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sadly, both Tennekoon and Bandara passed away in 2005.
We
lost Tennekoon in February and Bandara in July. Both were
irreplaceable and central characters of Ulpotha.
If Ulpotha can be said to be about the vision and the
philosophy of any one person, that person has to be Tennekoon.
He stayed true to his principles throughout and was an
inspiration and pleasure to have as a partner and friend.
He succumbed in February to a deteriorating heart condition
that he had been suffering from for the past few years.
As for Bandara, it was during a stay at his home that
the property was stumbled upon and the original folly
of Ulpotha born. And as much as he was party to that serendipitous
beginning, he has also been a much loved colleague all
along the way. His contributions to the culinary delights
of Ulpotha cannot be overstated - any more than his enthusiasm
for a good party could be overstated. Bandara suffered
a stroke while preparing dinner on the last day of our
2005 summer season and passed away peacefully later that
night.
We like to think that most of the special characters at
Ulpotha share a streak of benign madness, and that Ulpotha
is a happy manifestation of the point at which those various
streaks of madness intersect. Though Tennekoon and Bandara
are no longer with us, they will always be a part of what
Ulpotha was, is and will become. We are thankful for their
lives.
It was Tennekoon who liked to say that there should only
be leisure, pleasure and rest in life. We wish that both
Tennekoon and Bandara may now rest in eternal peace –
if there is any leisure and pleasure to be found in the
afterlife, we can be sure they will be on to it.
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