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The Nalanda building stands witness to the formation of such a remarkable OBA
It was in the mid 1970’s that a young set of past students of Nalanda, felt they could be of more benefit to the school if they could break the stringent formalities and to direct their youthful energies towards the progress of their alma mater - Nalanda Vidyalaya. Three dynamic graduates who had just passed out from the University of Peradeniya got together to brainstorm to find new ways of binding the schoolboys to the school for the rest of their lives, even after completing their school careers.
A brilliant idea of forming a separate association giving authority to the young past students was discussed. Hence, the trio met the then Principal of Nalanda, Sugunadasa Athukorala (one of the few divergent thinkers who always had been an out of the box thinker) to seek his blessings and approval to form an Alumni of Young past students. Athukorala, who always had been promoting new ideas willingly gave his consent to go ahead. The trio then approached the Ananda Principal of that time, Colonel G.W. Rajapaksha, to get an idea of how the Ananda Junior League operated and it was found out that the Ananda Junior Old Boys’ League was a part of the Ananda OBA. As the Nalanda trio thought it would be best to be independent they decided on a separate organisation, hence the Nalanda Junior Old Boys’ Association was formed. Thus, Nalanda was making another milestone by having an Independent Junior Old Boys’ Association probably for the first time in a Sri Lankan school - on the 7th of January 1975.
Initially they had to face a myriad of challenges which mainly came from the seniors, but the Principal stood strong and supported these three young dynamic old boys – Susantha Abeysekera, Sam Samarasinghe and I.V Hemachandra. The first meeting of this association was held inside a classroom inviting the young past students who had come to watch Nalanda playing a cricket match with St. Peters at Campbell Place. These young set of past students, numbering 25 were the first set of members of this largely expanded Alumni of which the membership has now grown into a colossal figure. The first AGM was held on the 1st February of 1975, and the first office bearers were – Susantha Abeysekera -President, Sam Samarasinge -Secretary, I.V Hemachandra - Assistant Secretary and Ananda Sumathipala Mallawarachchi - Treasurer. The unique feature of their constitution was the age limit for main office bearers to be eligible to get elected and no one above the specified age limit could hold office. Thus, encouraging the youth to take leadership and ensuring perpetual succession. Also giving freedom to members to express themselves and every succinct suggestion of theirs were considered and discussed giving importance to each and every idea of a member, ensuring that no one is left behind.
Membership of this association has grown across the globe and the regional organisations representing past Nalandians in different countries operate in affiliation with the main body Nalanda Junior OBA (NJOBA)This Association has grown within the ethos that were built over the 50 years. The hallmark of the organisation was its openness to accept any Nalandian to its membership irrespective of their standing in society. This Alumnus is represented by a set of varied cross sections of the Sri Lankan society ranging from top NASA scientists to the junior most office employee. All of them are equal within the precincts of Nalanda.
A mention must be made of the exemplary contribution made by one of the three protagonists of this globally expanded Alumnus, I.V Hemachandra since the formation of this Association to date. He has been present at every ExCo meeting and every function organised by NJOBA except during the days of his postgraduate studies at the University of London giving valuable advice to the young leaders of the Association. NJOBA started with a bang, and in a quick time of one week after the Battle of Maroons in 1975 decided to organise the first ever Ananda-Nalanda 50 over match with the blessings of the two principals of the school for the ‘Nalanda Junior OBA Trophy’. This they did in style, introducing a concept of the losing captain presenting the trophy to the winning captain. The winning captain, Sidath Wettimuny was presented the trophy by the losing captain, Anura Ranasinghe and incidentally both of them played for the National team, Anura Ranasinghe also becoming the first schoolboy to play a world cup cricket tournament. NJOBA continued organising this encounter for 3 years and handed over the responsibility to the schools to organise it.
NJOBA felt the importance of language education and hence they launched a project to construct a language laboratory. One of the dynamic presidents of this Association Akshin Punchihewa gave leadership to this project and he along with officials: Sujeewa Samarasinghe, Ranjith Perera, Sunil Jayasinghe, Varuna Ratnaweera, Kamal Deshapriya and evergreen I.V Hemachandra worked day and night to make this project a reality. Hence, a fully-fledged language laboratory was donated to the school in 1996 and it is now called the Language Centre of the school.
Using the limited space available for construction, on the request of the then Principal, Edward Ranasinghe, NJOBA constructed and handed over another two-storied building in 1997 which was renovated by NJOBA in 2022. On a request by the Principal, Edward Ranasinghe, NJOBA sponsored the revival of annual ‘Shakespeare’ drama competition in 1996 and Ex Nalandian Hiran Abeysekera - winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for best Actor of the Society of London Theatre in 2022, also acted in these revived Shakespeare Drama contests in 1996.
NJOBA created another first by introducing ‘GURU UPAHARA’, felicitating the past teachers by bringing them to the school premises and having a medical camp organised and conducted by the Old Nalandian Doctors’ Association, arranging a medical laboratory, vision/hearing testing and pharmaceutical facilities under the supervision of the same association. This function gives the past teachers an important opportunity to interact with their colleagues and past students which is followed by inviting the teachers to a lunch hosted by the ExCo of the NJOBA and a variety entertainment show. Every past teacher is provided with transport to and from their residences and finally dropped safely to the doorstep. Since the start of this worthy project in 1997 it has been continued annually by NJOBA, and celebrated the 25th year of the project in 2022.
NJOBA’s Flagship project is the educational exhibition – ‘Future Minds’ for children aspiring for higher studies. This too is held annually and it is a highly-patronised event. ‘Future Minds’ Expo is now extended to Galle and Kandy apart from their main event usually held in Colombo at the BMICH. It draws a larger section of captive crowd of youngsters who are then invited to take the services of the professional educational counselors. 2024 marked the 17th year in the progress of this unique project. Future Minds runs as a separate organisation affiliated to the main body NJOBA which operates on a corporate organisational model where there is a corporate management board to take strategic decisions. This year’s second episode will unfold at the Galle Town Hall on the 18th of January 2025.
Ranaviru Upahara is another NJOBA project to commemorate the Ex Nalandians who sacrificed their lives for the country engaging in the battle against the terrorists. This is also an annual event which has also been continuing for almost 25 years now.
Assessing the need for giving each and every child an equal opportunity to learn English, the NJOBA introduced a project titled Need for English Education Teaching (NEET) by inviting Professionally qualified teachers to teach and fine tune the linguistic skills of English Language learning students. This has become a very popular programme and NJOBA single handedly sponsors and organises this programme. This too is an ongoing project which is now 23 years since its commencement.
NJOBA has recently undertaken a project to harness Solar Power for Nalanda, using the existing buildings to place the solar power generation equipment. This project is being sponsored by the NJOBA with the assistance of their affiliated Old Boys Associations abroad. Already few buildings have been equipped with the power generating equipment and NJOBA is expecting to complete this project soon. With this in place Nalanda will be using Green Energy fully in the near future.
NJOBA in partnership with the other two main past students’ associations - the Nalanda OBA and Old Nalandians’ Sports Club has undertaken to construct a Building called ‘Centenary Building’ (to mark the century of Nalanda’s Founding) consisting of a four storied building to accommodate classes for education of Technical subjects and a state-of-the-art Gymnasium, of which the work has already commenced.
In addition to the above-mentioned contributions, the association accommodates each and every request for funding, students curricular, co-curricular and sports activities from the date of the formation of this dynamic Alumni led by young past students. Already there had been 27 past presidents who had given leadership to the association with Anjana Pradeep handing over reins as Immediate Past President to incumbent President Heshan Padukka making him the 28th President of Nalanda Junior OBA. As Nalanda Junior OBA celebrates its Golden Jubilee, they are ever so grateful to the founder of this first of its kind Alumni - Sugunadasa Athukorala, the Nalanda Principal from 1969 to 1982, with whose support, guidance and blessings this association was formed and progressed steadily.
Let the Nalanda Junior OBA have the Strength and the Drive to contribute for many more centuries for the ‘Progress of Nalanda’.
The writer is a Past President of the Nalanda Junior OBA from 1995 to 1998.
