Page 5 - Ganesh Arunasalam

Family
Chavakachcheri and was also a Councillor of Chavakachcheri Town Council.
Nagalingam Arunasalam (known as Aruna to his friends and Ganesh to his family) was born in Nunavil, Chavakachcheri. His father Nagalingam was an old boy of Jaffna College and a respected teacher of Drieberg’s College,
Aruna’s mother Ponnamma was an oldgirl of Uduvil Girls’ School. Aruna was the sixth child of a family of seven children; Rajapoopathy, Punithavathy, Kamaladevi (deceased), Sitadevi, Dr. Ramachandran and Thilagavathy.
Aruna was educated at Drieberg’s College, Chavakachcheri and later went to Jaffna Hindu College to pursue his Advanced Level studies. He was a bright student excelling in pure and applied mathematics.
Career
Aruna pursued his dream of becoming a lawyer and entered Ceylon Law
College in Colombo in 1961, where he qualified and enrolled as a “proctor” (known today as an attorney-at-law) in 1965. He wanted to serve his people and began practising at the magistrate and district courts of Chavakachcheri.
During the twelve years he practised in Sri Lanka, he earned a good reputation, representing clients in high profile and politically sensitive cases,
including in the courts of Killinochchi. Aruna gained the respect of both colleagues and judges for his integrity, dedication and conviction to uphold the ethics of the noble profession.
Aruna continued his professional career when he and Kamaladevi moved to England, and qualified as a solicitor in 1980. He initially worked for a firm of
solicitors in London, later moving to Birmingham when Kamala got a position as a Consultant Anaesthetist.
Marriage and children
Whilst practising as a lawyer in Jaffna, Aruna fell in love with Kamala,
daughter of Mr and Mrs Arulampalam and Sellamma (both deceased). They
married in 1969. Kamala had studied at Chundikuli Girls’ College and later graduated as a doctor from the Medical Faculty at the University of Peradeniya, Kandy in 1967.
It was a marriage marked by devotion, sacrifice and loyalty. Their love produced two sons, Velautha-Cumaran (Mathavan), born in 1970, and Kamalakkannan (Kannan), born in 1972.
4