office.
The country has lost a star in the legal firmament, his friends have lost an amiable and fraternal comrade, his children and grandchildren a guide-philosopher and indeed a veritable guardian ad litem. He has left this world to receive his reward from the Almighty who, we know, will welcome this deeply religious servant to His kingdom. May he rest in peace.