The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, shared a special relationship with Sri Lanka. It was not just about the overwhelming response he got from young students here.
Mr. Kalam visited Colombo exactly a month before his death. “Sri Lanka is not new to me,” he had told a large gathering of school students at the Bandaranaike Memorial Conference Hall. He recalled how, as a college student in the 1950s, he had visited Anuradhapura often as his maternal uncle lived there.
Conscious of the historical importance of the town in the North Central Province (according to the UNESCO’s website, it was the political and religious capital of the country till the end of the 10th century), the former President told the students that “Anuradhapura speaks history, culture and of noble human beings.”
President Maithripala Sirisena, in his message, referred to Mr. Kalam’s vision for south Asia.
