To those hostel days at Dharmaraja College
Goodbye Dhammika, my childhood friend!
It was on January 13, 1966, I saw you lying on a C dorm bed, homesick after your father left you at the Dharmaraja College Hostel. That was 54 years ago when both of us became boarders for the next ten years. Soon we came to know you as the son of Wimalanath Dissanayake, the famous film director of Patachara fame and editor of Silumina who was also an alumnus of Dharmaraja.
Dhammika had lost his mother at a very young age
and he came under the motherly love of Matron Seetha Mohottigedara whom he adored as mentioned many times in his famous column ‘Pani Walalu’ in the Sunday Lankadeepa. We were fortunate to grow up in this over 40-acre salubrious Lake View Hill.
The 1967 Hostel Day was memorable because his father brought famous artists who performed for us. I am sure it was requested by Warden B.A.S.Wimalachandra who had taught Dhammika’s father too.
Dhammika, I remember you singing during a termend Literary Association meeting - the song was about “Amma” and at the end of the song, your eyes were filled with tears making all of us tear up. Then at a weekend meeting you sang, “Bandaranaike Weera Putha…Wedi Thibba..” You also played the thabla and used to play the rabana during trips. You were a regular contributor to the hostel wall paper “Eliya”. You helped all of us in doing the drawings for our Scout log books.
Even at a young age you had liberal views and used to stress the importance of democracy when many fellow hostellers had communist ideas, which was the fashion then.
I only met you three times since leaving College, the last being in 2007 at Anura Wijenayake’s 50th birthday. When you became Chairman of Rupavahini, I sent a letter of congratulations and you sent me a reply thanking me, but we met through your reminiscences of Dharmaraja in the column ‘Pani Walalu’ on Sundays.
May we meet again as Dharmaraja Hostellers!