Harold Pieris came into our lives exactly 30 years ago when we joined Lake House as trainee reporters - fresh out of school and waiting to start our studies at Colombo University. Pieris as the Editor of the Observer was our first experience with an employer/ supervisor/boss and the memory of these experiences is etched in our minds.
We all came to Lake House to work on the Observer through some parental connection but Pieris treated us no differently to any other employee. From the first day when we were asked to face an interview with him, to complete a written test and to learn the art of journalism by ‘doing it’, Pieris opened the wonderful world of looking for stories, gathering information and writing them for the newspaper for the three of us. And it was an experience of a lifetime.
It was, in to the deep end from day one. Going for press conferences on subjects we had no idea of although they were of high national importance, going for cocktails and meetings, conferences and workshops almost every day and speaking to officials, politicians, business leaders and other society people – once again having no idea of what was actually going on.
Also visiting bomb blast sites, crime scenes, the mortuary and the Coroners Court (which was a mine of good human interest stories) – through it all Pieris was the quiet guiding hand. Correcting any mistakes and blunders that we committed - never with a harsh word, but quietly and kindly with his inimitable half smile.
Pieris was a quiet, stoic, calm man. He was never ruffled by our overbearing youthful arrogance, by our mistakes, or by our wayward teenage behaviour. It was not that he was not bothered or that he did not notice our ways - because he noticed, and he observed. And where it mattered the most, he gently corrected us and pushed us towards the straight and narrow path he travelled on. His calmness in the face of grave errors by his team of youthful trainee reporters was about correcting a mistake and not about chiding, punishing, or humiliating. His patience with our overbearing arrogance was patience mixed with amusement and was never patience forced through exasperation. His choice of looking away from the many pranks we got involved in was the choice of a father figure ignoring most but selecting crucial moments to teach the young ones a lesson.
We grew up at Lake House. Restless, misplaced and displaced because of the times – it was 1987/88 – bombs were exploding everywhere in Colombo, the Universities were indefinitely closed and it was the quiet before the storm of the southern insurrection of the late 1980s. It was a trying time for any journalist and more so for the Editor of the Observer having to toe the proverbial government line. Mr. Pieris took in all the pressure with a smile and never allowed us to take any pressure or blame.
One other feature of Pieris was his skills of man management -The Observer editorial was a mélange of colourful and interesting people - from the flamboyant Nikki Candappa to Prema de Mel to Selvakumar (who did the police rounds) to A.C de Silva (the Sports Editor), to Roshan Pieris to the purposeful Ratnaike to Pathi (S.R Pathiravithana - our mentor in all matters of Sport Journalism in particular and the ‘intricacies’ of Journalism and working at Lake House in general) among others - a group of professionals who were hard headed, opinionated, independent and impossible to manage, but Pieris managed them all, again with his usual calmness.
Lake House and its colourful journalists, sub editors and everyone else gave us a sense of purpose, a discipline and something to look forward to.
This was possible only because Pieris was brave enough to take on three young teenagers at once. The time he spent on us, the space he created for us and the tone he set within the office that made many senior people nurture us (while some to just tolerate us) made our time at Lake House unforgettable.
We stepped into Lake House as two mere boys and a girl, and stepped out as two men and a woman. Pieris figured strongly in this growing up. It saddens us that we never told him how much his acceptance of us shaped our characters. But in his calm, stoic and gentle way, we are sure he knew.
Chandaka Jayasundere President’s Counsel
Ramani Fernando Attorney-at-Law Avindra Rodrigo Attorney-at-Law