A kind, gentle man who enjoyed the company of all

Nanda Senewiratne died on November 10, 2002 at the age of 80, yet the picture I have of him in my mind is the young Nanda of the 1940s, walking the corridors of Lake House, making friends in every department. He had a way with people, guileless and eager to help.

He was the boss’s nephew (only son of Mr. D. R. Wijewardene’s sister, Mrs. A. F. Senewiratne), but he put on no airs and had no desire to impress anyone with his family connections or wealth. He was just an extra-friendly guy who liked to talk to people, and it made no difference to him whether they were peons, clerks, typists, managers or journalists - he was equally happy in the company of the lowly and the great.

It was no surprise to me to hear a close family member say that the garbage men who came to their gate in Malabe were extremely fond of him because of the way he treated them, calling one and all ‘ putha’. That word came naturally to him, even when he addressed beggars on the road.

A vivid recollection I have of him is his splendid car - a large and spacious limousine it seemed, with folding seats that could be pulled out to accommo- date extra passengers. He was always generous with offers of lifts after work to those who commuted by bus. I was pregnant at the time and greatly appreciated his kindness on many occasions when he would insist on our getting into his car with him and tell his driver to go to remote Rajagiriya where we resided, a far cry from his own home in Gregory’s Road. That was typical of Nanda.

Nanda was Transpor t Manager at Lake House until he left when Associated Newspapers were taken over in July 1973 by the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Government. He rejoined Lake House for a few years during the UNP regime from 1977 but later left to work for Wijeya Newspapers Ltd., where he remained up to the time of his death.

He was a Royalist and played rugger for Hartley House. Nanda was a graduate of the old School of Agriculture in Peradeniya where he won the prize for the best all-round student 1942-44. A carryover from this was, perhaps, his love of gardening. “Things grew under the touch of his fingers,” his family said and the evidence was clearly shown in the exquisite garden he created in their home in Malabe.

His other love was wild life, an interest shared with his wife, Clare.

The two of them would go off to wild life reserves and bird sanctuaries whenever they could and Nanda became an expert photographer of birds and animals in their natural habitat.

His fine pictures illustrated Clare’s book, ‘ The sun at my back’, and one of his colour photographs won first prize at an exhibition of Wild Life Photography. Their son, Viraj, too has inherited their love of animals. Nanda was always very supportive of Clare and proud of her work as Editor of the Lanka Woman from its inception in 1984. They met at Lake House where Clare began her journalis- tic career and theirs was a happy union of nearly 50 years.

Growing up in a devout Buddhist background, Nanda was extremely knowledgeable about Buddhist rituals and practices and about the origins and procedures of peraheras. “Relatives would often come to tap his store of knowledge about these things,” his son said. It was doubtless the same background that gave him a philosophical bent and the ability to remain unruffled by life’s ups and downs. One of his favourite sayings was “We must negate the ‘I’ in us.”

Right through his life, he dispensed many kind deeds - “little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love” which the recipients will recall when they think of him.

Nanda was a simple, kindly man who radiated goodwill to people and to all creatures - would that there were more like him around.