Physics and Chemistry Combination
By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando
Picture Credit: The Daily News
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales College science laboratory is
associated with many memories despite the traumatic incident where one of our
adored teachers committed suicide by swallowing a concoction of concentrated acid.
The laboratory had a separate partitioned office room where the Lab Master
always occupied during off-periods. He was of Indian origin, short and chubby
with a strong North Indian brogue, highly temperamental and a romantic type
too! When he entered the classroom for physics, students used to shiver with
fear.
Our chemistry teacher was also an Indian young female in her
mid 20s, who always wore sari to work. They had a common bond and shared the
office inside the laboratory, and both of them always made it a point to rest
in the lab office, during their off-periods, without using the common staff
room - may be due to the fact being foreigners and isolated from other members
of staff! We were naive to understand the reasons behind whether it was either due
to politics behind or their preference to be isolated from other members of
staff!
Chemical reaction
Our class, after getting transferred on numerous occasions
from one side of the school building to another as punishment for some kind of
mischievous behaviour, was again transferred to the same building where the
laboratory was located, in fact adjacent to the lab separated by two large
windows on one side of the laboratory wall. Gas pipes to the laboratory ran
through a narrow and long cemented drain covered with a wooden lid.
When seated in our classroom, students could get a clear
reflection of what went on, inside the lab master's room through the open
windows. Seemingly a chemical reaction between the physics and chemistry
teacher had developed and begun to precipitate with a romantic upsurge. For
this purpose the isolated lab office suited them ideally to maintain privacy,
little realising though that whatever action that took place inside the lab
office, an equal and an opposite reaction took place inside our classroom, as
everything reflected and refracted through the glass panels on the office door
giving 'an eye full' to the boys!
Exceeding limits
Physics teacher's Indian accent and pronunciation of some
English words confused us when we took down dictated notes at speed - e.g.
Pronouncing Yellow Ray many took down
as " L... O...... Ray"; End to End as " Yen to Yen" ! Likewise, many other peculiar pronunciations
tickled us to no end, but we were compelled to control laughter with
difficulty. At every such incidence, my good friend Silva from Dehiwela, with a
missing front tooth, could not possibly control his laughter; instead he burst
out with a forceful hissing of 'poooooooof',
which upset the apple cart. Maddened physics master, who realised our
contemptuous behaviour, punished Silva by ordering him to get up on his chair
and bellowed: "Next time, I will
bury you in the lagoon". The peculiar pronunciation of the word bury
as 'Baree' made it worse, and the
whole class had to spend the rest of the period standing up on our chairs.
Whenever he noticed an affluent student wearing a wrist watch
(which was rare at the time) Physics master used to mock the boy by
questioning: "What does your
Chronometer indicate"? Bamboozled poor chap, who did not understand
the word chronometer, became tongue-tied. Seizing the opportunity the Physics
master, like a cock on a brick wall fashion, reviled the boy saying: "You bloody genius coming from the middle
school know nothing", which again made poor Silva to spring out with
laughter through his missing tooth and lips to get the whole class castigated.
Chemistry Teacher
Chemistry teacher was quite the opposite. Being a woman, she
was gentle and petite, but could not possibly control our class. Always draping
her sari with a long tail behind, and wearing a 'ponytail ' hair style, she
used to walk up and down the classroom while lecturing. My good old friend
Fernando (whom I have not seen for decades) seated next to me used to 'wallop'
her pony tail very gently as she walked past, grabbed the end of the sari pota flippantly out of mischief and
quickly released before she sensed it.
Once she realised the type of monkey pranks boys were up to,
she once demanded to know how many were seriously interested in studying
chemistry for GCE examination. To her amazement 16 hands went up; finally as a
kind of vengeance, she did not permit the 16 students to enroll for chemistry in
the GCE examination.
It was compulsory to offer eight subjects in a single
examination during our time. Being
included to the penalized sixteen boys, I was short of a subject. Soon Fernando
proposed me to try Christianity (Non RC) to replace Chemistry, and gave me a
booklet containing 30 pages of St. Mathew's gospel. Having memorised the 30 pages like a parrot, literally word to
word, I ended up with a credit pass in Christianity (being a Buddhist), whereas
some of the Christian boys only received ordinary passes. Returning home after
a good spell in London, I am still trying to locate my good old friend Fernando
who, I understand, has ended up as a pastor.
There were one or two nasty elements as schoolmasters during
our time. One such was a (Ceylon) Tamil teacher who could not control his
temper if any student did not pay attention to him. In a rage he always hit
students with the blackboard duster, which had a wooden base not realising how
dangerous it could be.
One particular horrid incident was when Kalu Jine, either not
being able to answer a question or was not paying attention to him, received a
thundering slap across his ear. The student just collapsed on to the chair
holding his ear lobe. The grim incident took a turn for the worse when the
boy's father approached the Principal the following morning to report his son's
damaged ear drum! The master was reprimanded immediately by the Principal,
which put a stop to any excessive disciplinary actions by him ever after.
Today the scene has changed where 'spare the rod and spoil the child' has become a reality. Unlike in
our time, everything has changed from the dress codes to hair styles of
teachers, and in most cases lecturers seem to have become 'jelly babies' in
front of students, sending warning bells to overhaul the whole education system
in Sri Lanka.
Daily News - Re visiting PWC