Vita Bene Acta – A life well lived; the life and values of centenarian A.R.I. Marickar

“We have to seriously think of what kind of country we are leaving for our children. Each man comes alone to this world and leave alone he must. But when he leaves he must think about the country he is leaving for the next generations who come after him,” he muses 

By Surya Vishwa

How is it to have witnessed dramatic changes spanning over hundred years, in the world at large and in one’s country and be in the pink of health, to tell many an interesting tale, with flawless recollecting power, wit and wisdom? No diabetes, no heart operations, no blood pressure, no vision defect -  only a slowing down in walking and the use of a stylish walking stick.  

Is this idyllic state of being possible , at age 100 +? Yes it is. 

Vita Bene Acta – A life well lived. This is the story of Al Haj Ahmed Rafi Ibrahim Marickar of Matara, Attorney at Law who celebrated his 100th birthday on 7 October 2023. The title of the special publication printed by his family to celebrate his illustrious century is the same as that featured in the headline of this article which was the Latin motto he lived by.

Centenarian Marickar is the paternal grandson of the late Usoof Lebbe Idroos Lebbe Marickar, the first Muslim to be appointed as the Kachcheri Mudaliyar, the colonial time high ranking bureaucratic official, of Hambantota.

A civil lawyer by profession, A. R. I Marickar as he is popularly known, stresses the need for upholding the rule of law for a country to progress and in a detailed interview with this writer brought to life memories of a time gone by. He recalled a motherland where Muslim and Buddhist clergy celebrated each other’s religious ceremonies with mutual participation as a norm and spoke of a time when law and order was strictly enforced, where murder was an extremely rare occurrence and considered a calamity for the whole nation if such a tragedy took place.

Marickar was born on 7 October 1923,in the large ancestral home located close to the banks of the Nilwala river, in Kotuwegoda, Matara. His mother, Ummu Afeera Abu Baqr hailed from Matara while his father, Idroos Lebbe Marickar Ibrahim was from Hambantota. Five brothers and eight sisters made up the Marickar family although some of them passed away quite young due to diseases such as pneumonia and malaria. 

He continued to live throughout his life in Matara, until 2004 when he moved to Colombo to be with his daughters after his Matara legal office was destroyed by the tsunami. Having practiced his entire legal career in his much loved hometown, he is a quintessential ‘Matara man.’ 

Harmonious sketch of the district 

The description of the district his memory paints is a harmonious sketch.

“The Matara of my childhood revolved around our mosque, known as the Muhiyaddeen Mosque because it was built in the location that Sufi saint Muhiyaddeen had chosen for his meditations. It would have been a small place of worship created by Muslims after the death of this saint. It was built as a proper mosque by the Malay regiment brought in by the Dutch. Now this mosque is also referred to as the Grand Mosque,” he says. 

“The Buddhist temple in which we as children were equally at home was called the Welle Pansala and its chief priest was much loved by everyone regardless of religion. I recall him, always smiling and gentle in his speech. This much venerated Thero was known to us as Dole Hamuduruwo – we however addressed and thought of him as Ape Dole Hamuduruwo. He attended all the mosque functions and we Muslims supported all temple celebrations. The Muhiyaddeen mosque located on the banks of the Nilwala and the Welle Pansala down Tangalle road were the main landmarks in the town. In addition, there was a Hindu shrine constructed by the cigar merchants from Jaffna,’ he recalls. 

When asked how he managed to look so youthful at 100 he simply said ‘I take life lightly and I do not think of age. I certainly do not feel 100. I have always strongly detested feelings of jealousy, envy or hate and never entertained such poisons. Where food is concerned I follow a diet more in vegetables and fish”

“The Jaffna cigar merchants had big business. The Colombo middle class loved their cigars,” he laughs. 

He attended Christ Church missionary college in Tangalle up to grade three, and thereafter accompanied his father to Colombo. His father was a Ceylon Civil Service officer serving as the Chief Shroff (treasurer) of Ceylon Railways and was based in Colombo. Young Marickar attended St. Peter’s College and when World War II broke out, the school was turned into a military hospital. He was sent to St. Lawrence’s, currently a girls’ school which then provided education for boys. Soon he shifted his schooling back to Matara, to St. Servatius College where he sat his SSC, equivalent to the current Advanced Level exams, choosing the subjects, History, Geography, Latin and English Literature.

He excelled in English Literature and Latin which were compulsory subjects for studying law, although a legal career was not his original intention. He was drawn to the outdoors and was contemplating joining the survey department. This idea was abandoned as his parents did not take to envisaging him struggling through thickets and jungles as a surveyor. 

“We were living in Colombo on account of my father’s job and the house was in High Street, known today as W. A. Silva Mawatha next to the present day Royal Hospital. This was in the 1930s when we studied under gas lamps. Society was very different. In the South and the North caste played a major role in everyday life. For the Muslims caste was not the issue but there were social divisions based on wealth. The World War II breaking out placed Colombo in a panic mode. All hotels were closed fearing bomb attacks. The people of Colombo were starving. Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, then Commissioner  of Food  had to force the owners to open the hotels. The Buhari and Maliban hotels were among the key hotels in Colombo,” he reminisces.

Marickar’s family was related to Sufi saint,Yehya Moulana, the first Ceylon born and bred Sufi saint whose ancestry traced to Yemen. He points out that Saint Yehya’s ancestors traded in cinnamon and the decision to reside in Sri Lanka would have been due to Sri Pada also known as Adam’s Peak and the belief by Muslims that the footprint of Adam was at the summit of the mountain. 

Has he climbed Sri Pada? 

“No but I climbed the summits of my own mind,” he laughs. 

When asked how he managed to look so youthful at 100 he simply said ‘I take life lightly and I do not think of age. I certainly do not feel 100. I have always strongly detested feelings of jealousy, envy or hate and never entertained such poisons. Where food is concerned I follow a diet more in vegetables and fish.”

How old was he when he married?

“I was thirty two and had stabilised in the early days of my legal career in civil law. On 30 October 1958, I married Mumtaz Issadeen, daughter of Zahira College boarding master, Sheikh Abdul Cader Issadeen. The Issadeen family was also from Matara, from Issadeen Town and hailed from a lineage of spice merchants.”

First domestic function with the police band playing

His wedding was held at Angora House, a beautifully designed house on fifty perches his father-in-law had constructed for the newlywed. The wedding was considered a grand event in Matara. It was the first domestic function which had the police band playing.

“There were weddings which commissioned the Ceylon Light Infantry band to play but getting the police band was thought to be a step ahead. It was my mother’s idea. It cost Rs. 200 per hour which was an exorbitant sum those days. They played their music from 7 pm to 10 pm,” he recalls, His classmate at St. Peters, Jowharsha, a well known photographer at the time was the official photographer at the wedding.

He says there were Muslim artistes such as Mohideen Baig who he had met several times. “I was still a law student when I first met Baig. He was with his music group at a wedding I attended. Weddings were celebrated grandly in residences where music bands and artistes performed.”

After his nuptials with Mumtaz he lived in Angora House where his children, four girls grew up. “With the birth of each girl my fellow lawyers would joke that I had to make more money to give them in marriage. I duly responded by increasing my fees with the arrival of each daughter.” 

He acknowledges that he did initially yearn for a boy but that he equally welcomed the girls and that in retrospect he considers the choice of God to grant him four girls the best.

My interview with him was at the residence of his daughter Feroza Fauz, in Dehiwela, where he currently resides. The most crushing experience he had to face in his life was the demise of his wife in mid 2010.The loss had taken him a long time to recover having spent an idyllically happy life with his Mumtaz, travelling around the country sightseeing with the children and enjoying each other’s company.  

Civil law as against criminal law

With regard to his legal profession, when asked why he chose civil law and not a branch of law like criminal law, he says he preferred to take his time and read through documents and prepare for his case rather than have to take on cases which require total ‘image making’ as in criminal law.

“In criminal law you have to think on your feet and create a particular storyboard like impression, it requires too much of impromptu effort,’ he laughs.

As a South based civil lawyer, most of his clients were Sinhalese and many a member of the Buddhist clergy sought him out. 

“This baffled me and I asked a few of the Buddhist monks who used to continually seek my legal help why they did not go to a Sinhala lawyer, as there were many in Matara. The answer was, they found it comfortable to confide in me as I was considered very trustworthy,” he recalls with a smile. 

Marickar as he is popularly known, stresses the need for upholding the rule of law for a country to progress and in a detailed interview with this writer brought to life memories of a time gone by. He recalled a motherland where Muslim and Buddhist clergy celebrated each other’s religious ceremonies with mutual participation as a norm and spoke of a time when law and order was strictly enforced, where murder was an extremely rare occurrence and considered a calamity for the whole nation if such a tragedy took place

 

So how does he sum up the 100 year journey of the country based on what he has witnessed,  been born into colonial Ceylon and seeing through one World War, as well as the  beginning and end of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, alongside multifarious other issues this nation has faced and is facing?

“The fact remains that when the British left there was money in the country. What happened from then to now and why, we have to reflect upon,” he says and the smile vanishes from his face. He switches to Sinhala – Natapu thovileyakuth nehe, bere paluwakuth nehe (there is no thovil that was danced and yet a part of the drum is missing).

He then goes onto to narrate the Sinhala folk story from which the phrase is adopted; about a Gurunanse of the village (who conducts healing ceremonies to the accompaniment of his traditional drum, the bere).

The Gurunanse gets ready to travel on a journey with his bere and tells his hamine (wife) that he is going to the adjoining village to conduct a thovil ceremony. On the way he sees a fox with some dried blood on his coat who asks the  Gurunanse to take water from the nearby river and wash him clean saying he has got attacked. The fox promises to guide the Gurunanse to a treasure that lie under a stone close-by. The Gurunanse forgetting his original mission to carry out the thovil and lured by greed hearing of the treasure promised by the fox, makes his way to the river, tears off a side of his drum to use as a pail and starts bathing the fox. Soon after, the fox runs off and the man is left with a broken drum which makes it impossible to proceed on his original task. Instead, he returns home and his wife berates him saying ‘NatapuThovilekuth nege, bere paluwakuth nehe.’ 

“We have to seriously think of what kind of country we are leaving for our children. Each man comes alone to this world and leave alone he must. But when he leaves he must think about the country he is leaving for the next generations who come after him,” he muses.

Healthy mind in a healthy body 

“When we were young we were guided strongly by Latin mottos used in our school and in our education system back then. Men sama in corporesano (healthy mind in a healthy body) is one such line that guided me in my actions. The mind is the light of the body. It shows the way. The mind has to be healthy. The mind has to be disciplined. This is the purpose of religion. All religions are shadows from the one great light of a single candle. Followed correctly all religions discipline the mind and refine one’s actions. All religions create a path of righteousness.”

What were his lifestyle choices?

“One thing I followed very strictly was that I did not touch liquor. If you think about it, you can understand why all religions forbid it. This is because it makes you lose your senses,” he explains.

The life of Al Haj Ahmed Rafi Ibrahim Marickar is indeed an inspiration for all Sri Lankans.

Official greetings on his 100th birthday and an appreciation of his professional and social service to the country, were conveyed by those such as  President of the Kotuwegoda, Matara, MuhiyaddeenJumma Masjid, Al Haj M. N. M Yamin, the Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Justice Muhammad Ahsan Razik Marikkar of the Court of Appeal, Attorney at Law and former President of the Matara Law Society, Chandima Perumpuliarachchi, and several other dignitaries who knew of the life and wide-scale community service rendered by A. R. I Marickar in his 100 year long life, to date. 

These messages were published in the souvenir publication VITA BENE ACTA commemorating his 100 year celebration and tracing milestones of his life.