The “Major”
Mohammed Hussein Ismail
Mohammed Hussein Ismail, known to everyone in Galle Fort as “Major Hussein”, is believed to be the oldest man living in Galle Fort. He recalls the years he spent working in Trincomalee after the Second World War and the British soldiers who became his customers.
Mohammed Hussein Ismail is believed to be the oldest man living in Galle Fort. Everyone knows him as “Major Hussein”, and I wanted to find out how he got the name.
I visited him one afternoon at his niece’s home inside the Fort. After a recent fall he rarely leaves the house and now spends most of his time in the front room. Even the short walk to the mosque is too difficult. Instead he prays at home.
“It’s for my own good,” he told me. He didn’t want to be a burden to others if he fell again.
Major Hussein loved talking about the years he spent in Trincomalee in the 1940s and ’50s. For ten years he worked as a shop assistant in several jewellery stores just after the Second World War. Business was booming. Many of his customers were British soldiers stationed in Trincomalee, often looking for jewellery for wives or girlfriends back home.
He became fascinated by the customs of these foreign soldiers — especially where and what they ate. His curiosity eventually led him to the “ABCD café”, which catered to foreign tastes.
Despite being born with a disability, he often had to walk from China Bay to Trincomalee town on Sundays when the buses stopped running. He described himself as a good worker — “not lazy like the others,” he said — and claimed he was much sought after by jewellery shop owners in the town.
The small room created a slight echo that made sound recording difficult and there were limited opportunities for photography. But Major Hussein had a striking face and was wonderful to photograph.
Before we finished, I returned to my original question: why did everyone call him “Major”?
Unsurprisingly, the answer led back to his years in Trincomalee.
Galle
December 24, 2010
Transcript and translations
Language
Subjects discussed
When I go to the mosque, the Imam calls me Major!
They call me “Major” because in Trincomalee my movements were always with the British army.
Our firm was there. The soldiers used to come to our shop to buy goods and jewellery. In those days it was open for foreigners to work here, to open eating houses.
They couldn’t eat our hot curries! (laughs)
So they opened their own cafés. One was called the ABCD café — American, British, Chinese, Dutch café. They all joined together and opened it.
The food there was very light. Not hot like ours. Actually, I didn’t know what lard was. I didn’t even know what chips were.
One day I went inside the kitchen to see what this lard was. I walked into a big place with tables everywhere. The kitchen was on one side. One or two people cutting onions, others cutting potatoes with machines to make chips.
In our religion lard is strictly prohibited. We only use ghee or butter. Lard is used mainly by foreigners.
Sometimes we couldn’t even go into their kitchens. Such a bad smell! (laughs)
My words and actions are like those of a major. I say “Order!” like that.
Even my religious adviser — when I go to the mosque — the Imam calls me “Major”! In Galle, in Colombo, everywhere.
First they said it as a joke. But when everyone started calling me “Major”, people thought maybe I deserved it.
It doesn’t hurt me.
I accept it.
If I ignore them, then I have no company.
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