Unknown facts of the most known are revealed!
An Interview with My Mother
Some interesting facts of my beloved mother, B. M. R. K. Bandaranayake, who is a retired English teacher were revealed during an interview. It unfolds as below to my amusement…..
1. Hello Amma, at first could you relate about your hometown and family? I was brought up as a child in Pilimathalawa, where I still live in. Besides my mother and father, I had six siblings, three brothers and three sisters. I am the sixth child of the family since one brother is younger to me. I feel blessed I had a huge family, with lots of love, fun, and responsibility at the same time.
2. Actually I feel jealous about you, especially since I do not have an elder brother… Haha.. So, let me hear about some of your childhood memories. Although it is long time back, I can still remember our funniest moments. My siblings and I used to wait until our parents leave home to buy some junk sweetmeats from the nearby boutique. In fact, we were spying along our home lane, to see our parents getting on to the bus and pass the message to each other, while positioning ourselves just like in a running relay. After bringing the sweets, we share and eat the food at the top of the nutmeg trees in the woods. Also, we were in the habit of dancing in haystacks all day, when the harvest was reaped in our fields. There is indeed a plenty of similar incidents.
3. Amma, tell me from where you studied and what your favorite subject was. I studied at Pushpadana Girls’ College, Kandy, and my favorite subject was English. I think that enthusiastic attitude drove me to be an English teacher eventually.
4. Then what happened? I am pretty curious to know how you entered your career life. After doing my A/L exam, I worked as an English stenographer and a typist at the Pallekale International Winged-bean Research Centre, in which the chairperson was the eminent scientist. Prof. Cyril Ponnamperuma. Then, I was trained as a government English teacher at Peradeniya Training College. What I love about the English subject is, it is very practical since it’s a language, and it can be learnt and taught by using many effective, fun activities. I got my first teaching appointment at a remote school in Thanneyaya, when I was 27 years old. Then I was transferred to Kadugannawa C/C Tamil Vidylayam after some time. There I worked for 12 years, and in 2007 I got my last appointment to Sri Dheeranada Maha Vidyalaya, where I worked until I got retired. My service tenure is nearly 32 years, and I am fully contented about my career life since I could serve an enormous number of students to find their dreams.
5. Aww..Wonderful. I of course feel exhausted sometimes just after finishing my degree. You must have had a lot of endurance. It is hard for me to imagine how I will get up each and every day early in the morning to prepare food to children by cooking, cooking, cooking repetitively… It is a struggle to foster a family, isn’t it? Yes, why not? It all comes with love, sympathy and compassion towards your own family. There are times I have got fed up, utterly exhausted and frustrated just as everyone who run a family responsibly. It is a never-ending cycle, when you get married and have kids. Meanwhile, doing a job makes things even harder. But, we cannot help it, and when you have meaning and find happiness in what you are engaged in, we do not feel fatigue.
6. By the way, if I ask about your marriage, how did it happen actually? It was not a love-marriage you know, it was a proposal. I got married at the age of 27. However, as the youngest girl in the family, I always loved to stay at home, especially with my mother. I had no notion to marry in a hurry. But, things happened in that way. I had a very close relationship with my mother. Therefore, we settled in a house nearby my ancestral home, and that is why we are residing here now.
7. What has been most challenging to you in life? I will say the hardest part was to balance my roles mainly as a mother of three children, a daughter, a sister, a wife and a teacher. It was quite challenging to find reliable care-takers to look after the three of you, and tackle every instance simultaneously to foster a family.
8. What are the traits you mostly appreciate and mostly disapprove in students as a government teacher? I am very fond of students who are self-disciplined and hardworking, and irresponsible and disobedient students make me frustrated. If students at present are compared with them of the past, I see a clear difference. To my personal experience, students at school nowadays have less respect towards teachers and education in general. Since, parents also interfere unnecessarily with disciplinary aspects at school, teachers tend to teach only the subject without paying much attention to teaching virtues to the children, which is quite pathetic.
9. What do you feel after your retirement? As I said before, I am fully contented about my commitments made towards education, students and teachers. However, I miss those lovely days spent with agile and innocent students. It made me mentally young when surrounded by them, although I was tired at the end of the day controlling noisy classrooms with more than 50 students, and making them comprehend the subject matter. I badly miss those moments and I feel it intensely especially due to the travel-restricted life style because of the pandemic.
10. As a retired teacher with a prolonged service, if you can give one last advice to the student community, what would it be? I always believe that the virtuous students must compose our next generations. Thus, I love to see students being enriched with good qualities and attitudes, along with their knowledge and skills. Thank you!
