Survival
of the not so Fit
I
have a window of opportunity to voice my opinion.
I
will lie low once the election is declared, according to the
statutory requirement of the bizarre J.R.J. concoction or addiction
to politrics (not politics).
I
hope the Election Commissioner will not fall prey to the wrong
interpretation of the judiciary and having a PC election to elect
local drug mafia to run the unfair ground realities.
My
conviction is that we need a referendum to nullify the need of a
referendum to change the clauses.
Better
still abolish the constitution, lock stock and barrel and form a
simple constitution to represent citizens not the individuals of
political parties.
The
current piece is to pen down how I survived and still living in this
country.
It
is all due to my instinct.
Never
trust a policeman or politician in this country.
The
first survives on helping the politician to lie at lib and go scot
free on all wrong doings.
The
latter obstructs the judiciary to function independently.
One
good decision won’t make the judiciary exonerate of its wrong
doings and excesses in the past.
It
has long a way to go.
It
has not done enough.
The
loop holes should be closed for the good governance to succeed.
In
a country where thugs run the Tuition Institutions and the Garbage
Industry to become rich so that they become presidential aspirants
shows how deep in the gutter we all are without exception.
This
piece is about me not them.
I
learned the good behaviour and not to lie in a Catholic School.
I
was told by the Sinhala Teacher that I have a bright future and he
never specified it.
He
came in a national dress and after three months of training in
English he wore a trouser one day and disappeared the next day.
He
introduced me to Kumaratunga Munidasa.
The
English teacher said the taller the bamboo grows the lower it bends
in an idiomatic sense, if ever I succeeded be nice to the less
fortunate.
There
was a bit of doubt in her voice, and she sensed her time was out and
the private school was taken over by the government.
Then
there was a sports master Tommy Arther who introduced me to the
sporting sense “what matters is participation and not winning by
any means”.
Then
there was a teacher by convention but almost a priest by soul who
tried to convert us to Christianity, who failed miserably to answer
our barrage of questions about the god and his creations.
I
was thrown out first and from outside I was instrumental in
formulating more difficult questions and all non Christian were
thrown out in one block.
Fortunately
we did not have a Muslim in our class.
Then
our maths teacher (husband of our the English Teacher) was so cruel
to my fellow beings and one day I took a set of books from another
student and landed on the back of the teacher as he was returning from
the back of the class to the front.
I
quietly came to my desk and nobody in the class said who did it after
one week of investigation by the teachers and the rector, and the
culprit was never found.
Next
of my antics would have come to criminal ends and fortunately for me,
the school was mixed with the Convent (governments failed mixed
school strategy) and one of the young male teachers who was our class
teacher was caught (I went on a bogus errand to see what he was
doing) by me admiring girls legs and back side from the corner of our
class which was separated only by a screen.
That
appalled me and I decided I would not set foot on this school again
and stayed at home.
I
did not say why but my father would have sensed that I had done something
wrong, since in an unrelated incident I hit one of my class mates and
dumped him in the gutter in front of the Convent as a punishment for
uncapping my cap with a flip.
Of
course my father had to buy a police cap with straps, which I never
wore on my way to school.
I
used it as a football.
The
first person I ditched out was E.W.Adhicarum.
He
was a Pali scholar but not a scientist.
He
was never a philosopher he claimed to be.
I
was fortunate not to have a good science teacher and I started
reading collection of English books with some scientific notions from my father's collection.
Then
the Sputnic went up and a future scientist (not a doctor) was born.
I
came to a Buddhist School in the city.
How
I entered there was another story apart from my sports records and
Sargent of the Cadet Team.
Cadet
and Scouting were alien to me.
The
first thing I learned or introduced were vulgar and street terms and
four letter words in the city.
Kandy
city was no better then.
Teachers
were horrible including Bumi Putra whom we managed to chase out of the
school.
Of
course he stole the intellectual property of the Pali Department and
published them as his own.
J.R.J’s
one of the early and first actions was to close the Pali and English
department in one go.
His
aim was to destroy the Peradeniya University which stood up to his
step motherly treatment.
Creation
of U.G.C and restricting grants was his ploy to stunt its growth.
The
next I ditched out was Abrham T Koover, a rationalist with Indian
roots.
He
had a seminar in Kandy.
I
too was in attendance.
I
got one of my friends to ask a question.
Are
you sure of your father was the question.
He
said I am sure of my mother but not the father.
Then
I got up and asked;
How can you be a rationalist, if you are not sure of your father?
This
was below par attack by me and he was hooted out of the auditorium.
I
think a philosopher was born at that moment but without credentials.
Dishing
out current politicians and BBS is chicken feed for me.
How
did I chose medicine for career?
It
was a pure accident and not a design of my own.
I
actually threatened to leave the anatomy block one day and never to
return again and it was the lady professor with motherly attitude,
changed my decision.
I
think she should have left me to be my own, without taking somebody
else career post by me.
One
day after passing the ‘O” Level with some distinction including
mathematics, applied maths and biology we were asked to gather into a
class room vacant.
Our
class teacher and few of the ‘A’ level teachers addressed us and
told us’ those who want to do maths go to maths room and those who
want to do biology remained seated.
It
was abrupt and without any counsel.
I
was dumbfounded by the attitude of the teachers.
I
thought to myself, the easy way to enter into the university was
biology.
There was another reason a guy whom I hated joined the maths class.
I got him out of my cohorts.
There was another reason a guy whom I hated joined the maths class.
I got him out of my cohorts.
The aim was to enter the University and nothing but.
I
was the only one who got in from my class.
In
passing I must relate a story related to me by one of my class mates
one year after my retirement.
He said I was very good in soft ball cricket and they would try all their best to avoid me getting into the school team (as a newcomer from the neighbouring village).
I
told him that one can get me out in three balls and cricket was not
my game.
I
have a very big blind spot in my left eye and it is getting bigger by
the age.
That
is the reason I do not drive a car now.
I
would kill somebody one day.
But
I am sure somebody else will kill me during Esala Perehara.
I won’t visit Kandy till it is over.
Thankfully I got a backache now trying to pull a rubber hose pipe.
That will keep me out for 10 days at least.
