Hudson kept mother at elders’ home, but 'marketed' her death

 Wednesday, 09 October 2013

With a faked grief following the death of his mother, R.M. Podihamine, on Friday, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation chairman Hudson Samarasinghe is, these days, singing praises of motherhood instead of his customary share of raw filth to start a bad day for SLBC’s listeners, according to SLBC sources.

Being sorrowful over the loss of a mother is a noble quality of a good offspring, but the SLBC chairman has done even that by misleading the world. Being a person who is subjected to the worst possible denunciation by listeners of the SLBC, he has used the loss of his mother to earn some sympathy from the world. This son does not at least know the age of his own mother. Although she died at the age of 92 years, Hudson the son had told those who had attended the funeral that she was 100 years old.

The SLBC chairman had come to understand the value of his mother just one week prior to her passing. Until then, she had been looked after by her youngest daughter at her home at Yakkala in Gampaha. After that daughter had domiciled in Australia, Hudson’s brother who lives in Peradeniya, and his wife had come to stay in Yakkala in order to look after the mother. All this time, Hudson had had no time at all to inquire about the woman who had given birth to him. He does not have any connection at all with his own siblings, but gives lectures over the SLBC about the value of love among siblings.

Hudson’s sister-in-law, who had been caring for Mrs. Podihamine, fell ill and Hudson had suddenly entered the scene and brought his mother for a few days from Yakkala to Colombo, where he stationed her at an elders’ home. But, she died there a few days later. From then on, Hudson began ‘marketing’ the death of his mother. Hudson brought the remains of the mother, who had been kept at elders’ homes on four different occasions, to his No. 255/E/11, Torrington Avenue home with the sole intention of getting the president, ministers and other VVIPs to visit his house. The body was brought there at 11.00 am on Saturday (05) and an hour later, the president came, placed a wreath and paid his last respects. Hudson Samarasinghe, fabricating a falsehood, said the funeral should take place within 24 hours according to her last wish, but what he wanted was to prevent his brother and sisters from taking part in the funeral of their mother.

Quite unexpectedly for the SLBC chairman, his brother who had been caring for the mother, and his son, came to the Jawatte Cemetery and appealed that they be allowed to have one final look at their dear departed mother. The SLBC security men and the henchmen of the chairman drove them away, saying “You came to remember your mother only now. All this time, it was our sir who had done everything. Now, you are coming here with a false love.” The duo then went to Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and the DIG in charge of Colombo who were present, and asked them to intervene and get them an opportunity to pay their last respects to the mother. However, by that time, her remains had forcibly been placed inside the crematin chamber.

Saying “You’re a good-for-nothing, you will be struck by lightning without rain for this crime. It was us who had looked after mother all this time. You are playacting now,” Hudson’s only brother and his son left the cemetery, both in grief and anger.

The person who told us this story about Hudson’s façade although being part of a tragedy, recalled an incident in Matugama some time ago, where a man who had never cared for his mother had come to know of her death, came wailing all the way, requested that he be allowed to hold the funeral according to his wish and kept the remains at his home for seven days. It later transpired that the man had practically sold the body of his mother to the village’s gaming baron and had held a gaming parlour at the funeral home for the full seven days. The only difference between that son and Hudson the son is that Hudson’s home did not have a gaming parlour during the funeral, he said further.