Irene's Stories

 

Warnakulasuriya Juwanwarnage Aloysious Fernando

By Irene Sriwardhana

Although my father was not a teacher, he was an interesting character with different talents, that I am proud to write about. However I can categorise him a vocational teacher instead. My father was born in Katuneriya, in1914 as the only child in his family. He was 91 when he left us in 2005. His name is Warnakulasuriya Juwanwarnage Aloysious Fernando. Though he had few nicked names as "Aloy Baass" for some and "Aloy Iya" for others. For his workforce he was favourite "Baass Un-nahe" forever. No matter however they called him, for me, he was my beloved father.
He started his education at Katuneria primary school from kindergarten to year 8. To be a teacher during that period one had to study, from year one to year 8 three times as the missionary schools were the established education system of the era. My father was very good in mathematics and he did his studies three times from year one to year eight but towards the end of the third time, he changed his mind to be a 'Roman Catholic Priest' instead of a teacher. He had been a very pious and religious person not by mere words but by his own acts until he passed away in 2005. (When I was young every evening, the whole family used to sit together and pray, no one was allowed to escape. Being the youngest child in the family sometimes I was allowed to have an early night). He was very talented person in music, not only used to sing melodies but to play quite a few musical instruments including, accordion, Serpina and Mouthorgan by listening. He was lucky enough to possess them all. I still remember his accordion until it was given away to one of his close relatives despite my will against it. When he was a teenager, he started going to the church house to discuss about his ambition with the chief Priest (during those days priests were foreigners) who was at Katuneriya Church. Though he didn't get a positive response, the attitude towards his request was not negative either. He kept on bugging the Chief Priest, however, every time he used to get a different kind of response. Amidst everything, he missed 'Teaching final exam' in the hope of becoming a priest. He used to start the day by attending the morning mass and spending most of his time doing activities at Church. He was reluctant to allow his strong ambition faded away. To make the matters harder for him, he lost his companion and friend who happened to be his dad to an illness. My father and his mother then moved in with his mother's older sister, who used to live in Wennappuwa. He then started attending morning mass at Wennappuwa church and started having discussions with the priest about his ambition. The only response he had was "Consider other options", but my father only had one objective in his mind. My grandmother, my father's mother got married again few years later after she became a widow. My father was not impressed, therefore he decided to stay with his mother's elder sister but my grandmother moved away with her new husband to a remote village in Kurunegala. There she had a boy and a girl in her second marriage. So my father had a half brother and a sister whom he loved and taken care of. After a while her second husband passed away. My dad then made an effort to visit his mother, half brother and sister as much as he could until she passed away in July 1988. Anyway, one morning he was coming back from the church after attending the mass and halfway through his way home, he got beaten by a bunch of kids slightly older than him. (There were no roads like today, walking through coconut growth or through lands by jumping over fences or walking through boundaries were the ways). When he was limping and walking slowly with a swollen and bleeding face he met a kind hearted man who took pity on him and took my father to his near by home. He cleaned my father's face, made him comfortable and offered breakfast. My father had breakfast and thanked the people who treated him kindly and went home. He found the people who helped him were very kind. There he met a pretty girl and got married to her later in his life. By then he was working as an apprentice to a builder who happened to be his uncle. He then became a builder. All his ambitious plans took a different turn. With his excellent mathematical skills lead him in the directions of architecture. Since then he did tremendous architectural designs in the area where he lived as well as far and wide the country. Funnily enough because of his bonds with the church remained the same and majority of his work were based on churches, namely Wennappuwa, Gangoda, Dummaladeniya, Katupotha, Kurunegala, Kattimahana,Kirimatiyana, Bandirippuwa, Nainamadama, Thalawila, Nabiriththankadawala and many more. Massive project of a modern two story residential property was designed and built in early 60s in Wennappuwa for the first time and it remains intact until today. For the first time he designed and built a complete tank to soak coconut husks to obtain coconut fibre in mid 60s, in Wennappuwa. It was a massive project, we all visited the site and stayed over night while he was doing the concrete base manually with his team. It was a very difficult task. The owners were very impressed because the temporary tanks used to collapse very often and they had to remove soil before refilling as well as when there was heavy rain. I was a very keen admirer of his drawings. I used to observe him doing his work. I didn't understand a single word of "Front elevation" or "side elevation" but enjoyed the end products. Though he spent days and days for his drafts, designs plans and calculations, He did not charge for his plans and estimates. He only earned his wages by his hard work. He trained numerous amount of apprentice in the field and he taught each and everyone with his knowledge. Most of them started as helpers and got trained as builders, team leaders and developed their careers as builders. He must have sensed that he would never ever be able to pass his ability to any of his offsprings. Therefore he trained couple of clever people to do drafts and calculate estimates without hesitation. He shadowed them over the years until they were fully confident in their trade even by going out of his way. Though my mother sometimes mourned about it, my father never ever said a word. My father used to run few building sites far and wide simultaneously and teams of his workforce used to work at these sites under his constant supervision. Managing and monitoring work and progress of each team, monitoring quality and standards of work without cutting corners and assigning tasks to his reliable staff members, supplying best quality building materials for relevant sites, providing food and suitable lodging for the team were also part and partial of his responsibilities. Without having any form of current modern communication methods, using his bicycle and public transport (at later stage) he managed to supervise building sites really well. The completion were done on time and those who failed his benchmark had an earful. However, most of the time his customers did not pay him what they had agreed. In such occasions, he paid his workforce from his own pocket and came home empty handed. My mother had been a very active housewife and she used to run few businesses from home. She then stepped in and looked after the family. She used to make coconut oil at home. She used to have a small farm animals such as chicken and cows. All those things helped her make money. For me seen him doing his work spending hours on end sitting with his drafts and calculations seemed too boring. But my favourite things were the collection of pointed pencils, sharpeners, rulers and erasers. I used to snatch his pencils and got away with it, as he had a collection of them he might have not noticed. If he did, I am sure I would have got what I had bargained for. I still wonder where he used to buy those A3, A2 size paper during those days. At Christmas, his work force used to come in teams and visit him with gifts. My mother used to make delicious food to treat all of them. After treating them, he sat with them and played his accordion and sang together. There was a precious gift that my mother received from one of his apprentice lasted until recently. It was a mat weaved using reeds by his mother sent in as a Christmas gift. "ශුභ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා. 1969" was neatly and creatively weaved in to the mat using red and white reeds. That was one of the best gifts. Another precious gift is a wall mounted "grandfather clock" which is still in good working order and majestically sitting on the wall. It was an interesting time for me as a young child, but not sure if my older siblings enjoyed it like the way I did. In ordinary time, especially at weekends, all the family, my parents, three brothers, sister and myself sat together in the veranda after evening prayers and used to sing hymns and songs while my father and brothers were playing the instruments. That was a very happy memory I still treasure. Those practices lasted until both my elder brother and sister had their first teaching appointments and moved out to rural services in 1968. If my father was doing a project locally, he used to come home for lunch. He had a Raleigh cycle which he used to cycle to work. After a shower he had lunch followed by a very short nap. One such occasion, (I was about six or seven years old) while he was having a nap, without double checking I climbed on to a chair opened the lid of the sugar jar and carefully lowered the table spoon to scoop some sugar. Unfortunately I lost control and fell down with the big glass jar. He woke up and lost his temper and I had my fair share on that day. I can write a book about him, however, I am going to take a break here. I will continue later.

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