Tilak Padmaraj adasa > An Appreciation
                               
   

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Colombo - Young Men's Buddhist Association - 2550 Buddha Jayanthi

           

Tilak Padmaraj adasa - An Appreciation

by M. E Azad Ibrahim

 
 
 

"One day there is life. A man, for example, in the best of health, not even old, with no history of illness. Everything is as it was, as it will always be. He goes from one day to the next, minding his own business, dreaming only of the life that lies before him. And then, suddenly, it happens there is death."

I borrow these words from Paul Auster's haunting autobiography, The Invention of Solitude. fluster writes about his father, a cold, calculating man who cared little for his family. But my eulogy is about Tilak, a human being so perfect in every aspect of life that I am compelled to think of him as a modern day sage.

I met him four years ago as an interviewee for his then nearly 2-year old company. I had pictured an arrogant man in an expensive suit. I was completely wrong. When I met him at his sparsely furnished office at his residence, I realized that I had met the Goliath in David. He was a smallish man, and wore a trimmed beard. His presence in that small room was undeniable. His sharp intellect shone like an aura. He was a man of humility but not humble, a man who was complex yet refreshingly straightforward. He had an engaging smile, and a very good sense of humor. He put me completely at ease. I chattered for an hour. I told him about my bourgeois upbringing, my little known school, and how my parents had nearly killed themselves to give me so costly an education. He cared very little about my background. He did not press for referees. He said what he meant and said it eloquently.

A few days later I joined his management consultancy practice, Management Frontiers, little knowing that, on a fateful Sunday in December 2004, we would all lose him, his wife and two children, a boy of 7 and a girl of 5 to what I and the World now know and fear as the tidal waves or tsunami,

Tilak had been a whiz kid at DS obtaining every conceivable prize. He topped it all with five "A" passes at AL in the Commerce stream. I learnt later, and much to my surprise, that his fourth subject at AL had been Pure Mathematics. His brilliant academic career saw him get a first in Business Administration from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. In 1996 he completed his MBA with a merit from the prestigious PIM, and taught corporate finance for MBAs until his untimely death in 2004. While being an undergraduate, he had breezed through CA exams winning as many prizes as possible. He was then picked up by Mr Deva Rodrigo, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) present Chief and Territory Partner of Pricewaterhouse Coopers. He was only 22 when he obtained his Charter in Accounting,

ready to be groomed by the stalwarts at Coopers & Lybrand (C&L). The next 6 years of his exceptionally brilliant career at C&L saw him being admitted to partnership at 28, when most of us, with the greatest difficulty complete our exams to start our careers. I am told that in the history of C&L Worldwide only one person before Tilak had been admitted to partnership under 30.

After spearheading many large-scale and complex consulting projects and a decade long teaching career at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Tilak relinquished his services as Partner and Head of Consulting just one year before C&L's historic merger with Price Waterhouse.

In 1997 he, with another C&L alumnus, started Management Frontiers, a management consultancy practice at his residence. He worked day and night. The firm grew slowly, but steadily. He gave us what the firm earned. For him, like the industrialist Henry Ford, work was passion, and money was, well, a by-product. He always had time for each one of us. We never saw him in an angry mood. He never threw things at us. He was a true Buddhist, and a rare one at that. We were a lousy lot, my colleagues and I, qualified no doubt, but ill suited to our calling. But Tilak was a man of immense patience.

  

We made horrific mistakes, and he would correct us with a smile. We would drown in work, he would rescue us. When we were frustrated, he would motivate us. In short, he would prove everything to each one of us: a surrogate father, mentor, and confidante.

I have mentioned that he was a true Buddhist and a rare one at that. This needs to be elaborated. His father, brother, and wife had all been teachers at Dhamma schools. I am told that one of his close relatives is a Chief Prelate at a well-known temple in Colombo. These are facts, and known to everyone who associated with him. What is not known is that he had the audacity to always stand by his religious principles and convictions wh embracing a pluralistic and tolerant approch towards other religious practices. His knowledge on Buddhism was, well, just 1ike everything else was, simply encyclopedic.I once told him that he knew more abc Buddhism than most of the monks. I < responsible for what I write, and it's r without reason that I have described him a "modern day sage" in the opening paragral I forget how his association with the YM' came about. But I distinctiy remember the c he broke the news about his appointment the Treasurer. Apart from attending rout meetings on Monday evenings, he came with an ingenious way to gradually adds the Organization's cash flow stress. believed that any religious institution shoe be run not purely as a charity, but more a responsible business. His was an honor appointment, but it amazed us, me and i colleagues to see the amount of time he of devoted for YMBA -related work. He ne asked any one of us to help him on this. Wl one of us queried, he simply said that, sip YMBA work is voluntary, and as paid empl ees - paid for by clients, we ought to stric concentrate and limit ourselves to attenc client work and not bill them for do voluntary work. But I can say this ti conviction: he contributed his expertisE YMBA - there's no doubt about that. But real contribution to Buddhism in general not channeled either through the YMBA oi family's association with Dhamma schc His real contribution came about by strl' adhering to the doctrines and philosoph Buddhism. He was a true Buddhist. Bu was a rare one.

A few weeks before he was due to his family to Hambantota, he design pocket financial calculator with a calenda for 2005. On its cover he wrote "A year full of challenges" and signed off with "To stay where you are, you have to run faster", an engaging quote by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland.

We printed the calendar, sent it to clients, and friends, and Tilak and his family left Colombo on 22 December 2004. On the day before and just before he left office, one of the Big 4 firms invited him to serve on its Board. It was then he told me of his vision for Management Frontiers: Rs 100 million in turnover, 5 service lines, and 40 cars. By then I had known him for 4 years, and I fully knew that he, with his single minded determina¬tion, ferocious intellect, calm and collected ways would easily achieve this vision with honor, grace, and style.

He then closed his room, and I switched off the lights. It had grown late, and the December night had grown chilly and misty. I walked the brightly lit streets aimlessly with that nagging feeling that something was not right. That something did not add up.

In the end I guess I was right. As I huddle and cling to my emotions and decaying thoughts, and as we all mourn the death of our beloved Chairman, a modern day sage, a near genius, a great teacher, a just examiner, a sympathetic critic, an unrelenting appraiser, and as we all bask in his glory as a great human being, I end my eulogy with a poignant piece by one of the most successful modern writers of our day, Somerset Maugham: "So life, lived variously and largely, becomes a work of art only when brought to its beautiful conclusion and is reduced to nothingness in the moment when it arrives at perfection".

      
           
                             
 

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