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Rescued
by chance She had met
Kasun when they had gone on a trip to Kataragama. He was introduced
as a friend of one of Piyumi's cousins. Kasun and Ranjith worked
in the same bank in Bandarawela. Kasun had sat
quietly in a corner of the bus, throughout the journey. Not once had
he opened his mouth to join the singsongs. Neither had he cracked
jokes nor laughed at the funny stories of the others. But when someone
said something extremely funny, his lips curved into a slight smile. Piyumi on the
other hand, was the life of the party. Small and fair, she wore
her hair either in a ponytail or had it hanging down to her shoulders,
like a black silk veil. She was beautiful, beautiful all the more
because she did not seem to know or care about her beauty. But at Kataragama,
Piyumi threw off her happy-go-lucky self and became calm and sober.
She was careful not to evoke the wrath of the Gods within the sacred
precincts through a careless word or deed. The event she dreaded
the most was making a wish and cracking a coconut on the stone slab,
at the entrance to the kovil. She remembered how, on a previous
visit, the coconut had rolled to a corner, unbroken. She had considered
that year to have been the worst year she had lived so far. Now,
she looked around to see if she could transfer the responsibility
of breaking the coconut to someone else. Her eyes fell
on Kasun. With his hands in his pockets, and slouching shoulders,
he was standing some feet away from her, gazing at the children
who were begging for the pooja vatti of the pilgrims. Piyumi tugged
at his shirtsleeve. "Where are Loku amma and the others?"
she wanted to know. "Gone
to Kirivehera". "Could
you do something for me?" Piyumi asked him earnestly. He raised
his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders as if to say he did not
mind doing whatever she wanted him to do. Piyumi raised her face
to look at him, for he was immensely tall. She smiled, placed the
coconut in his hands and waited. Without saying
a word. Kasun stared at her for a moment, paused briefly at the
iron railing, and seemingly without much effort, threw the coconut
onto the stone slab. It smashed into smithereens. Then he turned
and looked at her with a triumphant smile on his lips. Piyumi felt
that nothing could possibly go wrong in her life, this year. Her letter
to Kasun was short. "Dear Kasun, I found this poem in the library
the other day. I thought you might like to read it.... She had copied
the poem, scribbled her name and posted it before she lost her spontaneous
burst of courage. On Monday,
Kasun was surprised when a peon threw a beautiful neat envelope
onto his table. This was different to the mail which usually landed
on his desk - credit card and phone bills. He tore it open with
great impatience and tried not to whoop with joy when he saw who
had sent it. He was happy beyond belief. On his way
home from work, Kasun ransacked the bookshops in the town for a
card to send to Piyumi. When he finally found one, he wrote her
name on it and pushed it into the red post-box standing at the centre
of the town. He hoped his card would make it in time for the Night
Mail. *** "Dear
Surein," wrote Nishomi, during the first break she got at the
OPD on Monday morning. She felt guilty about not having answered
Surein's letter all these days. But she hoped Surein would have
interpreted her long silence the right way - that she was no longer
interested in him. Things had been different when they had been
internee medical students at the hospital in Karapitiya. They had shared
so many thoughts, built so many ideals together. They had vowed
to cure the poor as much as possible. They had vowed never to let
money rule their work. But after passing out of Medical College,
Surein had changed. He had wanted to seek greener pastures in far
off lands. Now, he wrote from Sydney asking Nishomi to join him.
Nishomi shook her head from side to side as if to say "no,"
while she reread the letter. She realised she had lost Surein. Material
things like owning a house, buying a car - things they had pushed
out as irrelevant while at medical school seemed to have dazzled
him beyond redemption now. She was gentle
but direct in her letter. She asked Surein to give her up and to
stop writing to her. She explained to him that money was not an
important element in her life. And that she would never be happy
living far away from her parents. Besides, she was happy working
at the hospital in Bandarawela - curing those who had no means to
seek consultants at private hospitals. Nishomi posted her letter
on her way home from the hospital. She pushed it into the red-letter
box at the centre of the town and hoped it would be in time for
the Night Mail. *** For the thousandth
time that day, Nalina wondered if she should send an invitation
to Nilanthe. When she had asked Amal, he had in his characteristic
manner said, "Do whatever you like". Nalina wished that
for once, Amal might have said something different. If he had asked
her not to, she would have gladly cut Nilanthe's name off the list
of invitees to their wedding. But Amal had left her to make the
decision, and she found herself torn between wanting to see Nilanthe
at her wedding and not wanting to see him. She knew that unless
she posted the invitation card today, Nilanthe would not be able
to make it to the wedding even if he wanted to. Nalina wondered
if Nilanthe would indeed come to her wedding. She was honest enough
to realise that if she had not known Amal, she would have married
Nilanthe. But Amal had been there all her life. They had grown up
together, and had built an easy companionship between them, which
had gradually led to marriage. What Nalina felt for Nilanthe was
different. She was more passionate with him, her emotions more tangled.
By four o'clock,
Nalina had made a decision. She wrote an invitation to Nilanthe
and pushed it into the mouth of the red post box standing at the
centre of the town. She hoped it would be in time for the Night
Mail. *** Madura took
the mail from the station master at Bandarawela. He kept it with
the rest of the bags he had collected so far, on the iron chest
in the corner of the compartment. He had worked only for a month
yet, on the Night Mail, and this was the first time he was travelling
on his own, with the bags of mail. His senior colleague Rohitha
was on leave, attending a wedding of a friend. At eight thirty,
Madura had his packet of dinner, wrapped lovingly by his mother.
By ten thirty, he found it extremely difficult to keep his eyes
open. If Rohitha had been with him, they would have played cards.
Then he remembered the flask of coffee his mother had given him. Feeling grateful
for her foresight, he poured some coffee into the cup of the flask
and began to sip it. Suddenly, the train jerked forward. The flask
toppled. Madura was too late to grab the flask before it fell onto
the bags of mail. Sweat poured
down his forehead. Greatly agitated, Madura stared at the coffee
stain at the edge of one bag. He realised he had only one option. Apprehensivly,
he opened the bag, and took out the letters, which were stained
with coffee. To his relief, there were only three. He closed his
eyes, tore them into small shreds, and threw them onto the railway
track. *** Three weeks
later, the peon threw a small neat little envelope on Kasun's table.
Kasun smiled to himself. He thought it was a reply to his card from
Piyumi. But his face fell when he read the letter. "Dear Kasun,"
wrote Piyumi. You have not sent a reply. Please forget the letter
I sent you..." Kasun felt
bewildered. Something was wrong somewhere. But, whatever this was,
he was determined not to lose Piyumi. He got up from his chair and
left in search of Ranjith. He wanted to find Piyumi's phone number. *** Nishomi frowned
when she saw the letter on her table. Surein had written again!
She could not believe how he could write to her after reading what
she had written in her last letter. She opened Surein's letter with
reluctance but decided to read it to the end and get it over with
as fast as possible. "Dear Nishomi, it has been a long time
since you wrote to me. Why didn't you answer my last letter?"
wrote Surein. "Never mind, because I feel all that I said in
that letter is rubbish. Forget about how I asked you to come out
here. You have always been right, money is not important and no
country is as great as ours. Something happened last night at the
hospital with one of my patients which made me realise all this
but I'll write to you about it later. All I wanted to tell you right
now is that I'm coming back. We'll live
in Bandarawela or wherever you like for the rest of our lives -
that is, if you agree to marry me. Surein." Nishomi stared
at the letter. He mentioned nothing about receiving her last letter.
And he was coming back. He was hers once more. How marvellous! *** On the day
of her wedding, Nalina wished desperately she had not posted the
invitation to Nilanthe. She wanted to break free from the past.
She decided that from now on she would share everything in her life
with Amal, she would love him, look after him and be the best wife
in the whole wide universe to him. She did not want Nilanthe to be a part of this new life she would begin from tomorrow. With a beating heart, she scanned the faces of the guests at her wedding, and sighed with relief. Nilanthe was not there. Hello
out there Dear sweety
buddy Madush, My dear
Siraj, Dearest
Pradeepa, Dearest
daughter Shani, To Venura To Himali
Buddika, To my loving
Changa Education
is the key Born in the
island of Kayts, not exactly in the lap of luxury, Shelvan Kannuthurai
would be the perfect contender to appreciate the value of a proper
education. Despite many difficulties, his parents managed to send
him abroad, at 17, to Dublin, Ireland. Being totally unfamiliar
with the English language, he faced even more problems due to the
complex Irish English accent. Joining the
University of London, Shelvan received his Bachelor's Degree in
Avionics, which deals with the control of aircraft. He followed
this up with a Master's Degree in Control Systems. Coming from
surroundings that wouldn't usually permit young people to venture
overseas, his present success should be largely attributed to his
determination to succeed. In 1991, during the height of the ethnic
crisis in Sri Lanka, his family migrated to Canada. Joining them
and staying on, he is now a Canadian citizen. "I always
loved mathematics and I also love to teach. I was happiest when
sharing my knowledge with others, so I thought why not get involved
in it on a bigger scale," said Shelvan. Today, he is the President
and CEO of the Canadian College of Business and Computers (CCBC).
Having just about 100 students initially, and doing all the teaching
by himself, the college now has almost 400 students and some 35
staff members. Situated in Toronto, a city where about 55% of the
population are outsiders, CCBC is largely multi-cultural, with students
coming from countries such as India, Korea, Japan, Philippines,
Taiwan and Sri Lanka. Founded in
1996, the campus has no age limit when enrolling students, but holds
an aptitude test that they are required to sit, before entry. But
according to Shelvan, there is one factor that would be appreciated.
"The main criteria to enter this college is to have the correct
attitude. If their attitude is positive, we have room for them at
CCBC." This being
his second visit for the year, he was here enrolling local students
to CCBC. The requirements essential for these students vary with
age. While for some, the results of the Ordinary and Advanced Level
Examinations were adequate, a Bachelor's Degree was needed for the
older candidates. Sitting for the CCBC aptitude test was essential,
and the enrolling was done at the BMICH. About 40 local students
were chosen for this batch, while about 15 will be receiving scholarships
that range between 5000 and 9000 dollars. "The start
date for each semester will be every two months so that it would
be more flexible for foreign students. Since the beginning of each
term differs in each country, by having regular start dates, we
could accommodate more students," explained Shelvan. So far, the
majority of the Sri Lankan students enrolled have been Tamil and
Muslim. "But in this time of peace, we would like to have more
Sinhala students coming to study with us at CCBC," he added.
One of the
main initiatives of the Canadian College of Business and Computers,
along with another education provider, E-studies.com, is to deliver
education on-line to a huge portion of African students. For this,
they have the support of G8 governments in many ways. For instance,
about 5000 G8 universities would be donating a subject each, for
this programme. Thus, these students would be able to study on-line
and receive degrees from reputed universities, while living in their
own country. The plan is to reach out to approximately 10 million
African students each year. "But there
is one problem concerning this on-line programme," says Shelvan.
"If any student were to have a query, they would have to get
in touch with the Toronto based support centre. But due to the time
differences in each region, the support we can give them is limited."
To counter
this problem, CCBC and E-studies.com have come up with a solution
through which they would be setting up more support centres. Added
to the one in Toronto, two more will be set up in Sri Lanka and
Senegal, followed by one in Fiji. So, how did
he achieve such success in a foreign country? Says Shelvan Kannuthurai,
"Education is the key." |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
which
seemed to have been written just for her, she made up her mind to
send it to him, without daring to think of the consequences.
