Gomarankadawala Sinhala Mahavidyalaya, this is where I started my formal primary education in 1977. The year 1977 had a number of significants in my life and the lives of many Sri Lankan’s. For me, I had started my formal primary education. The school was just across the street from our house; because as a doctor, Appa was given a large government quarters to stay. We moved into Gomarankadawala in early 1977, where I started studying in Sinhala medium. While I was fluent in conversational Sinhala, I could neither read nor write it. Furthermore, I was quickly known in the school as the “Doctor’s son”. Every Friday in the school, the teachers would distribute Thereposha, a balanced grain for the whole family. The Thereposha also went to school from the hospital, so at our home we always had some for tea time ( you add coconut and sugar to make thereposha balls).You see, sugar was not a bad thing at that time, but getting it was not easy. Each family was only given a limited amount of sugar and within the family, Amma distributed it equally among us. We had to manage our own daily intake and my brother was the master of this. At the end of the week he always had enough left for a feast of his own.
Towards the middle of 1977, it became election time in Sri Lanka; Blue vs Green. One side of Gomarankadawala was filled with the Blue campaign and other side with the Green. For me, it was my first experience with the election. The Blue campaign stage was simply boring for me, just lots and lots of talking and I could not understand anything. Far too serious matters for a 7 years old. On the other hand, the green camp was fun, filled with lot of music and songs in between the speeches. From my home, I could see the green camp stage, so every time they started to sing, I would ask Appa’s assistant, Seniviratna, to take me there. I stated to like the green campaign because it looked interesting and entertaining, but on top of that, they promised an unlimited amount of sugar for each household. Fun and music with unlimited sugar, who would say no to that?
I was pretty sure my parents also supported the green camp. There was a shop located across our house where I had seen my dad sitting with many others and analyzing the details of the elections. The election itself was towards the middle of July 1977. I can’t remember much about Election Day itself, but at night was a huge event at our home to watch the election results. Appa organized food, drinks and even a magic show performed by him. The preparations began in the evening, lots of cooking was going on. Appa asked me to go to one of his friends house’s to pickup an additional Petromax. When I arrived at Appa’s assistant’s home, they offered me tea. They served it to me in a cup and saucer, and for some reason I knew that when tea was served in cup and saucer, one should pour the tea into the saucer before drinking it. So, that’s exactly what I did, although very nervously done. When I got back home that day I told Amma what I had done and she was very proud of me.
Election night was a blast, lot of food, drinks, magic shows, singing and the radio announcements of the election results. With every result the party was changing gears to next level but then I went to sleep. The next morning when I woke up mom told me that the Green campaign had won the elections. The first thing that I asked was whether I could stop counting my sugar intake.
Amma replied “Not yet.”
A few weeks after the election during the August school holidays, my favorite cousins from Matale visited us in Gomarankadawala. We had lot of fun, fishing in the lake, gardening, andplaying all kinds of games. August is a big birthday month for our family, my brother, sister, Matale aunty and a cousin were all born in August (later on my cousins wife also got added to the list). Appa just needed a reason to organize a party and this time it was the August birthday party. Once again filled with lots of food, drinks, singing and a magic show (with that extra petromax). While the party was going on late at night, someone knocked on our door. When Appa opened, there were a few guys from the shop across the street from our house. They sat down and told Appa that the situation around was not good; that there have been attacks on Tamilan’s in some villages near Gomarankadawala, and that we should play it down and finish the party early. So we decided to sing that last song with the guys who came to pass the message and called it a day.
The next day things changed upside down, I could see lot of tension among the adults, and soon I started hearing that we should find our way to Jaffna. Then I saw a few hunters from the village visit us with some shot guns and told Appa not to worry about anything, they promised to take care of the house and protect us. By then I started hearing the word Perechanai (trouble) many times and I think the adults decided to find a way to get to Jaffna as soon as possible. That night we were hiding in the hospital store room, next to the Thereposha bags. In a day or two, two army trucks would come and take all the Tamils from Gomaragadawala and nearby villagers to Jaffna. One truck for the ladies and kids and another one for the men. We were moving with full police and army protection, I could see the army and police jeeps in front and behind us. The truck with ladies and kids where I was with Amma, had only a little luxury over the men’s one. It had a small canvas cloth to protect us from the sun, the men’s however, was all opened. The majority, including myself and my sister, were throwing up the entire way. The first night during the journey we spent hiding in Pankulam overnight as it was too dangerous to travel overnight.
In Jaffna we stayed at Appa’s sister’s house in Kovuvil and my cousins stayed in Uralu. Just a few weeks into our stay in Jaffna and Appa started getting telegrams from the local MP and health ministry asking him to return to Gomaragkadewela to take care of the families there who were suffering there without a doctor. Appa, Amma and myself decided to go to Gomaragkadewela around September 1977.
October 26 1977. My 1977 story as well as my life came to an end when I lost Appa at Dambulla General hospital.
