On going down memory lane
 We
have the habit of recollecting our past events with special reference to
our schools and experiences we had - there may they be good or adverse.
This may be termed as nostalgia for 'alma mater'. It is a phrase used to
express fondness for the school of learning and the past schools and
universities like fondness expressed towards one's own mother. As such
the 'alma mater' also refers in Latin to the 'bounteous mother' who is
no other person than the school where one was tutored.
On reading the series of recollections of the veteran Sinhala
journalist Sundara Nihatamani de Mel's latest work, 'Mahinde Tamai
Iskole (Mahinda is 'the' school) one goes down the memory lane
recollecting one's own alma mater. Perhaps this acts like a catalyst for
the action of recollecting such experiences in one's own past during
schooldays.
This happened to me while reading this book, which contains forty
events perhaps arranged not in a chronicle order but with a creative
thought stream readable like a narrative of a person's life and the
trials and tribulations. Sundara makes sure that he brings out material
for the benefit of the reader making at times the pages look more true
and accurate as against the fictitious elements one could seep in the
rush and kept in order making the homework look more honest.
 This process of writing it could be visualized as transcending the
barriers of biographical writings which most of us are fond of. At times
he goes to the extent of recording events that could have been lost for
ever if not for his effort of recording them.
Those include the meeting of people ranging from the common school
gatekeepers, lab assistants, peons to dignified people of the calibre
great and memorable teachers par excellence, business stalwarts,
sportsmen, researchers, physicians, politicians, educationists and the
people linked to some record-breaking and record-holding events. There
are references to remarkable holders of nicknames inclusive of teachers,
schoolmates, bullies and associates.
The writer has gone to the extent of reading hitherto published and
unpublished documents inclusive of past periodicals like the school
magazines lying here and there in order to make it look more of an
unprecedented self referential creative research work than a mere record
of his own firsthand experiences.
He makes the reader enter the school premises - Mahinda was one of
the pioneer Buddhist schools in the country - and takes him/her to the
classrooms, corridors and the main auditorium where regular assemblies
were held, and where dignified people of the past are brought to the
forefront.
He takes the reader at the outset to the school where the national
anthem was created by the veteran musician Ananda Samarakone and makes a
resourceful record of the pupils connected with the first primary class
room exercise made out of it. This I felt as a memorable memoir.
Then he takes the reader to meet some of the sensitive minds of his
teachers who were instrumental in the moulding of the mind frames of
schoolchildren, especially the female teachers who happen to be demi
goddesses like mothers who were either fond of him or failed to grasp
the stance of a child. For me Miss Sugala's episode is quite touching
and embraces the territories of emotions similar to a sensitive
narrative of Chekhov. But the recollection is so sweet and nostalgic
that words cannot express the inner beauty linked to the event.
He also touches certain areas where the would be journalist was
captured for hyper sensitivity of an editorial which had created a stir
in the education field at the time.
Looking back one can wonder how well the attitudes had been framed
and how well the challenges have been met with by individuals.
There are references to punishments imposed for offences which are
eventually remembered not as painful memories but as nostalgic
humanizing factors. As it normally happens good teachers as well as the
so called other forms of strict teachers play a vital role in this work.
They are remembered in verve of equanimity.
All in all, one of the finest segments in the book comes in the areas
where the school mates rally round various types of books to quench
their thirst for more and more reading not only by the use of the school
library, but also by the other secret ways of reading off beat works,
perhaps said to be controversial, obscene and abusive.
The finest point is that those young readers are branded as
bookworms. Then again he takes the reader to the classroom where the
would be journalist made his debut by designing a classroom newspaper
written by hand and later made to be passed on to be seen by others.
This would be mini journalist would never have wondered that he would
be a veteran journalist one day who will be destined to write a weekly
column in a Sunday Sinhala newspaper (manige tiruva) and help build a
better climate of communication studies for his would be associates and
bring them to the pedestal of celebrities. Quite a lot of space is given
to events such as the school debates especially with the girls schools
and games and sports events.
Perhaps I am too philosophic and rationalistic in my personal
mannerisms that I sometimes fail to visualize the beauty of some of
these sensitive events collating those of mine. I feel that those who
have studied in this particular school named Mahinda, in the district of
Galle, may take this book as a fitting tribute to their alma mater. On
testing the events with others, I feel that the normal person has the
power of living in 'group mentality' which should not be misunderstood
if I am to brand the attitude as tribalism.
Perhaps sans the overemphasis, tribalism has its plus points like the
bliss of being together, in agony and happiness, declaring to the world
in a glorious tone 'we are Mahindians', 'we are Anandians', 'we are
Royalists.'
I feel that our close associate, Sundara Nihatamani, does not succumb
to those low levels of tribalism. Instead he is trying his best to
recall resourceful events of the past similar in calibre to the great
French novelist Marcel Proust (in his outstanding work 'Remembering of
things past').
From school debates the shift of attention is drawn towards the
school trips and/or excursions from the point of view of scouting and
other journeys, where the writer too is shown as an active participant.
I sincerely feel that it is always good to prove the powers of memory
before it is lost by various extraneous factors like forgetfulness and
dementia.
It is also good to write them down as they come to the mind and as
they enter without closing the doors of the memory. The skill rests on
the style of writing and the material selected. Sundara has selected his
material with effort which I feel is a time consuming function. All in
all, I enjoyed the work of Sundara Nihatamani de Mel in the manner I
enjoy a sensitive narrative packed with human interest factors written
in a humanistic frame.
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