Sinhala Grammar and Bisection
Picture credit: Google
By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando
I am
thankful to those old Cambrians, Sebastianites, one ‘Thora’ and a ‘Rajan’, who
responded to the series with some of their own experiences, which go to show how
the youthful fun we shared, as much as the quality of the teaching staff we
were privileged to have during our time at the PWC, are being
rekindled. E-mail interaction, in this respect, certainly goes to show how the
series has managed to hoist a different kind of dormant 'Kundalini' among old Cambrians!
The
dedicated members of staff at the PWC did not concentrate blindly on a syllabus
alone, but their commitment extended towards inculcating morals, ethics and
values in pupils' future lives, which helped to transform many boys in Khaki shorts to men of the world.
This fact
has been reinforced in one of the emails as follows: "Talking of men of value, PWC has produced many men of the world
especially Senior Police officers at home who have earned people but not
wealth"!
Some old
Cambrians while paying tribute to their favourite teachers had come up with few
names such as Messrs. A.P.M Peiris, Tilan Perera, Eric Perera, Oliver Martin,
Tissa Gunawardena, Godahewa, Chandrasoma Rajapaksa, Santhanam, Miss. Israel,
Oliver Martin, Wijemanne, Norbert Dias, Mrs. Lakshmi (Wijesekera) Perera, Mrs. Indrani Peiris,
Mrs. Pastsy Fernando, Mrs. Greata de Mel, Ms. Kanakasundaram, the late
Mrs. Senaratne and Mrs. Uluwita. This should not leave room for any
misunderstanding about the missing names of other erudite teachers of a by-gone
era.
Public
caning
The late
Mr. A.P.M. Peiris had a personal interest in my studies when he was the
Headmaster, perhaps because of my family connections. I had private English
tuition lessons from him when he was the editor of the PWC magazine - The Cambrian - and he made me sit and
write an article to the magazine during a tuition session, which he edited and
published later under the heading ‘ My village’.
'APM'
visited middle school classes after every fortnightly test to monitor student
performances and warned students who failed to achieve set standards. Once, my
position went down from first to the second, and he spared no time in giving me
a severe warning with a remark, "Pull
up your socks next time". Fortnight later I had descended to the third
position; consequently I was subjected to a caning session on my buttocks with
a few others.
As much as
engaging in fun and a trace of boisterousness, on and off, we collectively
respected all our teachers in a mixture of discipline and exuberance. Similar
to students, we did have an assortment of teachers too of diverse personality
with a mixture of excitement, amusement, discipline, and diplomacy, barring the
odd one or two, who always pretended to be serious.
Grammar
and bisection
The
following is a story I picked up from a feedback, which relates to an
experience of one of our excellent teachers who taught us Sinhalese during a
grammar lesson.
The Sinhala
Master had been interrupted by a student halfway through his lesson even before he completed a written sentence on the
blackboard. The sentence read as follows:
"Aayathanya Pihita aththey"
........... (The Institution is situated at ...................)
A cheeky
student bisected the first word Ayathanaya (Institution) into two fragments
to read as 'Aya Thanaya' (Servant Woman's breast) and queried the teacher
thus:
"Excuse
me Sir, Aya ........Thanaya ..........Pihita........ Athey .....Koheda?"
(Where would Aya's breasts are formed)? Is that what you mean?
There was
a roar of laughter inside the classroom, but the teacher turned a Nelsonian eye
to such impudent behaviour and remained as cool as a cucumber and quipped,
"Eka nam ahanna owne Ayagen thami" (That of course you need
to ask Aya (servant woman) and
continued with his lesson, as if nothing had happened.
As I was
writing this column, I received some email pictures from my nephew that had
appeared in the 'Gossip Lanka.com' website under the caption "Happy Old
Boys day at Prince of Wales College' with an appropriate comment: "You are
not to be seen anywhere"! Of course not, even I could not recognise any of
the faces there after a long spell of about four decades being away from the
country, but one of the old Cambrian names what Merrill mentioned (as Clinton)
in the pictures took me straightway back to an interesting episode.
It was
during Sir John Kotelawela's last days of Premiership when three boys, Clinton,
myself and another student (can't recollect his name) went riding our bicycles
from Moratuwa to Sir John's Kandawela Estate at Ratmalana on an excursion.
There were no security guards or bodyguards during that era, and Sir John was
reading the Evening Observer, lounging on a Hansi Putuwa (Grandfather’s easy chair with folding arms), dressed in a
pair of shorts and a vest.
Nervously
we retracted the moment we set our eyes upon Sri John in the verandah (after
all, he was the Prime Minister of the Land, and a fearsome one too, as we had
heard). Clinton bravely approached Sir John from a side, while the PM continued
to read the newspaper seriously without taking any notice of us at all.
"Excuse
me Sir! Can we please have your permission to wander around in your
garden?"
Clinton
just managed to complete his sentence in English with courage, when Sir John bellowed
without batting an eyelid and still looking straight into the newspaper:
"Katha
Karapia Yako Sinhalen!! Palayaw gihin Balapipyaw....!! Mage Watta Balanna Ka
Genwath Avasara Ganna Owne Neha!" (Speak in Sinhala, you rascal! Go.. go
... and enjoy yourselves, there is no need to take permission from anyone to
visit my estate).
We parked
our bicycles against a mango tree and walked about like beaten dogs in the
garden, which had a pond, a cabana style cabin surrounded by a canal with a
decorative wooden bridge as access to it. We later learnt that all confidential
meetings were held in this cabana, which was isolated from outsiders or those
who were not welcomed.
Few
minutes later, Sir John walked out to the garden where we were, and started
feeding animals that were wandering about (it was like a mini zoo). We stood
next to him as proud as ever, after all, it was a significant event to
stand next to the Prime Minister of the Land in Sarong, and 'Banyan' (vest) and
the leader who once addressed the school
children and said 'Call me maama' (uncle).
As I was
about to dispatch this episode to the newspaper, one my school chums, Merrill,
followed his previous email with another one, Alas! it was a different Clinton altogether that I was thinking of - may be a
junior one! Hope my friend Clinton reads this...?
Daily News - 2012