Returning to source with Aga

The last time I met Aga I had made up my mind to bring him a few things, stationery mostly, to help him along with his writing.

- SHIRAN ILLANPERUMA

His desk was a somewhat chaotic cluster of cardboard folders, containing loose sheets of paper on which had written his manuscripts - sometimes, a page would spill out onto the table and I worried how he could figure out what went where. At the centre of this celestial orbit were the party's old weeklies and national congress reports, like a compass guiding his research.

Sadly, time got the better of us, and I never did get to refresh his stationary supply.

Aga Jayasena (15 February 194228 October 2025), was a communist as old as the Sri Lanka's communist movement itself, being born less than a year before the founding of the Ceylon Communist Party (2-3 July 1943). He joined the party as a full-timer immediately after graduating from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and cut his teeth organising peasants in Badulla and Monaragala. He recalled that he lacked the confidence to give his own speeches in his early days as an organiser, so would read aloud the articles from the communist daily Aththa. A lifelong learner, communicator, and educator, he soon found a place in the party's central committee, politburo, education department, and as a national organiser.