SWEET & SOUR CHINNA' OF GURUTALAWA

This concludes a series of memoirs about the staff in Gurutalawa that continued from Dr Hayman's time until around 1977 when the school became a junior high school instead of just a middle school. The outbound school that had been planned for Gurutalawa has evolved into a general education institution comparable to any other, but its specialty in continuing as a boarding school.

The staff members who continued to work at Gurutalawa after the Hayman administration made an effort to uphold and maintain the customs and functions that Dr Hayman installed at Gurutalawa. They were mostly old boys, but there were a few others who devoted their entire lives to Gurutalawa, serving for more than two decades before retiring. Among them; Mr A K Chapman, J W Marasinghe, A C M Laffir, Oliver De Soyza, Benjamin Fernando and R T Kularatne were significant old boys of the school, while Mr J de S Jayasinghe, F L Amerasinghe and C M Chinnaiah were some exceptional selections of Dr Hayman to assist him in running the school.

Mr Chinnaiah was a contemporary of Mr J de S Jayasinghe in school while J De S was the authority in the Sinhala section and Chinna was the charge de affairs in the Tamil component. They both joined STCG around the same time under Dr Hayman and remained in charge of the senior school as long-standing bachelors devoted to the school. However,  Chinna did wed after a long spell as a bachelor.  Though Chinna was not a House Master nor a  Dorm Master he was the custodian of the Senior Library.

It is noted that Mr Chinnaiah had been a very active personality in his early days among the bachelor staff members attending social activities. He had even conducted a school hockey tour in Sothern India when the Gurutalawa team played with many South Indian Schools.

Chinna in his bachelor days (between J De S & Laffir)

However, when we attended school during the post-Hayman Era his involvement in sports had ended with Mr Laffir shouldering almost all sports activities. When we knew him he was confined to his senior library premises mainly due to health conditions that required attention and it was a norm that all Tamil Students had to come down to the senior library for his classes. 

I remember he would come in riding his Vespa scooter and always carried a  spare scooter tube with him to sit on. This air tube did cushion his chair giving comfort to his otherwise painful hemorrhoids. This ailment caused him to be stressed very much as a person who got agitated by the slightest disturbance in the class. As a result, most of the Tamil boys were at the receiving end for mischief and misbehaving. In return, there was revenge on him from students who got punished. In return for these retaliatory actions from students, he had developed some habits that were unique to him. I remember we waited till he came after lunch to open the Senior Library; he would walk in with the key in hand that would go directly into the padlock that he never touched for any reason. It is said that someone had once spat on the padlock in vengeance for reprimanding and ever since he does not touch the padlock.

I am quite sure many of my Tamil brothers have very memorable incidents and encounters with him in his classes. One such brave and hilarious incident was narrated to me by Nallainathan now domiciled Downunder. This was again a class in the Senior Library where Bala was daydreaming staring out of the window. On a tree was a bird that seemed to have attracted Bala. Cninna had tried to get Bala’s attention and the whole class burst into laughter when Chinna in his colloquial Tamil inquired if the Bird raised its tail and displayed its posterior for you …to which Bala had responded ‘YES Sir’…. Bala could not get his bearings right before Chinna’s palms smothered both his ears and the whole class fell silent. But he never took things for granted and Bala too took it up as a surprise amusement says Nallai….

My Good friend Nage says what his friend Vithi (Vaithyanathan) wrote of his admiration and appreciation towards feminity that the Tamil social fabric is inspired by.  The lesson learnt that day Nage says lingers in his friend's mindset that he practices to this day. Chinna was now married and was living in a new bungalow that was built for him opposite Mr Laffir’s residence.

On this particular day, his wife had come to meet him in the library while he was taking a class. She had excused herself and walked into the class met Chinna and left the class…. Chinna was now furious and blew his head off with the boys who forgot to respect the lady. Normally, one stands up for a lady and these boys were ignorant of such good social manners. A harangue lecture on good practices had followed with the whole class getting three of the best on their buttocks says Nage…  and Vaithy to this day stands up for a lady walking into his room and gets complimented on his manners, thanka to Chinna.

Picture curtsy J Jayaprakash

We had left College in the early 70s and not much of Chinna is known of his stay in Gurutalawa into the 80. Presumably, he too left Guru around the time we left and the last I got to know of him was from Wathhewa and Nallainathan who had met him in Colombo when Chinna was working at CH&FC and Wathu had been advised to join CH&FC and continued with his Hockey career. Nallai had met him working as the Office Manager at The CIMA institution when he was attending class at the institute then. Staff in Gurutalawa that continued from the Hayman Era was definitively of a unique type. There was never a linguistic divide and posts and positions were always as it came to you. It was these qualities that settled in us for having taken them as our role models in life. Guru was always a secular school that accommodated students of all religions.

It must be mentioned that other exemplary characters joined during the post-Hayman Era and yes it will be a challenge if one is to write about all of them. Many are no more but our love and affection for them is immense….

Esto Perpetua