Looking back 25 years …….
Soon after we finished our A/L's brilliant idea came to few of our colleagues to form our own group, first of it's kind in our school, that's how "Group 87" was born. Chandimal Perera, Janaka Prasanna, Manoj de Silva, Samantha Maithreewardane, Indika Samarakoon, Subash Senanayake and few others were the live wires behind the formation of the group.
Our first activity was a musical show held at John de Silva Hall to raise funds for the group. I still can remember how we visited companies to get sponsorships, advertisements, banners etc etc. It was a real success and we were able to make a sizeable profit. Only disappointment was a senior old boy who promised to sell Rs 100/- tickets (which were the highest priced ones at that time) were returned unsold few hours before the show, we were furious about that, but finally since we were able to sell most of the other tickets through our friends we didn’t have any worries. Many singers volunteered to sing such as our music master Mr Edward Jayakody, Priyankara Perera, Saman de Silva, our own Rohan Shantha Bulegoda to name a few. Small drama “Bhusura Patipatiya” we did for the event organized by our Zoology tuition master Mr Asanga Abeysundara to celebrate successful completion of A/L’s was also became one of the items of the show. Buddika Padmalal Sinhage, Sugath Naveendra, Janaka Prasanna, Chandimal Perera and few others were the actors/producers/music directors of the drama. Then we organized a “Stag Night” at “Omega Inn” Wellawatte. Asanga Padmawansa, Indika Samarakoon, Ajith Galappaththi and few others organized it. Few months after that we organized a trip to "Bopath Ella". Prasanna de Silva, Kusal de Silva & few others were the main organizers of this event.
Then came the stagnant phase of our group as many of our colleagues started their higher studies, jobs etc etc and became very busy and un-contactable as they were spread out all over the country and some went abroad. However, we made it a habit to come to the Big Match every year, at least on Sunday. Every year we met at the car park, MCA, Galle Face or somewhere after the big match and discussed about how to re-organize the group. Nothing happened until Gamini Kuruppu took the initiative to sponsor a get-together at NCC with the help of Kusal de Silva and Manoj de Silva. It was a great success, as we were able to get around 50 colleagues for the event. We had our official AGM after long time and Office Bearers were appointed to take the group forward. After that we managed to meet every 2 – 3 months at various locations such as NCC, Bloomfield, Fingara, Police Officers’ Mess etc etc. We discussed many things, had fun and were able to raise some funds. We started a yahoo group and then Wasantha Warnasuriya started the facebook group and we became really active as ever.
In 2007, we wanted to celebrate our 20th Anniversary after leaving the school and many proposals came forward. Upul Jayamaha came with a suggestion to organize the Sports Day on behalf of the Junior Old Boys Association (JOBA) to mark the event. In fact Sports Day was an annual event on the JOBA’s event calendar and since they were very busy with many activities during the year, they have neglected it for some time. So our proposal was to organize the event by the year group who is celebrating their 20th Anniversary and to continue it every year by that way. One objective was to re-start the Sports Day in JOBA’s calendar of events and the others being promoting formation of year groups and to make them involved in the JOBA’s events and ultimately get the old boys to actively involve with school events. We are really proud to say that the event is evolving year by year and it became the most important event attended by most old boys. Our budget for the event was Rs 500,000 in 2007 and this year (2012) it was Rs 20.0 Mn. Rohan Shantha Bulegoda, Chandana Kasturiratne, Manoj de Silva, Upul Jayamaha, Kusal de Silva Nishantha Pradeep Kumara, Sanjeeva Samarasinghe, Chandima de Silva, Chesky Jayathilake, Eric Alahakoon, Nalin Dharmasinghe, Prasanna de Silva, Rohana Halwathura, Prabath Ranaweera, Late Chandana Ratnayake and few other helped to organize this memorable event.
After the event we met few times whenever a colleague living abroad visits Sri Lanka for a vacation, as a result we met when Indika Samarakoon, Induja Dassanayake, Saman Nishantha Thenuwara, N C Wijesekara & Susantha Meegalla came on a vacation for few days. No needs to say that during those events we went back to our school days and enjoyed ourselves every minute. In June 2009 group organized a Poson Sil Program on behalf of the JOBA. Dilan Peiris, Chandana Soysa, Roshan Seneviratne, Nalin Dharmasinghe, Susantha Heentigala, Gayan Wanaguru and others helped to organize the event. Our own Chandima Weerakkody became the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and we organized a felicitation ceremony for him which was attended by prominent old Nalandians, past teachers and our colleagues. It was a very successful event organized by Gamini Kuruppu, Buddhika Padmalal Sinhage, Chandana Kasturiratne, Prasanna de Silva and few others.
Group 87ners have hold many positions in JOBA and helped the school in many ways. Binara Asaba Gunasekara (Secretary 2002/03 and President 2006), Sugath Nagahawatte (Secretary 2005 and President 2009), Upul Jayamaha (Assistant Secretary 2005) and Nalin Dharmasinghe (Secretary 2009) are to name a few. The most prestigious educational exhibition "Future Minds" originated and launched during Asaba's Presidency and Chandima Weerakkody was the Chairman. In 2009 Nalin Dharmasinghe was the Chairman of Future Minds.
Then came the 25th Anniversary, no one really thought about it until Laknath Gamage brought up the idea of organizing an event to celebrate it. Initially it was discussed within the group but at very low scale, however Laknath managed to spread the wings and get the most of the colleagues involved. We used all our networking capabilities, called our long lost friends and did everything to get the maximum participation. As a result we will be able to have the event of the decade very soon on the 16th of December 2012.
It is very sad to mention Hemantha Weerasuriya, S H Saman and Ramesh Seneviratne lost their lives during the civil war. Chandana Ratnayake became the latest victim as he was drowned while having a sea bath. We are very sorry to loose such a wonderful characters of our group. May they attain Nibbana.