Our big-hearted, generous little brother

Gamini (more widely known as Gamit), the baby of our family is no more. He passed away peacefully in London on January 1.

He was a courageous, kind, generous, caring, fun loving person and an affectionate brother. Incidents come to mind reminiscent of these qualities. When he was just nine he had the misfortune to be taken to the General Hospital because of a severe abdominal pain. Doctors suspected appendicitis and he was warded overnight. As we were getting ready to visit him the next morning, to our astonishment he came home carrying his little suitcase of clothes and with his appendix intact. Treatment for worms had cured his pain. He had been wheeled in on a stretcher the previous evening but on being discharged, he had taken a bus to Mount Lavinia and walked half a mile to get home.

Gamit was a very sensitive person. Our mother’s dying request to him was that he should take care of our father. As a schoolboy made motherless at 17 years of age, there was nothing he could do. He had his opportunity when our father went to England and lived with Gamit and his wife for nearly two years. He was also very fond of animals, especially dogs. We had two dogs (brothers) as family pets but they were his dogs. The family was very amused to hear him talking to them for hours in a “dog language” that he had invented.

There were early signs that Gamit wished to be an entrepreneur. Our father wanted him to go to university but Gamit refused, saying that he wanted to be “a selfmade” man, which aspiration he achieved successfully.

Several relatives in Sri Lanka benefited from Gamit’s munificence. He supported two of our aunts for many years, paying nursing home fees for one and for medicines for the other. He even paid quite a large sum to re-roof a cousin’s house and provided months of accommodation in his home in London for visiting relatives.

On a visit to Sri Lanka, a few years after he had settled in the UK, Jayalath’s wife served Gamit some home made cake and on his inquiry she told him she had mixed the ingredients by hand. About two weeks later he sent them a brand new Kenwood mixer from UK through a friend. He had said no word but he had noted and acted so generously.

Gamit was always full of fun and loved to engage in practical jokes. All three of us were at one time hostellers at the college hostel in the fifties. He had once had the whole hostel staff in an uproar by playing an April fool’s joke. Together with a few friends he had got the “clapper” of the hostel bell removed one night and placed it in the room of one of the Hostel Masters. The following morning there was no wake up bell, no PT bell and no bell rung to indicate morning studies; thus causing great confusion. No culprit was traced and no blame ascribed as the device was finally discovered in the room of a Master.

Gamit’s loyalty towards his Alma Mater, Royal was another marked quality. It was his idea to set up the Old Royalists’ Association in the UK with the primary objective of raising funds for the College and secondarily as a means of bringing together Old Royalists socially. His efforts on behalf of ORAUK are well known.

We have lost a third of a very united family. Rest in Peace little brother, the void you have left cannot be filled. Ranjit and Jayalath Ameresekere