By Udeni Saman Kumara
My mother was born in 1935 in Kirindiwela. She was educated in Holy
Cross Convent, the only English school in Gampaha town then and became a
teacher of the convent when she was 21 years old. She was trained as a
teacher in Maharagama Teachers' College and served for 40 years as a
teacher.
She
was a famous poet of the Colombo era who had a habit of sending a
letter in poetry to the newly elected heads of state of the world.
Although she did not tell us what she did, she showed us the replies she
received and shared the joy. She had letters from Nelson Mandela of
South Africa, Harold Wilson of Britain, Indira Gandhi of India etc. in
her proud possession.
My
parents were teachers and my younger brothers and sisters were
schooling when I gave up my education and joined JVP as a full time
member. We had lot of problems at home but I was working hard for
socialism.
My younger brother who entered the Medical Faculty of Colombo University
had also joined student union activities. Universities were heating up
due to the education White Paper presented by the UNP government. The
government was detracting the democratic space and terror was spreading.
Meanwhile,
my elder sister also passed Advanced Level and entered the Medical
Faculty of Colombo University. She stayed in De Saram Girls' Hostel. My
younger brother travelled daily from Gampaha to the Medical Faculty by
train, sometimes without purchasing tickets.
I have so far written the preamble of this story and let us begin the
story now. My sister was given a list of essential books. Those imported
books were quite large and they cost around Rs 2000 then. My mother had
no money and postponed buying books to the next week. Still she had no
money.
In
the middle of next week, my mother directly went to my sister's hostel
and asked her to come with my mother. Soon they were walking in Ward
Place towards Borella. The road was closed for vehicular traffic and
heavily guarded.
"Where
are we going, Amma?" my sister asked but mother did not reply. Soon
they stopped near the gate of the private residence of former President
J.R. Jayewardene.
Mother had tried to get a loan for books from Education Employees'
Cooperative Society but failed. When she was thinking of a solution
First Lady Elena Jayewardene came to her mind and she wrote a letter to
her in English. She described about the difficulties faced by her
daughter who was learning in the Medical Faculty and sought her help. A
copy of the list of books was attached to the letter. Before long, a
telegram was sent to the name of my sister with the date and time to
come to Ward Place to collect the books.
My
mother did not tell anything to my sister and went to Ward Place with
her. The security had been informed of their arrival and they were taken
to the verandah of the house. Soon the First Lady came there beaming
pleasantly pushing a tea trolley on which the books were kept.
She sat near my sister and said apologizing, "My driver looked for
everywhere for one book but it was not in Sri Lanka. It was quite late
to be imported."
She
asked my sister to learn well, pass the exams, become a doctor and
serve the country. She also asked my sister to tell her if she had any
difficulty. She was back in Medical Faculty so happily. She said she was
the only student of her batch who had all the books.
The books were so useful for my second sister also who entered the Medical Faculty two years later.
In that unfortunate time, I was fighting J.R. Jayewardene's government.
My mother told me this story many years later while she was lying on
death bed.
