I first saw Richard de Zoysa in 1985 at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. He was a handsome and very attractive young man. Once when I was at the reception, he came and spoke to the SLBC receptionist, Deepthi and handed over a voucher for a program that he did the other day. The other receptionists ( I have forgotten their names) were looking at him, but he was unresponsive. Although he hardly spoke with others, I don't think he was a prideful person. I think he was an introvert. On several occasions I had seen him speaking freely with Ravi John, Rajan Vairawanathan and Aurn Dias Bandaranayake. For us, Richard was unreachable. Therefore, I frequently moved with Neranjan Abesundara , Channa Perera and Yusuf Noordeen.
I had the habit of going to the SLBC LP record room and requesting records from Gunasekara, who was a sort of librarian. While checking LPs, I used to play songs there. I remember once I played Deep Purple's song "Speed King" loudly and blasted the record room. While I was listening to the song at full volume, Richard came to me and looked into my eyes, and without saying anything, he left the record room. At that moment I realized that I disturbed him. Indeed, Richard was listening to Tchaikovsky's opera, and I ruined his peace of mind. He was a refined man and did not say anything to his distractor. However, his action was a symbol of protest. Later, Leon Bellath came to know that I was playing hard rock music, disturbing others. He asked me, "Do you really enjoy this type of music? I said yes.
Richard loved classical music. Even he used to whistle classical tunes. I still recall how he read a page from Rudyard Kipling's book. It was a heavenly voice. He was a multi-talented person. A gifted individual. I would say Jimmy Bharucha and Richard de Zoysa were the best broadcasters of our time. Sadly, he was taken from us unexpectedly and savagely.
Who killed him? Who gave the order? How could they torture and kill such an innocent, accomplished, gentle person? By killing Richard, they killed a whole generation of talented youth with inspirations and expectations.
If the killers knew his talents, they would think twice about eliminating a person like Richard de Zoysa.
Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge
