When we were colleagues…

Among the 10 senior journalists who were felicitated by the Sri Lanka Press Association at its 64th anniversary recently were two who were colleagues during my journalist career at Lake House in the latter part of the 1950s. They were Edmund Ranasinghe and Elmo Gunaratne. 

They well deserved to be recognised – possibly they had earlier been recognised by other media organisations. I was quite happy to see them quite smart in the picture published in the Daily News. They deservedly had been given to pose for the picture on either side of the Chief Guest, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya.

In the second half of the ’50s Edmund and I were attached to the Dinamina while Elmo was with Janata/Silumina. When I was at home pending the HSC/University Entrance examination results I noticed an advertisement in the Daily News calling for applications to be trained as journalists. I applied and got selected to the Dinamina. Edmond also may have joined at the same time. We became friends and used to have lunch together almost every day. Each of us brought a home-cooked lunch packet and went down to the Lake House canteen to enjoy it while having a chat. 

Elmo and I were school mates at Ananda College and both travelled daily by train from Gampaha and became close friends. Both were ‘film crazy’ and in an era when there were no Sinhala films we had to watch English or Hindi films. Though we couldn’t understand the language, we liked the acting of Hindi stars led by Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Nargis and Madhubala. And of course the music. When a new film was screened invariably we went for the afternoon show at one of the Maradana cinemas. We didn’t fail to buy the popular Indian film weekly, Screen. 

The first Sinhala film, ‘Kadawunu Poronduwa’ (Broken Promise) was screened in 1947 and immediately after, actor/director Shanti Kumar produced a film. On hearing the news that the crew was coming to Henaratgoda Gardens (Gampha botanical gardens) Elmo and I got on our bicycles and rushed to see the filming. Shanti Kumar played the male lead while Sita Jaywardena (she used to write a column for the Observer in later years) was the leading actress. I am not quite sure whether the film was screened. ‘Eda Re’ was the title of the film, if I remember right.  

I enjoyed working on the newspaper but moved out when I I got selected for admission to the university. After sitting for my final exam I tried my luck in coming back to Lake House and M A de Silva, who was managing editor at the time I left was still occupying the same position took me back. 

Edmund and Elmo had decided to continue their careers in journalism and made headway becoming editors. When ambitious entrepreneur Upali Wijewardena decided to start a newspaper he invited Edmond. Her accepted the invitation and became editor of ‘Divaina’. Elmo left and joined the Times Group and was to become the Editor-in-Chief of the Group newspapers. I got a place at Lever Brothers and moved out.