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Central Schools Worked Wonders
G. Uswattearatchi
(Marga Institute)
Cinderella turned into a beautiful princess, a pumpkin into a magnificent chariot and mice into smart footmen . It was all so wonderful but there was a clock which struck twelve and the magic all stopped, all due to the interference of an evil spirit. So it was with Central Schools.In 1944 Hikkaduwa was a little sleepy town on the coast. It was the service centre for Gonapinuvala, Baddegama and Thelikade, where some rubber, cinnamon and poor tea grew. Beyond that was Hiniduma, closer to Galle, the provincial capital. There was a Rest House on the little tongue of land which jutted out to sea. It had four rooms or so and occasionally a newly married couple arrived there to spend their honey moon. Sometimes, a government of ficial on circuit in the Southern Province stayed by to lunch. There was hardly any body else.
At that time C. W. W. Kannangara received a boon from the white god far away in the land of albinos to confer on a number of his choice the power of magic. He chose a mighty magician named Don Abraham Devendra who was teaching Mathematics at Trinity College, Kandy and sent him to down to the new Central School near the sea close to the quiet Rest House, there to work his spell. What a magician he turned out to be!
Brown as well polished teak, about six feet tall, his hair all ready thinning, with a booming voice, clad in completely white national dress, a pipe in his small mouth, a Sheffer pen with which he always wrote and a small clock which he carried from home to office, D. A. Devendra began to cast his spell only the way he could. He collected apprentices who were his equal in their knowledge of charms, in their dedication to work those spells and in their pleasure to see Cinderellas turn into accomplished princess and ungainly frogs turn into charming princes. There were Kalyanapriya Dahanayake to teach English with K. L. A. Gunawardena (Lennie) as his second, K. D. Gunatunge to teach Sinhala, E. H. Rodrigo to teach Pali, H. R. H. de Silva to teach History and civics, K. H. W. O. de Silva to teach Geography and P. Mandeleswaran (from Puloly West) to teach Physics and Chemistry. The great magician himself taught Mathematics. An imposing Captain Edward Ginige and a young officer L. E. P. W. Jayatilleke looked after the cadet platoon, which soon won the Herman Loos shield. Edward Ginige was a sheer delight to the eye both when he marched and when he took the salute, although he was close to sixty years of age at that time.
Devendra collected about a humdred Cinderellas and frogs into two hostels, the girls in the hostel opposite the school with the beach as their back yard and the boys further away in Wewala under the good care of Gunatunge. They came from as far away as Poddala, Meetiyagoda, Katudampe and Madampe. They came from families from which nobody had gone to school at all or beyond a few years, families which had no proper abode, families which could not find the money to travel a few miles to school and whose children therefore walked several miles to and from school each day, families which had no idea what secondary education was like and a very few whose parents had had some education but none in English. Kamala was the exception, because Devendra did not see the point of his being the principal of a school to which he could not send his own child. The girls soon dressed themselves in immaculately white 'lama sari' and the boys in navy blue shorts and white short sleeved shirts. A few wore shoes but the many could not afford them.
The Great Magician and his apprentices took 'double, double, toil and trouble 'and made the' fire burn and cauldron bubble'. The spell soon worked. There grew a batch of thirty students, 22 girls and 8 boys in the Third Form who studied together until they completed Fifth Form and sat for the Senior School Certificate examination in December 1951. There was A. R. Kusumawathie who always sat on the first seat on the first row on the left, forever the teacher's pet. Chandra Seneviratene sat next to her. On the right extreme sat two fiercely intelligent girls: my sister Jane and next to her W. D. Kusumawathie. They always competed with me for the English essay prize and sometimes, they won. Two rows behind sat Devendra's daughter Kamala and her inseparable friend Cissy Weerawickrema. The eight boys sat in the remote last two rows on the left: K. D. Somaratne, Premaratne de Silva, myself, T. G. Samarasiri in that order; behind us R. K. Hemachandra, Tilakasiri de Silva, Seetin Fernando and A. G. Gunapala. A. R. Kusumawathie, Seneviratne, Somaratne, Premaratne and I eventually went to university. Kusumawathie taught at Teachers' Training College and later was the head of the Department of Education in the Maldives. Seneviratne graduated from university. Somaratne was a brilliant Sanskritist at Peradeniya. Premaratne read Geography at university and taught that subject in Teachers' Training Colleges. Even in maturity he wrote the same pearly and perfectly rounded script which contrasted so deeply with my almost illegible scrawl. He almost always beat me to the Mathematics prize. I eventually went to Cambridge to be awarded a Ph.D. in Economics. W. D. Kusumawathie and my sister Jane, the two whom I feared most in my class, both went to Maharagama and became expert English teachers. Samarasiri with his careful and deliberate ways chose to be a surveyor. Tilakasiri also went to Maharagama and took to Mathematics teaching. Gunapala started teaching English in Welimada. Fernando joined the CGR as a Railway Guard. Hemachandra was the most mischievous of us all and I am not sure what he did for a living after leaving school. Cissy Weerawickrema was one of the first women to join the Police Force and I used to see her as smart in her uniform on the beat as she was in 'lama sari' in school. There you had the Cinderellas, who had turned into princesses and frogs who had turned into princes.
But, alas, soon the clock struck twelve. Some evil politician removed the Great Magician from Hikkaduwa because the Magician refused to utter a charm which the evil politician had formulated. The apprentices of the great Magician saw no more good they could do and went themselves to cast their spell in places like Karandeniya and Pelmadulla. The school at Hikkaduwa itself was moved inland to Nalagasdeniya. The spell was completely broken and evil days befell Hikkaduwa. It was cursed by an epidemic of vulgarity and sickness. The little quiet Rest House by the bay became a source of income welcomed by many but also the spring of much ill that befell the little town. That fate befell many Central Schools from Hedunawa to Nugawela, from Piliyandala to Minuwangoda and from Pelmadulla to Wanduramba. We like to see that curse removed.
Minister Richard Pathirana now possesses those divine powers with which he can confer magical power on new young men and women to work miracles far and wide in this country. The Principals need to be young when they can devote much energy and generate enthusiasm in these schools. These Principals need to stay there for some time - ten to fifteen years. They need authority to choose their teachers and discipline them. Evil politicians need to keep their meddlesome hands off the schools. Old pupils of these schools need to take interest in the places which transformed their lives so wondrously. Parents of children need to associate themselves with the functioning of these schools. No school need be so large that the Principal cannot know the names and faces of each and every teacher and pupil. I recently went to my old school on the day of their prize distribution and learned to my deep dismay that no more than one in five students was invited to the occasion because the Hall could hold no more. Devendras of today can do far more with so much more resources than my own great Head Master ever had . But politicians must give them a chance. The Minister of Education, who means so well, can make sure that they do.
By Joe Segera
Don't be misled by the headline. This has nothing to do with the hilarious 'Doctor' series of yesteryears. But the subject we are writing about is even more hilarious than that series. The ongoing situation in this thrice blessed land of ours is that very soon there would be more Doctors than Ministers in Sri Lanka. The coming scenario is such that one of these days the man seated next to you in one of Mr. Fowzie's buses might stare a hundred daggers at you if you addressed him as plain Mister. That's because he is one of those ever increasing tribe of Doctors who has never written a thesis in his life nor even been to the verandah of a University but thickly calls himself a Doctor. He is not one of those quacks in the Medical Profession, but one of those dime a dozen Phds or D. Lits s who has misunderstood the Latin phrase Honoris Causa and continues calling himself Doctor.As it is well known Universities confer degrees to people who have distinguished themselves in various spheres with doctorates followed by the phrase, Honoris Causa. By adding this phase the learned institutions emphasis the fact that they are only Honorary degrees which do not entitle the holders to use them as if they have been won through learning and scholarship.
What has happened today that the awards of these Honorary Doctorates is being abused. Various nondescript institutions without any recognized University status are freely awarding Doctorates as prizes to their friends and publicity agents. The prevailing state of affairs is such that even those Under-The-Tree 'Vedamahatayas' who sell pills which they say could cure any disease or malady could claim to be Doctors (Honoris Causa).
And the sad thing is that even certain English-speaking people with good educational backgrounds are using the title (Honoris Causa) before their names. Forgetting the fact that the real Doctors are learned men who have earned their Doctorates after years of research at Universities.
While on the subject it is meant to mention that distinguished people like Presidents and Prime Ministers have been the recipients of Doctorates from recognized Universities for services to their countries and peoples. And they are all Honorary Doctorates. The late Prime Minister Winston Churchill is reputed to have been conferred with some not one, but number of Doctorates, Another former British Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Macmillan who was Chancellor of Oxford University, was a recipient of Honorary Doctorates and so were Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India and his daughter, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In fact the late Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike who was a Master of Arts of Christ Church, Oxford held a couple of Honorary Doctorates, but he never called himself Doctor. There was also another Sri Lankan Prime Minister who thickly turned down an Honoris Causa Doctorate from one of our Universities on the score that it was not backed by a Thesis.
Mention should also be made of the fact that one of this country's frontline cabinet ministers and politicians, the late Mr. Philip Gunawardena held a Doctorate from America's Wisconsin University for his Thesis in the sphere of Agricultural Economics, but he did not use it although he had earned it after much scholarship and research.
In the United States, for instance there are some one hundred Universities where Doctorates could be yours if you afford them. There, the top ranking Universities which belong to what is called the Ivy League are just a few such as Yale, Harvard, Princetonn, Wisconsin, Columbia Chicago and a couple of others.
Before we end up we mucst record the fact that the latest recipient of an Honorary Doctorate is this country's distinguished Sinhala singer and musician Visharada W. D. Amaradeva who we are sure does not want to call himself Doctor for the reason that he is a Sangeetha Visharada from India's famed Bhathkande University. Three of Bhathkande's finest products from Sri Lanka who passed out with flying colours are W. D. Amaradeva, the late Sunil Shantha and Lionel Edirishinghe.
Despite vandalism in Delhi and Mumbai
Controversial film 'Fire' running to pack houses across IndiaFrom S. Venkat Narayan Our Special Correspondent in New Delhi
NEW DELHI, January 7: An ultra-Hindu political outfit's des- perate efforts to prevent the screening of Deepa Mehta's much- acclaimed film 'Fire' across India because it shows lesbianism have failed.The film is doing roaring business wherever it's being shown, except in a few strongholds of the Shiv Sena, such as Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune. Last month, a handful of hoodlums vandalaised cinema halls showing the film in these three cities and forc- ibly stopped its screening.
However, the publicity generated by the attacks has only increased the people's curiosity about the film. As a result, people are now flocking to cinema halls even in far-flung places all over the country, like Chennai, Hyderabad, Patna, Hardwar, Varanasi, and Ludhiana to see for themselves what the film is all about.
The film became controversial because it explores a lesbian relationship between two women, played by the brilliant Shabana Azmi (who is now a member of the Rajya Sabha, parliament's upper house) and the talented young actress Nandita Das. Married to two brothers of a Delhi family, the two middle class women are sexually unhappy with their husbands, and find solace in each other's arms.
Sex is rarely discussed in public in the still-largely conservative Indian society. A film showing two women in an erotic embrace has clearly upset the Shiv Sena's ageing supremo Bal Thackeray, who declared that lesbianism is against Hinduism and praised the vandals who attacked theatres screening the movie.
But the film's Canada-based director Deepa Mehta is pleasantly surprised that it's ordinary women and not sex-starved men who are seeing 'Fire' in large numbers. Women apparently account for 70 per cent of its audiences - unprecedented for a social film. Only mythologicals draw women to theatres in such large numbers.
A delighted Mehta told this correspondent here today: 'Middle class house wives and college girls are seeing my film everywhere. It's not about lesbianism. It is about choices before women.'
When vandals attacked less than half a dozen theatres screen- ing 'Fire' in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Surat, Mukhtar Naqvi, a junior federal minister in the information and broadcasting ministry, sent it to the Censor Board for a review in view of the 'outrage' its screening has caused.
The minister's decision and comment that the film was cleared by the censors in a hurry have upset veteran actress Asha Parekh, the Censor Board's first chairwoman. Technically, the film has been with the censors for a review for over a month ago, but nothing has happened so far.
Meanwhile, several million people have already seen the film, and many more are seeing it daily! Feeble attempts made by some Shiv Sena activists to stop the film's screening in some Punjab towns such as Ludhiana have been successfully thwarted by ordinary film-goers.
People at large have thus shown their utter contempt for Thackeray and his goons for trying to act as protectors of India's morals.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court may take Thackeray to task next week (January 15), when it resumes hearing the case filed by actor Dilip Kumar and several others prominent artistes against the Shiv Sena goons for attacking cinema halls.
There are now reports that at least four Delhi cinema halls are planning to start showing the film any day now.
The film has so far collected 14 awards at various interna- tional film festivals, and its distributors (MGM) have shown it in 33 countries globally.
The controversy generated at home has ensured its financial success in India as well. And Mehta is delighted that her film has kicked up a huge debate in the country about sex, about man-woman and woman-woman relationships.
Not a mean achievement in a tradition-bound society.
