Shantha Mayadunne and daughter Nisanga with husband Shan
Seven-member Mayadunne family was among those who gathered at the popular second floor restaurant of Hotel Shangri-La for the Easter breakfast on April 21.
Matriarch Shantha wanted to go down south for the weekend as her youngest daughter and her husband had flown in from Australia but there was a last-minute change to her plans.
The family included Shantha (nee Keenawinna), a 30-year culinary veteran and author who was the first to present a cooking show on Sri Lankan TV, her bank executive husband Kumar, daughter Nisanga, her husband Shan Jayasekera, Shantha’s youngest daughter Saranga and her husband Dulaj Wijerathne who flew from Melbourne for their vacation and Dulaj’s mother Indira.
A selfie was taken of the entire group by Nisanga which she posted on her Face Book page had recorded 32,000 hits. ‘Easter breakfast with family” said Nisanga in the caption to her Facebook post. That was the last breakfast, the final Facebook post and selfie taken by the beautiful Pan Asia Bank executive and television anchor who studied at University of London.
In a chilling CCTV video circulating on social media, two suicide bombers board the elevator casually, at this very moment. One is the mastermind of the suicide bomb attack and the leader of the radical ISIS-inspired Islamic group, Zahran Hashim, in a blue cap carrying a heavy backpack and the other is Ilham Ibrahim. Two exist the elevator.
Zahran enters the crowded café while the other man walks to another location. The end of the video is a silent flash engulfing the café as Zahran detonates his suicide vest. That was our 9/11.
Indira Wijerathne, mother of Shantha’s youngest daughter’s husband was slightly injured in the attack. She is the wife of war-hero Brig. Larry Wijerathne who died in a LTTE suicide bomb attack in 1998 in Point Pedro, Jaffna
In another video circulating on the internet, Zahran and his five suicide bombers are seen wearing black long dresses before an ISIS flag, pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. The world’s most wanted man, ISIS chief Al-Baghdadi with a $25 million bounty on his head, appeared in a video on May 2 owning responsibility for Sri Lankan suicide attacks.
Three crowded churches and four hotels were targeted in a well-orchestrated attack by the six suicide bombers within a period of half an hour wiping out entire families, kids who were waiting to receive their communion, people kneeling down to pray, infants hugging their mothers, expectant mothers seeking God’s blessings, a hero who confronted a bomber with a heavy backpack, people grabbing a quick bite in hotels before rushing to the church for the midday mass and tourists from several countries.
Mayadunne family members went to the buffet table leaving behind Shantha and Nisanga who were the first fill their plates as they were hungrier than the others. The bomb went off at this moment and after the chaos and smoke settled they could not believe what they were seeing.
Shantha and Nisanga lay dead, buried under the heavy debris falling from the roof. Nisanga’s husband Shan and her younger sister’s husband Dulaj and her aunt Indira Wijerathne were slightly injured.
Ironically, Indira’s war-hero husband Brigadier Larry Wijerathne died in LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam) suicide bomb attack at Point Pedro in 1998.
Nisanga, a mother of a six-month-old daughter, had decided to leave her infant at home in the care of a family member.
There were no dry eyes as thousands of people thronged to pay their last respects to the mother and daughter, lying side by side, clad in white saris at the Mayadunne home at Kottawa in a suburb about half an hour’s drive from Colombo where Shantha had helped thousands to master culinary art in her school.\
Kumar, her husband, teary eyed and still in deep shock, had a request for the press photographers. “Please don’t photograph my wife and daughter in this state. Let the people remember them as they were before their unfortunate departure”.
Shantha hailed from a large and well-known family of eight siblings from Yakkala. Her younger sister Tharangani served as the Public Trustee while her elder brother Jagath, was a deputy inspector general of police.
“It was Shantha who always spoilt us with her gourmet fare at every family function,” said tearful Jagath in between accepting condolences from the mourners. – Somasiri Munasinghe
