08th, June 1996

Courage to Love

My darling daughter,

Yesterday a friend of mine was here and she made a remark which made me start thinking. She said, "It requires courage to love". For a moment I wondered what she meant. We never really asssociate courage with love except in situations of religious beliefs and martydom, but my friend was not referring to that type of love, it was just the ordinary normal love we see around us.

Later after she left - I thought how true her remark was. It requires courage to love - if love means that you sacrifice to make the other happy - it is courage, because it needs commitment and you leave yourself open to hurt and even rejection. Your love may be taken for granted and you may not get any return for it - but if you really love then you must have the courage to give, of yourself to make the other happy.

It is that courage a mother has when she sacrifices for her child, for after all there is no guarantee that the child will return that love in later years. It is the same courage that makes a young man and woman decide to marry 'cause they believe they have the courage to forget their own needs for the betterment and happiness of the other. I suppose daughter, often that courage is lacking - after all in today's society the 'I' is of so much importance that the 'we' that is needed is often neglected - to recognise the 'we' and 'ours' needs courage for we have to give up some portion of the 'I' and the 'mine'.

May-be I am foolish but I think in a sense, a mother's love for her child has in it the inherent quality of courage - she will sacrifice anything for the well-being of the child. Maybe that's why I think it is we women who can really create awareness in a very jaded world, the essential meaning of love - that it needs courage to forget oneself for the greater happiness of the other. Do you agree or think I am old fashioned and foolish?

Ammi

Winners All

A mixed bag of 'Royal' students achieve super success. Chamintha Tilakaratna reports

The O/L examination has the power to turn any outgoing and carefree student into a book worm. But in the case of this young batch of students it did the exact opposite. In fact, this group can proudly say that true to their school song, they learnt of books, and learnt of men and learnt to play the game. And if you are wondering what all this is about, meet the Year 11E class of Royal College who at the G.C.E.O/L examination that was held last year, brought great honour to their school. The entire class of thirty nine passed with flying colours that even they themselves did not expect. Out of the thirty nine students, twenty received 8Distinctions. And the rest were not far behind - nine got 7Ds, six got 6Ds, and two got 4 Ds, and the other received six Cs. A proud 100% pass rate.

Labelled as the worst class in the batch, who earned the name, "the gahaganna panthiye" (the fighting class), by some of their teachers, they recall that the turning point in their studies came when their Year 10 class teacher, Mr. O.C.G.Senapathi came to them one day and told them it was up to them to disprove their somewhat dubious reputation by passing the exam with flying colours.

"That is when it all started, a goal was set in our minds, and we told ourselves that we will make Mr. Senapathi and Mrs. Wimalaratna, our Year 9 and 10 class teacher's proud," the boys said. However, they were not ready to give up all their activities for the sake of the examination. In fact, according to them they became more and more involved in outings and other fun activities so much so that they did not feel the pressures of the exam.

"Sir Senapathi gave us three pieces of advice, one to read a lot, two to prove ourselves and three to have confidence in ourselves. He said that it is very important," the Royalists said. "We were not at all considered studious, except for a few of us, and in our O/L year some of us even got suspended," they said. The class describes themselves as actors, sportsmen, computer addicts, scouts, boxers, debaters, Karate students, fighters, union Presidents, book worms, in other words, people with interests in all kinds of everything. How did they get along with each other? Better than many of us would expect. "We were very close with each other. Where ever we went, be it to the theatre, or the cinema or any where else, we all went together," the boys said.

"We had the best times of our lives in the O/L classes. A few weeks before the exam we even went to see the Bradby Shield match in Kandy," they added.

Their class teacher, Mr. Senapathi said that they were a fun-loving bunch. "They were always frank with me, they asked me about girls, and various topics. They kept me feeling young," he said. Trips to Sigiriya, Kandy, outings with friends, parties, had been at the top of their list of activities during these days, though they also made sure to spend some time with their studies.

The members of the class are Chathura Abeygunawardena, Amila Abeynayaka, Sashakthi Abeysingha, Vajira Arandara, Vajira Basnayaka, Gayan Dasanayaka, Geyan Darmadasa, Chanakya Dissanayaka, Kanchana Dissanayaka, Lasitha de Alwis, Varuna de Alwis, Ravindra de Silva, Danushka Ekanayaka, Amila Gammana, Anuranga Godage, Supun Gunaratna, Duminda Horanagama, Tharuka Jayathilaka, Sajith Jayawardena, Eshantha Kaluarrachie, Sisil Karunananda, Channa Kasthuriarrachie, L.P.U Kumara, Milindu Makandura, Manola Nanayakkara, Kasun Pathirage, Chanaka Perera, Ravindu Perera, Prabath Perera, Indika Ranamuggedara, Chathura Rajapakse, Danushka Samarasingha, Indula Siriwardena, Praneeth Wanigasekara, Rasitha Weerasingha, Dammika Weerasinghe, Darshana Vidanagama, Anurada Wimalarathna, and Peshan Yapa.

When teachers had pointed out some of them to be bad students, the others more academically inclined had helped and encouraged the weak ones to keep up with the work ."If it was not for those who helped and kept us going even when we proved to be the worst maths or science students we would never have been able to 8 Ds. It was all team work and determination. We did our own reference, shared them amongst ourselves, tried to help others in areas that they were weak, and give a taste of fun and mischief to those who were too engrossed in their studies," the boys said.

The boys feel that their success was also due to their teacher, Mrs. Wimalaratna, the wife of the late General Vijaya Wimalaratna. "She taught us in a very unusual and effective method along with sir Senapathi. Instead of merely and teaching they allowed us to learn and to have fun while learning. We had debates on various topics in relation to current political and other issues and they also helped us to see things in a broader perspective," they said.

The teachers of this class were,Ven Vajira Thero, Ms. W.M.Wimalaratna, Mr. O.G.Senapathi, Mr.H.P.G. Dharmadasa, Mr. B.A.W.H.A. Weerasingha, Mr. P.W.Indradasa, MS. M.M.S. Dias and Ms. S.Ransingha. The Principal of Royal College Mr S Kumarasinghe told The Sunday Times that this year the results of the school has shown a great improvement in comparison to other years and that he always had faith in the students of all the Year 11 classes. His faith was justified in the increase in distinctions gained, at a rate of 108.5% over 1995.

The 'rejected class' with saints, vagabonds, and criminals as they call themselves, advised all other students who will be sitting for the exam in the years to come to take it cool. " If you set your mind to it, there is nothning that you cannot do," they said.

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