Professor K R M T Karunaratne:

A true legend

It was the first day of our university life at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. We lived with fear and anxiety about ragging in a new learning environment. We had a very hectic day with ragging and other university activities of an orientation programme.

Despite the fact that we were exhausted both physically and mentally in the first half of the first day, we were inquisitive about the lecture timetable to experience the difference at university level.

We found that our first lecture was Quantitative Techniques 1, and rushed to the venue, which was the New Art Theatre-NAT (Nawa Kalagaraya), located a bit far away from the Management Faculty.

On our way, we had several barricades from seniors as they were preparing to take first year students for ragging. We told them we were going to a math lecture. It was unbelievable when they told us ‘hurry up and go, you should not miss Matha Karu’s lecture’. That was the first time we heard about Karu and felt how he has made a significant difference in university students’ experience, the management education in Sri Lanka in particular.

Professor K R M T Karunaratne, who was popular among students as Matha Karu, was such a true legend of far excellence in teaching mathematics and statistics for management and commerce degree programmes of the university.

He also taught in several MBA programmes as we met him at the Postgraduate Institute of Management as a lecturer of one of the best taught subject-’Statistics for Managers’. In those MBA classes, many students were from various educational backgrounds including engineering, who also praised Prof Karu’s ways of teaching quantitative techniques as his teaching was so delicate and rich , which they realised was so close to their day-to-day business decisions that underpin basic quantitative techniques.

There were some professionals who had learned and known what Karu was teaching before, they also attended and remained in Karu’s classes as they loved his approach and the way of teaching with plenty of humour. He has also taught in many off-shore degree programmes and a number of professional and accounting courses.

Our first day in class was full as there were about more than 700 students from all programmes in the faculty of management studies and commerce. Beauty of his engagement was remarkable as no one made even a little noise during the two hour lecture period, which was the experience of Karu throughout the year.

We can still remember what he taught after even more than 27 years. His teaching was so powerful that they are still in our hearts and minds. He was very humble and friendly with students and academic staff who loved him as a real gentleman, a good listener, a story teller, a great superior with good human qualities.

We can also remember his retirement function organised by the university at Solis Hall, Pita-Kotte, where he told us some great life stories about his journey.

If you were there, you will remember how humourous and enjoyable was the speech he delivered on that day.

Hope the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura has those memories in its collections. Interestingly, the wealth of respect and dignity he earned was truly natural as he did not expect or build them using power and politics, but all of which came behind him naturally.

He became Head of Department of Business Administration, and Dean of the premier Management Faculty in Sri Lanka: Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, and also served as an acting Vice Chancellor at the university several times.

We have not seen him keeping gaps between senior and junior academics, administrators or other categories of employees at the university.

He was a charming and matured academic and administrator as almost everyone in the university community admire his qualities of work ethics and values.

We remembered him many times when we gather as old boys of J’Pura with his funny stories and great teaching. As a mark of respect to his great service and humble life, we would like to share several stories. One day he went to Kandy by train, when he stepped in to the train and prepared to sit on a seat, a woman next to that seat said him, ‘no you can’t sit there as there is someone in that seat’.

He calmly kept his briefcase aside and took his spectacles off and then looked very seriously and carefully getting his face closer to the seat told the woman “there is no one in this seat and I am going to sit on it.”

The woman was so shocked and shamed.Another story says that when he was teaching for a professional qualification, a bunch of students came to him at the interval, and said ‘sir api matha anila (we failed maths), he looked at them with his round eyes and asked ‘matha, anila’, oh I am not a gonek (bull) to anninna (hit).

All had a good laugh despite the shock they had with their result. The nation lost a great teacher. May you attain the supreme bless of Nibbana as all your students and colleagues unreservedly bless you indeed!

Dr Ananda Wickramasinghe,Sydney Business School, Dr Anil Chandrakumara, Sydney Business School and Dr Ramya Gamage, James Cook University