Off the main road:

Poetry in a bamboo grove

Aditha Dissanayake

Ever met a Baron (of sorts), in your life? Try turning off the Chilaw-Puttalam road at Bangadeniya. Head towards Pallama on the Anamaduwa road; (the kind every driver dreams of, with the land stretching ahead of you like a pancake, flat and smooth, so smooth it is irresistible not to press on the accelerator till the bells go on the speedometer), and you are there, or rather, he is there, giving you a smile as red as a kadju puhulan.

Having passed through acre upon acre of coconut land you must turn onto a gravel road in Andigama, flanked on both sides by thick foliage that threaten to bruise your vehicle, before you come to the green gate with the sign board Teal Forest written on it. Beyond the gate is the ‘castle’ and beyond the ‘castle’ is the path that leads up to a thick jungle.

Thirty three year old Kasun Dasanayake is a Baron without a retinue, but a Baron nevertheless. He has his own swimming pool, and seventeen subjects on the twenty five acre kingdom where he reigns supreme.

Home grown vegetables

Solitary sentinel

Bamboo grove

Not all the time, though. “Not on the days the Mahaththaya comes” Kasun is quick to correct me. The property, he explains, is owned by a Senior Manager of a well known group of companies in Colombo who had bought it for its remoteness. Much later when I contact the landlord over the phone he tells me even though some might find this remoteness inconvenient (life without electricity or running water) or even unsettling, this is one of the appeals the land has for him. Whenever he visits Teal Forest, if only once a month, if only to spend one night in the watcher’s hut, he feels this is his way of bonding with Mother Earth, of looking after her children; from the smallest caterpillar to the wild deer, to the peacocks and porcupines, who are made to feel the land is theirs, that this is home.

Meanwhile, on weekdays Kasun lives on his own in what he himself calls is his “handmade house” because he had built it with his own hands. As I step onto the porch I feel this is the kind of hut I would like to make if ever I find myself stranded on a tropical island. The floor is made of clay, the pillars supporting the roof were collected from the shrub land which had once covered the entire twenty five acres. “I wish I had not cut the trees to make the pillars but I had no choice” laments Kasun, who, following in his landlord’s footsteps is keen to preserve the environment as much as possible.

As he chats with me Kasun starts to prepare his midday meal. The hearth has plenty of coconut kernel, collected by his wife Manika who visits him with their two children during weekends. “Manika lives with her parents in the Pallama town during school days because it is difficult to take the two children to school from Teal Forest on her push bike” explains Kasun. His lunch will be a plate of rice from the paddy fields he had just harvested, a curry from the watakolu grown in his backyard, and polsambol.

Kasun recalls how the land, mostly covered with dry, waist-high grass with a dozen coconut trees, so old they gave a poor yield, had been bought by his landlord in 2001. “At one time, the area had been a thick forest of palu and weera trees. But these had been cut down by the first owners in the late 1970s. They had cleared the area to plant more coconut trees which was a mistake.” says Kasun. “Even though coconut prices keep rising higher and higher, the soil in Serukelle is not right for coconuts”.

Kasun thinks his master had bought the land because he was enchanted by the cries of the teals who inhabit the water tank bordering the land. Thus the name Teal Forest.

In keeping with his master’s wishes Kasun makes sure he does not disturb the land in whatever endeavor he ventures upon to substantiate the monthly income he is paid, for being the “watcher” on Teal Forest. No back hoe was used when the two acres of teak were planted three years ago and the paddy fields are cultivated without using chemical fertilizers or insecticide.

The subjects on Kasun’s kingdom are the seventeen cows who roam the land, occasionally saying ‘mooo’ to remind Kasun he is not alone on this vast, lonely planet. From morning till about four thirty in the evening Kasun walks all over the estate, milking the cows, plucking coconuts if they are ripe, making vegetable plots to plant bitter gourd and green chillies. When the sun is about to leave for his own home, Kasun too calls it a day and takes a dip in his own swimming pool. He floats in the water for a good thirty minutes, listening to the rustle of bamboo leaves, and watching the water lilies swaying to the evening breeze as if they are listening to Mozart’s music.

Our conversation drifts towards the outside world. “I heard the news broadcast on the radio this morning.” says Kasun. “If there is a radiation leak in Japan will it affect us? Will it mean the end of the world?” he asks me, without a trace of worry in his voice. “Doesn’t it bother you?” I ask him. “If it is the end of the world what would you do?” Kasun does not answer at once. He stuffs his mouth with a betel leaf. His eyes fall on the bamboo grove near the pond. He tells me, as if he is reading a line from a poem written on the leaves, “on the last day of the world, I would like to plant a tree.”

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Should sex education be made compulsory?

Lionel Wijesiri

Savithri Gunasekera, the Colombo University’s former Vice Chancellor, made an important statement recently. She said that lessons on child abuse, domestic violence and sex education should be made compulsory in school curriculums. “Some tend to think that it is not in our culture to discuss such matters, but educating children on these issues at school level will give them the information they need to keep them from harm’s way. We also now have a legal system which supports this,” she added. Prof Gunasekera also noted that adolescents acquired autonomy at 16 years of age, but there was little recognition of this fact in Sri Lanka.

I believe Prof. Gunasekera has a valid point. Out of the three issues, this article concentrates only on the third, sex education. Unfortunately, as outdated as it may sound, it is still the belief of many that openly discussing sex and its ramifications will cause our teens to go astray. Is this a fact or a fallacy? When we think about the amount of sex that teenagers are exposed to each day- all of which is glorified, does it seem like a bad idea to at least provide them with the foundation, tools, and knowledge to help them make more responsible decisions?

Especially when we consider that given our own demanding schedules, and our aversion to the conversation itself, we often leave the youth questioning and looking for answers from the older kid across the street who has a ton of fancy theories of his own. These stories are likely to be believed by the gullible youth because they have never been taught or exposed to anything different.

If we work as a collective community unit, balancing knowledge with morals, then we will ultimately be doing more good than harm. We will have laid the foundation for our teenagers to grow into adults with healthy self-images; well-informed and well-prepared not only for sex and the responsibilities that come along with it, but for the twists and turns that this “crazy so-called life” will undoubtedly throw at them.

Asian context

Take a look at what is happening in Asia. The state of sex education programs in Asia is at various stages of development. Indonesia and South Korea have a systematic policy framework for teaching about sex within schools. Malaysia and Thailand have assessed adolescent reproductive health needs with a view to developing adolescent-specific training, messages and materials. India has programs aimed at children aged nine to sixteen years. In India, there is a huge debate on the curriculum of sex education and whether it should be increased.

Attempts by state governments to introduce sex education as a compulsory part of the curriculum have often been met with harsh criticism by political parties, who claim that sex education “is against Indian culture” and would mislead children. Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan have no coordinated sex education programs. In Japan, sex education is mandatory from age 10 or 11, mainly covering biological topics. In China, sex education traditionally consists of reading the reproduction section of biology textbooks. However, some years ago, a new five-year project was introduced by the China Family Planning Association to “promote reproductive health education among Chinese teenagers and unmarried youth” in urban districts and counties.

Home or school

Undoubtedly, the ideal place for sex education is the home. Unfortunately, even the best of parents are sometimes uncomfortable discussing the subject with their children. They may delay, waiting until the child asks questions. Before they realize it, the optimal time has come and gone. The child will be questioning, all right, but perhaps the wrong people. All kinds of misinformation is passed unwittingly between friends in the same age group.

I know a few urban parents who bought decent books for their teens to read, believing that all the questions will be addressed and answered by the volume’s author. However, few teens these days are interested in reading as a leisure-time activity. The book may end up under the bed or lying unopened on a shelf in the closet. Even the best-written, most informative publication will do no good under these circumstances.

The alternative is then for the school to assume the responsibility of delivering it. The basic factual information should be supplemented by parental perspectives, and moral guidelines from home, but even if this is not the case, the young people will at least have sufficient information, to keep themselves disease-free.

Should sex education be left until secondary school? No, say the sociologists. In the Primary Grades a section of the Health curriculum, some part should introduce the children to the proper names for body parts and explain how a baby grows inside its mother’s uterus until it is ready to live on its own. This information would be presented within the context of a normal family, with textbook pictures of children with whom the students can identify.

In the Junior Grades, as the children approach puberty, the boys and girls should be separated and each group be given information as to what bodily changes they can expect to experience during the next few years, as they become young men and women.

In the Secondary Grade, again in separate groups, the students should be informed about physical changes their classmates of the opposite sex are undergoing. These lessons should be given in a matter-of-fact manner, using proper anatomical terms for the specific body parts involved.

If these preparatory lessons have been presented to the students from the Primary Grades on, the sex education of teens would only be a continuation of an earlier curriculum. They will receive it matter-of-factly and trust in its accuracy. It will be much more effective than if it were dropped on them suddenly, out of the blue. There should be no smirking, eye-rolling, giggling or other unseemly behaviours because these latest lessons are only a grade-specific unit of a subject they have studied since Grade One.

Pros and cons

Knowledge is power. The question is not whether teens should be exposed to a sensitive topic like sex so early in their lives. Rather, the question is whether not being taught about sex will help teens more in the long run. In two words, it won’t.

Without sex education, teens have little reliable information to go on: what they hear in play grounds and hallways is not sufficient. Furthermore, their curiosity about an unknown and culturally forbidden act, and the social pressures surrounding it, may influence them to make a bad choice. Curiosity can be a powerful, overwhelming emotion. Providing sex education in schools and eliminating that curiosity to some degree would be helpful.

However, there are pros and cons that must be considered by parents when dealing with sexual education classes that one would not have to consider with a less controversial topic such as math or reading. In general, a parent needs to be aware of his or her own family or religious beliefs and values and know their child’s intellect and maturity levels. However, there are disadvantages that can cause the validity and effectiveness of the material to be in question, and if it cannot be delivered effectively it should not be delivered at all. Some disadvantages might be: (1) students may still suffer from embarrassment or get excited by the topic matter.

This can cause for out-of-control classrooms if students take to giggling or making inappropriate remarks: (2) sex education is often viewed as a “recreational” course and not a serious subject (this is a direct correlation to the fact that there are no grades or scores to be derived from class): (3) teachers are not always trained how to properly teach sex education courses and may transgress their own beliefs or morals into the subject matter rather than stick with the facts: (4) the attitudes of parents, educators or religious leaders in the community can cause the subject matter to vary from province to province, or even school-to-school.

Sex education may be one of those topics that will always share a place on the list of debatable subjects that should or should not be taught to our children in school. It is important to remember both the pros and cons of this important subject and just how critical it will become in the later years of a child’s development.