Suduwelle St Joseph Eka

Grade Two
I joined St. Joseph\’s College at Maradaana, Colombo 10 in January 1975. I remember those days my maternal grandfather used to describe my school as \’Suduwelle St Joseph Eka\’ — literally meaning \’The St Joseph\’s at White Sands.\’ St. Joseph\’s College is the premier Catholic school in Sri Lanka. The school was founded in 1896 by French missionaries in Sri Lanka. I grew up in the school looking at French name as Bonjean, Le Goc. The sports houses of the school is named after successive archbishops of Colombo, all French missionaries such as: Christopher Bonjean (1887-1893), Andrew Melizan (1893-1905), Antony Coudert (1905-1929), and Peter Marque (1930-1937). I belong to the Marque House.

St. Joseph\’s is an elite school. A commoner like me could never have admitted to the school without someone\’s intervention or with a large some of money, which is called \”the donation.\” The school expects parents to make a \”donation\” to get their child admitted to the school. Bigger the donation, higher was the chance of getting admitted. Though it was a Catholic school it admitted a few non-Catholics. At least I remember a few of them who were in and around my class, Sajjad Saifuddin and Ismeth Rashid (Muslims) and Krishantha Pathinayake and Ruchira Saranapaala (Buddhists). They were the lucky ones who had a lot of time to play around freely when we Catholics had to go to church en masse for numerous reasons. We were herded into the school church class by class for various things, such as suddenly announced confession sessions, this commemorative mass or that commemorative mass, preparation of holy communion, confirmation, thanks giving masses for teachers, priests and the list would go on.

So, how I got into this elite school? My Godfather, Anthony Fernando, was an old boy as well as a former teacher at this school. He frequented the old Joe\’s club for evening drinks and snooker sessions. He had taught many important persons such as the reputed lawyer Romesh Perera and founder of Mlesna Tea, Anselm …. He has told my parents \’I have not given a proper gift to Sanjeewa. But I will give him a gift he will remember for his life.\’ His gift was getting me admitted to St Joseph\’s College without any donation. Anthony Fernando, passed away a few years ago. I could not attend his funeral as I was out of the country at that time. I am indebted to him for the gift he gave me. It was his gift which shaped my life and brought me to where I am now. I did not know my godfather well. But I always knew him as a no-nonsense broad-minded person. He remained single for his whole life. He drank a lot, which ultimately resulted in his death. But he never troubled anyone. He was not a good looking person, but was a very good and beautiful person in heart. I only had brief conversations with him. I know that he was very proud of my achievements. Last time I met him at the Union Chemists at Union Place in Colombo. He always had time to chat with him although I often appeared unannounced.

When I started going to St. Joseph\’s, I lived in Kolonnawa (quite interestingly, in Wikipedia, Kolonnawa is described as a \’town with a clock tower\’ in the Western Province of Sri Lanka. Actually Kolonnawa has much more to than the clock tower, which I do not remember. Kolonnawa was where renown actor D R Nanayakkara lived and I have seen him many times standing at his doorstep, bare-chested. It is also the place where popular singer Gration Ananda came from. In fact he was a friend of my aunt, Geetha Punchi and used to mock him by the name Grtion Padda (or Gracien the fart)). My family have moved to the newly built (rather incomplete) house at Pokuna Road, Nayakakanda, Hendala. I lived in Kolonnawa with my grandparents, Kanthi Punchi and Geetha Punchi. They lived on the Government Flats opposite Dayaratna Bakery on _______ Road. The building had 10 flats on the ground floor and 10 flats on the 1st and only other floor. My grandparent\’s place was the first flat on the ground floor close to the Dayaratna Bakery.Next door to my grandparents flat was Ranasinghe Uncle and Nimal\’s place and next to his was Alwis Uncle\’s place (Priyantha, Bawanthi …). Priyantha was the youngest among them and closest to my age. We used to play cricket on the middle of the main road. I learne d that Priyantha passed away at the young age due to cancer. The floor right on top of the apartment was occupied by the Pieris Family (Pieris Uncle, UdaGedara Aunty and their children, Tyrral, Celine, Nihal, Indrani and Shamalka (or Chuuti). Next to Pieris\’ were Hewa family and their children Ananda, ___, Upali, Patty, Ajith and Asela. During the 1989-1992 JVP Southern Insurrection, Upali was gunned down by a suspected JVP cadre.

At the St Joseph\’s, the Second Grade (Grade 2D, 1975) class was managed by a young Catholic nun named, I think, Sr. Adrian. I do not have much memories of that class. But I remember that the class was just opposite the Tuck Shop (of the snacks shop) which was right next to the swimming pool. During that time the the students were terrified by a few characters. One was a teacher named Mrs. Murugesu. She was the most feared teacher on our floor. She seemed to have punished children by hitting on the top part of fingers with the edge or the thin part of the wooden ruler. This is what I heard of her. She never taught my class. She taught English. But that was the picture painted on Mrs. Murugesu. I remember my classmates trying to avoid walking on the corridor when she was coming. She was a slim woman, often with a pottu or bindi on her forehead with not so friendly facial. She wore black-rimmed glasses and would walk pass holding onto her books and the infamous ruler. I was heavily influenced by what my friends told about her. I too tried to avoid her to best of my ability. However, one day I could not. It was about 30 minutes before the classes began and there were only a few students in the classrooms. I was in the school early that day and when I hit the corridor to go to my class, there she was walking towards me. I had no time to avoid her and had to get pass her to go to my class. I took a deep breath and started walking towards her. I felt like wearing shoes made of heavy stones that every step I took felt so heavy. I did not know where to look at, floor? walls? the ceiling? But there was a teacher coming towards me, the most \”fearful character\” in the entire school, according to my friends. And then our eyes met. She looked at me through her glasses. Her lips tightly pressing to each other. She was not smiling. But she was staring right at me. And then, I said to her, the only thing that came to my mind. \”Good morning, teacher!\” She looked at me again, and said \”Good morning!\” and we passed each other. It wasn\’t bad after all. All of a sudden my feed felt light. I was breathing normally. And the distant to my class was getting shorter and shorter. I was relieved. I also felt something different. She did not look like the person my classmates describe what she is. I felt like I could look at her again straight into her eyes! From that moment onwards, during my first four years in that building in the Primary School. I met Mrs. Murugesu numerous times. She not only greeted me, but began to know me and smile with me. And there I saw she smiling, a beautiful but a very proud smile. I kept this a secret as I never shared this anyone else in my class. Partly because, I thought that they would not believe me if I told them Mrs Murugesu is not the person they think of. We never talked to each other except exchanging greetings. But we knew each other. We smiled at each other. In fact, during final years of my primary school, if I saw her, I would go to her and greet her and return. She would return my greetings with a friendly, kind and affectionate smile. In fact, other than my own class teachers, she the only other teacher I remember well in that building.

Among other friends in my class, I remember two distinct ones, Nilano Fernando and Nishantha Fernando (see a separate blog entitled, Long Lost Friend Found). Nilano was a fighter, and had a great interest in airplanes. I remember some tiny scars on his face. He was a good boy but a tough one, physically. He would challenge other students for fights. Nishantha, if I remember correctly, was the only classmate who wore glasses. May be I am wrong on that by that is my recollection. Nishantha was also a fighter. But not a provoker. He fought to defend himself. and defended himself successfully, even with Nilano. Nishantha also had unusual knowledge in him. When I think of it now, I think he had read more than us then (knowledge from outside school books) and if I remember well, he had interest in detective kind of stories. However, he was quiet, and I think most of us failed to understand the value of knowledge he had then.

Origami

We had a class called Art and Hand Work. During one period a week we had to go to the art class and the art teacher was there to teach us hand work. I did not know the word then, but that was the time we began to learn origami. The teacher was a tall Tamil teacher. She instructed us in English. We followed each step after her and started making beautiful things out of a square piece of paper. I do not remember her but I very well remember this class, the last classroom, the art class, on the first floor of the primary school building.

Mrs. Halpe

Mrs Halpe was my Third Grade class teacher (Class 3D, 1976). The class room was still on the ground floor and I had frequent encounters with Mrs Murugesu. She was a fairly young short-haired teacher. I do not have much memories of her other than she was an easy teacher to deal with.

Mrs. Rita Ratnayake

When we entered the Fourth Grade, (Grade 3D, 1977), our class room was on the first floor of the primary school building. Mrs Rita was a contrast to Mrs Halpe. She did not smile much or smile at all. She always bore a worried face. This was the grade we were ranked according our performance. Just after the First Term Exams (before Easter Vacation) our performance report cards were given to us according to the total marks we scored in each subject. I did not understand this at all, until I went home and showed my report card to my parents and aunts. They told me that I was ranked 3rd in the class, meaning so called third brightest student in the class. The first was Ajantha Dharmasiri (today a professor in Business Management) and Rohitha Tilakaratne (who captained the school cricket team during later years). There began the so called competition to become first. During the next test or exam I was the second, Ajantha was still first. From then on, I was always the second in successive exams, five more exams, until the end of my Fifth Grade in 1978. Ajantha was always the first. He won a scholarship and left the school to study at the Royal College. I lost a friend but also knew that I had no more competition in the class to become The First.

I used to hate Rita Teacher, as we called her then, during my studies at Grade Three. I hated her for one thing. We had to transcribe paragraphs in our best Sinhala handwriting. The objective was to improve our handwriting. I did my best to produce the paragraph in most beautiful handwriting possible. But Rita Teacher would look at that and say, \”not good enough, write again.\” I go back and transcribe the paragraph again, this time making it the best I could produce. I was sure that teacher would like it. I went to her with the second version, and then would say, the same thing, \”not good enough. Still ugly.\” I could not believe her. For a moment I thought she must be crazy. I went back and painstakingly began transcribing the same paragraph again, hateful feeling brewing inside me, tears in my eyes. There must be something wrong with Rita Teacher, I thought. Why cannot she say that my handwriting is good enough. But to my utter disappointment, for the third time she repeated those words, \”not good enough. Do it again.\” I go back again and do it, and this repeated more than five times. Finally, she said, \”OK, that is enough for today.\” After all that painstaking effort, not a word of appreciation? She did not say anything about quality of my handwriting! I was very disappointed and angry with myself. What is wrong with me? Or something wrong with both of us? This exercise continued during the whole year. She was a strict teacher with no or less smile.

Now I want to jump to my Advanced Level studies, 11th and 12th year of studies at the school. During those days I used to exchange my notes with friends I met through Young Christian Students (YCS) movement from other schools. I frequently exchanged Chemistry and Physics books with Manouri and Rukmali from Holy Family Convent. They both had excellent handwriting. Especially, Rukmali had most consistent print-like tiny Sinhala handwriting. When they saw my handwriting, I remember they complementing me that my handwriting were far better than other boys\’ handwriting. It is common that girls write more beautifully than boys in writing Sinhala, with rare exceptions. I was not one of these exceptions. But I was close to an exception. When I looked back, it reminded me of my Grade Three experience with Rita Teacher. Then I realized that Rita Teacher is largely responsible for fixing my handwriting. My handwriting improved from that time onwards. That was the time I began to appreciate what Rita Teacher has done for my future. I changed my perspective entirely at that moment. From that moment I began to appreciate Rita Teacher and to-date I am indebted to her for her having me going through those tough transcribing exercises that fixed my handwriting forever.

Prize Giving

The school used to have its annual prize giving for the primary school. I felt that those days, it was a very generous system to reward academic achievements. For example, for every subject the person who get the highest mark would get a prize. Second and third highest would get certificates. For general proficiency, the first, second and third in the class would prizes and certificates too. Since Grade 3 onwards, I managed to get either a prize or at least a few certificates. The prize was very useful for me and my family. The prize would include a voucher to purchase book plus a bible. Book voucher was such an important thing that we manage to purchase all my and my sister\’s annual books and various other things need to buy (like one bristle board, varnish papers, oil papers, text books from England such as The Radiant Way, Home Run Pas crayons, color pencils, fountain pens, and the list would go on). To purchase all these things was a huge burden for my family with my father\’s single salary of a soldier in the army. So the book vouchers came in handy every year. The Prize Giving would take place at Bojean Hall. My family and in some years Geetha Punchi would come to see me receive prizes. I think it was a great moment for them to see me go to the stage to receive prizes or certificates. They treasured them more than I those days.

Christmas Carol Performance

I was also part of the primary school choir. So often I would perform in annual Christmas Carol performance at the Bonjean Hall. My family would come again to see me sing. I would wear white long sleeved shirt, school tie with blue and whitestripes, white short pants, white socks and black shoes. Again my family would come to witness this event.

Pradeep Alles and the fountain pen

Since Grade Four, I was very close to Pradeep Kumar Alles. Pradeep had fair skin like a Western white kid (or at least that was the impression I got then). We was bright and was an excellent swimmer. I remember we had three excellent swimmers in our class, Pradeep, Dushantha Abeysena and Rasika Induruwage. In swimming competitions Pradeep or Dushantha would often share first and second place and Raskia would come third. Pradeep was also very generous. We had to use fountain pens in those days. I remember Pradeep gifting me a Youth branded very good looking black color fountain pen. It was a very big deal at that time to receive such a nice pen as a gift from a fellow classmate. After about 3o years, I managed to get Pradeep\’s phone number in 2010.

Ajantha, Saman and I

During Grade Five, in 1978, Ajantha Dharmasiri, Saman Perera and I became very close and hanged out together during most of our free time. Ajantha had a sense of humour and was always teasing Saman. We played games teasing one another. I remember Ajantha for hie quite interesting left handed writing style. Of course, he was the brightest. He lives closer to my paternal aunt at Pamunuwila near Kelaniya. He knew my cousin, Princely. I remember Saman for for his very quite and sincere character and beautiful handwriting. He had the most beautiful handwriting among three of us at that time. He was living near Thudella, Ja-ela those days.

I got disconnected from both of them after leaving school. I got disconnected from Ajantha since 1978. I got reconnected with Ajantha in 2010 through Facebook. I got reconnected with Saman Perera only in the beginning of 2011. He lives in Melbourne.

Fifth Grade Scholarship Examination

Ajantha and Ruchira Saranapala, passed the second level of fifth grade government scholarship exam. Ajantha left my school and joined the Royal College and Ruchira joined D S Senanayake College. Ajantha went on to study engineering at the university and specialized in business management. He holds a doctorate in business management and today a top consultant and a lecturer in Sri Lanka. Ruchira became a medical doctor. I began to correspond with him in 2010 too just before he migrated to Vancouver in July that year. I learned that Ruchira and Ajantha\’s wife were classmates at the Medical College.

A few other notable classmates in my class: Nilano Fernando, who I remember for two things: 1) small scars (possibly due to childhood play mishaps) on his face; and 2) for the first inventing a nickname for me. Nilano is the first person who called me \”Gadevila\” or the earthworm, making fun of my name: Gladwin/Gladwyn. Nilano was the toughest guy in the class and no one dared fighting him. He did not bully others, but fought and overpowers anyone who came in his way or challenged him. Another person was Nishantha Fernando: remembered for his odd behaviour and thick pair of glasses. Nishantha was very smart student and knew things other students did not know. He was also tough in an odd way. He fought to defend himself as he was often bullied by other classmates. Ironically, I had a good relationship with all these different characters.

First years of secondary school

Moving from primary to secondary school, or grade 5 to 6 those days, or Year 6 to 7 nowadays, brought many changes.

– Dress: we started wearing white short pants, instead of navy-blue short trousers with white shirts;

– The classes were named differently: We belonged to the fourth class in 1978, Grade 5D (fourth letter being D) and the Tamil medium class was 5T. Classes were not ranked according to any merit: 5A did not necessarily have smarter students than 5B, 5C or 5D. Then in 1979, when we moved to the 6th grade, the classes were names slightly differently: 5A became 6S1 (S for Sinhala medium) and my class, 5D became 6S4 and the Tamil medium class was 6T as there was only one Tamil medium class.

– Old friends leaving and new friends joining: Ajantha, Ruchira (from 5C) and Pradeep Alles (and possibly a few others) left the school. New classmates joined: and one of them was Tiran Costa from Kandana, who came from St Benedict\’s College in Kotahena. Tiran always had a classic short hair-cut, bit round eyes and firm body gesture. He had no problem joining new friends in the class.I was not a close friend of Tiran those years. But we traveled in the same school but: SJC-Wattala Junction-Hekitta-Palliyawatta-Elakanda-Maradana Road-Nayakakanda-Alwis Town-Kerawalapitiya-Hendala Junction-Mabole-Mahabage (or Welisara) Juction, Kandana and terminating in Jaela. I was looking for Tiran for a long time but could not connect. Then something strange happened. I saw him in a dream around mid-March and when I woke up, I saw a Facebook friend request from Tiran. It was one of the weird co-incidents. Tiran now work and lives in Tokyo. He is married to a Japanese and have a lovely daughter.

–  Unlike in the primary school where the class teacher taught most of subjects, there were different teachers for different subjects in the secondary school. There was a so-called class teacher, but it was the sectional head, and in our case, stern and tough-looking Roger Fernando, who took much responsibility. I remember Roger Fernando for his peculiar way or canning students. He would first call the culprit-student to the front, then pull the hem of the short pant sideways, so that the pant-cloth would press tightly toward the buttock (like a spandex pant) and then he would hammer his cane against the buttock. Well those days, corporal punishment was common and was not illegal. I do not know how it is now, but we got caned or slapped by teachers up until 1986, the year I left the school. One of the last person I remember slapping a classmate was Mr. Burman or Mr. Livera, whom I learned have passed away a few years back while he was resting in the staff room.

Being the class monitor

I was appointed the Class Monitor with Thushan Weerasinghefrom Kandana) as the deputy monitor and another deputy whose name I cannot recall. One of the difficult tasks assigned to monitors was to maintain discipline in the class. When there was no teacher in the class, monitors were supposed to keep the class quiet. There were about 40 of us, and we were all young and how to keep them quiet? Thushan or I had to go to the blackboard and stand with a piece of chalk and when a classmate ignore the warning to not to talk, his name would be written on the board. Gradually, a list of \’talkers\’ will be on the board. When I look back, I am begin to thin what an ugly task that have been: monitoring classmates and writing their name. We were making ourselves unpopular among classmates. We were also being trained to be a mini-police force to help teachers to maintain discipline. We were in fact, betraying our own classmates. When there were stars in front of some names, meaning repeatedly warned but ignored, when the teacher of sectional head arrives, they get canned or punished in another way. I am feel very ashamed of this when I look back. But those days, some of us took pleasure out of this mini-authority we had over other class-mates and being spies to convey information to class teacher or sectional head. Luckily, I was class monitor, I think, only that year and did not have to repeat it again.

1979 Prize Giving and J R Jayawardene

I got two prices that year: for Sinhala Language (highest marks for the subject among four Sinhala medium classes) and General Proficiency: obtaining highest totals in two term tests. This year something special happened. I was sick and could not attend the test for one subject. So I virtually gave up the hopes for a) being the first during that term and b) obtaining General Proficiency prize (you get marked out of hundred for each subject and there are eight subjects and if you are absent for one subject, you are still marked against total of 800 marks it was the total that matter not the average). And to my big surprise, during the second term test, I happened to top the total having being absent for one subject. I thought this was an interesting achievement.

The Prize Giving was held on the newly-built open air auditorium. I joined the traditional Sinhala band that year (Hewisi Band) and was playing the drum called Thammattama.

I had to wear the band costume for festivities and during the occasion of the Prize Giving, the Hewisi Band was supposed the welcome the Chief Guest of the event, who was The President of Country J R Jayawardene. He had been elected for two years after 1977 landslide victory of his United National Party (UNP) (with a record 4/5th majority, which tipped the balance of the parliament leading to a number of events to shape rather unfortunate decades to follow). My parents were invited to attend the Prize Giving. There was not much security presence as the country was very peaceful those days but the invitations were limited to two per family of prize winners. I had difficult situation to manage. I had to play in the costume of the Hewisi Band to welcome the procession leading the president to the auditorium and soon after that, I had change back to my school uniform for formal events: White long sleeve shirt, blue and white school tie, and white short pants, white socks and black shoes. I only had a few minutes to change (I was the only member of the Hewisi Band who was receiving a prize, according to my recollection) and my Hewisi Band teacher was not helpful as he told me to take care of the matter myself. There was no place to change and no one to help and I ended up changing in a corridor of the school and sprinted to the area were prize winners were seated. Mr. Joe Perera, who was the principle of the Junior School: Grade 6, 7 and 8, was with the list of prize winners and he seated me where I was supposed to be seated. It was well-organized and seating were according the way were to be called to receive our prizes. I admire my school for doing this sort of things in well-organized and precise manner (I was dismayed by the way Swiss schools were handling such events, which I would like to write separately). I first received the General Proficiency Prize from Madame Jayawardene (as it was always the wife of the dignitary who distributed prizes) and later went on the stage to receive the prize for Sinhala again on the stage.

I remember there was a black and white photo of me of this event. This was a big deal for my parents: Being first in the class and then being rewarded by the President of the country. Late I was to receive prizes from the Minister of Justice, Ananda Tissa de Alwis and Mrs. Hema Premadasa (Chief Guest was then President R Premadasa, who was an old-boy of my school) and a number of other dignitaries whom I do not remember.

Slack years

I started slipping back in my studies around grade 7 and 8 a bit. I was doing OK, but was not the first in the class. This was the time I remember Ramesh Krishnan was transferred to S4 class from S3 class. He happen to sit next to me. We became instant friends and hanged out together. Ramesh always wore Casio electronic watches which was a big deal those days. He had more than one watch, if I recall. I  thought those days that Ramesh\’s family may be owning Casio Company!!

Ramesh, Swimming Pool and Coca Cola

There was a time Ramesh and I spend the entire interval hanging around the swimming pool. Ramesh used to buy two bottles of Coca Cola and he always paid, I remember (in fact I could not afford to buy a Coke then!). We would then have some snacks from the tuck shop and hang out. We also often bump into swimming teacher, Mr. Abeysena. Mr. Abeysena was ex-Navy and his son, Dushantha Abeysinghe was in our class. Dushantha was a quite and gentle guy and a brilliant swimmer. Mr. Abeysena used to sort of torture us, getting any opportunity to hold us from the skin on our tummies. We would run to get away from him. It was a game and a lots of fun. He knew Ramesh and I comes to the pool every day during the interval.

Bayre Wewa Secrets

During Grade 8, we were at a class room near Bayray Wewa, rather filthy tank in Colombo. I remember during that year, some of us, including Krishantha Pathinayake, used to look for secret passages by the trees and bushes by this tank. I am not sure what exactly we were looking for but there was some curiosity as this part in the rear compound of the school premises was rather abandoned and unexplored. So we were very curious to discover something new.

Wax figures posing nude

I remember seeing first nude pictures of women during grade 8. A classmate or two brought a few soft porn magazines and it was all exciting to see young European women completely naked posing for photos. I remember Roshan Perera refused to believe that those photos are real. He was insisting that those were wax figures–he and some of us could not simply believe that a woman would get naked in front of a camera. Later we saw more and more magazines and more hard core porn and came to terms that we were rather naiive and inexperienced. Most such magazines were readily available at bookshops at Macalum Road. I was passing by that area during summer 2011 and still could see those book shops, rather seedy ones.

Senior Cadet Corp

I was about 16 years when I somehow took interest in joining senior cadet corps of the school. It was all about being small soldiers without guns. I was thin and fit those days. But it was the first enduring exercise I went through. We had to train hard twice a week. Once on a weekday after school and then the other time on Saturday morning. We were supposed to go to the Malwatta Road (Flower Street just opposite the Fort Railway Station) and buy second hand army boots and socks. Then were told to  learn to polish the boot, especially the shiny front top part of the boot, \”until you are able to see your face on it.\” My father has just retired from army then and he must have been wondering what I was up to. It was his life for 22 years in the Sri Lanka Army and then his young son was sort of trying to imitate him. For some reason I knew that he was not too excited that I joined cadet corps. But he did not object and let me have it my way. It was hard training and commands given by senior members through filthy language–which they thought was very smart of them that they are imitating the Army. I was then impressed by Christopher Perera or a guy we called Christo. We had Angelo Perera (brother of my classmate Roshan Perera) and Neon Perera. All these were seniors. But Christo impressed me the most. I thought he was very smart and stylish. I never realized that he was short until one day, during the College Prize giving when he marched on to the stage to receive an award. My father was there and a I was very happy to tell my father that Christo is the person who lead us in the cadet corps. I was sure that my father was impressed by seeing him. Then the response from him was the surprise of that day. He told me, \”there was nothing special about him? You know, in my time, he would never have made it to the Army as he does not qualify for minimum height that is needed to join the army.\” Then only I realized that Christo was rather short, at least short to join the army!

There were a couple of times when we wore the uniform, which had to be borrowed by the army. Once was for the Independence Day Celebration at the Havelock Grounds, I think it was 1983. And the second time was a school event during which we had to be \”on duty.\”  The only thing I remember about the school event was that it was a few days during which we had unlimited soft drinks and hot dogs through some coupons issued for cadets. The independence day celebration was rehearsed many times around the area of Havelock Road. We were transported by buses and all Colombo schools and school bands were there. SJC cadet corps was led by the SJC western band. And there was a sort of guard of honour to then Prime Minister, R. Premadasa. After weeklong celebration, the Independence Day arrived. And on that day we had a to march and in front of the stand where the Prime Minister and other dignitaries observed the parade and we had to do this \”eyes right\” when we were passing the podium. The event was televised live and my parents were able to see me in the group of cadets. I was luckily in right-most row closer to the camera. I still have the certificate issued by then PM R. Premadasa for all those hundreds or thousands of students who joined that parade. Premadasa, an old boy of SJC, later became the president of the country. It was under his presidency the country went through a bleak time when the government, using disciplinary forces and para-military or vigilante forces, extra-judicially executed and disappeared about 60,000 Sinhalese young people in the South of Sri Lanka. Of course, the architect of this authoritarian regime led by the United National Party (UNP) was Premadasa\’s predecessor, J R Jayawardana. Jayawardana was elected by 4/5^th majority to power in July 1977. A lawyer by profession and a shrewd tactician, Jayawardana then created the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka which provided room for abuse of power and impunity to the government to \”to whatever they want to do.\” As far as I know, two Sri Lankans understood adverse effects to come out of this constitution than many others. One was late Colvin R De Silva, former leader of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. The other is my former boss at the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando. Basil Fernando published his study on the 1978 Constitution in 2011 in a book entitled: Gyge\’s Ring.

I think I should also write a bit about my memory on 1977 elections. I was living with my maternal grandparents those days. My aunt was living in Kotikawatta junction (next to the fair). They were all hard-core UNP supporters. I think many Catholics were supporters of the UNP. Catholics often remind the fact that that the leader of Sri Lanka Freedon Party (or SLFP, the other  main political party), S W R D Bandaranayaka brought about nationalistic policies getting rid of many English medium schooling run by foreign Catholic missionaries. It was in 1950s when such changes were introduced many Catholic missionaries had to go back to their countries of origin in Europe. For some reason, Sri Lankan Catholics adore these missionaries that they were doing an excellent job and they were very committed to what they were doing but Bandaranayaka got rid of them. They also blame him for alienating not only Christians/Catholics, but minority Tamils. Some argue that post-independence (1948) alienation of Tamils in the mainstream began with Bandaranayaka\’s \”Sinhala-Buddhist\” nationalistic policies. My family, parents and grand father, largely subscribed to these views and therefore, were staunch UNPers. In fact my father still would blame everything what went wrong in post independent Sri Lanka on Bandaranayaka. Quite interestingly, despite all these \”reforms\” introduced by Bandaranayaka, we all are aware of three facts: 1) Bandaranayaka was Anglican (His name S W R D stands for Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike) and was brought up like Brit in Sri Lanka, sent to British schools and later graduated from Oxford University. 2) Upon his return from England to Sri Lanka, he could hardly speak English. During early political rallies, he addressed the public in English and a reformist Buddhist nationalist leader, Anagarika Dharmapala have acted as a translator during some of these events. Even afterwards, he has spoken Sinhala with a heavy accent; 3) he was later assassinated by a Buddhist monk. So this, English-educated Anglican Sri Lankan who went on to introduce \”Sinhala\” only policy and \”Sinhala Buddhist\” nation ultimate met his fate by gun-wielding Buddhist monk.

Premadasa too was killed on the 1^st of May 1992 by LTTE suicide bomber. As a result of the bomb, his body was never properly assembled and parts of his body was later created in a sealed casket.

I had the fortune or misfortune come very close to both these persons when I received prizes from their wives on the stage during SJC prize giving events (Jayawardena in 1979) and Premadasa in early 1980s.

Fr. Stanley Abeysekera

A/L Maths Class

Subodhi Incident and Senior Prefects

Gajamange\’s \”Death\”

Friday Movies

Dilrukshan\’s Bath Paarsalay

Failing A/Ls