Cooking up a Nation: Hilda Deutrom and the Daily News Cookery Book

In memory of my grandaunt Kathleen Deutrom, the best storyteller I know.

(17^th May 1919 – 07^th September 2015)

65 Years Ago Today

Hoisting the Lion Flag at Independence Square in 1948 

65 years ago, today, hands were shaken, the ink dried on the paper and one flag fell as another was raised. Proud smiles, excited smiles, smiles of relief for some - this was not going to be another nightmare of partition, countless lives wouldn't end dramatically as one country became two. No, that was for another time, another age. And the men of 65 years ago could not foresee the future. Lucky them. They got to make the decisions. We got to suffer the consequences. The fate of millions decided by a few men, as always.

 'Ceylon' - 'free'?

Yes. At last! Her people no longer colonized. No longer othered. No longer demeaned? After 400 years she believes that she is free. 

65 years later Ceylon is no more. She has evolved. She has grown. She has scars - she can show you. Some say she is more beautiful than ever, paradise regained - paradise found. Others say - she is in ruins. She has failed the expectations of 65 years ago.

Sri Lanka, full of new roads and highways, hotels and ports. "Every verdant village" and "every palmy coast", milked for all it is worth. Her people have betrayed her. They look alike but are mostly divided. They speak of justice but practice injustice. All that is right has become wrong. The wise have made way for the mad. 

Sri Lanka robbed, pillaged and plundered. This was not what they envisioned 65 years ago.

65 years ago, Independence was celebrated but today, 65 years later, her people are still in chains. 

Lionel Wendt in Popular Limerick

Lionel Wendt photographed by  W.J.G Beling probably during the 1930s  in Colombo, Ceylon
(writer's private collection. All Rights Reserved)

My 93 year old grand-aunt, [Kathleen Deutrom], is a wealth of information and a walking encyclopedia in her own right. In the middle of a conversation she might suddenly break off into a  poem or verse which she remembers from her youth. Yesterday she provided me with a little gem of a limerick on Lionel Wendt (1900 - 1944), Sri Lanka's art connoisseur par excellence during the early 20th century. According to Aunty Kathleen this appeared in the papers a long time ago. My guess is that it was perhaps published during Wendt's lifetime as its tongue in cheek lyrics seem to suggest. I am not sure how the original was spelled so have taken the added liberty of writing it the way I think it may have been originally written. 

Lionel went to the cinema to witness Citizen Kane

Lionel went not only once he also went again

Lionel went on business and not on pleasure bent

I'm sure the new Olympia is glad that Lionel Wendt