by Rajan Philips

Writing obituaries becomes a poignant burden when those near and dear to us keep taking their turn while we wait for ours in life’s departure lounge. I have had my share of writing obituaries in the last two years, but this one gets preciously close because Sivandran, who passed away suddenly in Semarang, Indonesia, was my roommate throughout our Peradeniya years and later after graduation. We were best friends.

We were emailing on November 28 and his last email said that his health was a hassle; so, he was winding down in Indonesia and was heading home to Perth. Next day I received the sad news of his demise. “Death, be not proud,” John Donne’s Holy Sonnet came to mind, but more in anger than as assurance of what comes “one short sleep past.”

Sivandran graduated in Civil Engineering, in 1972, and went on to obtain his MSc and PhD in Geotechnical Engineering at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok. He married Indrakanthi in 1976, at a gala wedding hosted by her parents, R. Yogarajah and Indranee Yogarajah, in their house that had once been the old Eighty Club on Queens Road. Sive was already bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and was onto a number of initiatives in Colombo. Their two sons, Gajan and Subajan, were born in Colombo.

The family moved to Perth, Australia, after 1983. He had earlier spent time in Australia when he had a two year (1980-82) affiliation with Monash University in Melbourne. In Perth, Sive turned to waste management and recycling industry with a global focus to find a satisfying outlet for his intelligence, enterprise, organizational abilities and entrepreneurial ambitions. We met in Canada when he came on a visit to solid waste recycling facilities in Vancouver and Guelph run by municipalities.

What he started in Perth eventually led him to land in Semarang, as Jakarta is too congested, and launch a new company, the PT Indo Energy Solutions, for extracting feedstock from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) and supplying it as raw material for low carbon fuel production in Indonesia and elsewhere. The company is quite far flung in Indonesia – the head office in Semarang, marketing offices in Jakarta, processing and storage facilities in Lampung and six other locations, and multiple sites for waste collection from Palm Oil Mills. Sivandran had built up multiple clients within Indonesia, along with BP Singapore and clients in EU countries.

Sivandran had been scouting the Southeast Asian region for a number of years before locating his enterprise in Semarang, the capital of Central Java. Kanthi joined him from Perth, and Semarang became a convenient hub for them to travel from – to Perth and to Chicago and Singapore to visit Gajan and Subajan, their families, including their two grand children, Ella and Caiden.

Gajan and his wife Rebecca studied Environmental Engineering in Australia and went on to complete their PhDs at MIT. After stints at the Ohio State University and Boston Consulting, Gajan has recently started a faculty position as Professor at the Quantitative Science Centre, University of Washington, Seattle. Rebecca works as an international Consultant in Water and Climate Research, Public Engagement and Communications. Ella is their daughter, Sive’s and Kanthi’s first grandchild.

Subajan did Mechanical Engineering and followed it up with an MBA from HEC Paris, the well known French business school. He was a Director with Deloitte’s Asia in Singapore, and has now joined Bureau Veritas in Paris, working in Strategy, M&A and Sustainability. His wife Renee is a Psychologist with specialization in Early Childhood Development. They have a son, Caiden, Sive’s and Kanthi’s grandson.

Gajan and Subajan and their partners have done their parents proud. Sive was obviously pleased and proud that his two sons were well set on their own trajectories of accomplishments and achievements. It would have been gratifying for Kanthi, the children and the grandchildren to have had Sive around for many more years. That was not to be. But they have long memories of him that will stay with them without growing old or weary. I would hope that the few reminiscences that I sprinkle below will be a little addition to their trove.

Reminiscences

Sivandran was the youngest son of V. Coomaraswamy and Rukmani, after four sisters and two brothers. His father was an Irrigation Engineer, the family lived in Colombo and Sive started schooling at Royal College. He moved to St. John’s College when the family relocated to Jaffna after 1958. Old Coomaraswamy was a good volleyball player, known as “beauty Coomaraswamy” in the Department for his aerial smashes. Card games, especially bridge, carrom and table tennis were popular pastimes of old school Irrigation Engineers, and Sive’s whole family was groomed in them.

Sive was a shrewd bridge player and was also a good badminton player, thanks to his bother Vijeyndra. Vijey was a final year Medical student at Peradeniya when we entered Engineering, and already a national badminton player for Ceylon. Sivandran was student champion at Peradeniya and was captain and member of the University badminton team. Dr. Vijeyndra passed away in England a few years ago, and Sive’s surviving siblings are his oldest brother Mahendra, himself a Civil Engineer of the Colombo faculty vintage, now living in Perth; and sister Pathma Sokkanathan, a Lawyer, living in London.

Old relationships may not mean much for the younger generation, but it is worth recalling that Sivandran’s mother was the youngest sister of GG Ponnambalam, Q.C., a dazzling lawyer and a political colossus during the middle decades (1930-1970) of the twentieth century. Her other brother, Rev. GM Balasundaram OMI, was a prominent Catholic Priest in the Jaffna Diocese. The two brothers were exceptional orators of their generation.

Sivandran’s oldest sister Parameswari, a doctor, married Alfred Duraiappah, who would not only become the Mayor of Jaffna but would go on to create a national upset by defeating GG Ponnambalam in the 1960 March and July elections in Jaffna. Ponnambalam’s first defeat in 25 years. So, as a 12-year old, Sivandran would have had an early exposure to the tumults, as well as the twists and turns of the local Jaffna politics. But he was never consumed by politics at any level.

Yet, Sivandran had a real talent for organizational politics which he would quietly use to set his own goals, but always to positive ends, and skillfully pursue them without ruffling feathers, making arguments or hurting feelings. They were all evident throughout his university days at Peradeniya and later in Bangkok, and they would have come to full fruition in his entrepreneurial ventures. He was also a conscientious and disciplined student, who would never miss a lecture, was punctual with his coursework, and would divide his time efficiently between subjects regardless of whether he liked them or not.

We were first year roommates at Jayatilaka Hall. There were three of us sharing the room, including Karunaharan, Sive’s classmate at St. John’s College, and now living in Sidney. Our room was on the ground floor in the south wing of the Hall, and our balcony opened quite a vista extending through the expansive sports fields, the Arts Faculty, the Main Library and the Geography Theatre. The vista is still there even as it is etched in my mind.

From our early interactions, it became apparent that Sive knew more about galaxies and planets, and I knew more about federal and unitary constitutions. Outside studies, Sive was busy with badminton and Sports Council politics. I was drawn to debating and perorating in Tamil at the Tamil Sangam, and in English at the Engineering Students Union. Sive had no interest in voluble participation, but would provide critical observations on my omissions and lapses. We had many contrasts, but for all the years we were roommates, we had no differences over anything. Once at the Nallur Temple, he got me to remove my shirt to accompany him to the Sanctum Sanctorum. The first and the only time I have stood shirtless in a public square.

After Jayatilaka Hall, we moved to Meewathura, right by the Mahaweli River, renting a room in staff quarters and cooking our own food. Eating out became a convenient excuse. What was also convenient was that my uncle, Rev. Thani Nayagam had retired from the University of Malaya and was living in Lewella. He would invite us for weekly meals that were served and partaken with priestly aplomb. Sive took it in his stride but would later have a good laugh at the whole formality of the experience.

For our final two years, we moved to the Nell wing of the Akbar-Nell Hall that had nothing scenic about it, but was very convenient as it was next door to the Engineering Faculty. A good majority of the students who were with us at Akbar-Nell are now living abroad. Many of them left after 1983, and quite a few of them have died. I have not seen Sive in person for some time and occasionally lost contact with him. But when we resumed contact some time last year, it was as if we had never stopped corresponding. In his last email he said, “Hope to meet with you someday.” I caught its premonition only when it was too late. I have to live with that till it is my turn.