Mangalika Estate, Chilaw

My dad used to work as a "planter" (a person in charge of a large plantation, in his case coconut) before retirement. About 5 years ago, at his urging, I bought a 20-acre land in Chilaw, which is 50-miles north of Colombo and about an hour's drive from where dad resides. Since then, he has been taking care of the land, called Mangalika Estate, re-living his life as a planter in a small way. He supervises the "watcher" (the guard) who lives on the estate, and also oversees the plucking of coconuts once in two months and the fertilizing, which is done annually. Dad appears to enjoy the bossing around, paying wages, handling cash, all of which he used to do (in a bigger way) when he was a full-time planter. Of course, I have allowed him to take the income from the estate.

We are familiar with Chilaw because the coconut estates (plantations) where dad worked were in the surrounding area. I attended St. Mary's College, Chilaw, for Grade 11 and 12 and took the university entrance examination from there. I was majoring in science and failed the examination, although I had the best result of the entire class!

Mangalika Estate is only 50 yards from the beach but the sea is dangerous there, with a rocky, somewhat deep shore and strong currents most of the year, which makes it unsafe for swimming The photo below shows my son Roy at the beach near the estate.



Chandare is the watcher. We "inherited" him and his family when we bought the estate. He is honest (a rare trait among estate watchers) but is burdened by a lazy wife (Seelawathie), her parasitic relatives, and his own married children who depend on him for support. Fawzia and I are fond of the two youngest children, Chryshantha and Dilhani, seen below with their father Chandare. Chryshantha is in Grade 7 and Dilhani is in Grade 5. They are good students, doing well at school, and I pay for their clothes and schoolbooks. (Last month, the cash I gave for their books and new shoes had been taken by their mother Seelawathie!) The children look malnourished so I bought them a milking cow with a calf last month. Now the children get a glass of milk before setting off to school every morning.



The family at "Pondside" is industrious, growing vegetables, keeping cows, and making the best use of the land. But this family at Mangalika Estate is not, buying everything from the market. Even the fruit seedlings I provide are not watered and allowed to wither and die. Despite all the land at their disposal, they make no effort to grow vegetables or fruit. This is a bone of contention between us, and I could fix this if I had longer stays in Sri Lanka. But right now, my visits are fleeting, lasting only a few hours at the most. So I have no means of making sure that Chandare and family follow my advice.


Fawzia with Chryshantha & Dilhani

Being near the sea, the soil is sandy, which is good for coconut cultivation. But it also means that the soil dries up quickly after the rains, so we have an irrigation system to water the palms. The palms seen in the photos below must be about 25 years old. They remain productive till they are about 60 years. The coconut palm not only provides food but also timber and firewood, and thatch for roofing. It's truly a tree of life.







We have a bull and a cart on the estate. When coconuts are plucked every two months, the cart is used to go around the estate to collect the plucked coconuts. Instead of using a tractor, this is an eco-friendly way to do the job. The bull has nothing much to do in between. I like him because, despite his size, he is a friendly creature. But now that a cow has arrived, he might change his ways! Once, without informing me, dad sold the bull. As soon as I got back to Sri Lanka, I rushed to Chilaw and bought the bull back, but had to pay a much higher price, of course! Dad does irrational things at times.

The bull and cart, with Fawzia, Roy, and friends. Photo taken two years ago.

Coconut cultivation in Sri Lanka is not a profitable business. The wholesale price of a coconut is only Rs. 15/, about HK$1. At that rate, we don't make enough to pay the expenses. If a coconut could be sold for about Rs. 25/, we can run the estate at a small profit. Another problem is the cost of fertilizer, which has skyrocketed.

That's me with the two children. Dilhani writes to us occasionally. Her letters, written in Sinhala, are full of news about the family and school. She usually includes a small poem, too.

My father's health is failing and he is unable to take care of the estate. So, last month, I handed over the supervision to Bandara, my cousin Marie's husband. The estate is in a popular tourist area so developers are offering a good price for it, but I am not keen to sell, partly because coconut planting is in our blood (both my grandfather and father were planters) and I grew up on coconut estates. And I am also concerned about Chandare and his family, who may be thrown out of a job if the estate is sold.