Nimalsri of the Works

By Ruani Jayasuriya and 

Preethi Ratnayake 

Sometimes a man is not destined to be called by the name he is given at birth. So if someone asked you who Priyalal or even better who Nimalsri is, you would very likely answer you do not know. But Lal as all came to know him was christened Priyalal Nimalsri by Albert and Erin Wickremasuriya, his parents.

Albert was in the Railway Department which was dominated by the Burgher community. He was a station master and served in distant places such as Hatton and Anuradhapura. Lal would of course be at these places during his holidays from the S. Thomas’ Mt. Lavinia boarding. 

He wasn’t alone as his cousins and cousins would join him in these exotic places where they all had a whale of a time! Lal was one of the older ones and had sway over the smaller younger ones. He would join the elder cousins who teased the younger ones and had many a joke at their expense. He was one who reached out for all the sandwiches being made in the afternoon from just below the noses of the smaller ones, just to tease them, and then would see they too were well fed with the loads of delicacies that were always made available for the brood!

Lal was very good at his school work and beat his batch. It was not surprising that he was a scholarship student for all or most of his school career. However, he showed little interest in the field his parents wanted him to take, Medicine. Instead of going to University, he decided to do the Cost and Works exams and he did them with excellence, winning world prizes. He had an opportunity to go to England for practical work where he did very well. He also did his Chartered Accountancy exams of the Cost and Works and there again won prizes. 

Even though he was in England for several years, he was always very Sri Lankan. He never had an accent and he loved his rice and curry which he learnt to cook. Yet, this accomplishment became a total loss if he misplaced his special “curry spoon”, the one and only spoon with which he knew to measure the condiments!

When he came back to Sri Lanka he joined Turquand, Youngs & Co., Chartered Accountants and later Walkers a biggish British firm. In the meantime in 1965 he joined 20 other Cost and Works Accountants to form the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of Ceylon. It is this organisation that later became CIMA Sri Lanka where his photograph adorns their wall amongst pictures of the Past Presidents of their institute. The local Chartered Accountant Institute also made use of him as one of their examiners. 

At one point the Government decided to appoint him as Chief Accountant, Cement Corporation. They found that the salary allocation was woefully inadequate for him. The Minister therefore had to seek special approval from Parliament to pay him an adequate salary.

Lal had no airs about him and made do with whatever he had. However high he went he was the same old fellow at heart, never leading a high life of power and might. When he came to marry, he chose a simple girl, Surangani, with whom Lal had a joyous time. 

They travelled a lot and even though he was overseas most of the time, all his relations, especially his aunts, would wait for his visits to Sri Lanka. His aunts were either old or living alone and he would visit all of them taking with him loads of fun and laughter. He would organise a sing-along to which he invited all his friends from E&Y days and his cousins. He would provide the string-hoppers and his friend Rev. Derrick Mendis, a Chartered Accountant, would sing and play and keep all in cheerful animation. Lal himself never seemed to take life seriously. There was always fun in what he said and one had to be careful not to take anything he said at face value.

Quite early in his career he got an opening in Zambia and he took his family there. From there he went to Iran and from Iran to Thailand, finally ending up in Texas, where he spent the rest of his time. Surangani went some time ago but his two children Ajith and Deepthi continue to live there.