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Home » Features » THE ROYAL COLLEGE ENGLISH MEDIUM 1961-GROUP

THE ROYAL COLLEGE ENGLISH MEDIUM 1961-GROUP

March 2, 2013, 5:59 pm

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The Royal College English Medium 1961-Group – a section of the RC-’61 Group - joined Royal College Colombo, in January, 1961.
History:
Twenty-six, or over 65-percent, of the thirty-nine members were Muslims, while the rest were Burghers, or those who possessed Burgher parentage, grand-parentage, or foreigners. Now in their early sixties, some have adult children, grandkids, great grandkids. Most of them retired from active service, except for one third strongly in harness. A Blog www.royal-1961.blogspot.com updates and preserves the group’s history.

l to r: Firoze Nathani, Munawwar Refai, Habeebullah-Moulana,
Ifthikhar Aziz, Imtiaz Sariffo'deen, Mazhar Ghouse, Lee Samad,
Delano Uduman, Firoze Sameer, Omar Kamil, Faizal Hathy,
Chaman Amarasekara, Navroze Asgerally, Zarani Sameen.
- GFH.

The predominance of Muslims and Burghers in this group was due to Sinhalese and Tamil boys being compelled to join the Sinhala or Tamil streams while the Muslims had the choice of choosing the English medium if they did not opt for either of the other streams. Most Burghers, utilized their entitlement and chose the English medium.
Sinhala and Tamil Mediums:
Of the 127 Sinhala medium members, nine have passed on, while 37 are overseas and the rest are on home ground. Of the 40 Tamil Medium members, five have passed on; four are based in Colombo and 31 or almost 90-percent are settled overseas. Every RCTM-‘61 member is now networked via email; a grand reunion in Kuala Lumpur or Colombo is in the offing.
RCEM-‘61:
At present, six RCEM-’61 members have passed on: Amal de Mel, Mohamed Noor Deen, Seymour Roberts, Abdul Rauf Moosa, Fareed Jaldeen and Imtiaz Hamid.
Twelve have settled overseas: Eric Manny, Beverly Paul, Lee Samad in Canada; David Loos, Rifky Mackeen, Don Michael Lloyd Walpola in the U.S.; Peiter Kriekenbeek, Fayis Lye, Roger Van Langenberg in Australia; Arulanandam Balachandran, Dr Shaheed Jawahar in India, Rafil Hamid in New Zealand.
Twenty-one are locally based: Moin Ahamed, Chaman Amarasekara, Navroze Asgerally, Ifthikhar Aziz, Mazhar Ghouse, Habeebullah-Moulana, Faizal Hathy, Fazal Izzadeen, Omar Kamil, Vernon Kern, Tariq Mahmud, Firoze Nathani, Munawwar Refai, Firoze Sameer, Imtiaz Sariffo’deen, Delano Uduman, Firdous Wahid, Hamish Woutersz, Izzadeen Zafideen, Zarani Sameen, Nazeer Zarook. Almost every member continues to closely interact via e-mail, FB, mobile and SMS text, almost on a daily basis.
Foreign birds of passage serving brief stints at various times were Kim Parsons from Seattle, Washington; Vinod Kumar Kalia, Ali Raza, Mukherjee, Chadha, from India. MS Javed and Banzil from Pakistan; Torge Erlander from Norway; David Ramati from Israel; Szebeni from Hungary; the Okonsky brothers, Albert and George, from Poland. Menon too served a brief period.
Varied talent:
The RCEM-‘61 Group comprises of a wide array of talent mostly at top management: garment exports, advertising, food processing technology, agriculture and agricultural economics, hardware and aluminium extrusion merchants, gem and jewellery craft, wholesalers and retailers, civil engineering, clothes-linings manufacture, teaching, graphic designing and calligraphy, musicians, cargo management, courier services, accounting, hoteliering, medical practice, politics, local government, the diplomatic corps, investment and insurance practice, sociology, property management, chemical/process engineering, R&D, HRD, telecommunications, bookstore management, financial consultants and advisors, banking, authorship and journalism, flower and foliage, ornamental fish exports, auditors, tax consultants, company secretaries, metallurgy, business administration, quality control, imports, exports and shipping, market research, stores management, electronic and radio engineering, school principalships, building construction, professional photography, catering and security.
Royal Primary School:
In January, 1955, qualifying at a test at age five, the group spent six solid years at Royal Primary School Colombo-7 under the Headmastership of Major AF de Saa Bandaranaike, e.d., and later HD Sugathapala, from Class 1C. The group was tutored by Ms EB Cronin, Ms Dorothy Perera, Ms HG Dissanayake-Nanayakkara, Messrs V Pingamage, ABC David and JE de Silva at RPS.
Within that period several departures to foreign climes occurred: the late Mohshinali Jafferjee Esufali (Pakistan); Pieter Leembruggen, Glenroy Stewart, Fitzroy Van Houten and Keith Wambeek (Australia); Tony Foenander and Bernard Solomons (U.S.); Liaquat Bahar (Indonesia, and now in SL); Rizvi Ghouse (U.K.); Direndran Perera (NZ); Yamin Ghouse.
In 1960, after sitting for a qualifying examination twenty-six students came over to RCC. Of those who sat at a qualifying examination conducted by RCC for outsiders, thirteen students came in to join RC English Medium ’61 Group from other equally prestigious colleges: S. Thomas,’ Trinity, St Joseph’s, St Peter’s, St Aloysius, etc.
Mixing Mediums:
In joining RCC under the principalship of Dudley KG de Silva followed by BA Premaratne, all students, were integrated and divided into various classes making a mix of Sinhala, Tamil and English medium students in every classroom. These classes remained only to mark attendance and learn the English Language, conducted by the class teacher. For the rest of the periods, those belonging to the English and Tamil Mediums broke out and came together into their respective classes to learn every other subject, while the Sinhala Medium boys were grouped into three classes.
The Good Ole Days:
RCEM-‘61 members on occasion meet and greet at key events such as the Royal- Thomian annual cricket encounter; the Bradby Shield rugby tussle; marriages of offspring and funerals of kin; when a member "comes in from the cold" with the dollars, generously hosting the crowd to a sumptuous 5-star breakfast or lunch.
At such grand reunions, classroom pranks with teachers are retold and re-lived, memories of the good ole days reminisced, present situations and past experiences discussed, conquests and defeats rekindled, to the joy of one and all.
- RCEM-SixtyOnews