Wenura : A Student Hero for Sri Lankan university sub culture

Wenura  Edirisinghe – A student hero

Once upon a time there was a child called Wenura. He lived in a rural area near to Anamaduwa. His father was a “sinhala wedamahaththaya” while the mother was a housewife. Wenura’s father served the poor people free of charge. They lived from the little income gained through their cultivations such as paddy, mung bean, peas, cassava, sweet potatoes and etc.  Those areas were very remote and underdeveloped without proper roads, transporting means, electricity, markets, good hospitals and schools and etc… Therefore people lived in that area were suffering in various means.

However, small wenura and his friends had no such problems. They were enjoying the real childhood. they ignored the difficulties in the area. For schooling, they had to walk more than 6 kilometers to the village school. Wenura and friends walked through foot paths in wild areas passing thorny and tough bushes and they used to play in the wild areas while returning from the school. At any season of the year, there were various types of fruits on the way they traveled. The kids tasted those fruits such as mango, cashew,Pera , “Dan”, jackfruit, tamarind, orange and etc. They did not care the dangers in the wild areas. Even those areas were the habitats of elephants, wild boars, and snakes like animals. But Wenura and friends seemed happy everyday.

Wenura was a clever student at the school.  The only teacher who alone preserved the school with limited classes for the attending few students, loved Wenura very much not only because he was a well promising but also he was talented in extra curricular activities such as sports. The child Wenura too loved his teacher as he did his parents.

When Wenura was at year three, the teacher decided that Wenura should be prepared for the year 5 scholarship since he was very promising student. The teacher met and asked the Wenura’s  parents to transfer him to a better school. How miserable! The poor parents were unable to provide him a better school and also Wenura refused to leave his friends, school and the village where he enjoyed very much. Though there were many difficulties, he loved his village and its people.

One day evening, all of a sudden, Wenura’s mother suffered with a chest pain. It was unbearable! 

At the moment his father was far away to treat a person. Wenura was thunderstruck with to do except screaming for help. He cried and screamed a lot for help. Few villagers came after a few minutes to look at the matter. They decided to carry Wenura’s mother to Anamaduwa Hospital. It was about 20 kilometers and they could resort to a cart to get to the hospital. Wenura was still weeping and walking behind the cart. He felt that the thorny routes were too cruel to make the long journey more difficult. When they arrived at the hospital after few hours harsh journey, there was no any doctor there. The only doctor had left the hospital after long hour works. The nurses admitted the patient, Wenura’s mother, and gave her some pain killer tablets.   On the following day, the doctor examined the patient and prescribed transfer to the Negombo base hospital for treatments. Mother’s chest pain got worse. She suffered a lot. The child Wenura was so afraid and was weeping. He explained his father what happened.

facing many difficulties, Wenura’s mother was transferred to the Negombo hospital

and small Wenura did not move from the mother’s  bed. Wenura’s father was able to get the assistance from a remote relative near to Negombo.

Meanwhile Wenura’s teacher had talked with a principal of a school in Negombo about Wenura’s education.

Everything was getting better. Mother’s health condition turned good. Wenura used to school in Negombo. Mother and father always encouraged Wenura to study hard. However, every suffering was printed in his heart and was nightmarish to him.

Few months later, with full confident, Wenura sat for the year 5 scholarship exam.

Fortunately, Wenura had passed the exam and he was enrolled to a leading central college in Madampe. From there he grew better and better. He used to write letters to his beloved teacher at his village school and his friends there. He explained his new life, successes, difficulties, how much he missed them, and the difference of the surrounding from the village. He remembered the suffering of the villagers. He wanted to save his beloved ones. But what he could do for it. Who were responsible? It was Unjust!

With all those feelings, Wenura continued studying and scored best at GCE O/L in District level. He was admitted to the Royal College Colombo. He sooner attracted many teachers and friends to praise him. His determination and dedication proved he was a real promising student. During his stay in Colombo, Wenura recognized the huge differences between country side and urban area. All the opportunities were gathered in urban area while nothing was available to poor people in villages. Nobody cares poor people. They were just suffering and only suffering.  Wenura always talked about these matters with his new friends. He explained his experiences in his village and how those unmerited people suffered due to underdevelopment.   

Oh! How fortunate it was!  Wenura was able to score highest as the island’s 1st in A/L Science stream. It was a new record in the Royal College. It pledged him a prosperous future.  Wenura’s mother and father were at the extreme of happy. 

*****************************************

visit my personal blog site www.blogs.magodiya.com

Wenura was awarded by the President of Sri Lanka for his excellent achievement and personally wished him a good luck.

Wenura was enrolled to the Medical Faculty of the Colombo University.

{{That era in the Sri Lanka was ruled by the devils or the dirty politicians for money they were ready to sell even their mothers. Since the case was like that, poor people were subject to be burdened by each and every rich. The government’s policy was to sell all the properties owned by the public to the foreigners. Privatization was the only Mantra for them. Some educated people and some young students in higher studies had long understood and rejected the undesirable economic policies. For that they engaged in protests campaigns and other various ways to express their excessive repugnance over the worsening of the country’s situation.   The governing party was paid a dumb ear to their voices and unleashed unethical unlawful and inhuman violence on the alternative ideas. Many educated people left the country in search of political asylum. Some were killed. Certain leftist political; parties had been brutally suppressed and that created a huge unease to erupt. Some fractions of university students were among them. A wild law had entangled the whole country. }}

//
//

Educated social students were always keen on public affairs. They had a better understanding on what our country needed and what not. The Interuniversity Student Federation (IUSF) was the only significant students group that coordinated the students in almost all the universities. The convener of the IUSF then was Thrima Vithana, a highly talented and motivated medical student at the Medical Faculty of University of Colombo. He had been the best performer (Batch top) for a few times in the faculty.  However the need of the hour of the country requested a highly motivated & knowledgeable leader for the country’s student Diaspora to lead them to save the country’s future for her future generations. Thrima was the one who could satisfy that demand.

The immediate requirement was to protect the Free Education system. The government had established a private medical faculty at Ragama. Students had been dedicating themselves to prevent that. Each and every leader of the IUSF was killed by the government’s brutal killers but Thrima did not reject accept the leadership. He leaded the university students.

Thrima was a senior room mate for Wenura and he had a specific faith and love to Thrima brother especially Thrima’s opinions and hopes deeply printed in his heart. He believed that Thrima like people can save the down trodden village people. Wenura was childish compared to Thrima. He some times was unable to think of such a personality. If Thrima forget all those things and studied a bit more, he could have been the best specialist doctor for the country. And Thrima’s family and few generation could be made rich if he worried of them. But Thrima worried not for him but for the poors of whole country.

Thrima used to travel each and every university for meetings and discussions and sometimes Wenura too were accompanied as he was insisting to go with him. Wenura began expressing his ideas in general students’ meetings. His fluency and clarity along with genuineness and faithfulness in his speeches attracted much more students who were reluctant to join them due to the fear of death. Colleagues loved him with fullest respect for his vision and mission.   

Those days, thugs and hooligans were perpetrating according to the brutal agenda given by the political criminals. Some days there were showers of bullets to the university hostels and another day unethical   and unlawful raids with harassments. However they were general to the students then. Burnt and half burnt young bodies could be seen each and every morning.