Darling we aren't too old, though we pass the Jubilee Gold

From a quiet love affair to wedding bells

by Lakmal Welabada

"At the Peradeniya campus, the Colombo crowd who assumed them as an elite group called themselves the 'Cultroos', shortening the 'cultured people'... And us, those who came from Central Colleges were called 'Haramanis', the uncultured lot. Fortunately both of us were in the same category, the Central College products," says the couple Dr. and Prof. Endagama.

Prof. Malani Karunanayaka Endagama is today in-charge of the Ceylon History project launched by the Ministry of Education in order to revive 'History' as a compulsory subject in the school syllabus from grade six to 12. Dr. Pandula Endagama, a rebel who has raised his head and voice in many circumstances during the crises of the nation works as a Consultant for Environment and Culture at present.

"Ours was a love affair which grew quietly and flowed silently through a stream that didn't have that much rocks and obstacles," grins Pandula. It seems that his long grey beard was giving him an especial identity. 'I'm a real Sinhalese,' is what he intends to denote.

"I was a fresher when I first saw him," reminisces Malani. "I came to meet her room mate who was from Seevali Central College, the same school of mine. And since then on I was their guardian who would go alone with them to the town , for shopping, to Dalada Temple etcetera," he laughs.

"We didn't like to go alone to the town. So we, four - five girls used to get together and go out. We always called him to accompany us as we believed we should have a male guardian. That was something we practised in our villages," she smiles.

So like a thorn amidst the flowers Pandula was used to proceed with the bevy of girls. He didn't mind that as he knew the girls who had come to the University from the village would not waste time and money unnecessarily. So he was not bored even to shop along with them. Instead he kept the girls alive with his rib tickling jokes.

All of them wore local handloom sarees. Some had a plait and others were satisfied with a knot, and other than that they had not adopted any especial styles for their hair.

Except for a few bangles, a chain and a wrist watch these Central College girls were not interested in any other artificial things to hang on them. Pandula compared the beauty between the heavy made-up faces of the so called elite 'Cultroos' campus girls and these village damsels who were without a dot of make up.

Cultoors

Pandula who was a rebel at campus while being a Student Council activist of the Peradeniya University with his Leftist ideas and principles, had got an ample choice for his selection. Everybody thought the Romeo was behind his school mate. So did Malani.

But only Pandula knew that something different was happening within him, especially when he saw Malani.

Malani took everything lightly, and was with a wide smile all the time, but a bit strict and straight forward. And Pandula liked it.

Malani Karunanayaka was born on September 5 in 1940 to a family of farmers. Kuruneris Karunanayaka and Waharaka Sumanawathie of Galapitamada, off Warakapola were her parents. She was the one before last of the 7 siblings in her family.

After studying at the village school she entered the Narangastenna Mix School. "I got through the grade five scholarship and entered the Ruwanwella Central College," she says.

"I was also a grade five Scholar, and that helped us to go right up until we finished our university education," butts in Pandula. "All of us must thank C.W.W.Kannangara, Education Minister of the State Council in 1945. He fought to get the free education system to Sri Lanka.

It was he who started Central Colleges all over the island so that the rural, clever, poor children could also come up in life. This really helped the poor as unlike today the villagers didn't have easy access including the exposure of knowledge and transportation to reach the leading schools in the city.

So before this bill was passed the clever children born in the villages withered like the flowers in the jungle without blooming up and spreading the sweet smell to the world. Kannangara's path to pass the bill was full of stones and thorns. His proposal was looked down up on heavily by the Colonial Government, local capitalists and the local media.

They strongly opposed the free education system saying that the education must be restrained only to the deserving cases meaning who had money.

Those who supported him were the State Councillors E.A.Nugawela and A.Ratnayaka, leftists like Dr.N.M.Perera and S.A.Wickremasinghe, Educationist E.W.Adikaram and P. De S. Kularatne and the Buddhist priests. However that great man Kannangara lost his electorate at the very next election. But what he sowed in the field of education in this country has still been reaping its harvest," explains Pandula with deep anguished enthusiasm.

"We lived in a village full of paddy fields," continues Malani. "Living in a village was so simple and beautiful. I still feel the smell of the pot of rice filled with 'Aluth Sahal' (new rice). It spread a smell to make you hungry," reminisces Malani.

"There were 30-40 houses in the village. Every family (house) owned a paddy field, chena, cows and buffaloes.

All what those old villagers grew were useful things. In the chenas we grew yams like Kurakkan, Al Vee, Amu, vegetables and fruits. Jak, Breadfruit, Sweet potatoes, Manioc, Kiri Ala and Kathurumurunga were some of the trees we grew in our compounds.

We fulfilled our food needs from our own village. Villagers exchanged the crops among themselves and there were no selling or buying vegetables, rice, yams, grains and milk. It was a self sufficient village," she explains.

"We, the children used to get up around 5 o'clock in the morning and help the parents with the house hold chores. We might sweep the house and garden, milk the cows, water the betel creepers and other plants and fetch water from the wells for use in the day, before we went to school. And when we came from school we had to do a series of jobs once again. We did everything happily. Nobody grumbled over it," explains Malani.

"I too still remember how we sang 'Pal Kavi' at chenas in the night. We really enjoyed all that. Actually it was a matter of teaching the children about the different aspects of life. This training helped us to become more versatile in life. Today it would have been interpreted as child slavery imposed by the parents. But, also unlike today we never saw a gap between the parents and children as we all were together all the time," describes Pandula of the old day family unit and self sufficient village life.

They zoom back to their hostel lives. "The scholars like us got everything from the school hostel from the Rs,30 that the government paid straight away to the hostel warden per month.

And when in the university we got about Rs,100 per month, out of which we could even save a little for our pocket money as well. The meals provided by the university hostel were better than that of today's Five Star Hotel. So we didn't need to ask money from our parents as we could manage everything along with the scholarship money," says Malani.

Endagamage Pandula Endagama was born on December 16 in 1938 to a Endagamage Mohotti and Thippale Vidanalage Yasohamy at Thuththiripitiya village at Niwithigala electorate, Ratnapura.

"Ours was also a family of farmers," he says. Pandula was the 10th of the 12 children in the family. He lost his mother when he was 4 years and it was his older sisters who looked after him. He learnt the alphabet at the Watapotha Bilingual School and then entered Karawita Central College in 1950.

"I studied up to Senior School Certificate exam (SSC) at Karawita Central. I was the first to go up to the SSC level in my whole village. So all my family members and relatives were thrilled over it. I organised a tea party for the whole school which consisted of about 1000, by arranging sweet meats from my village before I left there.

I still remember how my village people came to Karawita Central in a procession carrying 'Kuraniyas' of Kavum and other stuff. I entered Seevali Central, Ratnapura to do Higher School Certificate (HSC) exam and University Entrance (UE)," reminisces Pandula. Malani was in her third year when Pandula's father died. Pandula had already passed out from the university and was teaching at Siri Sumana Pirivena headed by Henpitigedara Gnanasinghe Thero, one of the powerful guides of Mrs.Sirimavo Bandaranaike's Government.

After seeing Malani at the funeral house, Pandula's family members and relatives insisted that he settle down. So they tied the knot on November 21 in 1963. "It was just a registration at the Kegalle Registrar's Office. We ever didn't have a wedding photograph as I didn't believe in them," says Malani who has adopted the leftist ideas and principles of Dr.N.M.Perera like her husband. "I'm a very practical person," she continues.

Malani became a lecturer in the History Department of the Peradeniya University. She got her doctorate in 1973 and the full Professorship in 1997. She retired in 2005. Pandula, after being a teacher for a few years became a Acting House Master at the Probation Department.

"It was an unhappy place as I didn't agree with the way the boys brought for the rehabilitation were treated," he recalls. Then he switched on to what he really liked - to form the Sinhala Encyclopedia.

He joined as the Editor of Sociology and ended as the Deputy Editor of the whole thing. He became the Assistant Director of the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum from 1972 to 1991. After retiring at the age of 50 he was appointed as the Director of Central Environment Authority in 1991.

At present Dr.Pandula Endagama serves as a freelance Consultant of Culture and Environment dealing with national issues, basically Buddhist and cultural matters in the country. "I'm very much involved in it," he says with pride.

"We treated all our village relations well. We opened our doors at home to all of them as we were the only known people of theirs in Colombo. Even if they came dead at night, my wife used to cook for them. She did all that on her own.

She looked after many of my sick relatives with out a grumble. We are very happy when thinking about the service we did to others," says Pandula. "Helping others has been the hobby of both of us," smiles Malini. With her four daughters and six grand children the Endagama couple live a quite peaceful yet busy life still serving the nation.

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