Harry J : The unforgettable

On the meaning of loyalty and friendship

- By Krishantha Prasad Cooray

HARRY Jayawardena passed away a year ago. Twelve months. Three hundred and sixty five days. The time has ticked quickly. And yet, it is as though it was just the other day that we last spoke.

It is not surprising, really. After all, we were the closest of friends. There were no filters between us when we spoke. It was brutally honest conversations that we had. We spoke our minds freely. Although he was very much older, he treated me like a friend he had known all his life. He even called me ‘Lokka’ - a private joke between us , because that is also how I addressed him. He didn’t feel ‘older.’ He was, not in years, but in life experiences.

Harry Jayawardena, as everyone knows, was an iconic businessman and industrialist. He was in fact a kind of King Midas of Sri Lankan enterprise; whatever he touched, prospered. The fearlessness, the uncompromising relentlessness and attention to detail are unmatched. He didn’t exactly lecture me, but I knew him enough and listened to him enough to be privy, in a sense, to the man and his thinking. He didn’t set out to impart knowledge but he was so generous with advice and honest in our interactions that I could not but learn from him.