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The Island newspaper of Monday November 10 carried a supplement page on the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies’ (BCIS) Convocation 2025, which was held that afternoon in the presence of its chairperson, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge. Feminist social analyst Priyanthi Fernando is now the Executive Director /BCIS.

Keynote speaker at the 2025 Convocation was distinguished Ms. Shalini Randeria: born in Washington DC, brought up in Mumbai and New Delhi, and alumnus of the Universities of New Delhi, Oxford and Heidelberg. She earned her PhD from the Free University of Berlin and is tenured as a professor of anthropology and sociology at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.

The supplement noted a very significant achievement: fifty years of successful service to the nation; not only intellectual but social too. The write-ups in the paper carried me back in memory almost four decades to when I was a student of the one year post graduate diploma course in international relations. This was in the latter part of the 1980s. I had registered for my external MA in English at the University of Peradeniya; external because I had been a frivolous teenager in my senior secondary school years and failed to enter university for either a medical or BSc degree.

Married and mother of two children I got the urge to study and thus my external BA and an idea to obtain an MA. The unrest in Sri Lanka thwarted my ambition. I had to travel to Peradeniya to meet my supervisor, Prof Ashely Halpe. The last time I had gone to Peradeniya the train journey was from 7 am to noon; the train crawling slower than even my walking speed. The lines were suspected of being mined by terrorists. That Saturday as I prepared to go, my second offspring cried, so scared was he for my safety. So I phoned Prof Halpe and instead of offering a lie as excuse such as being ill, I told him the truth. “Then give up your idea” he said. I obliged.

This preamble is long but necessary to background my one year of delight cum application at the BCIS. Mentally frustrated, I applied to the BCIS. Ray Forbes was its most efficient head then. First adventure was at the entrance exam. I found I was seated too low to comfortably write my answers. Ray was exam supervisor. I asked for a cushion to sit on and he gave me a hard bound, large dictionary.

I passed. And thus about 20 of us were in that BCIS class. We had excellent lecturers and classes on weekdays and Saturday mornings. We were a very mixed lot from me, a librarian/housewife, two young girls, others including an Air Vice Marshall who commanded the Sri Lanka Air Force, a high ranking army officer and an attorney-at-law from the Employers’ Federation who took down notes on bus tickets! He also did not walk up at our convocation to receive his certificate from the chief guest – Prez JRJ! His manner of protest against the government or JR himself.

An outspoken young man – Epa – was a mystery: no job, no known background, no meals taken on a two session Saturday unless invited by me to accompany me home for lunch or the army officer who took pity on him.

One of the lecturers was from the Attorney General’s Department and an exception to the lecturing faculty. He came with a large file open, dictated notes and did not tolerate any questions being asked; no discussions whatsoever. Once the Air Vice Marshall very politely asked a relevant question. Crushing answer: “No time for questions. I have to get through this entire file of notes.” Up shot Epa. “I will not copy anymore useless notes.” He dropped his notebook on the floor and walked out of the class.