I Am Kandy

The Warrior Queen

Helga de Silva Blow Perera

Helga de Silva talks about growing up in the family home that would eventually become the sumptuous ‘Helga’s Folly’. Helga reflects on why people are drawn to her ‘anti-hotel’, a canvas for her and her guests’ creativity.

Interview language: English

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English

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I’m very blessed

(Operatic music)

It’s depending on one’s mood. It’s like topsoil…it just grows.

I get sometimes guests going through a traumatic time and I find painting very, very therapeutic. In fact I was going through a divorce and my father told me… started me on this. He said, “Why don’t you just get he place in Kandy going. You know, just do your own thing”.

So I started and the first room was all black (laughs). Slightly that. And then I just sort of went on. And so I do try and tell guests this, who are going through a sort of trauma. I always say, “here’s the paint, there’s a wall. Why don’t you, you know…just get it all out?” So I like to think all these colours, sort of help people. I mean it’s certainly helped me.

I’m very lucky. I’m very blessed because I have you know both really, if I want. And this is what I want now. And this where I want to be. I like the people around here. And I like the whole romance of it. The whole romance of being in the Kandyan kingdom and things like that.

I was born upstairs. Well I was two days old, shall I put it that way? You know I was born in the Kandy Nursing Home and then I was brought here two days later. My mother was an artist and my father in politics so we had sort of very interesting people you know…always.

My mother designed it in the thirties and then it was totally different. And it was her style and it was very elegant and very lovely. Then it became a hotel in the fifties and everything went into a different mode. You know?

Well I like to feel that I can sort of push everyone’s button, but of course you can’t you know. It’s not for… It’s for guests who want something different, who want something you know… who want to experience something. Have adventures. Have an open mind.

And most of our guests rather like to call and have somebody bring their drinks up on a… we like to do it on a silver tray, hopefully it’s polished! (laughs) You know? The thing is I really don’t think of it as a hotel. I think of it as a home. I think of it as a…What I tell people is it’s a Sri Lankan home. And what we offer here is our Sri Lankan way of life. That is very important to me. It’s not a hotel really. So it’s like running a home.

About this portrait

Photographer: Alefiya Akbarally, Kannan Arunasalam

Interviewer: Kannan Arunasalam

Assistant: Menika van der Poorten

Editor: Kannan Arunasalam

Recorded: October 25, 2010

First published: August 6, 2023

Last edited: November 7, 2023

Comments

Kannan Arunasalam

October 27, 2010 at 07:10 am

Kumar served us tea while we waited for Helga to come down to talk to us. When she came down the stairs, it was spectacular. I have to be honest, I was a little intimidated. Helga mentioned that an astrologer had once told her that in a past life she had been a warrior queen. I believed it too. She said she was "a little all over the place" after a night entertaining friends, but no one looks this immaculate, this early, after a late night. Designed by her aunt, her sari had the tree of life stitched into it. And what a life Helga has had. Creativity flows in this family - her mother had been an artist - and Helga's artistry seemed to have no limits. It was all around me, in the elegant way she dressed, the glasses we drank from and even on the ceilings. Her "anti hotel" was her childhood home and now home to the guests who visited. My nervousness faded and I quickly relaxed into our interview. She had a way of talking that made you feel at ease, at home. Reflective and genuine, she was open about a life that has been blessed. But there had been terrible blows too. She lost both a husband and a daughter-in-law to suicide. I understood now why so many guests going through unhappy times opened up to Helga, before she sends them back into the world outside Helga's Folly. She was not like any Sri Lankan I had met before.
cezarneaga (Cezar Neaga)

October 28, 2010 at 07:43 am

an incredible woman. an incredible life story. she seems taken out of Garcia Marquez story http://iam.lk/helgas-folly/
Helga De Silva Blow Perera

October 30, 2010 at 03:08 pm

The sari, a mix of silk yarn and fine cotton, was designed by my aunt Minnette de Silva, and was handwoven in the hills of Kandy, incorporating the 'Tree of Life', somewhat appropriate!! Complete Kandy product, including the silk worms, I was told! Thank you. Being of a 'certain age' is good! All the very best and looking forward to the next 'read'!
Kannan Arunasalam

October 30, 2010 at 04:02 pm

I was really happy to read your comments, Helga. On this and on the other characters. Thank you for the encouraging words.
Nancy Fernando

November 6, 2010 at 03:41 pm

I'd love to be Helga's house guest, if she will have me. She is my type of lady. Yes, Helga. "Many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste it's sweetness on the desert air". This is indeed a great project.
nigelvnugawela (Nigel V. Nugawela)

November 15, 2010 at 06:10 am

Please RT Helga’s folly: http://iam.lk/helgas-folly/ #srilanka #lk #iam
Java Jones

November 25, 2010 at 08:10 am

A really special one-off ... see also http://javajones.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/helga%E2%80%99s-folly-or-wonderland-meets-salvador-dali/
Susanah Wilson

December 2, 2010 at 05:44 pm

The Tree of Life sari - did the silk come from Nazha's silk worms at Kande Walawa? I know that in the 60's she had over 500 women working for her, weaving the silk from her silk worms into her wonderful artworks for which she became famous. Lovely to read such wonderful comments about Helga - yes, she is very much a stylish icon of our time.