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Golden memories Half a century ago, on July 17, 1966, a young man named Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage Punchi Banda started work at the Galle Face Hotel, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Now 71 years old, Banda is still employed there, happily greeting and waving off guests at the front door. Until a few years ago, such news – impressive as it is – probably wouldn’t have made it much further than the local papers, but it came my way via an international public relations agency.
The “local employee”, said the press release, is still “earning his keep”. Banda, it continues, has welcomed “many famous guests”, including late Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, astronaut Yuri Gagarin and writer Arthur C. Clarke.
