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| Monday, 20 September 2004 |
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Appreciation : Christobelle Enid Orloff The death of Mrs. Orloff is bound to generate feelings of nostalgia among Trinitians who were young in the 1960's when her late husband Mr. C. J. Orloff presided over that institution. Characteristic of the modesty of the family is that Mr. Orloff was merely described in the obituary notice as 'late of Wesley College and Trinity College.' 'No mention of the fact that he was Principal of these two schools and before that as a card-carrying member of that most brahminical school, the Ceylon Civil Service', where one of his postings was at Hambantota when he occupied the same residence as Leonard Woolf, the writer of the monumental novel of Ceylonese village life. 'The Village in the Jungle.' Mr. Orloff was generally considered to be aloof, even cold, in his conduct but behind that melancholic visage surely pulsed a heart which felt. As Principal of Trinity to which he came from Wesley College, Colombo he was called upon to preside over the school's affairs at a difficult time of transition. He succeeded Mr. Norman Walters, the last Englishman to be Principal. It was a time of rising nationalism when the school had to adjust to teaching in the mother tongue while seeking to preserve the liberal classical values of education which was seen in the nationalist eye as a preserve of elitism. Being a Burgher would have further queered Mr. Orloff's pitch but his own liberal classical background ensured that he would be able to steer the school through the stormy weather of the times before handing it over to the late E. L. Fernando who was called upon to play the modernising role. The Orloffs were very much a part of Kandy during these palmy days since Mr. Orloff's two unmarried sisters too lived in the proximity of Trinity College on the road leading to Udawattekelle. In that sense we were neighbours and I remember escorting the Orloffs home as part of a cavalcade (I was 14 years old at the time) on the Principal's retirement. Mrs. Orloff participated with relish in the school's extra-curricular activities particularly those of a musical and dramatic nature. It was only a few months ago that we bade farewell to Mrs. G. Y. Sahayam, the wife of the Vice Principal during Mr. Orloff's tenure. Most of the teachers who gave such distinction to the school during that distant time too are now gone. Mrs. Orloff survived her husband for more than 20 years and the fact that being a Burgher she continued to live in this troubled country when she could easily have afforded to live abroad is perhaps a testimony to her affection for Sri Lanka. Her death then at a ripe old age comes as a salute to a more decent era in Sri Lanka's social history. - Ajith Samaranayake. |
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