Early days of a much-talked-about politico

Dr. N.M. Perera

Exactly 110 years ago – on 6 June 1905 – a seven-month baby boy was born to a family at Grandpass, who was later to become a most charismatic politician in Sri Lanka.

“My mother took pride in announcing to all her friends that I was a seven-month baby. She chuckled with evident satisfaction that she nourished me into healthy bonny childhood under great difficulty. There were no doctors attending at childbirth. Only the local midwife with her years of experience, which had made her an expert in her own way, was at hand. There were no weighing machines to weigh. I was a tiny weeny, baby so small and so fragile that I could not suck breast milk. For weeks I was on a ‘pankade’ dipped in milk,” he writes in the opening paragraph of his autobiography several decades later. 

That is how Nanayakkarapathirage Martin Perera, known to everybody as ‘Dr. NM’ or ‘NM,’ was born. 

Family

Talking about his origins as “very humble,” he says he was born into a lower middle class family “of absolute insignificance,” and refers to a crack that S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike once made: “When Mr. Bandaranaike characterised me as an unknown son of a still more unknown father, I used to reflect how perfectly accurate he was, and his delineation as apt and true. This was a retort to my description of him as the distinguished son of a still more distinguished father. This clever remark of his laid bare the mental make-up of Mr. Bandaranaike who, after all, was the proud son of a top aristocratic family in Sri Lanka. It was natural that he should refer in this condescending way to a person like me with no pedigree or an aristocratic lineage.”

He describes his father as a man of strong character who smoked a Jaffna cigar occasionally, but never drank. “He was a hard-headed businessman, sharp in his dealings, but in his word, as sacred as his bond. I believe people had a high regard for his integrity and honesty.” 

He remembers the mother as a simple, unspoilt and unsophisticated villager with no knowledge of men and matters. “She brought up a family of seven – two girls and five boys – with exemplary courage and devotion. Such a closely-knit happy family one could scarcely imagine. Her sheer force of love and devotion held us together as nothing else could. I do not remember that she ever spoke a harsh word to my father or to any one of her children. Nor can I remember any quarrels between father and mother which generate so much disharmony in families and create psychological problems among the children.”

He found her to be an excellent cook and wondered how she was so proficient in cooking because she had got married just after she was 15.

Childhood

Young NM started schooling at St. Joseph’s School, Grandpass. His two elder brothers went to S. Thomas’ College, Mutwal, which was later shifted to Mount Lavinia where they were boarded. He was also sent to Cathedral Boys’ School, Mutwal – a branch of S. Thomas’ at the old premises when he was around eight. In what he calls “an uneventful year,” he walked about three miles to school. His mother gave him 15 cents for lunch. He used to eat a bun and drink a cup of plain tea. He spent the balance on gram and trudged back home “for a hefty plate of rice”.

In 1919 he went to the main College, S. Thomas’ as a boarder at Mount Lavinia. Of his school days, he admits that the period at S. Thomas’ was the happiest. “I revelled in the outdoor life it offered. Studies came easily to me. I needed no prodding. I did enough to meet the requirements of the form master and never thought of getting to the top of the class. It was sufficient for me that I was within the first 10.”

NM loved cricket. “We lived for it, talked about it and dreamt of it. It was the all absorbing game.” He started playing for College but did not stay long enough to qualify for the first 11 because he left to join Ananda in 1922. 

Based on ‘NM – In his own words & as seen by others’. More next week.