BAMBALAPITIYA FLATS IN THE SWINGING SIXTIES ‘N’ SEVENTIES – By Asiff Hussein
Source : Ceylon Then / Sri Lanka Now
Bambalapitiya Flats was the place to be back then, as any good ole’ Bamba boy or girl will tell you.
Built in the 1950s, the 16 blocks of buildings between Galle Road and the Indian Ocean comprised of two to four storeys built in such a way that the balconies gave a splendid view of the sea to the west. The blocks back then were colour coded for easy identification, with gelati colours like yellow, orange, pink, sky blue, lime green, and sandstone brown giving life to the scheme, especially in the evening when the golden orange orb of the sun set in the sea and bathed the flats with a beautiful sundown glow.
The flats were meant to nurture community life with all sharing a common space that included a playground, walkways and beach frontage that could be enjoyed by residents. Over the years, it fostered a culture of its own which still survives to this day, just like the tall water tower that stands there like a sentry, sturdy as ever. The residents even had a collective name. They were called “the flatters”. They were a very close-knit community, despite hailing from different backgrounds.
Though initially, Dutch Burghers peopled many of the flats, it soon became very cosmopolitan. There were Burgher families like the Deutroms, Hamers, Hingerts, Cookes, Hoffmans, Kretsers, Kramers, Martyns, Mullers, De Zilvas, De Kauwes, Whites, Josephs, Patternots, Swans and Van Den Driesens; Sinhalese families like the Cabraals, Gunasekaras, Silvas, Dias Jayasinhas, De Abrews, Mendises, Abhayasinghes, Amarasekeras, Gooneratnes, Udalagams, De Liveras, Rajapakses and Ranchigodas; Tamil families like the Dwights, Ablesons, Amarasinghams, Gnanakumars and Rajasinghams; Moor families like the Cassims, Deens, Fuards and Hashims; Malay families like Lyes and Miskins, a Sindhi family known as Bhagwandas and even the descendants of an Englishman known as the Clogstouns, who were considered Burghers by almost everyone else.
Though the migration of Burgher families taking advantage of the White Australia policy somewhat dented the lively mix, it did not affect the cosmopolitan character of the flats. The flatters were so united that if one was harassed, all would gang up to save his day as if they all stuck to the Three Musketeers watchword of ‘all for one and one for all’. In fact, the friendships forged then have lasted a lifetime, as any good flatter would tell you. If it’s anything to go by, in the ’58 and ’83 riots, the neighbours banded together to form vigilante groups to protect their much loved Tamil neighbours. In fact, during the ’83 riots, the Tamils in the Bamba Flats were the only community in Colombo that was not affected by the rampaging mobs.
Here was a place where one had any number of friends to hang out with, where love was in the air and many a romance bloomed and blossomed. There were also the naughty lot who would whistle at girls, and aspiring Elvis Presleys sporting brylcreemed hair bumps and sideburns, strumming away their cares. They were popularly known as the Bambalawatte Boys and would get together at the grounds of the flats or at St. Peter’s College on the days of fairs and matches.
The Malay flatters were cherished for their song and had two notable families of musicians living there. One was the Miskin family combo headed by Papa Latiff Miskin, who was a great trumpeter, and his sons, drummer boy Farook and crooner Ahmed. They often performed at Koffee House in the block facing Galle Road, and at Muslim weddings, which were very joyous occasions back in the sixties. The Lye brothers Kamar and Sherridan formed SKAR, a popular pop and rock band in the flats in the seventies. The Burgher families of Deutroms and Outschoorns who lived there also produced some fine musicians. Flatters also once in a while had Road Dances when they would gather between the H and G Block to dance away their cares to some groovy music.
Besides the music scene, the flatters enjoyed a variety of other amusements, among them a mini movie which was screened every Friday evening for the young lads and lasses who would gather on the steps of the playground to watch the movie projected onto the walls of the G block. These were mainly monochrome action films with war, cowboys, and detectives dominating the scenes. They also had some dramas like the vernacular Siripala Saha Ranmenika, whose cast was composed entirely of flatters. At a time when television was not seen or heard of, such forms of entertainment kept the community going.
Teenage flatters kept themselves busy with two interesting games. One was called cowboys and crooks, where the players would form themselves into two groups of about six each. One side would hide and the other side would seek to catch them. The hiders would fan out and find some nook to conceal themselves and the seekers would take them out one after the other by pointing their forefingers below the knees and shouting out ‘REACH’!
The other was Tinball, where tinkiri (condensed milk) or MD (Marketing Department) processed food tins would be piled one atop another like a metal bamboo. Players would seek to topple the entire lot by throwing a ball and if they failed to down a few, a player from the other side would rush to put it back, before which one had to strike him with another ball to get him out. The girls used to play badminton, hopscotch or marbles and an indoor game simply known as girls-boys, where one had to come up with the name of a girl, boy, fruit, flower, country in that order based on a particular letter of the alphabet.
The flats were also blessed with a beach frontage where residents could go sea bathing. The kids would rest on the rocks and sing songs while watching the lovely sunsets bathe the sky with yellow and orange. They also found time to fly kites from the ground, hand-made by the flatters.
And if there was anything the flatters needed, it was only a stone’s throw away. Lining the ground floor of the first block facing Galle Road were a number of shops selling all that money could buy. There was a shop run by the Milk Board that sold milk bottles and ice cream and coconut peaks coated in dark chocolate and filled with moist sweetened coconut; a coffee shop called Koffee House; a shoe shop called Gemrich; a small department store called Woolworth; a fancy goods store called Bondray; and a cosmetic shop called Femina, not to mention Anoma’s hairdressing salon, which still stands.
Extracted from The Great Days Of Bamba – Life In The Bambalapitiya Of The Sixties & Seventies by Asiff Hussein and Published in Roar. Photograph of Burgher girls at Bambalapitiya Flats, 1960s. Courtesy Pierangeli Andrado
