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31st August 1997

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The inside story of the ‘Inn’

Shake a leg at the Voet Inn Nite

By Kanishka S. Balasuriya

Set within the immediate neighbourhood of the Rajagiriya town but surprisingly removed from the hustle and bustle of city life (except for the jarring hoot of bus horns) lies the official hostel of the Sri Lanka Law College. This remarkable serenity and calmness enjoyed by this hostel is mostly owing to the natural sound barrier surrounding it, in the form of a rich foliage of bamboo shoots and the industrious security man at the entrance who keeps all undesirable elements away with the aid of a rickety barrier.

There is confusion as to the correct name of this institution. The popular belief is that the name is "The Voet Inn" named after the great Dutch Jurist Johannes Voet (‘Voet’ being pronounced ‘foot’). But a set of Voet Inners upset this accepted norm, by taking upon themselves to investigate the veracity of this name. Their consensus was that the proper name is not merely "The Voet Inn" but "The voet’s Inn". The apostrophe and the ‘s’ they emphasised. Their rationale was that the hostel being named after Mr. Voet should mean "the Inn of Mr. Voet" or "The Voet’s Inn". The name "The Voet Inn" they maintained to be a perversion for the sake of convenience of the correct name and besides it was also in the wrong language. The other hostellers for their part, neither familiar with the origin of the name or the language for that matter, suffered this contention without much objection. But for the purpose of this narration with due respect to the above investigators the writer chooses to use the name "The Voet Inn", and of course that for convenience sake.

From the outside, the hostel looks nothing but a battery of balconies embellished with the half-washed laundry of the inmates. From the inside it looks nothing but long corridors and sharp corners. The architect Geoffray Bawa has been essentially very geometric. He was probably every geometry teachers’ blue eyed boy, being a practitioner more than a purist. A rectangle here, a triangle there, a hypotenuse yonder etc. These are the prominent features of the Voet Inn Building.

But barring a few such inconveniences the overall facilities provided for the hostellers far exceed what they generally bargain for. The hostellers were so satisfied with this state of affairs that once they made it a point to share with outsiders their belief that this was the best hostel in the whole of South East Asia. Whether it was the convincing manner of the hostellers or the gullibility of the outsiders, the envy with which they received this bit of news amused the hostellers to such an extent that it became a habit of theirs to sell all kinds of stories to the outsiders, breaching the confines of truth very often. It is not rare to encounter two hostellers in serious discussion about either the swimming pool at the hostel or the air conditioning of their individual rooms in the presence of an unsuspecting and awestruck day-scholar.

This restriction imposed on outsiders also starves them of their thirst for information on the hostels coed status, which they find to be positively controversial. Belonging to one of the very few or probably the only coed hostel in the country the Voet Inners enjoy a rare privilege of knowing what it is to exist with co-hostellers of both sexes. The others who are not privy to such information interpret the circumstances of such status by resorting to their imagination. The hostellers on their part maintain a very mysterious attitude about the whole thing. Any direct question put forward to them by any impatient enquirer is met with a vagueness which would not at all do justice to the degree of curiosity with which the question was asked.

Generally the identity of such an institution pivots around two aspects. Firstly the character or image given to it by its inmates and secondly the customs and traditions treasured by such institution. As the Voet Inn contains a whole assortment of inhabitants varying both in size and type the first aspect cannot be effectively considered. This variety makes it difficult to isolate a common Voet Inn image. An outsider knowing two Voet Inners may find a dilemma on his hands if he tries to define the image of an average Voet Inner by the likes of his associates. There is no average Voet Inner. All are either below or above such description. Therefore it would be safe to assume that the image one has of the Voet Inn depends very much on ones degree of association with Voet Inner’s. The more hostellers you know the more confused you are and so on.

Therefore the definition of the Voet Inn identity heavily takes from the customs and traditions observed by the Voet Inners. The Voet Inn having being in existence since 1949 is not generally found wanting in such customs and traditions. These customs and traditions, having survived a short shutdown (1979-85) of the hostel at one time and a change of venue from Barnes Place to the present address have proven their durability and consistency. Therefore without doubt customs and traditions play a very significant role in the Voet Inn life. Of such customs and traditions too, the most important is the annual dinner dance organized by the apprentice students of the hostel - very appropriately called "The Voet Inn nite" as it is undisputedly THE night for all Voet Inners past and present. No other occasion sees such a gathering of Voet Inners from all eras under one roof. This year too, keeping in line with such fine traditions, this event has been organized with a great deal of zeal by the apprentice students with the help of the other hostellers and will be held at Hotel Mount Lavinia on the September 13. The organizers are not being too optimistic when they anticipate all roads leading to the venue, to be choc-a-bloc on that particular day with hordes of Voet Inners making their annual pilgrimage to this revered event.


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