An evening to remember

 

An evening to remember

It was an evening to remember for a long time. It also showed what’s the friendships are about. I am going to write a long blogpost but I cannot help but write this for now.  It was the evening to introduce my book that published in September 2019. After this long Covid pandemic time,  only yesterday I could introduce the book to London.

 There were some problems I could not foresee. Even I wondered that 13thof November may be such a bad day as they say superstitiously. It changed however; things start moving. First of all, my long time Saroj (Who studied in Kiev) came to conduct the event as promised bringing with him Fish curry prepared by Gayani and Sumudu. They could not come due to family emergency in Sri Lanka.  But they made sure that I received the curry. Nandana and Yamuna kindly gave him a lift as his car was not available. Yamuna, made sure the hall is warmed and lighting arrangements work with Rohitha who studied also in Kiev those days. Ines, my kind-hearted wife made all the food arrangements with the help from Sheela, who brought a parrippu (that’s dhal in Sinhalese) all the way from West London.  To tell the truth without Ines’s help all this I could not have done all this.  Kumara who studied in Kiev came with Rohitha, Dhammika and Bandula.  It may seem like a “Kiev Affair” with their contribution but I assure this is a Moscow Affair. Kumara supported the laptop operations with the projector and kindly videoed the event.  

Everyone pulled their own chairs leaving me the hardest bits. To run the vent. And my friends came from places afar. Athula , who studied in Moscow friendship university came all the way from Wolverhampton with a bottle of Champagne (French one, not the Soviet Champagne, but sweet taste was there) He contributed to the event with his readings from the pages of the book and his valuable memories of those times. Subodha came to participate the event from Brentwood, Essex.   Asha S who studied in Moscow State University, Vipuli, a product of Peradeniya, my famous blogger friend Marcus Priyantha read pages form the book and shared their thoughts. Marcus’s speech was particularly interesting and he had sharp insight into the affairs of the then Soviet Union and Russia. Vijitha Gunaratna, the famous dramatist joined the discussion from Sweden with his valuable input.  Nuwan Jay also joined the discussion bringing the examples from films. We were discussing usng Sinhala and English lanaguages so Ines could participate in the discussion too.

Ayumini and Nissanka Wikramaratne, a father and daughter duo contributed with number of amazing songs. I have to mention Ayumini’s mother Indu was helping to prepare the music and event last few weeks.   Delani made a nice Biryani for all of us, although she could not come, Asha made the raita for it,   Ines made a really tasty salad to complement it. Thanks to all of you, the evening was a success. Vajira and Krishanthi gave us the containers to keep food warm.

All in all, the evening well with Champagne and smooth Beluga Vodka to finish the event as the tradition. Thank you to my friend from Moscow Leonid Ponkratenko for the Vodka.  I should mention Bandula’s real Havana cigars he brought all the way from Cuba. We made good use of them for the after party at my house.  Some of us met at our house for the after party and you can see that from the picture.

Thank you all for attending and also from those who congratulated, contributed and gave the encouragement. I felt I really have friends and family. What more Do you want. What more Do I need.  

p.s - When Athul was talking he reminded me when we first met. Our mutual friend Sudath was the Sports Secretary when I was the general Secretary of the student union of state univercities. One of the first things we organised was a cricket match with Lumumba University. We lost. But Athula forgot one crucial detal. We, state univercities team lost every single cricket match we played after that.

Ajith