Excerpts from Nissanka

The present harbour was a place where we all used to go and see bathe. It was called Closenberg. Used to see a lot of exotic fish as there were no  imports at that time. Bobby will be abble to tell you more.

Your father (Gihan) my father and  the Rev. used to have A-40 Cars. Vinnie had a Bug Fiat, used to gamble a lot. Bobby, JR'S son and Austin used to be class mates Boy they are over 70 now.

Priya was at Richmond college and got into the university and then joined Bank of Ceylon whare he met his wife who was a secatary there. Austin went to England and married a Swedish girl. Githa went and stayed with them in Sweden.

I visited them in 79 in Canada. he died a few years back. Marguerite went and stayed with Priya in Paris about 20 yrs. ago. Nirmala went to England at 21yrs to become a nurse. She ended up as a senior lecturer at the las vegas university on nursing.

Ranjan, Roshans husband was the grand son of Sir Charles De Soysa whose statue is at eye hospital junction, Liptons Circus. I married the daughter of the last Britisher who worked in Ceylon.

Innovative Welikalas - Narrated by Owen Welikala

This was a story narrated by my father, Owen Welikala.

This would have happened in the early 1930’. This was an era of economic recession and Ceylon (as we were known then) was a British colony.

My father who was keen on becoming a Planter was advised against that choice by his father, Rev D.L, since there was a global recession and coerced to take a career in Teaching. So, having commenced on the road to becoming a teacher at some stage had secured a job as a teacher.

One weekend he had decided to visit his parents and had bought some mangoes for them. His mode of transport had been a BSA Bantam and the mangoes were packed into a pannier bag and off he went. After a very bouncy and dusty ride of a couple of hours, he reached his parents home. For those of you who were born in the latter part of the 20^th Century, Ceylon did not have many carpeted roads, Highways and the comfort of air-conditioned cars.

Well, after all the formal greetings were over, my father had told the domestic helper that there was something he has brought his parents and to bring the pannier bag that was on the bike into the dining room. When the bag was brought in he had told the Helper to empty the bag onto the table.

OMG! What came out was not fresh mangoes.

The bouncy bike ride had pulped the mangoes till the juice was extracted and the skin and seed had separated.

So now you know who invented the 1^st juice-extractor, a WELIKALA!