Going Berserk
Picture Credit - Daily News
By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando
Despite the
number of male Tamil teachers, PWC had during our time, especially in the
Senior School to teach Science subjects, there was only a single Tamil lady
teacher (in the middle school) to teach English; she rode a lady’s
Raleigh bicycle to and fro from home.
A cane
basket fixed on to the handle bar, sari drop wrapped round her shoulders, a
small pony tail dangling gently and riding at snail’s pace
along the Moratuwa - Galle Road was indeed a rare sight to watch.
Had she
consulted an astrologer on that ill-fated morning she would have been strongly
advised not to step out of the house within a specific time frame where evil
forces were at its peak (Rahu Kalaya).
With her experience of riding bicycles
for years, that particular incident was destined to take place on that precise
morning when, out of the blue, her sari pota (sari drop) got entangled with the
rear wheel of the bicycle. Within seconds, she was flat on the ground at
Kurusagaha Junction, trapped well and truly between the bicycle and the road
surface.
There was hardly any traffic on the road at that time, as otherwise her fate would have been quite different.
It was certainly due to a stroke of fortune that a fisherman happened to be on
the spot, who immediately rushed towards her, pulled out his blood stained
(fish) knife and cut the drop of the sari to release her. Fortunately she came
out unscathed, and the next moment she was seen riding away again like a bullet
to the surprise of all bystanders.
Going Berserk
Although she
was one of the best English teachers we had, yet she was unmercifully strict
and did not tolerate any gobbledygook from students. Instead of using a cane
she carried a thick long pencil about one foot long in her bag, which had
‘kissed’ many a forehead of middle school students.
One morning
she arrived looking quite different. The normal pony tail had been arranged
into a ‘bun’ like hairstyle, her ‘made-up’ face with ‘foundation’ and cream and
the dark red lipstick stood out quite prominently against her sun tanned dark
brown skin, which startled the boys giving them some kind of a kick to rag her.
As she approached the classroom with her usual greeting: ‘Good morning boys’!
It was reciprocated brashly by some blaring: “Wade….! Wade..e …. Kik kige
Wade..ee” !! …..nonstop, which made her go crazy.
Under
provocation and enraged by the unruly behaviour within the class, she pulled
her pencil out and started thumping on the foreheads of those who were
sniggering at, and made one by one stand on their chairs for the rest of the
period. Soon the occurrence became volatile and when it became obvious that
students were getting on her nerves, she started pinching earlobes hard with
her sharp and pointed red finger nails causing slight cuts that bled from
one or two boys’ ears.
Sight of
blood on ear lobes made Ramsey and two others (who were already standing on
their chairs) cut themselves ( ear lobes) with a broken razor blade. Ignoring the teacher
they went straight up to Mr. A. P. M. Peiris, who was the middle class head
master to complain about it. Mr. Peiris diplomatically calmed the situation
down and put an end to any ragging and impudent behaviour of that nature in the
future.
Long sessions and Thosa clouts
Our school
sessions were long from 9 am to 3 pm with a short interval at 10 am for tea and
lunch break between 1-2. When the morning bell sounded for the tea break, there was
a marathon run to TOP Charlie’s canteen to buy a Patti (five cents) and a mug
of milk tea (five cents) before the limited stocks ran out. Many of us did not
carry excess money except for travelling, morning tea, and in most cases lunch
was delivered from respective homes to children by carriers.
Some
students came to college either by chauffer driven cars or parents dropped
them. Those who travelled by rail had season tickets bought by parents; full of
zip types rode brand new Raleigh Sports bikes while those who lived within
close range walked to the College. This helped parents to have a control over
children’s pocket money they brought to college.
Those
students who had to eat out during the lunch break patronised nearby ‘Thosa’
(Dosai) boutiques where a good ‘Thosa diet’ and a cup of black tea cost only 12
cents, and the payment was made by carrying a small slip of paper given to
customers by a waiter. A bright spark once managed to pilfer a book of such
tokens, had a heyday in gobbling as much as he could, and managed to ‘get away
with murder’ by writing the bill for 5 cents or 12 cents on stolen slips!
College anthem
As I was
putting the finishing touches to this episode the following feedback from an
old Cambrian made me edit the already completed version and replace with the
following:
“Once a
Carol Service was held at the Holy Emmanuel Church, Moratuwa, where Shelma and
Dolfrey de Silva trained the singing group and structured it magnificently. On
this occasion the Chief Guest happened to be the West German Ambassador and his
wife (this was prior to the coming down of the Berlin Wall).
When the
‘Prince of Wales College anthem’ was sung at the ceremony some were taken by
surprise to note the ambassador’s wife singing along: …………… “Among our ancient
mountains, And from our lovely Wales, Oh! let the pray'r re-echo, "God
bless the Prince of Wales!"
After the
Carol Service, a curious enquirer approached the ambassador’s wife and very
politely wanted to know, being German how she became familiar with ‘Our College
anthem’? With a charming smile she blurted, she was not German but British and
that was the national hymn for the Prince of Wales in England!
'God Bless
the Prince of Wales'is a song written to mark the occasion of the marriage of
the King Edward VII of the United Kingdom to Alexandra of Denmark who got
married at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, on March 10, 1863.
On July 1,
1969 the song was played at the investiture of HRH Prince Charles as the 21st
Prince of Wales.
The song is
only a ceremonial resonance and does not include any political accountability.
Jul 2013 - Daily News