I was talking with my cousin Bunchi (or Oshani) a few weeks ago in Colombo. We talked about old days and her late father, Mr. Sembukutti Aarachige Don Sunil Wilfred. He was known to many as Sunil. He was a loving father for Bunchi and her elder Brother, Oshan. Oshan presently lives in Melbourne with her wife and two kids. He is a computer security expert. When I was chatting with Bunchi she told me how her brother’s career choice have been influenced by their father. Then I started relating a few anecdotes about their father. Bunchi was surprised. She told me she never knew them. Actually it was also the first time I learned about Oshan’s career direction has been influenced by their father. So I promised Bunchi that I would write some of these memories before they are lost. I hope these anecdotes would help cherish memories of their father and their offspring would benefit from knowing the stories relating to their grandfather, who left this world rather prematurely.
To me, he was not Sunil or Wilfred uncle. To me he was Toffee Uncle. I believe I was about 2 years+ when he was dating my aunt, Kanthi Punchi. I vividly remember he brought toffees, or candy wrapped in colourful plastic wraps. He brought be toffees in large amounts. Often in colourful small tin buckets (of size of large beer mugs or 1 liter yoghurt cups. So I made a connection between toffee and him. He was the uncle who was bringing me buckets of toffee. He should be called Tofee Uncle (or Topi Uncle). Thereafter, my sister, my brother and my youngest cousin, Romesha, called him Topi Uncle.
Story goes that he met my aunt, Kanthi Punchi in Madhu. As Catholic families we all went on pilgrimage to Madhu Church near Vanni in the Northern Province every August to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Madhu. Every time, this trip was such an adventure. Catholic would do this long journey to Madhu in lorries and busses and trains and set up tents—which we used to call vaadiya. Only a few could afford properly built holiday houses then. My father was a master in putting up tents. He had this large khaki colour tents he would use to set up the roof. Wooden sticks could be bought easily to set up perimeter poles around which, clothes will be wrapped to provide a small hut like tent. On the ground it we had straw mats. There were cooking, praying, eating, praying and the whole thing was such an adventure for youngsters. I think in one of those years, our tent was set up closer to the police station in Madhu where Topi uncle used to work. She saw Kanthi Punchi and they fell in love (now, Bunchi need to fill in with details on this part of the story; she has to interview her mother). As I remember, it was a long distance love affair, as Topi Uncle was posted in Madhu and later in Mannar and/or Jaffna. So, there was a sort of a pause in their relationship or it was slow moving. But when Topi Uncle visited my mother’s home in Kolonnawa, he always brought me toffee! I was the only child and I was a toddler. So I was the lucky one, who surely enjoyed those toffees all by myself.
Topi Uncle came from Pamunugama, a traditional fishing village by the beach off Ja-ela. He also came from a Catholic family. He was employed by the Sri Lanka Police Force. And his last years in the police was with the CID or the Criminal Investigation Department. He was actually doing criminal investigations. He was specialized in finger-printing crime scenes. So, to all of you who watch CSI, CSI this and CSI that: I have seen Topi Uncle doing it when I was a child and he related stories, real stories which drew my jaws down!
Topi Uncle was a handsome fellow. Especially when he was young, in Pamunugama, he has been referred to as Jambu Sunil, mainly by young girls.
He taught me many things, including basic martial arts. I saw him bringing home his CSI finger print kit, with silver color powder, various brushes, and magnifying glasses, scales etc. He asked me to touch a glass and asked me to show my finger prints on it. I could not clearly show. Then he would sprinkle those silver powder on the glass and gentle brush them off with soft brushes to reveal my finger prints well visible on the glass. He would then ask me to peer through a large magnifying glass at my finger print. Is that my finger print? So large? I could see the pattern of lines on my finger on the glass. I could even count those lines (though it would take some time). It was magic. Absolute magic, to me. But it was actually pure science and true crime investigation techniques. And those days there were computers to match finger prints. He would also bring large, A4 size plastic sheets on which we could see an enlarged print of a thumb or another finger. He would then analyze that print, manually with another print held by CID files in the Police Department to see they match or not. These analysis is done by line by line on each print, making remarks and notes. They were to be presented at court hearings as evidence later. It was laborious work. But was true police work. Today when I hear about routine and widespread torture by the police in Sri Lanka to extract confessions out of suspects, I remember Topi Uncle doing hard investigative and analytical real police work to uncover crimes. Topi Uncle did not go to university to learn that! He learned through his work and possibly attended specialized courses. Today, that level of commitment and disciple has been lost by the police in Sri Lanka. The only investigation method they know is, torture! Sadly. After writing the first part of this blog, I shared it with Oshan and Bunchi. And Oshan then directed me to his blog about his father, Topi Uncle, in which he describe how as a son he saw his father\’s work and how his father has inspired him. Here is the link to Oshan\’s blog: http://oshans.com/2012/01/02/a-tribute-to-my-father-something-in-common/
Post mortems in the jungle
Among many duties Topi uncle did during his criminal investigation work was to be a police witness at post mortem inquiries. I am not sure whether this is a requirement or a circumstantial occurrence. He explained in numerous stories when he had to accompany the forensic pathologist to very remote parts of the country, often rural villages at the edge of jungles. I remember one such story vividly. It was in a rural village. Topi Uncle and the doctor reached the rural village where a homicide has been taken place. A person have been killed by a blow to the head. They reached this place after taking a bus and later walking a few kilometers through a footpath where no vehicle could pass through. By the time they reach the village, sun was setting and it was getting dark. There was no electricity. They had a torch light, but the batteries have gotten weaker. After reaching the crime scene where the body was, doctor asked the villages to set up a wooden stall. He then asked them to prepare two kerosene lamps, which we called kuppi laampuwa (a very basic home-made kerosene lamp). He then tied the lamps to the poles attached to the stall. He then laid polythene or thin rubber sheet he brought along on the wooden stall and quickly changed to his greenish overcoat. He then wore his surgical mask made of clothes and got his tools such as scalpels ready. Topi Uncle was watching anxiously. The doctor then asked the villagers to cover the area with a few large white clothes they have bought for the funeral procession of the deceased. He asked them not to disturb him until he finish examining the body. He told Topi Uncle to stay. He gave him a note pad and a pencil and asked to write what he is going to tell him when he start examining the body. He also told Topi Uncle to hold the torch light when he needed. He then started to cut and remove the skin around the hair line of the body. He skillfully removed the top part of the skull by using a small chisel-type equipment and a small hammer. He then examined the skull which had a fracture due to a blow to the head. He then asked Topi Uncle to wear an extra pair of gloved he had in his bag and gave the part of the removed skull (looking like a mini helmet) to Topi Uncle and asked him hold it. Topi Uncle was in shock. He was this young policeman and never seen something like this. First, he was not ready for this postmortem at all. He thought his job was to accompany the doctor to the crime scene and take down any notes and gather evidence. The postmortem in a makeshift open roof cloth hut with kerosene lamp was a shocker. But the doctor was the boss of the moment. He had to assist the doctor. He reluctantly held the part of the skull. Then the doctor carefully removed the brain and put it inside the bowl like skull, which is now being held by Topi Uncle. Then he asked Topi Uncle to hold the brain and the skull closer to the kerosene lamp. The doctor discovered the part of the brain that has been affected by blow through a broken part of the skull. He took the scalpel and cut a small part of the brain where he thought was affected by the blow. He took this part of the brain near the kerosene lamp and examined. He then asked Topi Uncle to put the partial skull and the brain in it on the wooden stall. He asked Topi Uncle to remove his gloves and take the note pad. He started dictating his report which Topi Uncle had to write under the kerosene lamp. He learned a lot of medical terms related to human anatomy through this exercise. After examining the body, the doctor put everything back in place and sewed the skin intact. Topi Uncle was relieved. It was a shocking experience. After doctor completed his report under the kerosene lamp, they had to make their way back to the main road to catch the last bus back. The torch light has used up all the battery power and they had to use one of the kerosene lamps to find their way back to the bus stop. Some villagers accompanied them, making sure that they do not step on cobras of wipers often active around these foot paths or adi paara.
Topi Uncle told these stories in the most interesting way that the listener’s jaws dropped in suspense. He had his way to make the stories interesting. For me, these stories were very special. No one in my class had ever heard such stories. When I tried telling them these stories, they thought I was crazy and making them up; they simply could not believe. It was too incredible for them. But I knew it was true. So I took a lot of pleasure by listening to these real life stories.
Investigating crime scenes—how the thieves open wardrobe (almirah) doors
Another thing Topi Uncle told me was about how the police investigations and conducted based on usual behavior of common thieves. When Topi Uncle goes to a home burgled to investigate he would not go and find finger prints every little object. Well at some scenes he would do that if he does not find any lead. But often he would go for places where he is likely to find prints quite easily. For example, if a wardrobe or an almiraah as we call in Sri Lanka is broken into, he would not try to finger print the knob or handle of the alimiraah first. He would first spread his silver dust on the top area of the alimiraah door. Why? Often burglars carry out burglaries at night when the people are sleeping in the house. So they do not need to break the lock as when people are in, almiraahs are unlocked. But, they know the creaking sounds coming out of almiraah doors when they open them. One way to avoid the sound of this creaking sound is to either pull the alimiraah door downward or life it up. They do this often by having a tight grip on the top edge of the almiraah door, their palm pressed hard to the outer side of the door and fingers pressing hard on the inside of the door. So, it is likely to find the print in these areas of the almiraah door and since common burglars need to have a stronger grip on the top edge of the door, it is likely to have clearer prints. This was just one example. Often investigators began their investigations following the common behavior of thieves or burglars.
Sketching
Topi Uncle was also a talented artist. He taught me how to copy an image with identical features. It was all done on pencil. It was painstaking, though. He would take a passport size photo and start drawing parallel lines on it with pencil with equal space between them. These parallel lines has to be as close as possible to each other to get a better result. After he draws the vertical lines, he would draw horizontal lines with same space in between them. After that each line is numbered. Thereafter a large piece of white paper is taken and he would draw equal number of horizontal and vertical lines and number them accordingly. Now each vertical and horizontal line of the large paper correspond to a line on the smaller photograph. Thereafter, you would try to sketch the image using lines. Once the larger image is done, he would do all the shadings using the pencil. After the image is done, he would delete all the horizontal and vertical lines: You have a perfectly enlarged sketch of the small photograph. Through this I learned how patient and meticulous you have to be to achieve perfect results. Possibly this attention to detail have been taught to him during his criminal investigation training. Once again, a trained police officer.
Sense of humour
Topi Uncle was also a person with tremendous sense of humour. He at times would make my aunt, Kaanthi punchi angry or upset due to his jokes alluding to certain behavior of my aunt. He also had so many funny stories. One of those stories is about dogs.
When a dog meets another dog, why does he always smells the balls of the other dog?
Now the question arouses do much interest. You always see this behavior among dogs. This is how it all started , according to Topi Uncle. Once upon a time, all dogs lived in a dog town. They had to commute to another town for work. While walking and running and working, they found their balls, often hanging down, quite an inconvenience. Then one of them came with a brilliant idea. This dog found a tree in the town with a lot of branches. Why don’t we hang our balls on the tree before we leave for work and when we return we could get them back? And it worked. So every morning, all the dogs would hang their balls on the branches of the tree before leaving for work. There was no problem at all, as they could easily identify their own balls through their unique colour and size. But disaster would strike one day. All the dogs were off to work. Some town dog has burned rubbish and dry leaves near the tree and the tree caught fire. All the balls were beginning to get burned. By the time other dogs in the town put out the fire, all the balls on the tree were half burned beyond recognition. They all looked the same char coal color! When the working dogs returned, surprise, confusion and frustration awaited them. They could not identify their own balls. Then they resorted to wear whatever balls they could fetch from the tree. From that day onwards, dogs were having balls not belonging to them. That is why when a dog meet another dog, first thing they do is to check the balls out, as a habit, to see whether that dog is wearing his balls!