There can be no auspicious moment to celebrate life, foster humanity and work towards peace or prosperity. Sadly, we live in times where the energies of violence unleashed have sent tremors of anxiety and foreboding to all corners of the world even as they maim, kill and destroy.

One can only hope that sanity will soon prevail and that there will be a cessation of hostilities before more innocent lives are lost. In moments such as this the world would do well to remember that the preservation of human life needs to be the foremost objective. Sri Lanka itself recently reminded the world of this simple but powerful truth when lives were saved during the incidents involving Iranian vessels off our shores. One hopes that the global community will learn from such acts of humanity and choose compassion over conflict.

Such against-the-grain acts are sadly little more than a drop in an enormous ocean of discontent. We applaud and then slip into despair. At such times, in particular, we take refuge in what might have been and indeed what has transpired — those happy carefree moments where the only weapons sanctioned was friendly if caustic banter between friendly rivals. That’s what the Royal-Thomian cricket encounter is all about.

Royal College, Colombo, and S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia will do battle for three days, from the 12th to the 14th of March, for the 147th consecutive year. And every year something quite remarkable happens to thousands of otherwise sensible men. They begin discussing school cricket with the seriousness normally reserved for matters of state, diplomacy and occasionally national elections. This year’s encounter is extra special for the present and past students of S. Thomas’ College, that inimitable ‘School by the Sea,’ because it coincides with the institution’s 175th anniversary.

Royalists would be quick to raise objections, but it is abundantly clear to me that S. Thomas’ is the more distinguished and refined of the two schools. It is my conviction that many honest Royalists quietly accept this incontrovertible truth, although they may do so only after the second drink at the Royal Thomian!

A good example of the deep respect Royalists have for S. Thomas’ can be seen in our good friend Rajind Ranatunga, an Old Royalist, who wisely sent both his sons to Mount Lavinia. One of them went on to become Head Prefect of S. Thomas’, which is no small achievement for the Ranatunga family. It demonstrates, if nothing else, that Royalists recognise quality when they see it. Indeed, I have long harboured the suspicion that former president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who now wears the colours of Royal College, blue and gold, quite proudly, would have preferred to attend S. Thomas’ if it were up to him. His parents decided otherwise and so he had to settle for a school whose main claim to glory was playing a cricket match against S. Thomas’!

But jokes aside, the Royal–Thomian is one of the greatest events in our social calendar. It is not merely a cricket match. It is a reunion, a carnival, a festival of friendship and nostalgia. A spectacle unmatched.

The camaraderie of the Royal–Thomian is something difficult to explain to outsiders. It is something that must be experienced. Over the years I have spoken about this match so often that several of my foreign friends have eventually decided they must come and see what this mysterious event is all about. Some have travelled all the way from overseas simply to witness the spectacle of thousands of otherwise respectable adults behaving like carefree, unruly and even crude schoolboys again. This year two close Malaysian friends will join me; I am sure they will return home slightly puzzled but thoroughly entertained.

For three days the match becomes a carnival. Families gather, friendships are renewed, stories are told for the hundredth time and still raise loud guffaws. Royalists and Thomians sit side by side, arguing passionately about cricket while secretly enjoying each other’s company.

For me personally, the Royal–Thomian also carries memories of dear friends who are no longer with us. I will once again miss my friends Johann Wijesinghe and Suresh Gunasekera who enjoyed the Royal–Thomian like few others could or have and with whom I attended the match many times. These are the friendships that make the Royal–Thomian special.

Some people enjoy the Royal–Thomian with extraordinary enthusiasm, particularly the third-generation Thomians who approach the match with the seriousness of military strategists and the enthusiasm of schoolboys who have just discovered freedom. But this year there is another reason for reflection. Yes, S. Thomas’ College celebrates its 175th year.

Now the Royal Thomian has all kinds of tents for spectators. There are the ‘boys’ tents’ for school boys. The ‘Mustangs’ is the oldest of the tents and is essentially for the older of the old boys. An exclusive club, one might say. At some point some younger and yet ‘old’ old boys formed the ‘Colts.’ Then came the Stallions. Now it’s full of horses: Thoroughbreds, Broncos, Warmbloods etc., and there’s even ‘The Stables!’ I am now a member of the Mustangs. When I joined my good friend Varuna Botejue told me, “Now this is your last tent: the next tent you can get membership for will be the Borella Kanatte Tent.’ That’s the biggest cemetery in Colombo! That’s the Royal-Thomian for you: we can even laugh at impending death! I found it absolutely amusing but it also gave me flashbacks about how much we used to enjoy the Royal Thomian from school days and how time has passed in a remarkable way. It refreshed my mind about how excited we were and how one of the finest friendships developed.

For those of us who were fortunate enough to attend the school by the sea, the lessons we learned there have remained with us throughout our lives. S. Thomas’ did not simply teach us mathematics, history or cricket. It taught us something far more important. It taught us friendship, loyalty and the courage to stand by what is right, even when doing so is not easy and even when it may be unpopular. Those lessons have helped many of us face some rather difficult moments in life.

Looking back now, the times we spent at Mount Lavinia were among the finest of our lives. Friendships birthed and nurtured in school have a special quality. School friends know you at your best and occasionally at your worst. They know your strengths, your weaknesses and most importantly your stories. Of course, life also brings other friendships, wonderful friendships formed later in life that become part of our journey. But school friendships have a foundation that is difficult to replicate elsewhere.

And that, perhaps, is what the Royal–Thomian ultimately celebrates. Not just cricket. Not just rivalry. But friendship. After 147 years, the Royal–Thomian remains one of the most remarkable traditions in Sri Lankan life; a celebration of youth, camaraderie and the enduring bond between Royalists and Thomians. In fact, in my experience, it’s only Royalists and Thomians who virtually beat each other up to settle bills. ‘Friendly rivalry’ just doesn’t do justice to the bonds between the schools and those who walk through the respective portals. Ours exude grandeur, theirs do not, but we don’t hold the fact against any Royalist.

And as for the result of the match this year, we Thomians remain cautiously optimistic. After all, we are a generous school. We occasionally allow Royal to win, simply to keep the rivalry interesting.

By Krishantha Prasad Cooray