Girl searches for her father in her previous birth

Dharshini Navandana Weerakoon, is the third child of Sepalika Ariyawasa and W.M. Weerakoon, a retired serviceman living in Hatharaliyadda.

When she became three years, she could talk about her previous birth and a change in her behaviour too could be noticed.   

She began to question from everyone whom she met to help find her father. Her attitudes when choosing scrumptious meals and fabulous dresses cast a doubt to her parents that whether she was trying to recall about her life in her previous birth. But they did not want to talk or remind her about what they had noticed due to the fear of losing the child.

The parents also noticed little Dharshini kept questioning about her father from the children whom she played with and even from the pigeons and other birds that perched in the compound.  She started looking at the sky and asking whether her father could hear her.   

I was seated in the front seat. After passing Botanical Gardens, our cab collided with a bowser and it caused a huge shock to me, and that was all I remembered

As this story reached us, we visited their house on last poya day and asked her who was her father, where was he and what was he doing? Then she responded and said “My father’s name was Wickramanayake and he taught in Peradeniya campus after he quit the Army. I had three elder sisters and four elder brothers. We were living in a two-storey house near the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens with my mother. I travelled to Hemamali Girls’ School in a black coloured car owned by my father.   

Our house was protected by a parapet wall and it was blue in colour. It was very beautiful. We used to enjoy watching the Mahaveli River from upper floor of the house. The house had a gate which was black in colour and the dog that we had was also black.   

There were helpers in our house and a driver was also with us. My mother and my elder sister were teaching at Hemamali Vidyalaya and the other elder sister was a nurse.  

My elder brothers studied at Dharmaraja and at St. Sylvester’s colleges. After getting through my examinations, I entered the Peradeniya university. My father tried his best to fulfil my aim to become a doctor. I was in the team that carried out postmortem examinations in the medical faculty. Finally, after passing all the relevant exams, I became a doctor and joined the Kandy General Hospital. I had many friends there. I do not remember their names now. I was wearing sarees, jeans and frocks during my duty hours. When I received my salary, I used to go to Kandy with my mother and buy clothes. I gave clothes to my siblings too.   

One day, we visited the Pinnawala elephant orphanage in Rambukkana. There I saw some tourists probably they were from Australia who were talking to my father. One of them, while chatting with my father, was looking at me. 

On our return from Pinnawala, my father told me that one of the Australian tourists was interested in marrying me, and asked what my opinion was. I agreed because he was a young and smart-looking guy and expressed my willingness to go to Australia as well.  

Our marriage took place in a hotel in Kandy. He stayed with us for a month and later we flew to Australia, stayed there for little over a week and returned to Sri Lanka. His parents liked me very much and bought clothes for me. Australia was a very beautiful country.   

After a period of several years, I was conceived and gave birth to a baby boy. We named him “Manju”. My mother was taking care of my son after her retirement. I continued my duty at the hospital as usual.   

One day, in 2003, I paid a visit to my aunt who was in Peradeniya in our red coloured cab. I was seated in the front seat. Just after passing the Botanical Gardens, our cab collided with a bowser which was carrying water and it caused a huge shock to me, and that was all I remembered.”   

As she was finding it difficult to live in this poor surrounding, she was pleading us to offer help to find her father. Nevertheless, her (present) parents also loved her so much.   

When we asked Weerakoon (father), he said he had noticed her crying at nights and saying that she wanted her father and her son Anju. Her behaviour was so peculiar. 

Whenever we admonished her for some reasons, she would begin to weep and said her father had never scolded her and he was so loving. She did not like to see me wearing short sleeved shirts, T-shirts or sarongs. She preferred costly and scrumptious food. Once I came home with a bag of vegetables, she threw them away saying that she did not like them.   

One day we took her to Peradeniya and searched for her so-called whereabouts in her previous birth, according to information provided by her. When we went to Rajopavanarama Temple at Gatambe, she said that she used to visit this temple with her father. We spoke to the prelate of the temple too, but was not successful in getting any clue to the question.

She tore the application for admission to Hatharaliyadda primary school and said that she did not like to go to poor schools and preferred to study at Hemamali Vidyalaya. Weerakoon requested from anyone who had any evidence about this, to contact him on his mobile phone (0755435730). 

My father’s name was Wickramanayake and he taught in Peradeniya campus after he quit the Army. I had three elder sisters and four elder brothers

Her mother Sepalika expressed similar views. “If she would see some one in front of her house, she would ask whether they were going to Kandy, and whether she could accompany them, and never forgot to tell them to bring her father back. She likes to go to school and to the temple. She wants to observe Sil on every poya day. However, at times she was in tears asking for her father. She likes to be left alone. The cream of her father’s earnings is spent on her. When she heard the sound of an aircraft, she jumps out of the house and screams at it to take her to Australia.   

We are still trying to bring her back to her present life, said Sepalika.