Elaiyathamby Vinayagamoorthy:

Excellent orator

E. Vinayagamoorthy, was one of my dedicated, efficient teachers and uncles. He was an outstanding teacher, politician, friend and social worker in our village, Karaitivu, 25 miles towards the south of Batticaloa. He was a living example for punctuality, and was a team worker and a hard worker.

Vinayagamoorthy was an excellent orator with a silver tongue and was written numerous articles, that made him enter politics and was the Chairman of our village council on numerous occasions and was a member of the District Development Council.

I wish to express my heartfelt thanks and my genuine gratitude for all the hard work done by him during the academic years. Vinayagamoorthy gave a new dimension to teaching with his unique and innovative ways.

His way of making difficult concepts easy to understand was simply outstanding. I have enjoyed all his teachings and learned a lot from him which I still apply in my day-to-day life.

Mama (uncle), your smart walk, entertaining people of all ages by your excellent, tactful, attractive speech and your leadership qualities are fresh in my mind.

I really appreciate the way he encouraged weak students to put their best efforts in understanding the lessons.

Every student in class was impressed by him. He taught even the most boring topics in a very interesting manner by using innovative ways. In fact, many students in his class had developed a love for the subjects he taught and are in good positions now.

Finally I would like to extend my warm thanks to him for all the wonderful work he did for his students, my village and people.

May His Soul Rest in Peace and attain “Suvarkam” (Heaven).

Rajan Soundareswaran

W A Jayasena:

Simple, unassuming personality

The way death took away my beloved brother W A Jayasena is unthinkable and unbelievable. While listening to his favourite T V programme “Bharatha Gee Vindana” telecast every Tuesday at 10.30 pm on November 10, 2010 he died following a sudden heart-attack.

My beloved brother who was an ardent lover of Hindi songs was born in a rural and remote village called Pilikuttuwa now famous for the ancient Raja Maha Vihara Cave temple.

Having had his primary education at Dambuwa Buddhist mixed school, he passed the year five scholarship examination and gained admission to the prestigious Henegama Central College in which I too was fortunate to have had my education as a year five scholarship holder.

My brother W A Jayasena passed his Senior School Certificate Examination in the English medium and after some time followed the Draughtsmanship Course at the then Ceylon Technical College. He started his career in the public service as a Draughtsman at the Irrigation Department. After a short stay in the Department he was transferred to Mahavilachchiya Irrigation Office. He worked there only for a short period as they were affected by the communal rights that broke out in 1958 and recalled to the head office. Thereafter he was seconded for service at the Uda Walawe River Basin Project.

In the early 70s he joined the Department of Agriculture as an Inspector of Works and was stationed at Nuwara Eliya. The most important events in his life occurred during the period he was working at Nuwara Eliya. Within a short period after coming to Nuwara Eliya he made friends and he became a very popular figure among the public servants in Nuwara Eliya. In 1973 he got married to Rani Adikaram and lived a happy and successful family life having one daughter and two sons.

Whilst serving in the Department of Agriculture he went abroad for employment in Oman. He worked in Oman for about 15 years as a Quantity Surveyor. Having returned to Sri Lanka in 2004 he lived a happy and contended life at Yakkala until he passed away peacefully.

My brother was a simple and unassuming person who had great qualities. During the latter part of 1950’s when our father was undergoing lot of hardships in carrying with the business of a small trader who ran a village tea boutique, it was ‘Aiya’ who was then employed, took the responsibility of bringing the whole family to Yakkala and made arrangements to settle us down in a house at Yakkala, belonging to a relation of ours. ‘It laid the foundation for our family to settle down in Yakkala permanently.

My brother focused much attention on the activities of the Henegama Central College. His devotion to the College and the teachers was immeasurable.

He played a pivotal role in the activities of the Past Pupils’ Association until his last days. It is significant to state that, about two months prior to his demise, he had arranged on his own, a visit to the houses of sick members of the PPA, with a view to bring them some consolation. A number of members participated in the mission and it was a tremendous success.

My brother was a deeply religious person. He was always willing to lend a helping hand to any one. He had lots of friends and no one hated him. We can console ourselves remembering his good deeds and the exemplary life he lived.

May he attain the Supreme Bliss of Nibbana.

W A Somaratna

Raja Kulathillake:

Decent, compassionate human being

The sixth death anniversary of Raja Kulathillake, former Member of Parliament for Teldeniya, falls this month. As a social worker, parliamentarian, he was a compassionate human being.

Raja Kulathillake stood out among the then young MPs who were elected to Parliament. He was elected MP to the Teldeniya constituency in 1965 and again in 1970.

Though he came from a family of rich businessmen he was sympathetic towards the leftist political movement in the early 1960s as he felt that social justice could be achieved for the poor masses in pursuing socialist policies. During his tenure of office as the member of Parliament for Teldeniya, he rendered an unforgettable service to the people of this rural electorate in the central province. Whenever the demand arose he spent his private funds in the service of the rural or urban people of his electorate. Even as a young schoolboy Raja Kulathillake demonstrated his independent spirit. Though he was admitted to one of the leading Christian schools in Kandy, Raja decided to leave it and join Dharmaraja College that had become a symbol of national revival, at one time headed by the national leader D B Jayathillake.

During his school days at Dharmaraja he was very active in cadeting, scouting as well as in visual arts like dancing. Even as a school boy, he made no distinction between the affluent and the ordinary people. He was always prepared to help the needy and took pride in it.

In 1946 as a very young man, he contested the Kandy Municipal council elections and lost by a small number of votes. Though his family desired that Raja should take up business and manage it, his mind was not set to earn more. Therefore he chose to work for the amelioration of the mass of poor people who needed a leader that had the sympathy and consciousness of their problems.

In 1960 Parliamentary election, he contested the Teldeniya electorate as an independent candidate and was defeated by only 11 votes. He used his wealth to help needy people. It was also a well-know fact that he helped like-minded political seniors of Kandy to run their political campaigns.

He contested the Teldeniya seat again in 1965 as a SLFP candidate and won while almost all the other electorates in that area were won by the UNP that came to power that year.

In 1965 and again in 1970 he was elected member of Parliament for Teldeniya and continued his service to the public for several years even after 1977. His conduct as a politician was an example to others. For him, there was nothing impossible in his service to his people.

Raja was also a writer who contributed features and verses to a number of newspapers. He had a very good command of his mother tongue and loved writing. He also acted in dramas and had played an unforgettable role in the drama Uruvisi. During his school days he was a good soccer player too.

Raja was a humble human being who did not value wealth but valued human beings and was always sincere in his association with friends and in his service to people.

May he attain the bliss of Nirvana.

Lloyd V. Ponnambalam

H D O Stanley Munasinghe:

Personality with rare qualities

It is almost 15 years since our beloved teacher, philosopher, guide left us leaving behind warm and lasting memories. A gentlemen gifted with universal wit and humour when he was in–charge of college senior and junior cadet platoons.

He is none other than Hadunge Don Oswald Stanley Munasinghe. He was a product of Mahinda college, Galle where he was a brilliant student with many achievements to his credit. After completing his teacher training course at Maharagama, he joined the staff of Nalanda Vidyalaya, Colombo.

One of his past students, seeing his teacher who dedicated his entire working life to bring up mischievous youngsters to become respectable, responsible adults with means and over coming a flood of compassion, gifted a motorcycle, the favourite mode of travel of our teacher in his young days.

Stanly Munasinghe was gifted with an abundance of honesty, compassion and love. In the class as students we observed that he had a quality that was rare. This was a gift with which he knew what makes a student feel special as well as have a freely enjoyable time with other students. He always knew what would make our lives sweeter and extra special. He always spoke and acted with a deep sense of conviction. Truly, he was one of those rare people loved by all who knew him, and we all miss him today.

He guided pupils at Nalanda to become efficient and dedicated men to administer the country’s affairs without being a burden to the country. He was promoted to the rank of captain and this shows the quality of a leader. He was unique and bold enough to express his views fearlessly. Now we are old but we still miss him.

May you Sir, experience the ultimate peace one day

Bertram Peiris