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

A legendary marriage

by Lakmal Welabada

Ganewattage Hemamala Swarnalatha Abeyratne (alias Hema) finally found Mrs. Wijemanna's place. After paying the taxi fee she entered the garden which was nicely maintained with many flower beds and colourful foliage.

The green grass lawn gave a soothing feeling to the eyes as well as the mind. Hema stood in the garden. The alluring scenery captivated her whole soul. In fact, though she was shouldering a much more responsible post Hema was still a young lady with charming and soothing looks. Hema turned back when she heard the chirping of birds.

Two Selalihiniyas were rubbing their beaks against each other. Hema laughed to herself. "Oh! they are so much in love," she murmured to herself.

"Good afternoon madam, was it difficult to find the place?" Mrs. Wijemanna, the hostess who came out from the house greeted Hema. When both of them entered the house, a smart young man was the verandah sipping a glass of orange juice.

"Meet Miss.Hema Abeyratne, our new Principal of Maliyadeva Balika Vidyalaya. And Hema, this is Mr. Jayasinghe, an election officer of this area, Kurunegala," Mrs.Wijemanna introduced them. Both of them exchanged a smile politely.

Next, it was a pilgrimage to a temple in a remote jungle area... By that time Jayasinghe was quite friendly with Hema. So on their way to the jungle temple in the rocky path which stretched through the woods Jayasinghe somehow started showing his special interest in her, as he couldn't suppress it any longer.

Once Hema commented on the lovely flowers borne by a creeper which crept around a lofty tree beside the path. Jayasinghe realised her desire to own those flowers to offer at the temple. When he started to pluck a few the others in the group began to tease him.

"Ah ha! Now you are plucking flowers also for her?" everybody laughed. Hema looked down with a blushing smile. Jayasinghe ignored their jokes with a beam and concentrated more on plucking flowers. Everything happened quite by chance. "It's nature's process," she laughs.

After a month or two Mrs.Wijemanna visited Hema's mother at Lewella, Kandy with Jayasinghe's proposal to get her consent. After a few months, the wedding of Hema and Jayasinghe took place at Lewella on May 16 in 1956...

Hema Jayasinghe nee Abeyratne was born at Lewella, a beautiful village in Kandy by the Mahaweli river on September 7 in 1927. Ganegodage Don Alexander Abeyratne who was a Vice Principal of Dharmaraja College and later founder Principal of Vidyartha College, Kandy (founded in 1942) was Hema's father.

And Bandara Manike Ehelapola Seneviratne, a prominent and popular teacher at Mahamaya Balika Vidyalaya was her mother. Hema was the third of the seven siblings in the family.

"My mother first taught at Girls' High School. Since it's a Christian School, and didn't employ married teachers she had to leave the job after marriage. Later we shifted to a house close to a place where the Suisse Hotel is today, and this place was very much closer to Mahamaya which was just founded by a group of eminent Buddhists of the area.

So my mother was asked to come there to teach Maths. I also entered this school. And I was among the first few 25 children of Mahamaya which was in the English medium with an extremely good Buddhist atmosphere," she reminisces.

Mahamaya had only up to Senior School Certificate exam. So Hema had to join Girls' High School for the University Entrance Exam (UEE). There she took Maths, Sinhala, Geography and English.

"Way back in the 1940s, even Sinhala Literature was taught in English for UEE and in the universities. I entered the University of Ceylon in 1945 and continued the same subjects except English. I really wanted to do Science for UEE, but not a single girls' school in Kandy was having Science as a subject. And secondly Maths was my other favourite subject," she explains.

All her siblings studied in the English medium. And except for their parents they talked in English when conversing among themselves. "We were not snobbish. It just happened as we were used to English. And later in life it helped us immensely in various ways," she stresses.

Hema's family can be defined as an intellectual unit. Her father was a bit of a disciplinarian, but rarely took a stick to punish the children. Instead, he practised an interesting method of imposing punishments on his children.

If he found a fight or some other misbehaviour he would at once order the 'culprit' to do a few pages of Maths or learn something by heart. So Hema's mischievous brothers are still complaining that it would have been better to get a whip with a cane than sit in one place straining and draining the brain into Maths.

"Since my parents were also in the education field, all of us got vacations together. So it was not a problem of getting leave separately. When the holidays came all of us were at home. And our father took us to many places - on trips, pilgrimages and visited many relatives and friends," she recalls.

After the final exam of the three year general degree, Hema was called to teach at Girl's High School. During this time Hema faced a rather miserable experience for the first time.

It was the time she and her elder sister were waiting for their final exam results when they heard their father's death. "My father always encouraged us, even the girls to go ahead with higher studies. "My father used to tell us 'having your degree is not enough, and must learn how to teach, the method of teaching'... So after two years of teaching there I set off to the post graduate Diploma in Education," she says.

Hema's appointment with the first government school was to Peradeniya Maha Vidyalaya. After 3 years, she applied for a special post just to get an increment. But an unexpectedly pleasant surprise was a waiting her. She was appointed as the Principal of Maliyadeva Balika, Kurunegala.

"I was little nervous as I was just 25 years old. But since I had all the qualifications I didn't have any problem in handling my staff. In fact except for a few, almost all the teachers were young," she says.

Dr. Karunasena Hewawasam Jayasinghe was born on November 28 in 1927 to Mr. and Mrs. Suwaris Hewawasam Jayasinghe in Boralukada, Baddegama as the eldest of seven children.

After having studied in the Sinhala medium in Ratnasara Vidyalaya, Baddegama he entered the Pembroke Academy, Colombo to do his SSC. He passed out as an Honours graduate in Political Science from the University of Peradeniya. He met Hema when he was an Election Officer at Kurunegala.

Hema was at Maliyadeva Balika, Kurunegala from 1953 to 1959, and got married in between. "My husband was fed up of being an Election Officer, and joined the Peradeniya campus as a lecturer in the Department of Political Science.

So I also packed up with my children (by that time they were parents of two) and moved to Kandy. It was then that I was appointed as the Principal of Pushpadana Balika, Kandy," she reminisces. And after two years there, my husband decided to do his PhD in the London School of Economics.

So I also joined him to do my Master of Arts in Education in the Institute of Education, University of London. My children were 4 years and 1 year by then. Since my mother and sister were willing to look after them during my absence I could console myself.

I was the first to get married of all the seven, and the first to bear children. So my mother was very fond of my children as they were her first grandchildren," she recalls.

Once she came back to Sri Lanka Hema Jayasinghe was made the Principal of Girls' High School, Kandy in 1964. "It was a great experience as my mother and her sisters and my sisters studied at High School.

And then I was at the High school as a student and hosteller (for SSC), then as a teacher and was finally appointed as the Principal in the same school. Also I was the first Sinhala Buddhist Principal there," she reminisces.

Hema became the first Sri Lankan Principal of Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo in 1967. She succeeded Mrs. Pulimood who was an Indian. "I served at Visakha for 17 years.

During my career as Principal I had worked with students, teachers, parents, old pupils and Education Ministry officials. But hardly had any interference from politicians.

So I think I was very much lucky compared to the present day situation faced by today's Principals," she smiles.

"My students say they were scared of me, but I was wondering how as I was hardly harsh on them," she laughs. However her charismatic leadership on her work might have won the hearts and souls of those who worked with her including her students. "I never took anybody's side and never favoured anybody. My policy was to be fair by everybody," she stresses.

Hema Jayasinghe retired after rendering a great service to the education field after being the Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Education for six years in 1989.

And she still continues her service as an educationist to promote quality education in Sri Lanka by being at the Board of Vidura College, an English medium school which follows the local syllabus and also being in the Sri Lanka Association of the Advancement of Education which does research work in the education field.

However most of her time is captured by the household chores including looking after her husband. "My husband has been paralysed for about ten years now. He realises what we say, but cannot talk. He was a voracious reader who loved travelling.

Even my four children are still ravenous readers. However when my husband's old students visit him and pay their respect by worshipping he becomes very sensitive. He is really fond of them," she smiles looking at her husband.

Quality education, charismatic and fair leadership, devotion and compassionate kindness are the key ingredients of Mrs. Hema Jayasinghe, one of the legendary Principals of our time.

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