Tribute to my Grade One teacher

By Admiral Ravindra C Wijegunaratne
(Retired from Sri Lanka Navy)
Former Chief of Defence Staff

She is no more. She passed away on 28 April 2021 peacefully at home, with her beloved husband, only daughter Kumaree, in-laws, grandchildren and relatives around her. Samitha, her only son, who is an aeronautical Engineer, was working in the UAE. He somehow came for the funeral. Samitha was three years junior to me at College and both of us were President’s Scouts in the same Scout troop.

She joined Royal Junior School as a teacher on 11 January 1963 and served there for the next 27 years. When Royal College Teachers’ Association was established in 1994, she was given the membership number one, in recognition of her dedicated service to the College. She was 84 years old at the time of her demise.

Our Grade 1B class teacher, Mrs Padma Samaraweera was always close to our hearts. When I wrote about her in one of my articles a few months ago, even though she was bedridden, she was very happy that her students remembered her vividly and even after half a century. She was a great teacher for five-years-olds (in 1968) and was a fantastic storyteller.

When we joined the Royal Junior School in January 1968, she looked after us like a mother. Her love and affection to all 30 of us in class 1B, in 1968, was the same. Within one week, she knew all our names. Our class room, which was decorated with paintings we did on our first day of school, was filled with fun and smiles.

She taught us to dream and work hard to make these dreams a reality.

The second month in school, we planted a tree. Saplings were given to all Grade One classes by our Junior School Principal, Mr Jayawardena and we planted our saplings in a row, two metres apart near the junior school cricket ground terrace. From that day, every morning we watered our trees and monitored their growth. Mrs. Samaraweera encouraged children to bring organic fertilizer. She explained to us that like small children, small saplings too required nutritious food to grow tall and stronger. She explained to us not only planting a tree would suffice, It is equally important to water it and give “good food” for the tree to grow fast. My late grandfather, who was an award-winning planter and paddy cultivator in Matugama, gave me two bags of best carbonic fertilizer he produced in his farm.

The magic worked, our tree was outgrowing all other ‘class trees’ after a few months; it grew taller than Sujeewa Cooray, the tallest boy in our class! Her lesson, not only to plant, but also to look after a tree, was a clear message to all of us during our life time. These 53 year old trees are still standing tall on the Terrace of Royal Junior School cricket ground. Our class 1B tree is the tallest and the strongest!

One day, Mrs Samaraweera said, “Children we are going to Africa tomorrow.” There was a lot of excitement in the class ! When asked,what we should bring? “You come in the usual dress, but bring more food and drinks for the interval”, Mrs Samaraweera explained. So, the next day with a box of “egg, butter and mustard paste” sandwiches and a bottle of “Halib-orange”, we embarked from Katunayaka airport to Nairobi in Kenya on our dream trip to Africa. Mrs Samaraweera explained to us the procedures at the airport and how to board an aircraft, going through Customs and Immigration counters, sit in our allocated seat and to wear the seatbelt.

We saw a lot of animals and birds, unique to Africa. She had all pictures of them. Zebras, Giraffes, Orangutans and Lions. She explained to us all about Africa. We children shared our short eats and drinks at our dream African camp site and landed back in Katunayaka airport in time to go home a few minutes before the school was over.

Our “dream trip to Africa” was a complete success with fun and frolic.

I met my dear friend, Saman Athaudahetti, who was two years senior to me at College, a few days before Mrs Samaraweera’s death and he explained his trip to Africa with Mrs Samaraweera, when he was in her class. He said even today, whenever he boards an aircraft to travel abroad and buckling his seat belt, he remembered Mrs Samaraweera.and his trip to Africa with the classmates. That was the impact of her lessons to us.

I can very clearly remember, she had a fall from a CTB double-decker bus on her way to school and had to wear a neck collar for a very long time. We children were very angry with that bus driver because he injured our beloved teacher due to his careless driving. I can remember we all wanted to become Police officers when we grew up to punish these reckless drivers !

When I became the Commander of the Navy, six years ago, the Principal, teachers and students invited me to a felicitation ceremony at my alma mater. I ensured my class one teacher Mrs Padma Samaraweera was present at the ceremony. She was very proud as one of her students reached the pinnacle of his chosen career.

For her, all of us were good boys. We became “naughty boys’ for a few days when we happened to fight each other, but she ensured that we would become good boys soon. Among us, there were “cry boys” and “kaka boys” also as per our own assessments. Cry boys are the ones who start crying in the class as soon as their mothers left them in the class room, in the morning.

I am not going to disclose who were the ‘cry boys’ and ‘kaka boys’ of class 1B in 1968, as it will be an embarrassment to them, but I will confess myself, I became ‘kaka boy’ only once!

Now these good boys, naughty boys, ‘cry boys’ and ‘kaka boys’ are doctors, engineers, corperate heads, accountants, politicians, professors and top military officers. They all miss our teacher Mrs Padma Samaraweera.

Mrs Samaraweera within the first three months of 1968, 53 years ago, assured that all naughty boys, ‘cry boys’ and ‘kaka boys’ would become very good boys and she laid the foundation for moulding them into good citizens of Mother Lanka while they were still in Grade One.

May she attain the Supreme

Bliss of Nirvana!