Recently a group of us who studied at Dharmaraja College in the HSC/UE Arts class in the early 1960s met with some of our old teachers to felicitate them.

The picture that accompanies this article (please see page 07 of The Kandy News) shows who was present at the luncheon gathering that we, the former students, organized at the Hotel Citadel on a Sunday in late July. It was such a pleasant experience for both teachers and students for several reasons. Almost every one of us “students” felt that we achieved what we achieved later in life partly due to the effort of our teachers. The teachers themselves were pleasantly surprised that we took the trouble to organize this felicitation lunch. They were not only pleased to see us, some after a lapse of over forty five years, but also each other because only a few of them remained at Dharmaraja to continue as teachers beyond the early 1960s. The best example is Mr. Eric de Silva who joined the tutorial staff to teach us Sinhala and Civics when our regular teacher Mr. K H. M Sumathipala took a leave of absence to pursue his post-graduate studies. Mr. de Silva taught us for less than one year but left an indelible impression on us. He joined the then prestigious Ceylon Civil Service and was one time Secretary, Ministry of Education. When I telephoned to invite him for the function he was surprised that any of us cared even to remember him as a teacher because his stay in Dharmaraja was so short.

Mr. Eric de Silva travelled to Kandy for the day with his buddy from campus days Mr. Harischandra de Silva who was our class master in the pre OL arts class. His teaching career was also short-lived. He joined the Archives and retired as the Archivist. He taught us history and also helped revive the “Curia Historica” in the school to cultivate a broader interest in history.

Ms. Leela Herath (now Jayasinghe) was a part of the young group of graduate teachers at Dharmaraja at that time. “Herath Madam” as we called her was especially popular among the senior boys. She taught us English Literature. There was intense but idle speculation whether she had a soft spot any of her male buddies from the campus. But that proved to be a false assumption.

Ms. Bhadra Agalawatta also joined the school from Peradeniya. She taught us Sinhala in the UE class. She was much liked as a teacher but we did not have much of an opportunity to get to know here because she left the school after a short period of service.

In the early 1960s Peradeniya graduates could pick and choose the job that they wanted. For many of them teaching was just a stop gap job until they moved on to some other career. Dharmaraja was a good stop over because it allowed them to maintain their links with the campus.

The most senior teachers that attended our function include Mr. Harischandra Wijetunga of Bhumiputra fame, Mr. D G A Perera who in his retirement has taken to researching Sri Lanka's history and Dr. H S S Nissanka who gained national fame by researching into rebirth. Mr. Wijetunga was the tall and debonair Chemistry teacher who was always impeccably dressed in his white national costume. His nationalist political views were no secret even at that time. He was also the adviser to the school senior debating team. This was the time when the language policy of “Sinhala Only” was a topic of heated debate in the country. Mr. Wijetunga at that time was a sympathizer of the husband and wife duo of parliamentarians K M P Rajarathna (Welimada) and Kusuma Rajarathna (Uva Paranagama) of the Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (not to be confused with the present Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna). I recall that two prominent Peradeniya dons F R Jayasuriya (Economics) and W S Karunarathna (Buddhist Civilization) also held similar views and our impression as students was that our Chemistry teacher made common cause with them.

I first met Mr. D G A Perera when we moved from the primary school, that at that time was next to the Natha Devale, to the upper school in 1956. He was a confirmed bachelor and lived in the school hostel. He taught us mathematics in Form 1 (the equivalent of Grade 7 today). Interestingly he also got “promoted” each year with us and moved up as a class master in Form 2 and Form 3.

In our time students were streamed into arts, science and commerce at the tender age of 13 to 14 when we hardly understood what such streaming meant. But for many parents their child in the “science” class meant doing either “engineering” or “medicine” considered highly prestigious. I opted for the arts stream that was supposed to be for duds. When we were students only “science” students studied mathematics beyond form 3. Those of us who chose the arts stream studied Arithmetic. Mr. Edward Silva was our teacher for Arithmetic as well as Hygiene and Physiology. The latter qualified as a “science” subject that the arts students had to offer for the OL.

Mr. H S S Nissanka first taught us English in primary school in 1953 when we were in Standard 3. He was fresh out of the Maharagama Teachers Training College. He was by far the most popular male teacher in the primacy school at that time. He later got his BA and moved to the upper school to teach senior classes. My strongest memory of him as a teacher concerns his method of teaching. In the pre/OL and OL he taught us Sinhala. Essay writing for him was a priority. His method was to let us leave the classroom, go anywhere on the vast Lake View school campus and write on anything that took our fancy. He also started a wall newspaper and I was made the editor of the Monday edition called “Nirmana.” It is only later that I came to deeply appreciate what he did for us. He wanted us to think freely and outside the box that stood us in good stead later in our careers, especially in university. My attempt to think outside the box made me write an editorial to my Wall Newspaper suggesting that Cricket was inappropriate as a sport for Dharmaraja because it absorbed a disproportionate amount of the limited resources available for extra-curricular activities. Why not spend more on, among other things, on literary and artistic endeavors, I argued. For this effort of challenging the status quo one of my fellow newspaper editors responded depicting me as nothing more than a “monkey” -who was out to destroy what was good and wholesome which happened to be cricket! Although it was no fun to be described as a monkey in front of the entire school community, it did teach us to accept criticism in the spirit that it was made.

Last but not least Mr. H W Senevirathne and Mr. K B. Welagedera are best remembered for their services to school cadetting. Both remained in Dharmaraja for extended careers as teachers. I was a junior cadet for two years and a senior cadet for one year under Mr. Senevirathne. He was a very firm cadet master but treated us very fairly. The highlight of the cadetting year was the camp in Diayatalawa. We did quite well in the competition but did not do well enough to win the Herman Loose Trophy awarded to the best platoon. But during our time we produced two regimental sergeant majors the highest rank that a school cadet can achieve K R K de Silva and J H M Suriyabandara. The former entered medical school and later migrated to USA. The latter joined the army and made the supreme sacrifice in the war in the defense of his country.

__________________________
The author S W R de A Samarasinghe can be reached at k_news@sltnet.lk

Suri Rajan is New Rotary Governor

The outgoing Rotary Governor Nalin Fernando installed the well known Kandy business magnate Rotarian Suri Rajan as the new governor of Rotary District 3220 at a colorful ceremony held recently at Hotel Earl's Regency, Kandy. He follows in the footsteps of Rotarian Dr V.Vijeyakumaran who was the first Rotary Governor ever to be elected from Kandy. Mr. Rajan who succeeded his late brother T R R Rajan as the Chairman of Sun Match Company and Ashoka Group of Companies is an alumnus of Trinity College. He is married to homemaker Sippora and they have two children.

Senkadagala Lions Install Lion Srilal Mendis as President

The Lions Club of Senkadagala recently installed Lion Srilal Mendis (right picture - standing in the middle) as its 28th succeeding Lion Dr. Kanishka de Silva (lighting the oil lamp). Lion Srilal is Assistant Vice President of John Keels Hotel Group and also serves as Head of Operations of Keels Roundtrip Hotels.

The picture on the left shows the Board of Directors of Senkadagala for the current year (sitting from left) Lions Pushpa Aluthgamage(Tamer) Sunethre Karunatileka (Treasurer), V Premarathne, Srilal Mendis, Kanishka de Silva, Asela Ratnayaka (Secretary), Tissa Jayasinghe and Dr Sarath (Standing from left) Reggie Iddamalgoda, M Sivaraj, Arooze Saleemdeen, Chinthaka Wijesuriya, Kithsiri Wanigasekera, Shirley Jayawardane, and Swarnee Pathirana (Absent: Lions Ananda Jayawardane and S W R de A Samarasinghe, Kosala Bowatta, Indralal Kiridena, K A Sumethipala, D Gunesakera)