Dr Ajantha Ranasingha: Mahathmaya Sign In journalism & Sinhala Song
Dr Ranga Kalansooriya
The demise of Dr Ajantha Ranasinghe is the end of a legend, not only in one field but of two – Sinhala songs and journalism in Sri Lanka. His contributions to both fields counted over five decades and he rendered his services until his death. Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation admired this unmatchable personality by appointing as a Consultant to the institution at the last stage of his life.
Creating his own brand mainly in composing lyrics, probably Dr Ajantha himself would not be able to count the number of songs he has created for the past half-a-century period.
“Mahathmaya” was his most favorite word that was at the tip of his tongue. He would call even the highest rankers of the country with this slang and even his second generation like us, too, got used to it.
We grew up with his songs and are still living with them – those are not limited to any age group. Even in his 70’s, Dr Ajantha’s romances would never fade away, mainly in his lyrics. When I once mentioned this fact to him, the response was spontaneous. “That is the way Mahathmaya, never should one get old – young at heart forever.”
My engagement with him was since my childhood. Being a close friend and colleague of my mother (Somadevi Paranayapa) at Dinamina Editorial we grew up with his kids –Saaranga and Deva. We always were looking forward to annual staff trips of the Dinamina Editorial and it would never be completed with ‘Ajantha Uncle.’ Added to his team were Thilakaratna Kuruwita Bandara, N G Dharmawardhana, Anura Bandara Rajaguru, Mohan Lal Piyadasa, Amara P Weerasinghe , present Dinamina Editor Pushpa Rowel and a few others. Saman Chandranath Weerasinghe joined this team later. When my mother suffered a serious cancer in late 80s, this team organized a welfare system to our family took keep the home fire alive and a vehicle load of food and rations would reach our home on monthly basis with some cash donations – Ajantha uncle would bring them along.