Ready to step out, armed with good AL results and big dreams
Fitting a pen between the big toe and third, Dulanjali writes beautifully
Doni, they call out from downstairs, and suddenly, down the ramp whizzes a young woman, all-smiles, navigating and manoeuvring expertly past chairs and tables to come to a halt right in front of us.
She is one of two who have done very well at the Advanced Level (AL) 2017, the results of which were released recently. The other, a young man has gone to school to collect the university admission forms which have to be filled and sent off before January 26.
The two strong role models, who have overcome many challenges thrown at them by life, are 22-year-old Dulanjali Ariyatilaka and 21-year-old Chameera Gayashan.
They have both been living at Marcsri Saranaseva Nivahana in Kalutara since their birth, growing to be two well-accomplished young adults nurtured and fostered in the ‘family’ within this home.
While Dulanjali has secured 2As for Christianity and History and 1B for Media Studies, Chameera has clinched 1B for Christianity and 2Cs for Media Studies and Sinhala.
“Yes, we have the necessary Z-score to enter university and will be applying for admission,” Dulanjali is emphatic, explaining that they are eligible to enter Colombo, Kelaniya or Sri Jayewardenepura campuses.
Dulanjali whizzes down the ramp to meet us
Handed over into the loving arms of the Foundress of Marcsri, the late Rita Perera, whom all the children called ‘Mother’, Dulanjali is an all-rounder with a fully-rounded personality. Her bubbly enthusiasm for life is apparent as she chats with us, not only telling us but also demonstrating to us how she ‘writes’ with her four right toes and is adept at using the mobile phone and the laptop without a second thought.
“See, a lot of people don’t know that I have only four ‘fingers’ and not five,” she says, obviously referring to her toes she uses as fingers, adding mischievously that not having the second toe, was “great engineering” for it has worked to her advantage. As a very small child she began fitting the pencil and the pen between the big toe and the third toe and writing to her heart’s content…….and her writing puts to shame many of us who pride ourselves on our beautiful fist.
Paying tribute to the Examinations Department for supporting and enabling special children to sit examinations, she says that there were about 50 who did so in her area alone.
“I was allowed to take my wheelchair into the examination hall, provided a special shorter desk and given extra time to finish the papers,” says Dulanjali, laughingly adding that one day she had two papers, Christianity and Media Studies, and she could not finish some questions in the second paper because “I couldn’t feel my ‘fingers’ after sometime”. Flawless is her English and she says that Mom (Sr. Rita) taught her the language and she also learnt a lot from the “too many” English movies that she watches.
‘Mom’ Rita who is no more
Chatting about this and that, we gently ask her what has made her special and there is no hesitancy when she says that no one has said anything but she did research by reading numerous books and surfing the internet and got into this subject as part of her AL project.
“It seems like a mutation in the genes, which could be caused by many factors, which stops limb growth of the foetus in the womb,” says Dulanjali. “All four of my limbs have been affected while ‘brother’ Chameera’s legs have been affected.”
While Dulanjali found her family, Mom Rita; ‘father’, a priest who helped Rita to run the home, Fr. Julian Tissera; and many aunts and brothers and sisters within Marcsri, her biological family which had found it difficult to come to grips with the reality when she was born, is now very much in touch with her.
When we ask her about the challenges that she has faced, she is quick to point out that within the Marcsri Home, “we were alike. There were so many disabled children that we didn’t feel disabled. Mom didn’t let us feel that way”.
Philosophical she becomes…….if there is nothing she can do about something, she does not worry too much about it. “I’m a goofy person and Mom used to call me very mischievous.”
When Dulanjali was about nine years old, her life changed, for she was chosen to act in the movie ‘Samanala Thatu’. Playing the role of the sister of an older boy, the location of the film was Kandy and to the hills she went along with her carer-aunt for a month.
A melody from the violin of Chameera
It was after her acting foray that she went to school back home, joining lessons in Grade 3, having been home-tutored by Mom till then. Soon after, she got double promotions. The mixed Katukurunda Roman Catholic College was wonderful, with lots of friends and the boys carrying her wheelchair up the steps.
First in class, she was very good at history but “hated” mathematics and science. The Ordinary Level examination was no big deal, with Dulanjali securing 6As. Onto ALs, and a few months before her first shy, tragedy hit her life with Mom Rita’s death leaving her devastated. That time, she was unsuccessful but tried again in 2017, passing with flying colours.
During the year’s break, she turned her attention to graphic designing, having followed a short course at Wijeya Graphics and securing work online.
Chameera, meanwhile, is the shy and quiet one skilled in playing the violin who faced many “abiyoga” (challenges) when he began his schooling, not with his peers but in simple needs like using the toilet. “I would hold on until I came home,” he says.
All that is behind them and a different world is opening out as they stand on the threshold of university from 2019.
finger-toes’ help computer-savvy Dulanjali. Pix by Indika Handuwala
Before getting to ambition, we talk of love. While Chameera casts his eyes down shyly, Dulanjali says that she is a “hopeless romantic” and she wishes that Mom were there to guide her in this uncharted territory.
“I want to become independent. I want to build a little home for myself,” is Chameera’s wish, with online graphic designing being his goal after the degree.
For Dulanjali, producing plays for stage and screen is her dream, while engaging in online graphic designing. “I want to work somewhere, doing something I like,” she says, speaking for both of them when she thanks their teachers and their Marcsri family for their unstinting support.