Features
An amazing Sri Lankan – ‘the power of one’
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By Siri Ipalawatte – Canberra
From Tidbinbilla to rain forests, red wines to thelijja, cappaccino to kurumba, five-stars to homestay…. Just when I thought I had touched every nook and cranny of Sri Lanka, it sprung yet another surprise. An old Uni friend suggested ‘why not visit the unusual and weird landscape called Ussangoda—the place in Hindu Mythology where King Ravana landed his air machine, dandu-monara? And off came another nugget! He said a batchmate of ours lived in a century-old house in a village called Kiula — an exotic name from the fact that the water in the area is kiul as it gets mixed with an underground seashell bed and salt water —very close to Ussangoda. This chance encounter led to a number of texts and mobile calls, and a few days later, a memorable sleepover in his house located between the 217 and 218t kilometre-post on the A2 highway between the sleepy towns of Hungama and Ambalantota in the southern Sri Lanka.
Exactly to the minute at 12.20 pm on one Sunday we drove up to the newly renovated old bungalow, and there was my friend—dressed in white drill trousers, open neck shirt, and sporting a perfect stubble—waiting on the huge front porch to receive us. Of course, he receives us as if we might have been royalty. This is his manner. He greets us with an emotional hug, holding a few extra seconds to compensate for the similar greeting that has not taken place recently between us.
We are shown a room—Wow! We are in a Dutch mansion. He seems to have frequent foreign visitors and in order to make them comfortable, even if they stay for lunch or tea only, he had built a set of large rooms, each with en-suite. Everything from the linen to the china in these rooms is spotless and clean as clean could be. After finishing our quick wash and change we sit in the backyard verandah — an outer open-air courtyard facing a fish pond and herbal garden, surrounded on three sides by bedrooms, bathrooms and the kitchen, and have our lunch. He has extremely well-trained helpers: look like they have been with him a lifetime, they are respectful without being submissive.
I hear echoes of soft footsteps; children walk in one by one, some still in school uniform, and my friend signals the start of classes. The dining table is pushed back to the sidewall, and huge vetakeiya mats with colourful designs and borders are spread on the floor. The children sit devotedly holding various musical instruments. Then, begin the sound of notes emanating from varied musical instruments. I am pleased to notice that the tunings performed by the children themselves, with the help of an iPad!
Music gradually becomes diverse with so many instruments; tabla, sitar, violin, guitar, flute — and notes, both musical and vocal rising to a crescendo as the afternoon progresses —swara, raga, and a wide range of the traditional theme songs with tone of love, sadness, anxiety, motivation, devotion and spirituality. I felt truly happy and energised to share the afternoon with these engaged and intelligent young children who gave us an evening of musical magic that I will never forget. The class ended with all standing up and singing the national anthem together.
I am totally puzzled! How have these rural small children developed such strong, balanced and varied performing abilities? I know their minds and hearts are passionate about arts and music and they love to learn. But who would provide resources and opportunities to fulfill their passions? We often get caught up in what the typical career locations —cities, elite venues, large arts institutions— have to offer, but we forget what opportunity and experience might exist in these smaller, and often forgotten rural spaces. I think my friend wants to make people aware of the amazing qualities and gifts these Kiula children have to offer outsiders. And he has a fascinating story to share with me.
He had come to this village first in 2002, while he was the Chairman of a large corporation in Sri Lanka and quite by chance, bought an old ancestral house of a local politician that was in a dilapidated condition. In 2009, upon his retirement from an active career spanning 45 years, both in Sri Lanka and abroad, he sold his Colombo property, moved to this village having restored and renovated the house, to make it his retirement home. Through routine interaction with the villagers, he soon realised that the village children and their parents had a very limited view of the world and had a low level of self-esteem. Since he had the intention of spending his retirement years productively, he saw that there was an opportunity for him to be of assistance to the village children, to get a broader view of the world and have dreams of better futures for themselves.
He picked on the idea of expanding their knowledge and also their dreams and launched a mobile library. Not only did he buy second-hand books but he also begged his friends to donate whatever books they could, getting a fairly good collection. His first initiative was to begin a mobile library on a tuk-tuk, sent around the village every Saturday afternoon, lent free of charge to village children who became members of the ‘Kiula Kiyawana Gunaya free mobile library service’. Soon, there was widespread interest among children to read and after three years the activity was extended to invite them to contribute their own poetry and essays to a lithographed publication, called ‘Kiula Vimansa Athwela’. While these activities were progressing and the interest of village children on literary pursuits were growing, he moved on to facilitate them to learn music. An initiative that began with learning Sri Lankan folk music was later extended to learning Indian Classical Music.
On a chance meeting of an old friend, who is a graduate of the Bathkhande Sangeeth Vidyapith of Lucknow, India, and his local school in Badulla, an affiliated institute, he realised that he could provide an opportunity for Kiula children to prepare for the Bathkande Sangeeth Vidyapith examinations as external candidates. So, in 2013, commenced free classes in Indian classical music for a group of about 12 students. The first batch of students appeared for the Preveshika level exam in 2014, examined by a visiting Indian Professor and they did very well at the exam having obtained first and second division passes.
Initially, he had hired the music teachers from nearby schools to teach the music classes and the rest were taught by him, using smart classroom techniques —TV and Internet resources. At present, the music classes are taught entirely by old students who have reached the Visharad levels and a scholarship type payment is made to them.
In 2020, a total of 28 students sat for 34 subject areas in vocal music, violin, sitar, tabla, bansoori flute and esraj. Seven students who had reached the Visharad II level at the last exam have completed their final theory examination and now are Vishards. A further nine are at the Madyama (Diploma) level with 17 at the Prathama and Praveshika levels.
As he saw the need for the children to learn English and develop a better worldview, he also conducts free English and mixed learning classes. A few students are learning Japanese, Hindi and Tamil. Japanese taught by a lecturer with a PhD from Japan—one of his own students at Kelaniya Uni and a friend, retired after serving in JAICA. Hindi teacher’s services are obtained from the Swami Vivekananda Indian Cultural Institute, in Colombo and online Tamil teacher is the wife of a friend. In order to beat the Covid blues of the kids, he began organising online Sangeetha Ekamuthuwa on every Sunday afternoon using Zoom—and now is in its 21 week!
All activities are at no cost to the parents of the children, and even examination fees for the Bathkhande Exams are provided by his own savings. He has two daughters who live and work in the USA and they are his primary source of outside assistance. The only donations he has accepted over the years were used and new books and used and new musical instruments.
He would like to think of this initiative as proof of what one person can do, in a small way, on his or her own to cause change and he is very happy that his consistent effort has now proven to have paid off. He calls it ‘The Power of One’.