Dulip Flavian Raphael Jayamaha was well-read, gentle, conscientiously committed, and interested in things.
To me, in terms of appearance, he looked the same, from the moment I knew of him, some 30 years or so ago, until the day he died, unexpectedly, on 27 April 2025, a year ago, aged 80. Lean, stately, and with an elderly countenance, he looked somewhat like what I would have imagined a character out of a Dickensian novel to look like, though I cannot pinpoint which one.
In 1997, thinking highly of ourselves and of our Josephian excerpt of ‘Hamlet,’ we proudly took part in the Shakespeare Drama Competition, organised then, as it is now, by the Rotary Club of Colombo North and the Colombo YMCA.
He was the face of the organising committee, indeed the livewire behind it all. So naturally, when we did not win, not even a place in the finals, our combined feelings of wrath, disbelief, and a sharp sense of injustice were directed straight at the organisers and judges.
Years later, having been invited to judge the same competition, and having had to have faced similar sentiments, I realise what a difficult and thankless job organising such a thing is, year in year out, as he did, for at least the last 30 years or so.
It involves little fanfare and pomp, instead replaced by mundane nitty-gritty, even flack, with no personal gain. So why would someone do it? And so consistently, and for so long? Therein lies a key insight into his person. A steady hand, a steady head, and a deep sense of interest in the development of the character of people.
It goes without saying that the anvil of the Shakespeare Drama Competition (now known as ‘Shakes’) – devised to help address the lacuna left by Sri Lanka’s far-reaching mistake of phasing out English and the classics from our regular school curriculum – has helped forge, wittingly and unwittingly, the characters of many, and we all owe him a huge debt of gratitude, as does, in particular, almost the entirety of the English theatre culture in Colombo today.
He was well respected for his professional craft. He had a solid corporate clientele who relied on him. Indeed, one could categorise him as an expert and a pioneer in the field of condominium law in Sri Lanka. His advice was sought and relied on in the construction and development of many modern high-rise apartments and condominiums we see in Colombo today.
He also served on many corporate boards. He was conferred silk in 2019. All this he carried through with simplicity, hard work, and little or no self-promotion, a telling message to all those who seem to think that self-publicity in the daily newspapers and over socials is the way to get ahead in today’s world.
There was also a significant public sector aspect to his life. When the Board of Investment (BOI), then the Greater Colombo Economic Commission, was conceived in the late 1970s, he was one of those involved, serving as legal consultant in 1980. A simple law, designed to achieve powerful impact, provided the right people marshal it.
He served on the Board of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, was the first Chairman of Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd. (CPSTL) and a Director of Lanka Cement Ltd. These roles gave him an insight into the machinery of state, as well as how the country operated and ought to operate in these all important sectors.
He was a family man and a devout Catholic, a regular at the 8.30 a.m. Sunday mass service at St. Mary’s Church, Bambalapitiya, involved in parish activities, and chaired its Centenary Jubilee Committee in 2008. He was the President of the Welfare Committee of his daughters’ school, Holy Family Convent. He was also a distinguished Rotarian of the Rotary Club of Colombo North since 1979.
I join issue only with the fact that he settled for second-best in terms of schools, being a Benedictine and a Peterite.
All in all, he was the kind of all-rounder that Sri Lanka needs more of, but has less of.
Through his example, we are reminded that the magnificent can often reside within what is perceived to be the mundane, and in the nitty-gritty and in the silent perseverance of the conscientious. I am reminded somehow of the poetry of William Blake (‘Auguries of Innocence’).
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
In the last 10 years or so, I had grown close to him. We used to talk often over the phone, sometimes long conversations. I valued his perspective and his counsel. He gave me some of my first briefs during the start of my solo career, for which I cannot understate how grateful I am. His death was a real shock to me, and I do miss him.
His legacy truly lives on in the impactful life he lived, in those of us he inspired, and in his in family, who was his bedrock – his wife Carmenika, the wind beneath his wings, and in his daughters Lasika, who continues his ‘Shakes’ legacy, and Priyanti, who continues the legacy of his practice, now in its third generation.
(The writer is a President’s Counsel)