The little truth seekers

Jayanthi LIYANAGE

"One day, you can come out of these seedy environs if you tell the world the truth about your lives," Janaka Mahabellana, Sinhala language teacher turned Art teacher told the students of Al-Ameen Vidyalaya, Colombo 3.

‘Scavenger’ by M.R.F. Sureika

"Let's reproduce the reality of your lives at Slave Island." The results of six months' endeavour in this art production, a collection of pastel drawings, were titled 'The Reality' and exhibited at the school on August 6. Students from Grades Eight to Eleven took part in the attempt.

At the exhibition, the very first drawing was the muddy, stagnating Beira Wewa at the foot of skyscrapers. One drawing showed a young girl washing pots and pans in a kitchen. Another showed dismantling of houses at Slave Island.

"We lived near the railway track and our houses were pulled down," explained the young artist Fathima Rameeza, an eleventh grader. "I wanted to express our grief and say we live in a society like this. This is our reality."

Yet another drawing depicts a couple fighting while children peer from behind the curtain. There is also the rear of a hotel in Kompanna Vidiya, blackened with grime and next to a toilet. A cobbler is shown well below the knee level of his customer.

M.Y. Thaha, Principal, teachers and students of Al-Ameen Vidyalaya, Pictures by Mahinda Vitanachchi

The credit of drawing out the talents of these children, many of whose parents come from the bottom rung of society, goes to Mahabellana who had to teach art in the absence of the respective teacher in school.

"Because I have studied literature, I could teach art," he says.

"To think, you have to read a lot. I believe art should reproduce the reality of the world. I don't believe in competitions with boring titles such as the Postal Day, etc.

"I don't teach 'message art' which is a totally different arena. If you show people the reality of Kompanna Vidiya, they will come out of its muck and move on to a better environment. By showing reality, you can stimulate the society for betterment.

These children were able to grasp what I tried to instill in them."

He also says that the flexibility of M. Y. Thaha, Principal, Al-Ameen Vidyalaya supported to make the art exhibition a reality, ably assisted by English teacher Ismath.

“Being poor is not the problem,” said Ismath. “Most of these children come from broken families and they are a neglected lot. Many of their mothers work as cleaners in banks and fathers as security officers.” Some are key-cutters and cobblers. Parents are busy in their own world and the children are not looked after properly. “One child, whose father died as a drug addict a few days ago, is sure to come up in life as she is very good in her studies.” Ismath added that children did not come to school regularly and the main motive of the art exhibition was to attract them to come to school. “To change poor attendance in school, we thought of coming out with all kinds of things and developed into this art exhibition.”

Mahabellana observes that Muslim children in the school have a problem of their parents not being interested in educating their children. “After O levels, they want the children to get into some money earning venture. But we tried to draw out from the students something useful to the country.” The students study in Sinhala and Tamil.

M.H.F. Rizniya painting ‘Rocking baby’

“Our vision is to educate these children who are not up to our standards,” said Principal M. Y. Thaha. “To get the parents to support us, we need to show them the reality. After Grade 10, parents get passports for children and send them off to Middle East jobs. Parents must know what is happening in the school.” The students were taken around to locations such as Vihara Devi Park and made to observe life going around them. They also participated in many group activities. “First, we need to create in them the interest. Education will follow.” Thaha had pocketed out the expenses, with no sponsors being involved. He also said that only media people were invited to the exhibition and not officials from the education field. He envisaged sending students for training in a school for fine arts. One student, Rizana, won the second place in an all-island art competition conducted by the British Council in which many leading schools in Colombo took part. Mahabellana said he had to break through the religious taboo that Muslims have of not drawing human figures. Art was also a medium of transforming self-destructive pressures in children to a productive pursuit.

A writer of four collections of poetry, he plans to expand the exhibition and take it to the Art Gallery before his departure, as he plans to get a transfer to his village Mahabellana. “If the drawings command a good price, we can even sell them.” He concluded.

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