A Tribute to Prasanna Ratnayake: by Bernard Edirisinghe
Prasanna was a dear friend of mine and those who were close to Prasanna know very well that he built up and maintained his friendships in forms of clusters; whoever belonged to one of Prasanna’s cluster of friends didn’t know those who belonged in the other. I belonged to one such cluster of his.
It was only once Prasanna passed away that I came to know that he had lot of faith and trust in me and considered me as being one of his closest of friends. Therefore, it is indeed a privilege to pay tribute to him and celebrate his life with his partner Margret, family members and friends.
Prasanna and I met at the Safer World Sri Lanka office nearly 15 years ago. He came to Sri Lanka to make a documentary film for Safer World on issues related small fire arms. We agreed to travel to the North Central Province to hunt locations and on our way we planned to discuss the plot of the documentary. On this journey Prasanna brought along a bottle of Bombay Sapphire; it’s the first time that any of the Sri Lankans on that trip tasted and enjoyed this particular brand of gin. Naturally the gin and tonic stimulated the discussion on the documentary and we were all surprised as to how open minded Prasanna was and of his ready willingness to accept opinions and input made by the others in the team without any judgment.
He had an uncanny ability to envision a film from its conception through to its end. He never lost sight of the ultimate goal of the production. This particular documentary was filmed in October 2007. Prasanna and his crew was in Anuradapura on October 22nd, the day the Liberation Tigers attacked the Anuradapura Air Force camp. However, Prasanna displaying his great quality as a film maker was able to forge ahead with his crew to continue filming despite the military cordoning off areas and conducting search operations. At several points he and his crew were stopped by the military, but Prasanna being Prasanna was able to convince the soldiers that they were from the state owned film corporation and therefore was performing a state duty. When the documentary ‘Trap’ was released it narrated the story of human victims of Trap Guns used by hunters to capture wild animals. Many audiences on viewing this documentary greatly appreciated Prasanna’s technological savviness and his creativity to generate ideas for the documentary, selection of locations, music and other elements that are essential for the creation of a successful production. Ten years have passed since Prasanna produced that documentary and even today it is being used by civil society organizations and international agencies in their campaign against small fire arms.
After the production of the documentary, Prasanna and I remained good friends. Prasanna loved the outdoors and whenever he came for his short stays in Sri Lanka, he loved travelling around the country and would often ask me to join him. I used to own a small Indian car at the time and we would travel around the country in this car and very often Prasanna liked to take those roads that were less travelled. My favorite memories of Prasanna is of travelling in my car to remote corners of Sri Lanka and spending a few days in these locations exploring and having a drink of gin over one of our many and endless conversations that used to run well into the night. Our conversations ranged on a variety of topics, including art, culture, religion, politics and his most favorite topic anti racism and social and political justice. During these discussions Prasanna always had something interesting to add. It saddens me deeply that I will never have the opportunity again to be able to talk to him. Prasanna was extremely responsible, intelligent and caring. I knew that I could trust him with anything and I respected him more than words can describe.
Prasanna was a good friend and always paid attention to the small things. I remember one time when Prasanna got to know that I was interested in growing herbs, during his last visit to Sri Lanka in February 2016, he brought me a full range of English herb seed packets, but in my inexperienced hands only the Basil and Rosemary plants survived.
Among us sometimes he played the role of the unofficial mentor. Once he is aware, that there will be a discussion on a particular subject or topic with him, he will come to the meeting with a outline of key points of what he wants to share with us and have a plan ready for imparting his input to the discussion in an effective and expedient way.
At one stage, after meeting Prasanna, I started learning Sinhalese typing to overcome the mistakes done by typesetters in my translations. No sooner, he learnt that I could do translations and Sinhalese typing, he encouraged me to undertake translations from English to Sinhalese for an international Human Rights Organization. That was his nature. Whenever he noticed a person’s ability to grow, he always helped that person without any hesitation. Like myself, he supported a number of people and organizations to grow. One example of such an organization is a womens’ network called ‘Savistri’; He supported them to build up their own photography and filming unit as a part of the organization.
It is incredibly sad that Prasanna’s life ended so soon and I cannot put into words how much I will miss him. Prasanna was a positive person and would not want us to be sad today. If he was here, he would tell us to cheer up, smile and remember all of the great memories we all shared. Even though Prasanna may be gone, his memory and his vision will live on in all of us forever. Prasanna, I will forever appreciate your friendship and will never forget you.
Finally, I would like to share a poem written by late Derek Bourne-Jones and displayed at the entrance of the Springvale Botanical Cemetery in Melbourne Australia under the title of; ‘No Distance Place’
If dear one I should die, And too, this is the test
My constant prayer will be, Of that philosophy,
That you share my belief, In which our two minds grew,
And know the reason why, The soul’s eternity.
You go on and live.
Bernard Edirisinghe 23 July 2017
It was only once Prasanna passed away that I came to know that he had lot of faith and trust in me and considered me as being one of his closest of friends. Therefore, it is indeed a privilege to pay tribute to him and celebrate his life with his partner Margret, family members and friends.
Prasanna and I met at the Safer World Sri Lanka office nearly 15 years ago. He came to Sri Lanka to make a documentary film for Safer World on issues related small fire arms. We agreed to travel to the North Central Province to hunt locations and on our way we planned to discuss the plot of the documentary. On this journey Prasanna brought along a bottle of Bombay Sapphire; it’s the first time that any of the Sri Lankans on that trip tasted and enjoyed this particular brand of gin. Naturally the gin and tonic stimulated the discussion on the documentary and we were all surprised as to how open minded Prasanna was and of his ready willingness to accept opinions and input made by the others in the team without any judgment.
He had an uncanny ability to envision a film from its conception through to its end. He never lost sight of the ultimate goal of the production. This particular documentary was filmed in October 2007. Prasanna and his crew was in Anuradapura on October 22nd, the day the Liberation Tigers attacked the Anuradapura Air Force camp. However, Prasanna displaying his great quality as a film maker was able to forge ahead with his crew to continue filming despite the military cordoning off areas and conducting search operations. At several points he and his crew were stopped by the military, but Prasanna being Prasanna was able to convince the soldiers that they were from the state owned film corporation and therefore was performing a state duty. When the documentary ‘Trap’ was released it narrated the story of human victims of Trap Guns used by hunters to capture wild animals. Many audiences on viewing this documentary greatly appreciated Prasanna’s technological savviness and his creativity to generate ideas for the documentary, selection of locations, music and other elements that are essential for the creation of a successful production. Ten years have passed since Prasanna produced that documentary and even today it is being used by civil society organizations and international agencies in their campaign against small fire arms.
After the production of the documentary, Prasanna and I remained good friends. Prasanna loved the outdoors and whenever he came for his short stays in Sri Lanka, he loved travelling around the country and would often ask me to join him. I used to own a small Indian car at the time and we would travel around the country in this car and very often Prasanna liked to take those roads that were less travelled. My favorite memories of Prasanna is of travelling in my car to remote corners of Sri Lanka and spending a few days in these locations exploring and having a drink of gin over one of our many and endless conversations that used to run well into the night. Our conversations ranged on a variety of topics, including art, culture, religion, politics and his most favorite topic anti racism and social and political justice. During these discussions Prasanna always had something interesting to add. It saddens me deeply that I will never have the opportunity again to be able to talk to him. Prasanna was extremely responsible, intelligent and caring. I knew that I could trust him with anything and I respected him more than words can describe.
Prasanna was a good friend and always paid attention to the small things. I remember one time when Prasanna got to know that I was interested in growing herbs, during his last visit to Sri Lanka in February 2016, he brought me a full range of English herb seed packets, but in my inexperienced hands only the Basil and Rosemary plants survived.
Among us sometimes he played the role of the unofficial mentor. Once he is aware, that there will be a discussion on a particular subject or topic with him, he will come to the meeting with a outline of key points of what he wants to share with us and have a plan ready for imparting his input to the discussion in an effective and expedient way.
At one stage, after meeting Prasanna, I started learning Sinhalese typing to overcome the mistakes done by typesetters in my translations. No sooner, he learnt that I could do translations and Sinhalese typing, he encouraged me to undertake translations from English to Sinhalese for an international Human Rights Organization. That was his nature. Whenever he noticed a person’s ability to grow, he always helped that person without any hesitation. Like myself, he supported a number of people and organizations to grow. One example of such an organization is a womens’ network called ‘Savistri’; He supported them to build up their own photography and filming unit as a part of the organization.
It is incredibly sad that Prasanna’s life ended so soon and I cannot put into words how much I will miss him. Prasanna was a positive person and would not want us to be sad today. If he was here, he would tell us to cheer up, smile and remember all of the great memories we all shared. Even though Prasanna may be gone, his memory and his vision will live on in all of us forever. Prasanna, I will forever appreciate your friendship and will never forget you.
Finally, I would like to share a poem written by late Derek Bourne-Jones and displayed at the entrance of the Springvale Botanical Cemetery in Melbourne Australia under the title of; ‘No Distance Place’
If dear one I should die, And too, this is the test
My constant prayer will be, Of that philosophy,
That you share my belief, In which our two minds grew,
And know the reason why, The soul’s eternity.
You go on and live.
Bernard Edirisinghe 23 July 2017
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