Features

Reminiscence of Peradeniya Campus in the Sixties

Published

3 years ago

2023/02/27

by Prof. R.P. Gunawardane

A very interesting article, ‘Ceylon’s first university in memory and imagination’, by Ernest Macintyre in The Sunday Island of 12 February 2023 describing the life at University of Ceylon, Peradeniya Campus in fifties prompted me to write about the life at Peradeniya Campus in the next decade, the nineteen sixties.

Macintyre has elegantly described the life at Peradeniya Campus in the early years after its establishment in 1952. At the time only the Faculty of Arts and Oriental Studies was functioning at Peradeniya. The other faculties were established later in the early sixties.

In the sixties there were five faculties on the Peradeniya Campus— Arts, Medicine (including Dental Surgery division), Agriculture (including Veterinary Science), Science and Engineering.

Most students were accommodated in halls residence. For boys the Jayathilake, Wijewardana, Arunachalam, Mass, James Peiris, Marcus Fernando, Hilda Obeysekera and Akbar-Nell halls were available. The Ramanathan and Sangamitta halls were available for girls at the time. However, when the number of girls entering the university increased in subsequent years and due to other reasons, the Hilda and Wijewardana halls were converted into female hostels.

At the time, all food and laundry services were provided by the halls. The hall fee was only about Rs. 250 per term (for about three months). Food was excellent with nicely arranged tables serving breakfast, lunch, evening tea and a superb dinner. At the time we used to get fried rice and chicken curry for lunch on Sundays, even the visitors were allowed to enjoy food in halls.

In the sixties most of the elite as well as other well to do students in and around Colombo entered the University of Ceylon, Colombo Campus for convenience and also to remain in the Colombo environment. On the other hand, the outstation students mostly from the south and the north and also from the east and the Central Province including plantation sector all entered Peradeniya campus. In the south, most of the students came from Galle and Matara districts. Most of them except a few very rich ones who came with their parents in private cars, travelled to Peradeniya by train and by bus.

I remember travelling by the train, Ruhunu Kumari, from Weligama railway station to proceed to Peradeniya on 4 October 1965. I had nobody to accompany me because both my parents were dead. I was joined by several senior students who entered the university previous year from my school at the Galle Railway Station and travelled with me to Peradeniya. In fact, a friendly low-key form of ragging started in the train itself asking various funny and interesting questions by some seniors. We changed trains in Colombo Fort to Udarata Menike and got off at Kadugannawa. Udarata Manike goes to Nanuoya via Kadugannawa and it does not run to Kandy via Peradeniya. We had to travel to Peradeniya by bus from Kadugannawa and it was fortunately a short journey.

There was no body to receive us at Peradeniya and the university had not organised any vans to take us to the halls as in the 1950s described by Macintyre in his article. We had to carry our bags and walk to the halls. My senior friends from our school helped me carry my bags to Jayathilake hall. Since I had visited the Peradeniya campus previously in April the same year for my practical exam, I was familiar with the area and it was easy for me to reach the destination.It was very convenient to stay in Jayathilake hall because all my classes were held in the Faculty of Science, situated just opposite Jayathilake hall on the other side of the Galaha road.

The Peradeniya campus was huge with about 700 hectares of land. On one side we could see the Hanthana mountains and on the opposite side the longest river in the country, the Mahaweli.Although some blame the change of language policy for the lowering of standards in the university, this claim cannot be justified. This change of policy gave tremendous opportunities to many deserving rural and underprivileged students across the society in all the communities – Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and all other minority communities to enter the seats of higher learning. Most of them picked up so fast and became fluent in English.

In the science stream, (all sciences including medicine engineering, etc.) students had to change over to English medium at GCE A/L or in the first year at the university. This transition was not easy but most students managed to get over difficulties.

Peradeniya was a paradise for youngsters awaiting to enjoy life away from home and for lovers who found partners on the campus. A fair number of students found their partners during the first year. Some others waited for the new train to arrive – the next year batch! There were some who were very shy and avoided these opportunities to meet partners. I believe they waited for their parents to find the partners at the appropriate time! Some say they missed the bus. Some found partners in the same faculty easily while there were many interfaculty couples at the time.

There were many opportunities to meet partners on the campus. Parties and dinners in the halls; badminton and volleyball matches were organised by various groups in the faculties, halls of residence and sometimes outside the campus in Kandy and Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya. My friend Wije, a medical student from my hometown, found his girlfriend at Hilda Hall. His family is now living in England.

My girlfriend in the school in Galle (later my wife) entered the Medical Faculty of the Peradeniya University the following year and joined me. We fully enjoyed the campus life.

We used to have regular parties in and outside the campus. I can very well remember a party held after selection to follow a Special Degree in Chemistry in 1966. We held the party in the Botanical Gardens with all kinds of drinks including beer and arrack and food. Most of the boys were drunk at the end of the event and some were carried to their halls of residence!

The city of Kandy is only four miles away; bus fare was only 25 cents, and red Mercedes Benz buses were shuttling between Kandy and the campus. The journey took about 15 minutes. Many small parties and get-togethers were held in small venues and in restaurants in the Kandy town. I can remember going to Chinese restaurants along Dalada Veediya and Lyons Café near the Police Station. Visits to movie theatres in Kandy were very common with girlfriends. There were four movie theatres in Kandy. The Regal theatre in Mulgampola along Peradeniya road was popular at the time showing Hindi, Sinhala and English movies. University couples were seen in these theatres very often. They had more freedom in these theatres than along the Kissing Bend because darkness in the theatres provided more opportunities to gratify their desires.

Expedition and climbing Hanthana mountain range is again popular on the campus. Couples and groups of students used to do this expedition at least once during their campus life. I did it once with some of my friends only males and a few lecturers also joined, giving us more confidence. It was beautiful scenery and a very enjoyable visit.

During campus life at Peradeniya, most students visited Sri Pada. We also did so once with one lecturer accompanying us. We went by train from Peradeniya to Nanuoya and then took a bus to the base of Sri Pada. We climbed all night and reached the top in the early morning, witnessing the beautiful scenery of the sun rise from the top of the mountain.

The Kissing Bend, the Lover’s Lane, the open-air theatre are very interesting spots for the students and particularly for the young couples. Kissing bend is on the Galaha road just opposite Hilda park after passing the Lodge on the left if one travels towards Galaha from the main campus. In the evening, this bend is dark because of the huge trees around making it easier for boys to kiss their girls. Unfortunately, in later years this road became very busy with too much traffic and pedestrians.

The Lover’s Lane is situated between the Senate, administrative and library building complex and the Mahaweli Ganga. It starts near the Kissing Bend on Galaha Road runs along the bank of Mahaweli. It is a lonely winding road overlooking Mahaweli with minimum traffic or pedestrians giving complete privacy to the youngsters. You see many couples along this path in the evenings. If you need more privacy you may go down to the bank of the river and sit on a rock. You see many couples doing that in the evening. It is also possible to go down to the bank of the Mahaweli river through the Hilda Park. Bank of the river has a number of huge bamboo bushes spread over a long area. One could witness many couples sitting under bushes maintaining privacy.

Dramas and musical shows were held regularly in the Open Air Theatre in Hilda Park. This is commonly known as “Wala”. Every year there is a Drama Festival lasting about one week those days having different very popular dramas like ‘Maname’, ‘Sinhabahu’ in the evenings. Students called this “Wale Sellam” means playing in the hole. This was a very interesting event and many students and the couples including staff members attended these events. Musical shows also were held regularly at the gymnasium inviting famous singers at the time. Pandith W.D. Amaradeva was a frequent visitor those days.

Peradeniya University is a national treasure in this country. Thus, it should be preserved and further developed, maintaining its unique features for posterity.

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Features

Political violence stalking Trump administration

Published

21 hours ago

2026/04/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

A scene that unfolded during the shooting incident at the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington. (BBC)

It would not be particularly revelatory to say that the US is plagued by ‘gun violence’. It is a deeply entrenched and widespread malaise that has come in tandem with the relative ease with which firearms could be acquired and owned by sections of the US public, besides other causes.

However, a third apparent attempt on the life of US President Donald Trump in around two and a half years is both thought-provoking and unsettling for the defenders of democracy. After all, whatever its short comings the US remains the world’s most vibrant democracy and in fact the ‘mightiest’ one. And the US must remain a foremost democracy for the purpose of balancing and offsetting the growing power of authoritarian states in the global power system, who are no friends of genuine representational governance.

Therefore, the recent breaching of the security cordon surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington at which President Trump and his inner Cabinet were present, by an apparently ‘Lone Wolf’ gunman, besides raising issues relating to the reliability of the security measures deployed for the President, indicates a notable spike in anti-VVIP political violence in particular in the US. It is a pointer to a strong and widespread emergence of anti-democratic forces which seem to be gaining in virulence and destructiveness.

The issues raised by the attack are in the main for the US’ political Right and its supporters. They have smugly and complacently stood by while the extremists in their midst have taken centre stage and begun to dictate the course of Right wing politics. It is the political culture bred by them that leads to ‘Lone Wolf’ gunmen, for instance, who see themselves as being repressed or victimized, taking the law into their own hands, so to speak, and perpetrating ‘revenge attacks’ on the state and society.

A disproportionate degree of attention has been paid particularly internationally to Donald Trump’s personality and his eccentricities but such political persons cannot be divorced from the political culture in which they originate and have their being. That is, “structural” questions matter. Put simply, Donald Trump is a ‘true son’ of the Far Right, his principal support base. The issues raised are therefore for the President as well as his supporters of the Right.

We are obliged to respect the choices of the voting public but in the case of Trump’s election to the highest public position in the US, this columnist is inclined to see in those sections that voted for Trump blind followers of the latter who cared not for their candidate’s suitability, in every relevant respect, and therefore acted irrationally. It would seem that the Right in the US wanted their candidate to win by ‘hook or by crook’ and exercise power on their behalf.

By making the above observations this columnist does not intend to imply that voting publics everywhere in the world of democracy cast their vote sensibly. In the case of Sri Lanka, for example, the question could be raised whether the voters of the country used their vote sensibly when voting into office the majority of Executive Presidents and other persons holding high public office. The obvious answer is ‘no’ and this should lead to a wider public discussion on the dire need for thoroughgoing voter education. The issue is a ‘huge’ one that needs to be addressed in the appropriate forums and is beyond the scope of this column.

Looking back it could be said that the actions of Trump and his die-hard support base led to the Rule of Law in the US being undermined as perhaps never before in modern times. A shaming moment in this connection was the protest march, virtually motivated by Trump, of his supporters to the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021, with the aim of scuttling the presidential poll result of that year. Much violence and unruly behaviour, as known, was let loose. This amounted to denigrating the democratic process and encouraging the violent take over of the state.

In a public address, prior to the unruly conduct of his supporters, Trump is on record as blaring forth the following: ‘We won this election and we won by a landslide’, ‘We will stop the steal’, ‘We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen’, ‘If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.’

It is plain to see that such inflammatory utterances could lead impressionable minds in particular to revolt violently. Besides, they should have led the more rationally inclined to wonder whether their candidate was the most suitable person to hold the office of President.

Unfortunately, the latter process was not to be and the question could be raised whether the US is in the ‘safest pair of hands’. Needless to say, as events have revealed, Donald Trump is proving to be one of the most erratic heads of state the US has ever had.

However, the latest attempt on the life of President Trump suggests that considerable damage has been done to the democratic integrity of the US and none other than the President himself has to take on himself a considerable proportion of the blame for such degeneration, besides the US’ Far Right. They could be said to be ‘reaping the whirlwind.’

It is a time for soul-searching by the US Right. The political Right has the right to exist, so the speak, in a functional democracy but it needs to take cognizance of how its political culture is affecting the democratic integrity or health of the US. Ironically, the repressive and chauvinistic politics advocated by it is having the effect of activating counter-violence of the most murderous kind, as was witnessed at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Continued repressive politics could only produce more such incidents that could be self-defeating for the US.

Some past US Presidents were assassinated but the present political violence in the country brings into focus as perhaps never before the role that an anti-democratic political culture could play in unraveling the gains that the US has made over the decades. A duty is cast on pro-democracy forces to work collectively towards protecting the democratic integrity and strength of the US.

Features

22nd Anniversary Gala …action-packed event

Published

21 hours ago

2026/04/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

The Skyliners: Shanaka Viswakula (bass), Mario Ranasuriya (lead guitar), Daryl D'Souza (keyboards) and Kushmin Balasuriya (drums)

The Editor-in-Chief of The Sri Lankan Anchorman, a Toronto-based monthly, celebrating Sri Lankan community life in Canada, is none other than veteran Sri Lankan journalist Dirk Tissera, who moved to Canada in 1997. His wife, Michelle, whom he calls his “tower of strength”, is the Design Editor.

According to reports coming my way, the paper has turned out to be extremely popular in Toronto.

In fact, The Sri Lankan Anchorman won a press award in Toronto for excellence in editorial content and visual presentation.

However, the buzz in the air in Canada, right now, is The Sri Lankan Anchorman’s 22nd Anniversary Gala, to be held on Friday, 12 June, 2026, at the J&J Swagat Banquet Convention Centre, in Toronto.

An action-packed programme has been put together for the night, featuring some of the very best artistes in the Toronto scene.

The Skylines, who are classified as ‘the local musical band in Toronto’, will headline the event.

Dirk Tissera and wife Michelle: Supporting Sri Lanka-Canada community events, in Toronto, since launching The Anchorman
in 2002

They have performed and backed many legendary Sri Lanka singers.

According to Dirk, The Skylines can belt out a rhythm with gusto … be it Western, Sinhala or Tamil hits.

Also adding sparkle to the evening will be the legendary Fahmy Nazick, who, with his smooth and velvety vocals, will have the crowd on the floor.

Fahmy who was a household name, back in Sri Lanka, will be flying down from Virginia, USA.

He has captivated audiences in Sri Lanka, the Middle East and North America, and this will be his fourth visit to Toronto – back by popular demand,

Cherry DeLuna, who is described by Dirk as a powerhouse, also makes her appearance on stage and is all set to stir up the tempo with her cool and easy delivery.

“She’s got a great voice and vocal range that has captivated audiences out here”, says Dirk.

Chamil Welikala, said to be one of the hottest DJs in town, will be spinning his magic … in English, Sinhala, Tamil and Latin.

Both Jive and Baila competitions are on the cards among many other surprises on the night of 12 June.

This is The Anchorman’s fifth annual dance in a row – starting from 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 – and both Dirk and Michelle, and The Anchorman, have always produced elegant social events in Toronto.

“We intend to knock this one out of the park,” the duo says, adding that Western music and Sinhala and Tamil songs is something they’ve always delivered and the crowd loves it.

“We have always supported Sri Lanka-Canada community events, in Toronto, since launching The Anchorman, in 2002, and we intend to keep it that way.”

No doubt, there will be a large crowd of Sri Lankans, from all communities, turning up, on 12 June, to support Dirk, Michelle and The Anchorman.

Features

Face Pack for Radiant Skin

Published

21 hours ago

2026/04/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

* Apple and Orange:

Blend a few apple and orange pieces together. Add to it a pinch of turmeric and one tablespoon of honey. Apply it to the face and neck and rinse off after 30 minutes. This face pack is suitable for all skin types.

According to experts, apple is one of the best fruits for your skin health with Vitamin A, B complex and Vitamin C and minerals, while, with the orange peel, excessive oil secretion can be easily balanced.

* Mango and Curd:

Ripe mango pulp, mixed with curd, can be rubbed directly onto the skin to remove dirt and cleanse clogged pores. Rinse off after a few minutes.

Yes, of course, mango is a tasty and delicious fruit and this is the mango season in our part of the world, and it has extra-ordinary benefits to skin health. Vitamins C and E in mangoes protect the skin from the UV rays of the sun and promotes cell regeneration. It also promotes skin elasticity and fights skin dullness and acne, while curd, in combination, further adds to it.

* Grapes and Kiwi:

Take a handful of grapes and make a pulp of it. Simultaneously, take one kiwi fruit and mash it after peeling its skin. Now mix them and add some yoghurt to it. Apply it on your face for few minutes and wash it off.

Here again experts say that kiwi is the best nutrient-rich fruit with high vitamin C, minerals, Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E, while grapes contain flavonoids, which is an antioxidant that protects the skin from free radical damage. This homemade face pack acts as a natural cleanser and slows down the ageing process.