Sinnaiah, who remembers our grandparents

Sinnaiah came to see me recently. He is 98, and still lives, with his youngest son, at Mawatte Estate, where he has spent his entire life.

Sinnaiah remembers our grandparents. About how they met, his father, who also worked on the estate, told him that grandpa had seen grandma (who was called “Engo”) at the coir factory and arranged for her to move into the bungalow, with her own room and a servant to take care of her! 

Sinnaiah says grandpa took a liking to him, allowed him to hang around the estate bungalow, and also took him to other properties. He remembers the Lewis Place house in Negombo, the 50-acre Greenwood property at Hettirippuwa, and “The Meet” at Boralessa. 

In order to collect cash to pay salaries, grandpa came by car or cart to Boralessa and took the rail car to Colombo, where the nearest bank was. Salaries were paid with coins, with sovereigns (equivalent to Rs. 12/ those days) and silver coins. Sinnaiah remembers coins piled on the office table on pay day. He says the large bungalow, with spacious verandah running around and hanging lamps in every room, was demolished and the smaller bungalow built more recently. The estate, which was 540 acres during grandpa’s time, is reduced to 300+ acres now.

Sinnaiah remembers the pond being dug on the property where I live now ("Pondside"), for grandpa’s children to swim and have fun. On the estate, grandpa provided lunch for the children of the laborers. He knew enough Tamil to communicate with the Tamil laborers, their children, and grandma.

Mawatte Estate owned two padda boats (small barges) that plied the Hamilton Canal, to transport copra to Colombo. On the return journey, they brought provisions (groceries) for the estate laborers. The “captain” of the padda boats was called Thandaley. [Basil Fonseka, son of the Thandaley, was my dad’s close friend. That’s how Basil became my godfather.]

Sinnaiah remembers the accident grandpa had while riding around the estate, on a Tantuwa, a fast, open cart. The cart was pulled by a tall, white bull, and the carter was named Antony. Grandpa, who already had a limp and used a walking stick, was badly injured by the accident. The laborers gathered around, wailing for “Rajah”, which means boss/king in Tamil.

Grandpa died in 1944, seventy years ago. Not many people who remember him are still alive. Aunty Alice, of course, is a witness to what I heard this morning.

Later, my dad had hired Sinnaiah tor contract work on one of the estates where dad worked.