Tune into these Teens!

By Sandrina Abeywardena

Imagine a station that's open to a 24-hour request line - just for you. Cool question 'n' answer competitions. Non- stop music with no commercial breaks!

Someone once said "Dreams are extremely important: you can't do it unless you dream it." Whoever said that, never said a truer word. At least when it comes to this bunch of youngsters. Take a look. In oversized T-shirts, slacks and cropped hair they look like your average teenager. Teens with big plans and dreams about their future.

However this lot didn't waste time waiting for opportunity. They had a dream. They went ahead. They made it happen. For some of you, they may not even be strangers, that is if you happened to tune into 97.6 FM on December 26, 27 and 28 1999. In fact, you would find it hard to believe that they ran their own Radio Station with hardly any experience. But that's just what they did.

Meet the team behind 'Teen FM' that went on air round the clock for those few days in December. It all started with the Radio wave that took over and when Radio DJs became the coolest people in town.

That's when inspiration struck. If they could do it why not us? they thought. "We came up with this idea in September but only one of us had a little experience in handling broadcasting in school. So we had to learn through trial and error. Of course we had a lot of fun in the process and a lot of help from Mr. Wijesooriya and Mr. Nimal Pitipana. They helped us get the licence to air from SLBC and provided all the necessary equipment," said Michael Hayman.

Michael is a 17-year-old Commerce student from St. Benedict's College and one of the Teen DJs who master minded 'Teen FM'. His ambition is not surprisingly to be a Radio DJ.

So what was the biggest obstacle you faced I asked him imagining it to be finances. "Nerves" he says laughing. "As we got closer and closer to the time we were supposed to go on air, we all suffered from a severe case of last minute jitters. But as soon as we went on air, everything was fine. The whole experience gave us the confidence we needed," says DJ Michael.

According to him they've had a very good response from their listeners. The guys are pleased with themselves, so much so that they plan to hold another 'Teen FM' this year.

As always, the sweet taste of success will linger on making the initial setbacks seem almost worthwhile. This gang of friends spared no costs to give their listeners nothing but the best and opted for digital broadcasting because the reception is clearer.

With everyone pitching in, they managed to finance the whole project on their own. "Equipment like consoles and transmitters had to bo hired and these were a major drain on our finances. For the next "Teen FM" which we plan to do in August, we hope to be ready with our own equipment."

Plans are already on the way and you can be sure you haven't heard the last of 'Teen FM' or of the determined guys behind it. Watch out. They'll be back.

Lost

In the second part of his adventure on the Alagalla mountain, Udena R. Attygalle relates the hazardous journey down

After climbing off the craggy cliff, I looked up and said to myself 'never again' though I knew deep down, I didn't mean it. From the top, the mighty Bible Rock and Uthuwankande seemed tiny. Even Hantane far away seemed dwarfed.

On the ground we started thinking again. What route were we going to take down? We had to decide fast. Time was running out.

Somehow, we found ourselves heading down on a different and easier route, to the path we had taken up the mountain, or so we thought. We had to avoid the steep rocks for there was no way that we could actually make it down them, now that it was wet and slippery.

One hour down the mountain and we knew we had drifted far from our original course. In fact we were on another face of the mountain. Keep moving down- that seemed to be the wisest thing to do.

It was around this time that Shami had her first fall. "I was going down on my back because it was the most comfortable position to slide down difficult spots. But this time I slipped and crashed several feet," she recalled later. Jayanthi, above her was mummified. Shami had hurt her right knee. Yet in her own words "I got my act together and started out again."

The first thoughts of disaster dawned on us about this time. Yet nobody voiced their fears. Instead we hurried on through thorns that ripped our denims and slid, rolled, scrambled, anyway we could, down even the steep rocks that we had thought of avoiding at first.

I was the guinea pig again, virtually jumping off the rocks in an attempt to increase the pace, well aware that darkness was moving in fast. By now Shami had a shoe with no sole. "I could feel the twigs through my socks and knew the leeches couldn't be far away," she says.

The leeches were at this time, getting unbearable and blood was everywhere. Stopping to get rid of them, only gave the opportunity for a hundred other small devils to hop on.

7.30 in the night and we were still getting nowhere. "Getting lost on a mountain was exciting at first but then the darkness and the reality of having to spend the night in a leech infested jungle was scary," Jayanthi said later.

At last in desperation we decided to shout for help. The first time there was no response. Our hearts sank a mile. There was nothing to do but to keep on going. Then suddenly out of the blue or black as it was now, I suddenly spotted something shiny........... the leaves of a banana tree. Then there was a sudden noise behind me and I saw Shami down on all fours. She had slipped and was groaning. Checking on her we found out that she was limping badly. We shouted again and this time torchlight and a shout of "who's there?" echoed through the night. Saved! "Those words were the best in a long time," said a joyous Shami .

Nalin, who by now was a few paces ahead on a scout mission waved madly at the man who was approaching with the torch. J.L.A Seneviratne or Bandaiyya of upper Alagalla, Hatharaliyadde was our rescuer and soon safely ensconsced in his small hut we set down to the business of removing leeches, whole colonies of them. Even with two small children he insisted we remove the leeches at his place, and provided us with special soap and water.

The cup of tea that his wife made for us, Shami described as 'the best I have ever had in my whole life' echoing the thoughts of all of us. "It is with God's blessings that you made it out of the jungle, there are trapguns all over the place," Bandaiyya exclaimed.

And so with an oil lamp to show us the way we set out again with the directions Bandaiyya gave firmly etched in our minds. Bandaiyya couldn't come with us leaving his family all alone. Like a group of lost soldiers making their way back to camp,we trudged on- Nalin in front with the lamp, Shami and myself helping her next and Jayanthi at the rear.

Almost an hour later, the road was slowly been taken over by the jungle. This was not how it was supposed to be.

It became painfully obvious that we were lost; again. And then Jayanthi suddenly dashed towards the front, towards the light. Says she, "I kept looking back and seeing huge dark objects. It was like something was going to come and grab my neck!"

We had three options. Keep on going, try and head back to Bandaiyya's place or climb down a path we had passed. It was decided that we would go a little way on the path down and then head back to Bandaiyya's place. Nobody really believed that the path was going to take us anywhere.

But miracles do happen and suddenly I spotted something shiny again. The roof of a shed I was sure. "Civilization," I shouted. And then we heard dogs barking. A TV blaring. We were saved; again. The time read 10.30 p.m..

We had reached some estate line-rooms. Ever helpful, the inhabitants helped us get rid of the leeches. A cup of plain tea was greedily gulped up. Saththivale Krishan of the Alagalla Estate walked with us towards Poththapitiya. A call home and my parents would come and pick us up.

And so there we were having dinner at 2.30 a.m. on January 16, 2000. We had set out at 6.00 a.m. on the 15th. We were to later find out that many at the Wijeya Newspapers office had been woken up late at night and the police too informed about our disappearance.

Most of our clothes were soaked in blood and went into the dustbin.

My parents had been shocked but the lectures would come later. Right then all we could think of was sleep, blissful sleep.

Traditionally it is on the 4th of February each year that a few people make their way up Alagalla. This time is usually the dry season and a path is usually cut for the trekkers. Shamindrini Sivananthan (Shami) is a history teacher at the Asian International School. Although admitting she was on the verge of crying, she never did. Limping and badly bitten by leeches she was the bravest of our group. Her students have advised their teacher to watch the "Blair Witch Project!" Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala is an adventure-loving journalist at the "Midweek Mirror". She admitted that she would have broken down if Shami had. Yet it was her untiring enthusiasm that kept us going. A friend recalled her describing Alagalla as a "small hill" somewhere off Kandy; that was before the hike! Nalin Balasuriya is the computer graphics artist at the "Midweek Mirror". Never once did he lose his calm during the whole expedition. His confidence was very reassuring. His friends have advised him to take a few old tapes the next time round and use them as a guide rope! As for yours truly, I know where I'll be heading the next time I need some adventure. The beach. Nice and sunny with lots of people around and NO leeches. That is, at least for a while!

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