Old Bens UK Home Page

Updated 28 August 2009

Hover for details of additions in update* Deacon Dishan Candappa
* Dudley Thambinayagam
* Eulogy Michael Caderamanpulle
* Obituary: Michael Caderamanpulle
* Lasantha: New Web Site Launched
* Peter Prins: Eulogy
* UN Award for Lasantha Wickrematunge

RECENT UPDATES

LINKS

1. OBA AND LA SALLE
SCHOOLS
The following links, are to the College web site, sister Colleges and other OBA and Sri Lankan sites dealing with education.

2. BAILA
The following links, with a ‘baila’ flavour have been provided by visitors to this web site.

3. MISCELLANEOUS
The following links, received from various visitors to this web site.

NOTE The views expressed on this web site are not those of the Executive Committee of OBUK. They may be those of individual OBUK members who are entitled to express their views subject to editorial overview, profanity and decorum.

UNITED KINGDOM
SAINTS' QUADRANGULAR 20/20 CRICKET TOURNAMENT 2009

Teams fielded by the OBAs of
St. Anthony's College
St. Benedict's College
St. Joseph's College
St. Peter's College

20th August 2009

Starting at 11.00 a.m. at
Winchnore Hill Cricket Grounds
Firs Lane
N21 3ER

For further details click here

OLD BEN ECT CANDAPPA'S SON TO BE ORDAINED IN MELBOURNE

Deacon Dishan Candappa, the son of a famous old Ben and journalist, ECT Candappa, has been living in Melbourne since 1987.

He spent his early life in Colombo where he was an old boy of St Peters College and a parishioner of St Lawrence's Wellawatte.

Dishan graduated in Civil Engineering and then obtained a PhD from Monash University where, amongst other things, he represented Monash at cricket.

After his PhD he joined the Corpus Christi seminary in Melbourne. Following four years of study he was sent to the North American College in Rome where he spent a further four years preparing for the priesthood.

Some friends and I met Dishan at his ordination as a Deacon at St Peters in Rome in October 2008. We were fortunate to get the general Papal blessing and also formed part of a select crowd for the Deacon Ordination service inside the Cathedral. It was very clear, from the brief celebrations following the ordination, that Dishan was one of the most popular people at the gathering.

After his ordination as a priest in Melbourne on 4 July 2009 Dishan will be returning to Rome for further priestly studies. He will then return to Australia to serve in the archdiocese of Melbourne Victoria.

I wish him well in his vocation.

Henry Solomon

HONORARY CONSUL GENERAL DUDLEY THAMBINAYAGAM

Dudley Thambinayagam, the well-known Old Ben and active promoter of the Old Bens Movement, was appointed Honorary Consul for the Republic of Estonia in Sri Lanka.

The photograph shows Dudley being presented the exequatur by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama at the Ministry recently.

Eulogy on the burial of Michael Caderamanpulle - 23rd May 2009

A NOTE TO THE FERRYMAN

Take good care of this Man, my Father, while he is in your possession. Let him rest peacefully, for he needs some sleep and quiet. His adventures on the Blue planet were such that he rarely contained his excitement, nor did he hide his disappointments for he celebrated life at every instance and was ebullient and cheerful despite its uncertainties. He buried himself by using the World and his knowledge in an open experiment that lasted 68 years. His day started at dawn when he asked his maker to bless him so that those less fortunate than himself might benefit from his generosity and concluded with an account to his closest friends of his successes and failures.

I handover a Man of many talents and skills. While the turquoise blue water licks the edges of your boat, and your oar strokes the heads of fish and mermaids in this sea of a thousand oceans, I want you to consider what I have written carefully. I have asked that the water genies of the moon travel swiftly on a moon beam and pour out their goblets taken from the sea of stories into his mouth. The stories will entertain him on this long journey while Armstrong, Dizzy and Cole play a little jazz. Do not worry about the coast ahead for a light footed Peter Pan has assured me it is free of the Pirates , beasts and charlatans of the like he might have met in his life. The good don't die young. My experience tells me the unhappy and restless do. The force of their will to be happy rings a bell in heaven and someone Big and White or dark and deep snuffs a candle. Please convey to his maker that of his skills that might be most of use on the other side, here are a few.

My Father could make an awesome steak and the good Lord will find it hilarious that the lowly crab once simmered in saffron , chilies and a twenty other spices from the Island whence he came makes for a dish that could start a story at lunch that could end only by dinner. If a Piano could be tuned by a blind man then my Pops could , without ever playing a tune. The Steinway in heaven might be a good place to start with. Give him two pieces of metal and a nut and bolt and a jolt of lightning and he will make you a dollar. This Man saved a million trees with his Box of Paper that carried the charred tea leaf from its source to a billion lips. A leopard's breath became fiercer than a Tigers snarl in photos' I've seen him snatch. There is not a species of animal of use to man he did not breed nor wish to; while in his garden bloomed shoots of Orchids of such colour that even the Sun stopped and smiled. A grasp of Math and finance that would make a Medici blush. I give you a Man so generous of heart and spirit, that People from far and near clasped their mouths in disbelief as to where the source of this wealth lay? The source Mr. Ferryman lay in his knowing that in the end all he was ever going to be, was a piece of valiant dust.

When he reaches that Marble shore and his maker takes him into his arms , let him have a room with running water, a library of leather- bound books and please I beg you , find the "muse" he missed on earth, snatch her quick and let her lie with him.

As for me no amount of money and materialism that my family unfortunately sought, can replace the love he had for me. If it is about what really matters, I inherited the most.

Love Sherhan

OBITUARY
Alistair & Camille (neé Cramer) Gonsal remember ....
MICHAEL CADERAMANPULLE
“A warm, innovative and honourable Old Ben with great panache ........”

Michael Caderamanpulle, was Alistair's (Alie's) classmate at St. Benedict's College: he was also our very dear friend; and our friendship continued until the day he died. He was a warm, gentle, innovative and honourable Old Ben with great panache who, during his lifetime, supported many charitable causes and individuals who were in need of help. He never held back in his support for others often doing for them what he did not do for himself.

Mike was also a loyal Old Ben and we always reminisced about the good old days at St. Benedict's College and, of course, Kotahena, our stamping ground. He often recalled the cost to his parents for his education - 50 cents a week - because he, like Alie, was the 3rd son in the family and, therefore, entitled to discounted school fees. He was very proud of, and grateful for, the excellent education he received at St Benedict's and was always a dedicated supporter of the College. As a successful businessman he employed many Old Bens.

The wonderful stories Mike often related about the enjoyable times he had at St Benedict's with teachers like Mr. Jeganathan, Mr. Assey and, of course that Benedictine Icon and his favourite teacher Mr. Chapman (who in later years always insisted that Mike and Alie called him "Chappie" rather than "Sir"). We had the distinguished privilege of accompanying "Chappie" from Melbourne to celebrate Michael's 60th Birthday in Colombo. Typically, and in Mike's inimmitable style, the invitations to his birthday celebrations included return air tickets with hotel accommodation.

Michael knew our families very well. He always spoke of the good times he spent at the Camille's (neé Cramer) home in Kotahena - especially the jokes and the times when Camille's Dad got on his Ducati to go to the tavern or Docklands to buy a bottle of arrack that he would then share in a drink with the 'boys' together with a "taste" of beef pepper steaks or stew prepared by Camille's Mum. He also always spoke of the good times at Alie's home and Alie's sister Jeanne who got the 'boys' together to learn Christmas carols etc., that they would sing at Radio Ceylon or other shows in which she was involved.

Michael owned 'Club Oceanic' in Trincomalee in addition to several other flourishing companies. He had an enquiring mind and was constantly making notes and calculations about his next project - the latest we were

told was the importation of Jamnapari goats from Australia or Malaysia. Whether it was farming, cooking, bottling, marketing, etc., Mike was ALWAYS thinking of his next big project.

Michael and Alie had much in common with regard to their approach to business ventures. He was fascinated with Alie's talent with mangled bumper bars and the business he set up at his workshop at the Gabba hammering out the dents, re- chroming and re-selling the bumper bars as the main supplier to all of Queensland's panel shops.

Mike's hobbies were orchids (he had a superb collection at his home and was very much into tissue culture), keeping beautiful fish, photography, reading, music and cooking.

He was a marvellous cook and delighted in cooking his Sunday lunches himself: his favourites were prawn and crab curries. This was the menu whenever he had friends, particularly, when they visited him from overseas. He was always excited and happy to have us cut up the ingredients with him and he would meticulously wash and prepare the whole box of crabs - (enough to feed the 5000!) with a constant flow of recollections and laughter from our days in Kotahena and the excursions we made together, particularly our trip to Dangkotuwa with our parents and family and when Michael ended up falling in the well! We will truly miss his small talk and mimicking accents of all languages and people!! So very funny.

A keen photographer in College, he took it up again in retirement. His photographs of wildlife taken in Yala and Bundagain are prize photos truly worthy of exhibition. He loved reading - and had an impressive library, listening to classical music and enjoying his collection of paintings. He supported the Arts & Music at many institutions in Colombo.

Goodbye Michael, dear friend, we will certainly miss you, your stylish manner and dynamic personality. Thanks for the memories - your words will always remain in our hearts.