Gratitude and Humility extolled at Wesley College Prize Day

Speech made by Chief Guest Old Boy Kumar de Silva at the

Annual Prize Day of Wesley College on 14 June 2018

Rev. Asiri Perera, President / Bishop Methodist Church & Manager Wesley College,

Principal Sir,

Co-Vice Principals

Past Principals

Headmaster and Sectional Heads,

Teachers - past and present

Representatives from the PTA, OBU, Welfare Society and the Governing Board.

Well Wishers,

Parents,

Prefects and Students of Wesley

I stand before you here today extremely proud yet deeply humbled. It was exactly 50 years ago in 1968 that I was admitted to Grade 01 and that makes me 50 years a Wesleyite. On this stage I have acted, danced, sung, spoken, got prizes and even cried. This stage holds a vast ocean of memories for me.

Boys of Wesley, my journey in life was not an easy one. It was one with a lot of financial difficulties but Wesley College taught me never to give up. We were taught to Pray and Labour On.

As a Wesleyite I’d like to share with you my philosophy of life - the triangle I worked out for myself and which has made me what I am today.

The three points of my triangle are : Empowerment with Education, Personal Branding as a Wesleyite and finally Gratitude and Humility

EMPOWERMENT WITH EDUCATION:

Boys of Wesley you all have a diamond inside you. A diamond is a piece of carbon but with great value. When you are born, it is a raw, uncut diamond. You then go to

Monstessori, Grade 01, OLs, ALs and as you go on, you learn, you educate yourself. In the process you keep cutting and polishing that diamond which is yourself.

When you come to your ALs, your diamond has far greater value than it had when you were in Grade 01. It is cut, it has facets, it is polished but you don’t stop there. You would go into University, into some kind of higher education or vocational training. You learn even more.

You then get into a job, get married and have children. All of that too is a learning experience. Your entire life is an adventurous learning experience, very hard at times. But through it all you are cutting and polishing your diamond to give it greater and greater value.

Your diamond having great value means that you will have great value wherever you go. Remember that your education is something that no one can ever steal from you. It is all yours and yours alone and it will take you to great heights.

Remember also to follow your heart and do what you like to do. It is only then that you will do it well, very well.

My Father was a Science teacher at here at Wesley College Colombo. My Mother was a Maths teacher at All Saints College, across the Campbell Park. My OL grades very good.

The fashion at that time was to become a Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer or Accountant and so everyone expected me to do Maths or Science for the ALs. I was a freak and I chose otherwise. I chose English, French, German, Economics. Everyone thought I was off my head. I remember my teacher Mrs. Ranjani Fernando almost freaking out at my parents for agreeing to my wish.

But I knew myself. If I had done Maths or Science, I would not be on this stage here today. I promise you ! Similarly I let my two children follow their heart and do what they love to do. My son Rahul is in University in Japan and my daughter Anarkali is in her first year ALs at Visakha Vidyalaya.

So empower yourself with education. Keep learning until your dying day. You are the winner at all times. No one else but you.

PERSONAL BRANDING AS A WESLEYITE

Wesley College IS Revd. Asiri Perera, the Bishop of the Methodist Church. Wesley College IS Mr. Avanka Fernando the Principal. Wesley College IS also the President of the Wesley OBU and the President of the Old Wesleyites’ Sports Club.

Wesley College is also each and every one of you. Whether you like it or not, YOU are all the Brand Ambassadors of Wesley College.

From Grade 01 to ALs you wear the College crest on your shirt pockets. You are branded visibly. Everyone sees you and knows you as a Wesleyite. This is called Visible Branding.

You then leave school and do not wear the College crest on your shirt pockets, but you are still a Wesleyite. This is called Invisible Branding. You are more of a Wesleyite out of school, as an old boy, than in school.

Believe me, out in the world, you are first judged on your packaging and branding. Before one gets to know who you are and what your qualifications are, one first sees your packaging.

What is your packaging / branding ? It is the way you behave, the way you talk, the way you conduct yourself in both private spaces and public spaces, anywhere and everywhere.

A classic example is the recent Wesley - Royal rugby encounter. All Wesleyites were branded as thugs and hooligans. Boys of Wesley are we thugs and hooligans ??? NO we are not. BUT the behavior of one, two, three old boys made us all that.

The media went to town. Social media went to town. Some other schools also went to town. You saw the videos. We hung our heads in shame and Wesley College wept that evening.

So please remember Boys of Wesley, you are a Wesleyite in school and even more so out of school, until you drop dead. We pride ourselves in being men of Grit and Industry bound by one fraternal band.

Alma Mater is an old Latin word. Alma means nourishing, kind, fostering, nurturing. Mater is mother. Your Alma Mater is the Mother who nurses, nourishes and fosters you. Let us do this College proud and never ever let her weep in shame. One never makes one’s Mother cry. Hence the importance of your branding as a Wesleyite for life.

GRATITUDE - HUMILITY

Most often in life, people often forget their beginnings, their past and those who’ve helped in their journey up in life. This to me is unforgivable. To have gratitude and to show it to those who deserve it, makes a man a gentleman.

You don’t need to go far. Start with your teachers, your school. When you are old boys one day, come back to Wesley College and ask her how you can help. There is so much you can do for Wesley College as a young old boy, as a middle aged old boy like myself and even as a very old, old boy.

Gratitude and Humility are two beautiful words.

The story I’m now about to share with you, happened in this hall 44 years ago. No one knows this story except for my late parents and myself. Not even my two children. I got their permission last evening to make it public.

In 1974 when Wesley celebrated her 100th anniversary, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike was Chief Guest at Prize Day that year, on this same stage.

Everyone who got prizes wore new clothes - new shirts, new trousers and new shoes. Even their parents wore new outfits. After all this was the grandest day in the Wesley College calendar.

I was in Grade 07 and was getting about six or seven prizes that year. My parents couldn’t afford to buy me new clothes. So they got me borrowed clothes from a neighbour’s son, my age - long sleeved shirt, white shorts and a pair of black shoes. My mother sat in the audience that evening also in borrowed clothes - saree, gold earrings, gold chain, two zigzag gold bangles and a pair of slippers.

And so when my name was called up, I came on stage and collected my prizes from a beaming Mrs. B. My borrowed shoes were ill-fitting and loose and as I walked down those highly polished steps I slipped and fell and went sliding down. Most of the boys in the choir laughed out loud. I cringed in embarrassment and shame. It was not easy.

My point is that even to this day I’m grateful to that neigbour, Rohan Sourjah, whose borrowed clothes I wore, AND, to that All Saints College teacher Malini Indraguptha whose borrowed clothes my mother wore at Wesley Prize Day 44 years ago.

In as much as I am grateful to all my teachers at Wesley College for what I am today and with due respect to all of them, some of whom are present here, I’d like to single out one teacher who laid a foundation in my education and in my life which opened the doors of the world to me - Mrs. BA Fernando my French teacher.

Mrs. Fernando, you’re here today representing not only yourself but also my late parents. I don’t think even you ever realised that the French you taught me for my ALs, in the Bio Lab above the Principal’s office, surrounded by all those dead snakes and frogs and toads and horrible animals in jars of formalin, would take me on a journey even I never dreamt of.

I stand here on this stage today, also because of you. The French you taught me 40 years ago, opened the doors of the world to me. I am grateful to you until my dying day

Boys of Wesley my triangle of Empowerment with Education, Personal Branding as a Wesleyite and finally Gratitude and Humility has never gone wrong for me. It won’t go wrong for you either.

As I close now, I’d like to leave with you three lines that were said on this same stage at around 5pm on Monday 15 January 1962 exactly 56 years ago. These were lines said by Arthur Shelton Wirasinha at his induction that evening as Wesley’s 15th Principal. He went on to be Wesley’s second longest serving Principal after Rev. Henry Highfield.

Those lines spoken that day, more than half a century ago, are STILL relevant and pregnant with meaning even to this day ….

“Education does not end with the gaining of jobs.

It is much more than that.

Education is the training and disciplining of the entire person”

May you be blessed by the Triple Gem ! Theruwan Saranai !

Thank you

KUMAR DE SILVA