{"id":114298,"date":"2021-05-16T15:19:22","date_gmt":"2021-05-16T22:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114298"},"modified":"2021-05-16T15:19:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-16T22:19:22","slug":"hemasiri-perera-a-true-renunciant-though-a-layman-appreciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/05\/16\/hemasiri-perera-a-true-renunciant-though-a-layman-appreciation\/","title":{"rendered":"Hemasiri Perera – A true renunciant though a layman -Appreciation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Samarasinghe<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"
Hemasiri Perera<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hemasiri Perera is among the few people with\nextraordinary qualities I have met in my life. He was a practising Buddhist and\nI would call him a true renunciant though a layman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came to know Mr. Perera in Winnipeg, Canada\nwhere he migrated with his loving wife Prema to spend their retirement with\ntheir daughter Nirosha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a student of Henegama Central College,\nin the Gampaha District and was the first from this school to enter University.\nHis mathematics teacher in school, now living in Winnipeg, Mylvaganam\nSubramaniam remembers him as a hosteller, a hardworking and well-dressed\nstudent. We conducted a Zoom meeting with Mr. Perera on his birthday on March\n13, 2021 and Mr. and Mrs Subramaniam too joined to wish him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1964, he graduated from the University of\nPeradeniya. As a student he was at Jayathilaka Hall.  During his\nuniversity days he was an outstanding table tennis player. He was a versatile\ncharacter with multidisciplinary knowledge but as he was following subjects related\nto a statistics degree, his batchmates called him Stat Perera.  After\ncompleting his degree Mr. Perera worked as an Assistant Lecturer at the\nUniversity of Vidyalankara. For a short time, he was an Economic Advisor to the\nLanka Steel Corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until his retirement, he worked as Director of\nthe Coconut Research Institute, Lunuwila and at the Coconut Development\nAuthority, Colombo. He was a consultant to the United Nations Development\nProgramme (UNDP) and several other UN agencies as well as quite a few countries\non behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was the author of two Sinhala books – Gami\nAndarayak <\/em>(Rural Anecdote) and Udella, Ma Ena Thuru Bala\nSitee<\/em> (Mammoty, Waiting for Me). In the latter he illustrated the\nhistorical and current conditions in countries such as the Netherlands, France,\nEngland, Indonesia, India and Pacific Islands. While in Sri Lanka recently, he\nwas busy with trying to publish his third Sinhala book about new management\nskills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has also published seven books in English\non the coconut industry in Sri Lanka drawn from his experience gained from his\ndecades within the coconut sector looking at aspects of economics, desiccated\ncoconut, coconut cultivation in Hambantota District, domestic marketing,\nproductivity and high yielding varieties. These publications and his extensive\nknowledge made us identify him as a walking encyclopedia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sri Lankan Association of Manitoba (SLAM)\nutilised his extensive knowledge to script and train performers in a drama and\nfolklore performance highlighting Sri Lankan heritage. Mr. Perera\u2019s talents\nwere in evidence at the grand annual event held during the Sinhala and Tamil\nNew Year celebrations. Sometimes he joined in singing folk songs as well. His\ncapabilities helped us to relive our good old memories of home and showcase our\nrich culture among Canadian communities. Subsequently, he joined the Sri Lankan\n55+ Seniors Group and in 2018 was elected as a Board Member. He was re-elected\nto the Board in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also joined the South Side Seniors \u2013 the\nsenior\u2019s group of the Trinity United Church and was very popular among non-Sri\nLankan members too. When the co-chair of the Church Seniors Group came to know\nthe sad news of his passing on April 7, they conducted a remembrance service\nfor him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Perera who had been in Sri Lanka for more\nthan one year to attend to some domestic matters, fell ill at this time and was\nlooked after with utmost care by his second son Priyantha. His eldest son\nChanna is working in Singapore for more than three decades and is closely\nassociated with Ven. (Dr.) Omalpe Sobitha Nayaka Thera, Chief Incumbent of the\nBodhiraja Viharaya in Singapore. Ven. Sobitha Thera in fact visited to bless\nhim and conducted a Pansukulaya (Buddhist funeral service) as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senaka Samarasinghe<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senaka Samarasinghe Hemasiri Perera is among the few people with extraordinary qualities I have met in my life. He was a practising Buddhist and I would call him a true renunciant though a layman. I came to know Mr. Perera in Winnipeg, Canada where he migrated with his loving wife Prema to spend their retirement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}