skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Back in the late 1960s, I was taking A/L classes at St. Mary's College, Chilaw, the Education Department decided that all A/L science subjects should be taught only in Sinhala and Tamil. This posed a huge problem to my classmates, who had studied up to then in the English medium, and to our teachers, who, too, had taken their degrees in English. The Education Department came up with hastily translated textbooks and glossaries which explained the Sinhala terms that had been created in botany, zoology, chemistry, and physics. Those were chaotic times.
I was fine with Botany and Zoology, but being clueless in mathematics, I had no chance of entering university. I was simply marking time till I could find a job. Perhaps the only exception in our small class was Kalidasa Adhikari, who was intent on entering medical school.
I last saw Kali in 1968, when, disillusioned with our half-hearted teachers, he left to join another school. Two years ago we met on the Internet. He did enter medical school. Emigrating to Australia later, Kali is now a doctor practicing in Brisbane.
We met again last week, both on visits to Sri Lanka.
A footnote. In the class that took the A/Ls from St. Mary's College, I had the best results, being "called for practicals" in botany and zoology, and failing in chemistry. I didn't even take the physics paper. Two of my classmates, like me, became English teachers before becoming teachers of other subjects.
Back in 2004, a visiting friend from Britain (a former professor at the English Department of the Chinese University), also a birder, spotted 29 varieties of birds at Pondside. The kingfishers are colorful, but the loveliest is the Asian Paradise Flycatcher, known in colloquial Sinhala as the "sudu redi hora" (the thief of white cloth). It's rather small but what makes it so attractive is the tail consisting of long, white feathers. The tail makes it easy to spot, too, because it stands out against the background greenery.
Well, the "thief" has returned to Pondside, and I see him flying low, flitting from tree to tree, snatching grasshoppers and butterflies on the way.
BTW, the photo is from the Internet. My small camera does not have a zoom lens to photograph birds.
