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by RASIKA LIYANAGE and SEPALA JAYASINGHE

Boarders of Miller, Chapman, Copleston and Claughton of the past will get-together on Saturday, September 28 at Old Thomians' Swimming Club at 8 p.m. to relive stories of the past at their annual reunion. There are many stories, both sports and human interest ones in particular that will keep the reading public entertained.

As could be expected there was always the gentle rivalry between the houses when it came to inter-house activities in sports. But, when pitted against the day scholars houses, the rivalries were temporarily buried, and the challenge was taken as boarders vs day scholars.

Before it became the clash of the boarders and day scholars, there was great fun when Miller-Champman vs Copleston-Claughton came by and the sport that infused much enthusiasm in the fifties was at hockey.

The rivalry was great and cheering squads were organised and there was great fun while the match was in progress. The cheering spurred the players on and some quality games were witnessed. The magnificent edifice facing the quadrangle, the main block of classes, the old science lab and the chapel was the hallowed residence to many a Thomian, away from their true homes. It housed the S. Thomas' College boarding.

Leaving out Winchester House which is solely for the small boys, the STC boarding had four houses in the early days - Miller, Chapman, Copleston and Claughton named after distinguished personalities connected with the school. The four houses have now been reduced to two, with Miller-Chapman being combined and Copleston and Claughton combined.

At any given time, the hostel had around 300 students in the four houses.

As could be expected there was always the gentle rivalry between the houses when it came to inter-house activities. But when pitted against the day scholar's houses the rivalries were temporarily buried, and the challenge was taken as boarders vs day scholars.

Life in the boarding was one of rigid discipline, occasionally allowed to be dented by an act of light misconduct. The gravity of the wrong doing and to what extent it could be extenuated depended on the moods, likes and dislikes of the house prefects in charge of the dormitories. This is not to say that they always played it unfair, but they never played it fair all the time too. It was their prerogative to totally ignore some of the deeds and put under a microscope some other, looking for incriminating evidence. Many hostellers, however, preferred to take up the punishments meted out by the 'cops' than run the risk of being reported to the house master, whose determination would have been less endearing.

The very disciplined art of waiting in a queue until your turn comes was taught to us by word and action in the boarding. Whether it was collecting pocket money from the office, bathing at the main bathroom or at the main 'Lavos' we had to be in the queue. No matter how urgent and desperate the need was, one had to stay in the queue until your 'After You' turn came. One unmistakable sign that a student has graduated from the junior dorms to the senior dorm was that he could not wear any clothes when bathing.

Studying hours were known as 'prep' and there were two sessions. One in the morning and the other in the evening in the fifties and it was increased to three later. Though there was dead silence during these sessions indicating the degree of absolute concentration of the students, the yearly or the monthly examination results of the majority proved otherwise. Looking back, we now realise it's true. Though the books were not studied diligently, those many students had been studying how best a Thomian could graduate from the university of life. Decorum was never required to be taught. It was handed down the generation. The hostellers came from different strata of society, different religions and races. But these were never the dividing factors, not even being considered on those lines then. The bottom line was let the best win.

The house masters too were of a mixed quality. Among the many names that come to the mind are, L. D. S. Nanayakkara, F. J. Senaratne, Lassie Abeywardene, Quentin Israel, G. Tambidorai, Victory Walatara, Orville Abeynaike, A. N. S. K. Karalakulasingam, Rev. Townsend, Godfrey Senaratne, Daniel Edirisinghe, E. P. Abeysekera, Mr. Vinasatamby, Jackson Karunaratne, Mr. V. H. Hensman, Mr. Jesudasan, Mr. N. P. Perera. Many are the interesting stories about these teachers. Their personal mannerisms were always a source of amusement and trepidation for the students. Some still cannot fathom why Mr. Karalakulasingham had to use a bat instead of a cane to give eight of the best to a student. Mr. Vinasatamby did manage to hide the toughness behind the white vetti he used to wear.

Quentin Israel and G. Tambithorai were maths and physics teachers whilst being housemasters. Both were strict disciplinarians too. Quentin, though being a Trinitian, had decided to spend the greater part of his life at S. Thomas'. Arguably the most successful rugby coach of S. Thomas' College, he will be remembered by many generations of Thomians. Quite a vibrant personality, many remember him coming late at night after a session with his pals at Havies.

An interesting story told about him was how after a night out with his friends, he came back to his room and the light bulb fused. Placing a chair, he stood on it with a new bulb trying to place it in the holder. Perhaps he thought he had it fixed right. But a moment later it fell to the floor making such a big noise woke up the entire dormitory. None could remember a look of embarrassment on his face. His command of the English language and his teaching prowess was such that he could have used the incident to explain the laws of Newton on gravity.

Nobody really liked father Townsend who had come from Australia. Perhaps years of having worked with inmates in a prison in Australia, had made him a cold character. He at times went out of his way to put us into trouble. Looking back one wonders whether he saw any similarity between the convicts behaviour and that some of the students - the more notorious ones.

Townsend, the inebriate, was succeeded by the Rev. Duleep de Chickera - the present Bishop of Colombo. Tall, athletically built, soft spoken, kind, yet a good disciplinarian, he was very popular among the students. He was always ready to listen to our side of the story on any dispute. He became Sub-Warden and left college to work in the ministry.

There was also that unmistakable cricket coach, master-in-charge of swimming and most important of all as far as the boarders were concerned - Mr. Shelton Gauder who was in charge of bringing food for the college boarding. He is no longer with us and has gone for his eternal rest. The boarders gave him quite a run for his money with even a 'strike' thrown in the early days. Mrs. Pansy Gauder, his amiable wife used to be in immediate charge of the dining hall.

So much for the pedagogues. Now about the inmates. The camaraderie was always at an acceptable level. One factor that struck out from the rest was the degree of respect and regard the juniors had for the seniors. There was hardly any bullying or forced stevedoring. The seniors were truly seniors. In fact, some of them were so big, both in size and perception, the juniors considered it a duty to be of any assistance to them.

The STC boarding had quite a number of extraordinary characters and the one who probably will take top billing is none other than the present Minister of Defence, Transport and Civil Aviation Tilak Marapana who unquestionably will rank among the first ten best students produced by S. Thomas' in academic studies and will run about the most humorous mischief makers of all times that the STC boarding ever had. He is a double degree holder of the University. He was in Chapman House and in the early days in the early fifties, he was somewhat of a problem to the house master at Chapman House Mr. Jesudasan as Tilak Marapana gave the house master and the prefects many 'headaches' with his mischievous acts which had the approval of the boys, but not the house master and prefects. He had an elder brother Gamini, a hockey captain and cricketer, a sober man.

Boarders are hungry birds they say and the dining hall not open always, there had to be some sort of way out to satisfy the immediate requirements of the stomachs of quite a number of boards in Chapman House those days. The College gates were not as secure as these days and once they were open, there were no security guards checking the movements of the boys. So, many were the instances that the boarders had a quick 'bite' at Murugan Cafe across the Galle Road and to have a change of diet. The boarders had the fortune of having some poultry coming into the college compound close to Chapman House and Tilak Marapana knew head cook Aaron in the kitchen did a wonderful job of making chicken curry and with the hoppers brought from a nearby boutique, the boys of Chapman House had a jolly good feed.

There are many other interesting episodes where Tilak Marapana was associated with but they are too numerous to mention, but all were done in good fun trying best in keep to rules and regulations. There was also the unmistakable D. Nesiah and Monty Gopallawa who later went on to be a minister in the PA government.

Among the other characters were, Wendell Flamer-Caldera, P. Wambeck, Azam Hameed, the Gunasekera brothers, (Labba and the other two), the Baines brothers and others. College grape-vine once had this story. It was Wendel's polite reply to a remark made by a senior house master that he was causing him a lot of inconvenience in the running of the boarding. The reply had been 'Sir, you can't run the boarding at your own convenience.'

The charismatic Flamer Caldera managed to get away with it, but not so lucky was Tissa Jayasinghe. Caught red handed while paying a nocturnal visit to the hostel, after he had left the place, Rohan Jagoda - the head cop deemed it fit to be reported to the Warden. That fateful visit put paid to any hopes Tissa would have entertained of continuing in school.

The period 1963-67 saw the hostel producing no less than five 1st eleven cricket captains of the school. They were Randy Worell, Premalal Gunasekera, Sarath Seneviratne, Anura Tennekoon and Jayampathy Bandaranayake. The Samarasinghe brothers (Baila, Mohan and Rajpal) created history by captaining the college rugby teams. Hockey, Waterpolo, Swimming were sports virtually dominated by the hostellers. A good fifty per cent or more of the teams always comprised hostellers.

The house social was very much looked forward to by many. It was an annual event and saw a lot of merry-making and fun. A band was in attendance and there was plenty of food and drinks to go with it. Everyone was attired in the best available.

End of term fights to settle old scores were frequent. They were fought to an end until one surrendered. S. Thomas' College Hostel was the life blood of the school.

The college lived in its hostel. That feeling of being a Thomian and the almost tangible feeling of the days spent in the hostel, really come alive at the yearly get together of the hostellers. The party is held at the OTSC next Saturday. You should be there to believe it. It's as if you have been taken back in time to the golden days at the hostel.

That's why we must all help the Warden in his task to revive the College hostel back to its pristine glory.

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