What a memorable time we had at school. Few started at Nalanda from the nursery and mojority joined to Grade 6 through either from grade 5 scholaship or from the entrance test. There came the competition. Every year 1st, 2nd and 3rd of the class got their reports from the principal at the assembly. As we didn't have Annual Prize Givings, that became a great achievement. I can remember only 2 prize givings during my period. We had competitions between classes to get the best marks for the subjects. Always A and B fought for that as far as I can remember. Well, that's on the education ........
Cricket matches between classes during the interval, they were like test matches, going for few weeks, getting out some guys looked impossible, no chance for any doubts as the umpire is from the batting team. What about book cricket, one bump, during the off periods. Sliding down the corridors, Nick names we had for teachers, what a fun time. Can you remember the gang hung around the canteen? As soon as some one buys a Mallu pann, half goes in a flash. When we were in grade 8 which was the L shaped building infront of the old hostel, as usual we were very noisy all the time, the teacher at the next class couldn't resist our freedom, he came to our class and we didn't notice him, he found few of us guilty and asked what made us to fight, then one said (he was the spokesperson for us most of the time and still he is) the other was teasing him saying "Baiyya" and everyone started laughing, apparently that was the nick name for that teacher. He got mad at us and punished the entire class. Grade 9 - 10 as Junior Prefects, missing the first period and the one after the interval, excuse was duty, doing all kinds of other stuff. Sugunadamma Hamuduruwo's extra maths classes after school. Watching cricket matches under the "Kasa Gus" and running marathons when Gunasinghe sir comes that way. School bus wars, famous Gampaha and Maharagama school buses. Those were memorable events, weren't they?
Getting through Ordinary Level exam without going for extra classes was a great achievement. Only Saman Nishantha Thenuwara managed to get 8 distinctions and around 20 odd people ended up with 7 distinctions. Then came the real hurdle, Advanced Level. I guess all of us took it easy. I still remember my A/L class, corner one next to Shramadana Room, while most of the others got the classes in good buildings. It's very hot during the day time and during the rainy season it's a mess. We didn't get many good teachers, even though we had Saman on board, Mr Kulawansa was supposed to teach us Zoology but he didn't come, so we went to meet him and we explained how good our class is and said we are eagerly waiting for him to come. We didn't know much about him and his attitude. That angered him and refused to come to our class. We were very dissapointed and planned to go and meet the Principal, Mr Dharma Gunasinghe. He inquired why we came to meet him and then we explained our concern then he asked us "how do you know the teachers you got are not good?" we were helpless and couldn't come up with a better answer, however we said that some teachers are very popular and we like to have them etc etc, which didn't work with him. But finally somehow (our spokesperson knows how it happened) they decided to give 2 teachers for one subject and we managed to get something out of it. Senior Prefects were appointed and for some of us it was the licence to come and go whenever we wanted. Some were like cops, their main responsibility was to find guys with long hair, short troucers which was the fashion at that time (thanks to Michael Jackson) and some even went to the extent of punishing some kids. All fun events followed too, Prefects' Days, Sience Days etc etc. There was a competition to go for Prefects' Days, everyone were keen to go for events organized by girl's schols. In one of the events, I went to Prefects' day at Muslim Ladies College and the Chief Guest was Late Lalith Athulathmudali, then Education Minister, the program was conducted in English and they invited Nalanda to give a speech on Education system in Sri Lanka. No one was willing to do that and I had to go ultimately, never had an experience in public speaking, so I was so nurvous. More than anything it has to be in English infront of the minister, somehow I managed to say something, never know what I said. So guys were speaking in English during the event and at the end of the event it was raining outside, one of our guys said "it's wessas, no?", it came out automtically and it became the talking point for sometime when it comes to Prefects days. Hope I can show him from my nose. 1987 A/L exams got postponed due to the problems erupted after signing the Indo-Lanka peace accord. Some had extra time to study and some relaxed during that time. Anyhow most of our colleagues got better results and were managed to do their higher studies.
Can you remeber the cheering squad we had, led by Janaka Prasanna with his "Gurunnanse" theme. We went to see most of the matches to cheer our lads. Most common thing we heard was two openners blamming each other when the got out while running. We had a fairly good season, but no one went on to play club cricket from our batch, I guess. Talking of after school activities, scouting with Seneviratne sir and Gunathunga madam under the rubber trees. Wasantha Warnasuriya, Hemantha Weerasuriya became Presidents' Scouts. Swimming at St Joseph's where Indika Samarakoon mastered his skills. Cadeting with Parakrama Sirimanna, Nishan de Silva, Eric Alahakoon, athletics with Asaba Gunasekara, Kusal de Silva, Susantha Meegalla, Anura Priyantha Madawala, Manjula Thilakaratne, Soccer with Harsha Amarasekara, Prasanna de Silva, Hockey with Sujeewa de Silva and Sumith Jayasena were the popular sports stars. Tennis was not that popular, we didn't have Badminton, Basketball at that time. People like Addin aiya, Sukiriya, Laxman etc etc comes to my mind. How about interesting charactors like Yapa sir, Vithane brothers, Nilaweera sir, Kumarasinghe sir, Seneviratne brothers, Gawthamadasa sir, Lawrence sir, Rodrigo madam, Mendis madam, Punchihewa madam, Weerasinghe madam, Thilakeratne madam, Jayawardane sir, Wijepala sir, Thilak Alwis sir, Priyabhani madam, Koggalahewa madam, Samarasinghe madam, Thamara madam, Nigamuni sir, Nawinne Sugunadamma thero, Kokmaduwe Gunasiri thero, Madithiyawela Saranapala thero and the list goes on. Each one had his or her unique identity. Sometimes we had fun and sometimes we learnt things in a hard way from them, still they are in our hearts. How about the nick names we had Kemaya, Keliya, Thattaya, Gal thattaya, Naharaya, Kukka, KLH, Bulto, Malu paan, Mama, Peera, Paan, Yadaya, etc etc. I think that's the best time in our lives.
"Remember our initial activities, how we used to walk all over Colombo to get sponsorships for "Bhusura Patipatiya". Most of us participated in all of those "Paa gamana" to find get sponsorships.
Also I remember when we did the first ever 87 Group Stag at Omega Inn, on the day of the event the band who was going to provide entertainment refused to come because one of the fellow Nalandian's broke up with the girl who was the lead singer of that band. Then we had to arrange another band on the day and we had to call a member of an another band and Asanga Padmawansa went to meet him in his motor cycle, so that he could go and find the other members of the band. Finally about an hour before the Stag, we managed to finalise everything." (from Indika)