Memories flash back to happy schooldays and matches played

It is with great sorrow we got to know of the demise of our beloved classmate Dayananda Lakshman Fonseka more popularly known as “Baba” to his Thurstan community and the staff at Bank of Ceylon where he worked for 40 years. He passed away on February 8. We joined Thurstan College in 1951 as the second batch of students and were enrolled in the Lower Kindergarten in this newly founded school in 1950. We were classmates/ schoolmates till “Baba” left school in 1964. He had the privilege of scoring the first 50 in the Big Match against Isipathana in 1964. During the schooldays we played many softball matches during the lunch interval while we also represented the school in Junior Cricket until we graduated to play 1st XI cricket in 1962. Baba also played 1st XV Rugby for College in 1962 and 1963. I got to know him more intimately while playing softball cricket for the strong “8th Lane “Kollupitiya team where we played against other teams in the neighbourhood. After the matches we used to go to ‘Atlanta’ to watch movies before going home. During the holidays we used to play the card game ‘304’ to while away the time. Those were happy times. In the mid 1960’s he joined the Bank of Ceylon and served in many departments such as Inward Bills, Corporate Imports etc., and retired as a Senior Bank Manager at the Pettah branch in 2006. He represented the Bank at cricket and also played a few club matches for Saracens. He was an active member of the Bank of Ceylon Sports Club.

He was the First Treasurer of the Thurstan College Swimming Pool Management Committee when his classmate and his neighbour Lion Gratiaen Gunawardhana built the Thurstan Pool in 2000 to celebrate the school’s Diamond Jubilee. He was a Life Member of the Thurstan OBU and regularly participated in OBU activities and College activities, including the Big Match, the annual Big Match Party at our classmate Bhathiya’s residence, the annual Thurstan Dinner Dance and our batch get-togethers which he never missed with his wife Indrani.

I remember his parents living in a house with a garden down Ramya Road in Bambalapitiya. He was an active member of many Social and Welfare Societies and Associations in the neighbourhood and was also a Justice of Peace for the entire Island.

He was a devout and practising Buddhist and very closely associated with erudite Buddhist priests at the Vajiraramaya Temple. He was an active and prominent member of the temple dayaka sabha and even performed the annual “Katina Pinkama” of the temple.

He married Indrani in 1974 and they were blessed with three children – the eldest Lakmal living in Australia, the second son Yohan and daughter Peshala living in the UK.

May he attain the supreme bliss of Nibbana