Appreciations

“Death can only take you away from me but it can never take the precious bond and memories

we made together for 60 long years.”

The year 1961 was when I was stationed at Anuradhapura attached to the Divisional Irrigation Engineers Office that I got a message from home regarding a marriage proposal and needed my consent. Seeing the prospective bride to be I gave my consent and the event was to take place on the 9th of April 1961 for having seen her it was love at first sight.

My bride to be was well known in our family circles as BINKIE and she was well known as a Sports woman of no mean repute. She excelled in Badminton and Tennis and was awarded the coveted colours when she was schooling at Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya. She was partnered by none other than a Maldivian girl who later rose to fame by becoming a Government Minister.

Binkie was also a conscientious social worker who would be a saviour of the downtrodden. Doing as she did for charitable institutions as for cancer patients she joined the Moratuwa Branch of the Sri Lanka Cancer Society and did yeomen service by holding the highest portfolio and did not benefit the society by her benevolence. She was a large hearted individual who would go out of her way to help the poor.

She was made the Patron of WASALAM at their AGM in recognition of her services to the Malay Ladies who had formed this Association.

In conclusion of the main event we made it to Anuradhapura to our residential quarters which were made available to us.

Having settled down in all aspects we announced our first arrival which was a baby boy born on the 21st of March 1962. This happy event was followed by the second arrival a baby girl but under different circumstances on the 14th of November 1964 when I had just got transferred to the Irrigation Engineers Office at Trincomalee. With the baby boom over life was a bit hard but no doubt interesting enough to bring us joy and happiness.

Subsequently I then got a transfer to my home station Colombo and this saw the children attending school when we decided to make 79, Katukurunda, Moratuwa our permanent home. With the passage of time it was time to see our children having found their partners and marriages were in the offing. My daughter subsequently was blessed with 2 boys Ranshan and Shehan and the son with a daughter Anika and Kiaan, the son.

At this stage of our life our genial Son-In-Law suggested that we should move about and see a good part of the world and it was with his approval we thought of making a pilgrimage to our Holy City of Mecca in the performance of UMRAH when my Mother-in-Law and my dear old brother joined us. We were the honoured guests of brother NIYAZ who was attached to the Inter-Continental Hotel in Jeddah who saw to all our arrangements and how thankful we were to have been so well looked after.

My son lftikar had just joined the European Asian Bank in Colombo and posted to Singapore and he as much as we were able to have short stays in Singapore and Vietnam whilst visiting interesting places of both countries with them. Added to the bargain towards the latter part of the year a Tour to the Holy Land and we had the good fortune of joining them at Jerusalem. Here we got the opportunity of praying at ISLAMS Oldest Mosque AL AZARA and DOME of the Rock. The five times prayer was originated and confirmed by the Holy Prophet when he took flight on this historical journey from the Dome.

We also had the good fortune to visit the TAJ MAHAL and the Great Wall of China. Invitation to visit Perth in Australia and New Zealand in all its aspects was by our invitation from the BURAHS, who had made the above personal homes and invited us to be with them for a short time.

The piece de —resistance of all our visits could not rival when we were a part of the Tour arranged by QUEST TRAVELS by our own son-in-law and his wife. We were then able to see a good part of the U.S.A. Discovery of Orlando Florida, Washington D.C. New York. The Niagara Falls and many more sights added to the bargain.

With the passage of time and cracks in our health made Binkie weaker by the day and how unfortunate was she to be a Covid victim. All I ask All Mighty Allah is to make her QABRR brighter and spacious and making her journey safely and enter the much deserved “JANNATHUL FIRDHOUSE” which she rightly deserves.

- T. Aniff Ahamed