Ibn Batuta’s pilgrimage, and Ameena Hussein’s

Reviewed by BY Pror. RAJIvA WIJESINHA

- 

Forty years ago, a charming old gentleman, as he seemed to me then, came to Lakmahal to ask me to help his two daughters with their English.

This was when, unem-ployed I think, I had private classes at home, at the big dining table. The one request he made was, for they were Muslim, that either he or his wife should sit there.

I remember one or the other sitting quietly in a chair by the front door, reading a book, while I taught the girls whom I remember being remarkably bright eyed and heartening in their respons-es. And then I lost sight of them, until some years back I found that Ameena Hussein, the older, had married a boy called Sam Perera, and they had set up the Perera-Hussein Publishing House.

They were clearly both in love with books, and I was not surprised when, a couple of years ago, my niece asked Ameena to serve on the Board of the Lakmahal Community Library, which she set up in the half of Lakmahal that went to my sis-ter when we divided the house. She gave it to her daughter, who has set up a library there, a won-derful idea, which seems to fill a great need, for the youngsters who flock there, to read and to study and to meet, for older people who borrow books regularly, and for literary events that need a suitable venue.

Ameena is I think the most literary member of the Board, and also sits on the editorial board of the internet magazine my niece has set up, with which I too assist. It was intended to include just stories, but I said there was no point in not having poetry, and we have lots of that, though much editing is needed.

The only short story published thus far was edited by Ameena.