A Mahindian in Facebook … with Malware blocking the photo displayed from deployment here … but see below
The following is a write-up appeared in the book the “Century of Memories” edited by the Late Tiddy Wijeratne, Percy Samara-Wickrama and my friend Duleep Dantanarayana, which was published in 1993. The article I am uploading is written by the Late Professor Vinnie Vitharana and I hope it will be read by the present day Students of Mahinda College. Duleep, one of the Editors was very kind in giving me permission to upload this for the benefit of the Mahindians who have not read this.
Born on 23rd March 1905, Mr. E.A. Wijesooriya would have been 120 years today.
Edgar Albert Wijesooriya …….. On a wet morning in May over five decades ago a lad from southern village, characteristically awkward and unpolished, approached the gates of a school in Galle. And at the sight of the elephants in bas-relief on the stone posts, his rustic feet faltered. Within, a broad pathway fringed with slanting Araliya trees in bloom meandered up a hillock marked by imposing buildings and taller flowering vegetation. Halfway up on the right was flight of steps in stone clinging to an arbour ed slope that showed the way direct to the summit.
He took the longer path strewn with the flowers of the Araliya, and climbing a few steps he entered a flag- stoned corridor with storey ed buildings rising on either side; and climbing a few more he was in front of yet another edifice that occupied the whole of the terraced summit.
Within was held a meeting of the staff and at the head was a personage in white attire and a tie in black and gold. He seemed not tall, had the positive signs of a balding head and his face seemed to usher a commanding radiance. There was silence all round except for the sound of his voice which seemed to fill the little hall against the soft patter of the tiny raindrops on the kerbs of granite and the rustle of the cool breeze among the flowering trees in the background.
The meeting ended and as the presiding personage , his shell-rimmed spectacles gleaming, came out of the glass-panelled doorway, the lad greeted him respectfully and handed over to him a letter obtained from a celebrity of the time. He read it , his left palm sweeping over his shinning forehead and the scanty-haired region above ,rolling his lower lip ,he thought for a while with his eyes focused hardly a foot away from the tip of his right shoe, and said firmly ,”come with me”
And with one arm pendent by his side and almost still, and the shoulder drooping, he began to ascend the wooden staircase that rose on his right.
The uncouth lad from southern ‘wilderness’ was I, and the imposing figure in white was Edgar Albert Wijesooriya, Principal , Mahinda College (1932-1962 May.) and from then on ,up to his passing away much have I seen of that balding head, the rolling lower lip and the dropping shoulder ,and much have I heard his voice, at times firm and at times mellow, commanding the ear of thousands expository, didactic, imperative, humorous, etc. as each occasion demanded.
Born on 23rd March 1905 he was an alumnus of both Mahinda (1915-1918) and Ananda (-1922) where he came first in the island at the Cambridge Senior Examination. He read Western Classics and Mathematics for the degree Examination, served on the tutorial staff of Ananda (1925-27) and served as the Principal of Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda for five years. He arrived at Mahinda as the institutions head on 1st July 1932.
When Wijesooriya elected to retire early, reactions within the College ‘community’ were diverse. Some felt relieved that after thirty long years, ’change’ would come over Mahinda. Some were saddened at the loss of a great teacher and capable man–at–helm who had steered the institution to heights of achievement in several fields of activity. For Wijesooriya however, it was a decision based on adherence to a principle rather than risking the reputation of his own self or of his beloved institution. And in the light, none who spoke of him hesitated to admit that “Here was a man!”
And that is exactly what I saw of Wijesooriya—a man who kept to his word ,honest and truthful to the core ,irrespective of consequences, faithful to what he continued to write in autograph albums proffered to him :’to thine own self be true-Shakespeare’
To say that Wijesooriya was a man of few words is true only in a figurative sense. He was undoubtedly a speaker and conversationalist par excellence .What was characteristic of him was his diction: concise, smooth and witty. A few sentences flawlessly enunciated formed the speeches that kept us spellbound at morning assembly, sports meets, public functions etc. And a few allusions from Buddha Dhamma, Western Classics and English Literature kept all the interest alive at a social gathering, satire and humour too evident in ample measure.
To us, no big event was over and complete until he had finish his address.
In class he was a teacher among teachers. He told his charges only what was needed to be said, whether in Mathematics, English or Latin … and nothing that was irrelevant. He instructed us to read, and directed us on what to read and how to read, and more … he taught us how to think. He encouraged us to express ourselves in apt figures of speech- for, they were the days when were expected to have examples of climax and cliché, metonymy and metaphor, simile and satire at our fingertips, and euphemism and euphuism and alliteration and onomatopoeia. What a fortune was it to be in his class, and what a gem-set forty-minute period each of them was!.
At a time of rapid change as the present, it appears strange that one individual stayed at his post for so long a time as thirty years with sense of devotion to duty, building up cumulatively on his prestige as a teacher and a citizen.
Hardly ever was Mahinda behind any other school in the South in examination results – be they of the Landon Matriculation or Cambridge Senior, during his time. Mahinda facilities in terms of space , staff, laboratories, recreation and sports were recognized by the Department of Education as the best available in the region during the early forties so that the first Higher School Certificate and University Entrance classes providing courses in the arts (with a special orientation towards studies in the classical languages. (Pali and Sanskrit). Science and Medicine in the south was set up at Mahinda in 1943. Consequently the institution experienced a large influx of post- Senior students from other schools in the province and outside, and the man-at –the helm came to be reverently regarded as the ‘Disapamok of the South’.
Further, during his tenure of office, Mahindians were among the nation’s top sportsmen in Cricket and Athletics with significant achievements in Scouting and Cadetting. In the arts, music, dancing, painting and writing, past pupils and teachers achieved significant creative heights. Jubilees Golden and Diamond were duly celebrated and new buildings rapidly replaced some of the old temporary structures.
If an earlier sixteen year period under Woodward was the period of growth from a shaky childhood to a vigorous youth the thirty year period under Wijesooriya was one of fulfilment and achievement.
And who of the period forgets his arrival on the stage for the morning assembly?. It is the regular staccato beat of his heels on the long cobbled corridors far end that heralded him as we sat on the long benches in the spacious Olcott Hall. The notes drew nearer and as they dropped down the steps at the hall door, seven hundred soft murmurs vanished to a pin-drop silence. He approached, his left shoulder a-droop, one arm pendent and the other almost still by his side, his eyes focused to a point hardly a foot in front of him, and his flowing black cloak oblique in the air as if attached to him like an obedient path follower. He ascended and stage and we all stood up to salute him with folded hands. He reciprocated and sat at the table. Next, all of us, with the members of the staff who had taken their seats on the stage by this time, rose in unison to observe the tun sarana and pancha sila . We then all took our seats and he, yet standing , admonished us on our life-long duties to our parents, teachers and school , to our religion and our country, and returned to our classes : ‘Prefects’….’Monitors’….’HSC’….’Fifth Form’… and we walked back from the Olcott hall counselled for the work of the day, and disciplined for the responsibilities of life.
May the memory of Edgar Albert Wijesooriya inspire us to strive for the betterment of all that he taught us to cherish for years and years to come!.
