Festival of tribute from Saudi prince ....

Festival of tribute from Saudi prince ....

for honest service of 33 years of Sri Lankan driver

A special night party was held at a Saudi Royal prince's residence last Thursday night. It was held at a the residence of a royal prince named Abdul Raman Bin Furhan and it was on behalf of
a farewell of the service of a Sri Lankan employee who had served for a long period of 33 years. Saudi newspapers had reported that this form of celebrations are not performed at Saudi Royal Palace and that this was performed in particular to appreciate and value the qualities of this non-Muslim employee named Samy who was subjected to exceptional affection of the said Royal Prince.

The name of this 76 year old Sri Lankan happens to be Vatti and during his long service at the palace he came to be known with the pet name of Samy. He had joined the palace at the age of 43 in 1983 in the capacity of a driver and in a short time had became the best employee at the palace winning the faith and affection of everybody.

According to what Samy says, they had not actually treated him as a driver. He had said that he was treated as another member of the royal family itself. They had even gone so far as to address him with the honourable title of 'royal prince' on certain occasions. Once on the occasion when he was given a salary of 10000 Saudi Riyals to be sent home, a relative of his had swindled that money according to what his wife had notified him and on noticing that he was despondent about it the Saudi prince had treated him in a manner of humanity by taking steps to give him a similar amount of money to be dispatched home, it has come to be known.

When Samy had mentioned that he wishes to take leave of his services after finishing his 33 year long service and go home, they had all felt sorry and had thought of paying him a wonderful tribute and thus had organised this celebration, it is said. Photographs taken at that event, from below