A principal’s effort to retell a great story
A lifelong dream of N.K. Pilapitiya finally bears fruit as a‘tale of a Mud Hut: the Musaeus Saga’. Duvindi Illankoon reports
As an old girl and past principal of Musaeus College, N.K. Pilapitiya is the perfect choice to author a book about the school she loves with all her heart. And so it was with great enthusiasm that she sat down to write ‘Tale of a Mud Hut: the Musaeus Saga’, the retelling of Musaeus’ 120-year-old legacy.
It was certainly a Herculean task to take on. Imagine summarising over a century’s worth of tales into a small volume of 232 pages. Factor in the time period most of the volume concerns with, that of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and you have an assignment most would run miles from!
And run figurative miles away they did. When Mrs. Pilapitiya brought up the concept of the book during her years as Principal (1995-2009), many would shy away. She recalls the times at committee meetings she would bring up the idea for a book that would retell the story of Musaeus. “Everyone would say yes, but it never got off the ground!” This combined with her hectic workload as principal of one of Colombo’s leading girls’ schools meant the actual writing of the book never came to fruition till about three years ago.
Once she had retired in 2009, she found herself much less occupied, and decided that then was the perfect time to embark on what had been a long-dreamt of mission. Helped on by good friend and the school librarian of that time, Kanthi Fernando, the book made slow but steady progress.
“The first two chapters dealt a lot with history, not necessarily that of Musaeus,” says Mrs. Pilapitiya. “So there was a lot of researching that needed to be done.” The author discusses Sri Lanka’s education system from times of yore, through colonization and right up to the dominance of the British educational reforms. This section also details the resurgence of education founded on Buddhism, as opposed to the missionary schools that only offered children the opportunity for a Christian education.
The book itself is informative, well written and a pleasure to read. The author breaks up the volume in chronological order, starting from early education, moving onto the events that led to the main founder of the school, Marie Musaeus Higgins to embark on her mission to Sri Lanka; subsequently gathering the collective support of her cofounders to establish Musaeus College for Buddhist girls.
“What strikes me most about the school’s history is the amazing dedication and absolute commitment of the school’s found- ‘Tale of a Mud Hut: the Musaeus Saga’ will be launched on July 16 at 9.30 a.m. at the Peter De Abrew Memorial Auditorium, 35, Barnes Place Colombo 7. The school invites all past pupils to attend the launch of the next big chapter in the school’s long history. ers,” says Mrs. Pilapitiya. “Mrs. Higgins had just been widowed, and for her to give up the luxuries and comforts of her homeland to move to a country she had never been to, just for the sake of furthering education-that’s remarkable.”
She quotes directly from a book written by Higgins, titled ‘Roots of Musaeus’ with regard to her motivation for moving to Sri Lanka. “…the great desire to devote myself to the cause of humanity in the especial line of education came to me..”.
The author lends great credibility to her work by frequently citing sources and through the use of carefully compiled pictures from the past. News articles, postcards from Mrs. Higgins to her students, portraits and sketches of that time, obituaries, photographs of significant events and the many places associated with Musaeus are included and lend credence to Mrs. Pilapitiya’s writing.
Her sources for these samples and the story are great and many. Being niece to one of the early pupils of Musaeus, Mildred Madana, was a significant contributing factor to her extensive knowledge about the school’s early years. Helped on by past principals and present, along with the past pupils, relatives of the first 12 pupils, and her family and friends, she completed the book within the span of three years.
The book would have been an impossibility without Kanthi Fernando, whom Mrs. Pilapitiya fondly refers to as “the pillar to my work”. Mrs. Fernando, in her capacity of Head Librarian at Musaeus (till 2010, when she retired), ensured that the author had plenty of sources to refer from, and would assist Mrs. Pilapitiya in sorting through the school archives. And of course, “living only 100 rupees away from each other by tuk helps!,” interjects a laughing Mrs. Fernando.