{"id":23332,"date":"2013-07-27T18:55:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T22:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=23332"},"modified":"2013-07-27T22:35:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-28T02:35:40","slug":"hema-pereraloving-land-lady-with-warm-hearted-affection-for-her-tenants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=23332","title":{"rendered":"Hema Perera: Loving Land Lady with Warm Hearted Affection For her Tenants."},"content":{"rendered":"

by Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hema<\/a>

Hema Perera – pic: The Hindu<\/p><\/div>\n

Returning to my home-office from a meeting or a press conference, I\u2019d got used to find steaming hot tea in a flask and a plate of sandwiches waiting on my dining table.<\/p>\n

They were from the \u201clady downstairs\u201d. I already knew about her before I moved to Colombo four months ago. My predecessors had told me about her. I thought they were exaggerating a landlady\u2019s warmth and affection for her tenants, until I got here.
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\nThen I saw for myself the tray of goodies waiting for me day after day, morning and evening, sometimes laden with neatly cut sandwiches, or cakes that she had made or just cheese and crackers. The tray would be taken away as quietly as the full one had appeared. It was almost like magic.<\/p>\n

Her sweet-toned \u201cgood morning\u201d when she spotted me leaving for a walk soon became addictive and I began realising what my colleagues meant in their praise.<\/p>\n

I dread going down in the morning now, for I will not hear that warm greeting any more. Hema Perera, owner of the premises housing The Hindu\u2019s home-office in Colombo for nearly three decades, passed away here on Tuesday. She was 81 and is survived by her daughter Deeptika Amarasinghe and son Anura Hettiarachchi.<\/p>\n

Her warmth and hospitality were not reserved only for The Hindu\u2019s Colombo correspondents. This is how she treated everyone around her \u2014 friends, relatives, her domestic help, the cook, driver, and The Hindu\u2019s office help.<\/p>\n

The Hindu has been a tenant at the Pereras\u2019 spacious upstairs apartment ever since the first correspondent was posted here in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

It was their warmth \u2014 Mr. Perera passed away in 2007 \u2014 that made The Hindu\u2019s office The Hindu\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

Ms. Perera was one of the daughters of Angulugaha Gamage Hinniappuhamy, founder of Maliban, a famous biscuit company. Former correspondents who dropped in to see her on later visits to Colombo never left without a box of Maliban biscuits that she would unfailingly press into their hands, along with other gifts for their entire families. COURTESY:THE HINDU <\/em><\/p>\n

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by Meera Srinivasan Returning to my home-office from a meeting or a press conference, I\u2019d got used to find steaming hot tea in a flask and a plate of sandwiches waiting on my dining table. They were from the \u201clady downstairs\u201d. I already knew about her before I moved to Colombo four months ago. My …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Hema Perera: Loving Land Lady with Warm Hearted Affection For her Tenants.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23332"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23352,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23332\/revisions\/23352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}