Easter always brings to mind a special programme Bonsoir did with an enterprising bell maker in Moratuwa. We were constantly looking out for Franco-Sri Lankan links, and this seemed the ideal choice for Easter.
Once, when driving along the Galle Road in Moratuwa, I saw a board hung on a tree. It proclaimed “Bell Making for Sale” (yes, you read that correctly) with a landline number underneath. Mobile phones were unheard of at that time. Intrigued, I noted the number anyway, not realising it would come in useful years later.
After prior introductions via telephone, the Bonsoir team finally landed at the house of Phillip Garvin Matthes. His workshop adjoined his house. The plan was that he showed us the entire bell making process ‒ building the mould, melting the bronze, pouring the sizzling liquid into the mould, letting it set, breaking the mould, removing the hardened bell, engraving, polishing, and tuning it.
In all foolish enthusiasm, we thought and genuinely believed that this was all in a day’s work. With a glint in his eye, Mr. Matthes also led us on. He began making the mould, which seemed to take an eternity. Sensing our badly veiled impatience halfway through, he produced an identical (previously made) one. This mercifully enabled us to telescope time.
Melting the bronze was done in-situ. The flames blazed and there we were sweating in our office clothes. Then came aerated water (alias “cool drinks”), for which we amply blessed him. Pouring the liquid bronze into the mould was a spectacle to behold. It was golden, rich, and thick, like molten lava and yet so untouchable! Chintha protected the camera as though it were a child, in fact more than he protected himself from the heat and flames.
Deep in a pit, the mould was filled to capacity, prodded to let the air bubbles out, sealed, and “put to sleep”. Said Mr. Matthes, “Dang ithin indagana inna, sumanayak withara, seenuwa hai wenakang” (“Now sit and wait for a week till the bell sets”). We freaked out! It was Monday and well past 12 noon. We had to film, edit, and send the cassette to ITN by Friday for the following Monday’s telecast. The whole programme was scripted around this blessed bell, which we had linked with a similar artisanal bell-maker in rural France.
He saw our agitation and calmly said, “Kalabala wenna epa. Mahansith athi ne. Api dang kamu!” (“Don’t get excited. You must be hungry. Let’s eat”). No, we were too upset to enjoy what-must-have-been a delicious lunch cooked by his wife Lakshmi and their school going daughters Thivanga and Sathya Lanka.
There was even curd and kithul honey for dessert which we ate, perfunctorily.
At the end of it all, Mr. Matthes calmly told us that, knowing how long it would take, he had made a similar bell a month ago, and had it ready for us to “unearth” that day. The entire Bonsoir team almost pounced on him and hugged him in gratitude.
And so we valiantly helped him break the mould and unearth the bell, wash and clean it, watch Mr. Matthes engrave, tune and polish it ‒ hey, presto ‒ as though it all happened in a day’s work! As usual, Bonsoir’s viewers the following Monday didn’t ever realise the agonising moments we underwent!
PS: On this programme, we also featured the Little Sisters of the Poor, a French order founded by Jeanne Jugan in the 19th Century near Rennes in France’s Brittany region.
In Sri Lanka, the Little Sisters of the Poor serve the old, the poor, and the needy through their Home for the Elderly located at 204, T.B. Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 10, adjoining St. Joseph’s College. This too was a memorable experience and a lesson in absolute simplicity and humility.
Born on 25 October 1792 in Cancale, in the village of Petites Croix, Jeanne Jugan was baptised on the same day in the Church of Saint-Méen during the time of the French Revolution.
She opened her door and her heart, one cold winter’s evening in 1839, to a blind, semi-paralysed elderly woman who had suddenly found herself alone. Jeanne gave the woman her own bed. This was the beginning of a lifelong commitment to God and her fellow countrymen.
Also known as “Sister Mary of the Cross”, she died on 29 August 1879 at Pern in France, aged 86. She was beatified on 3 October 1982 by Pope John Paul II in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI canonised Blessed Jeanne Jugan as one of the newest Saints of the Catholic Church on 11 October 2009 in Rome.