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A sunday newspaper of 13 July carried an article titled The bewildering Rugger phenomenon by Seshanka Samarajiva. According to the article Samarajiva is a young Sri Lankan domiciled in Australia.Since his up bringing was mainly Australian Samarajiva is able to look at Sri Lanka with a healthy freshness and a open mind.

In this article Samarajiva focuses on the Old Boy phenomenon which particularly infect the old students of a few schools generally dating back to our colonial past. As practiced here this means that the old boy spends a good part of his adulthood attending various school sporting events and reminiscing about his school days. One time we even had a President who attended the major cricket match of his old school three days running! This kind of behaviour pattern by the political elite of a country naturally tends to create imitators. It is now spreading to other schools as well with former students of these schools somewhat feebly attempting to build old school ties.

While holidaying in Sri Lanka young Samarajiva had attended a rugby match between the schools Royal and St Anthonys of Kandy that provided the inspiration for his article. He observes with a certain incredulity the overly enthusiastic cheering and other antics that old boys of these schools, hoary with age, indulged in at this game. Pot bellied and beady eyed, they according to Samarajiva were cheering raucously as if the game was between two international teams . He further observes somewhat plaintively that these were grown up people who had graduated high school and most likely having wives and children.

Coming from a leading sporting nation and a rugby super power like Australia Samarajive would not have failed to observe the small stature of our rugby players and the indifferent quality of their game. It could not be that it was the level of the rugby that drew the excited old papas to the encounter. The reason for their presence at the schoolboy rugby game was the old boy phenomenon which has no rhyme or reason.

It is obvious to any one who cares to think about these things that our old boy enthusiasm goes a bit too much. It will be hard for a foreigner to understand why the old students of a school in a poor third world country go all gaga over school functions. Many foreign writers have commented on the child like qualities of the Orientals.

Unable to run complex affairs themselves, reluctant to take responsibility, fractious, quick to anger, half hearted towards work, laid back and given to easy conviviality are some of the qualities that are often observed in the men of the tropics. Few foreign writers have dwelled on the more recent phenomenon of old school ties as understood and practiced in Sri Lanka. If they were to, I doubt the observations would be complimentary.

In a recent discussion on the subject a perceptive friend, who of course lives abroad, ventured that old school ties perhaps give a tribal link to a bigger family. He made the point that most Sri Lankans are villagers in mentality. They feel comfortable only in approximation to his village, caste, school, political party or extended family.

This perhaps is the reason why an anxious probing of a persons relatives, school and residence etc follows any introduction to an unknown person. A connection must be made before one is comfortable with the new face! Equally, many people here do things for their school, political party or relatives which people coming from more individualistic and self confident societies would not dream of doing.

Various aspects of our collective conduct may give a clue to the reason why as a nation we got lost after obtaining independence. The world is very complex. A nation, especially a newly independent one, needs a mature and capable intelligentsia to lead it.

The intelligentsia we had it appears was constituted mainly of a group of old boys whose mental growth was arrested in school or at best whose middle age was spent in paying never-ending homage to their teenage years.

It is extremely important for our national growth to read and understand the reactions of outsiders to our customs and habits. It has been said that a life unexamined is not worth living. Similarly, the collective life of a nation too should bare close examination.

Thank you Mr. Seshanka Samarajiva for a thought-provoking piece of writing.

R. Perera

www.crescat.com

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