Two friends visit their Alma Mater (Part 3)

      

        THE VISIT

When the day came, it was bright and sunny, like most days at school. The heavy rains those days arrived on time during the South-West monsoon; we would dance in the rain, protected by hooded plastic raincoats, till summoned sharply, by our mother. Then we launched hand made paper boats in the overflowing rainwater drains skirting the house.

Indoors, I would, play imaginary games of cricket and would practice all the strokes drives and cuts, pulls and defensive shots but not the hook. I would get out only when I got bored or called up for meals.

Bora’s brother Kumar had arranged for us to be met by a teacher and given a guided tour. He, in turn, delegated it to a senior prefect.This happened to be serendipitous. Dineth Kannangara was an exemplary Thomian embodying the best of our virtues. Polite, well-spoken, knowledgeable and well mannered, he had plenty of time for us, and we saw all that we wanted to see and also linger in places which had special significance.

At the entrance is a plaque with a memorable  exhortation to young Thomians by Warden Buck, relevant today as it was then.

Our first stop was the Small Club.The ground is now well turfed, in marked contrast to the gravelly park of our days. It is also bigger, with part of the hillock having been scooped out. In place of the dingy pavilion, there is now a magnificent Sports Centre which caters to over twenty sports. Some of the facilities are upto international standards.While DK was showing us around, I remarked these must be costly to maintain. He said the school fees were high, but no more than in international schools and there were generous sponsors.

What memories this place evoked!!.Bora played in the under 14 team and I played a full year in the under 16 team as a wicketkeeper batsman.This was the most enjoyable stretch of my cricketing days.My teammates were truly the creme de la creme.Skilled but also convivial,good-natured and also wonderfully companionable and wonderfully good looking.One was a Rock Hudson look-alike ..

UNDER SIXTEEN TEAM

With one, we would spend many a pleasant hour while awaiting our turn to bat.He would tell us of his conquests ,the art of conquest,and  also of his fumbles.We would listen open-mouthed,sometimes amused,sometimes aghast.The brother of one of the girls he had ditched had threatened dire consequences not only to him but to his sister who to us was a veritable Aphrodite.Being the chivalrous gentlemen we were, we never did confess to our randy mate that we were more uneasy about the sister than him !!!

We had two away games,one at Asgiriya,The Trinity College grounds and the other at Richmond Hill the Richmond College grounds.Both times we spent a night in the school dormitories; frolicking late into the night we hardly got any sleep.But both times we won.

At that stage, we were oblivious to the serene beauty of the passing .landscape or the noble edifices of the schools.It was the camaraderie which reigned supreme.

Our coach was Lassie A,who imparted the basics to us and advanced techniques to some.But my wicket-keeping skills,that I developed were solely due to Godfrey Evans’s book,given to me by my dearest mate Mano Ponniah.I would practise for hours,throwing a tennis ball against the kabok walls of our house,catching it on the rebound and go through the stumping motions.

  .   ‘.            BIG CLUB GROUNDS

We then moved to the Big Club,the senior playing field.How wonderful it looked.Acres of green grass,a white picket fence, an imposing scoreboard donated by old boys and of course the grand D.S.Senanayake pavilion.Now there is a high wall separating the grounds from the rail lines and the abutting seashore.This area is out of bounds to students and rightfully so.In our times a boy was run over by a train and another barely escaped death by lying flat on the ground between the lines till two trains had passed. Still, another drowned in rough seas.All these scarred our collective psyche for a long while.

DK introduced us to the cricket captain ThevinEriyagama another boy who was every inch a Thomian.Both posed for photographs with us.DK himself was a good cricketer, but a shoulder injury had cut his career short.We were happy to learn that TE belonged to the Wanduragala clan.Palitha W a kinsman was our contemporary,an elegant batsman and a fine gentleman

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Bora and I both played for the second eleven.I played two games for the first eleven mainly as a wicketkeeper,although I fancied myself as a batsman too.My best batting experience was,not in a match but with the incomparable Ronnie Reid at practice in the centre wicket.He was an accomplished batsman who held the record for the highest score at the Royal Thomian. I was inspired by him so much that I hit every bowler ,including our captain LareefIdroos all over the park.

Thalassa also brought up many memories, mainly the dreaded visits to the Warden’s office for canings. The .Warden lived in a large bungalow,just behind the pavilion; we would watch him, our apprehension mounting, walking with measured step,after lunch across the grounds;the cassock billowing in the gentle midday breeze;to his office where the punishment was executed.The clever oneswore undetected,two pairs of shorts, but I was not one of them.

The Thalassa was also the residence of Rev Bowyer Yin our chaplain.We were in awe of this strange foreign figure ,a fine pianist and organist  and also the man who mouldedthe choir to an eminence that was the pride of S Thomas’s for generations.He fashioned it along the lines of the famous King’s College choir of Cambridge.Rev Yin was equally renowned as a mathematics teacher and was revered by all his pupils.My brother, one of his best students, visited him in Singapore in the last year of his life.

The song “School by the Sea” as popular as the College anthem,was composed by him.

His brother Leslie Charteris was the creator of the “Saint”.Our clique’s social club bore that name. We would gather at friends houses,provided their parents were liberal; where alcohol was permitted in small amounts and girls could join, but mostly with chaperones.I remember,kissing the hand gallantly of a lovely Malay girl,earning her affection, and the wrath of her aunt!!!

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THE CHAPEL AND QUADRANGLE

Next, we went to the chapel situated high on the hill and overlooking the splendid quadrangle.To the right is the college hall and the boarding house,to the left the Big School and directly opposite is what used to be the science laboratories.All elegant edifices.The layout is brilliant,perhaps unequalled in SriLanka.

In the cool interior of the vast nave,we marvelled at David Paynter’s“Transfiguration “,his final masterpiece.This had been instigated by Rev Yin;it is said that the beardless Christ is a caricature of his friend the good Reverend.His magnum opus is the assemblage of murals at the Trinity College Chapel in Kandy.

DP was a Srilankan painter, acclaimed by the Royal Academy with its gold medal.He later became a portrait painter too of renown.MrD.S.Senanayake’s portrait, which hangs in our Hall is a gem.He was invited officially to paint Mr Jawaharlal Nehru’s portrait;this hangs in Teen MurtiBhawan,formerly the residence of India’s first prime minister,now a museum.

We then walked passing the chapel gardens to the big school, the locale of our learning and also our spectacular misdeeds.;onwards to the old “KurunduKelle”, the Cinnamon Grove,now housing tennis courts and a variety of  classrooms

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The big hall rekindled,memories of the dreary assemblies and also the prize givings, especially the ones where we won prizes, my brother, more than me.He won the prestigious Miller mathematical prize,and his name is inscribed in this board.I was happy to see my name still adorning the prefect’s name board.

Our last stop was the old Science block which now houses the Library and sundry other offices and reading rooms.I wanted to offer the collection of school magazines,which belongs to both my brother and me and also my collection of books,but the Librarian was elusive, so it must await another day.

It was well past midday now, and the heat and the harsh sun was wearing us down.We beat a retreat,but not before,bowing our heads humbly to our venerable school;also to our parents,who provided us the opportunity,the teachers who mouldedus,and also our friends ,who even today “are the mates whom we went to school with and not who they became.”

“Age appears to be best in four things;old wood best to burn,old wine to drink,old friends to trust and old authors to read”

Francis Bacon