Mawatte Plantation, where grandpa Charles Stanley Braine was the Manager

Beaula and I recently visited Mawatte Plantation, where my grandfather Charles Stanley Braine served as manager. When his mother died in 1909, grandpa was already at the plantation, and he served till 1944, when he passed away. That means his tenure extended to at least 35 years, a lengthy association by any standard.

Mawatte Plantation was about 700 acres in extent during grandpa's time. Now, due to the government's land policies and also due to being subdivided for distribution among the landless, Mawatte is only 350 acres in extent now, still large by Sri Lankan standards. The plantation is now a livestock farm and is managed by LanLib, a Sri Lanka – Libya joint venture. Perhaps due to the recent turmoil in Libya, Sri Lanka's National Livestock Development Board (NDLB) appears to be in charge now.

According to the current manager, who has been at Mawatte for 35 years, the original bungalow is little changed. The view from the veranda of a large flamboyant tree and a sal tree may be what grandpa enjoyed 80 years ago.

The small office, still with a thatch roof, is nearby. I can only imagine the morning roster, where the Tamil labourers would line up to be counted "present" each morning and to be assigned to their work for that day. At the end of the week, around noon on Saturday, they would line up again to collect their wages. Grandpa did not speak Sinhala. He spoke Tamil, a legacy of his upbringing in tea plantations (where the labourers were Tamil). At Mawatte, too, the labourers were Tamil, somewhat unusual for a coconut estate. Even today, many employees at Mawatte farm appear to be Tamils.

Most Europeans in Ceylon were tea or rubber planters. I thought grandpa must have been one of the pioneer European planters on coconut estates. His father C.F. Braine (my great grandfather), towards the end of his life, was a planter at Delwita Estate near Kurunegala, in what appears to have been a rubber estate.

Mawatte is only a 10-minute drive from Boralessa, where I have a home, "Pondside". My Aunt Alice, who is 97, remembers walking from Boralessa, where my grandmother lived, to Mawatte to have lunch or dinner with grandpa. She accompanied grandmother.

The copra (dried coconut kernels) produced at Mawatte Estate were transported to Colombo via the nearby Dutch canal on "padda" boats, which have been described as "flat-bottomed boats with removable roofing " often of "cadjan" or dried coconut palms. My father remembered traveling overnight on a “padda” boat and waking up to see the Victoria Bridge on the Kelani River.

The "captain" of the padda boats that transported copra from Mawatte Estate to Colombo was one Fonseka. His son, Basil Fonseka, was a close friend of my father. As a result, Basil Fonseka became my god father. (My god mother was Aunty Bee.)

More on estate life from my dad Teddy Braine's reminisces

We children didn’t live on the estate, but I recall the family visiting daddy in the estate during school holidays. He had a lovely garden with flowers and fruit trees. Meals were served at a vast dining hall with large table with the Appu at hand serving. At night, the place was lit by Petromax and kerosene lamps, there being no electricity at the time. There was no radio either, and music was played on the gramophone. On warm days, during meals, Appu would stand at the end of the dining hall and pull a rope which was connected to a large canvas curtain hung above the table, swinging the “punkah” to fan those seated at the table.

At the estate, the mornings were always welcomed to the sound of coconuts being cracked for drying in the copra kiln. We would go there to eat the young kernel of the cut nuts. The fragrant smell of copra drying in the two kilns on either side, with rows of coconut shells burning underneath, always held an enchanting spell which any child would envy.