There was a time, way back in the early 70s when Sri Lanka,
then Ceylon, had a Milk Board that provided fresh milk and yoghurt far superior
in quality and taste to anything that wealthy milk companies offer today with
all the technology and additives at their disposal. There was a Kiri Hala or milk outlet at the Royal Junior School. Children could order milk – unflavored,
chocolate or vanilla – and it would be delivered to the class at the interval. One pint of total goodness a day for those who
wanted it.
Time passed. The
local milk industry was destroyed by the ‘robber barons’ that J R Jayewardene
opened the country’s doors to without any qualms. Out went fresh milk. In came powdered
milk. There were soft drinks too back
then. Lanka Lime, Necto, Orange Barley,
Cream Soda and Ginger Beer. These gave
way to Coca Cola and Fanta. Things
changed and it’s hard to say if it was all for the better.
Today it looks like powdered milk is no longer chic. It’s the fresh stuff that is demanded. Maybe the consumer is getting wise. The problem is that there just isn’t enough
fresh milk to meet the demand – part real and part artificial of course. Maybe this is why Royal College has started
to go green. Maybe it has nothing to do
with the relevant political economy, but just a good plan by a good man. Whatever the reason, if there’s one drink for
which there is a big demand and a demand that’s growing day by day in Royal
College, it’s something that Royalists did not really talk about, let alone
enjoy in the canteen, during the 70s, 80s, 90s or even in the first decade of
the new millennium. Kola Kenda.
If you go to the West Wing Lobby of the main building of the
school you will see a process that school has not witnessed in all of the 178
years of its existence. It all begins
around 3.00 am.
It begins, as has been
the tradition in this country for millennia among the vast majority of the
people, with solemnity. Five men gather
at a small shrine, hands clasped, reciting the five precepts. Malinda Niranjan, H.M. Kelum, W.P. Rajindra,
Anura Chaminda, Badhawa Raju and Suresh Dep make the kola kenda team.
It’s not just rice and some leaves as one would find in
kiosks in all parts of the main cities and along main roads these days (again,
that’s not something that was in vogue in the past). It’s made of traditional varieties of
rice. That’s incomplete. It’s made of traditional varieties of rice
that are organically grown. No chemical pesticides or weedicides, no chemical
fertilizers. There’s madathavaalu, paccaperumal, kahavanu and
kalu heeneti. The mix is flavored by an ingredient mix that
includes rare herbs of immense curative value boiled with gotukola, pumpkin and radish. It’s thick. Wholesome. It has a
flavor that is very addictive.
When the Principal of Royal College Upali Gunasekera began
his kola kenda project some six
months ago, it was a first for Royal.
The Principal recalls those early days: ‘We made just one large pot of kenda; there are just 25 servings’. Now, on average, approximately 800 children
come for kola kenda, some in the
morning before school starts and some during the interval. It’s just 15 rupees per cup and that’s about
half the ‘market price’. ‘We do this as a service and don’t make any profit,’
the Principal explained.
They are finding it hard to meet the demand,
apparently. Malinda Niranjan said that
the work is all done by 6.15 am but lamented that there were days they just
don’t have enough to give to all those who come. But there are days when they make a second
batch, he said. Apparently it’s not just
the children. Some parents, come with their children to have a cup of kola kenda.
‘We also have roti
made of traditional rice varieties. For
most of the non-teaching staff breakfast consists of roti and kola kenda. That’s Rs 15 for the kenda and Rs25 for a roti. They say it’s their favorite breakfast meal.’
The idea has caught on.
Children in the first three grades get a weekly cup of green
goodness. There are plans to expand this
so that children in grades four and five will also benefit.
‘They love it.
Parents tell me that their sons show unusual enthusiasm about getting up
and going to school on their particular kola
kenda day of the week. If a child falls
in and a parent offers to make some kola
kenda, the child would ask if it’s going to be like what he gets at school
or so I am told,’ Mr Gunasekera says with undisguised pride.
There’s a story here that goes beyond providing a health
drink for school children.
Theoretically, 10 years down the line Royal would have produced
thousands of students who not only love kola
kenda but know its value as a drink that gives energy and enhances immune
systems. From there to wean the nation
of its powdered milk dependency would be far less difficult. After all, even in this relatively early
stage there are children in the primary school and there are very senior boys
too who wouldn’t miss their daily dose of kola
kenda. ‘The Deputy Head Prefect is
one of them,’ the Principal said.
The teachers are part of the story too. Renuka Vidyaratne is one of them.
‘I’ve suffered from migraine and gastritis. I found it difficult even to climb the
staircase. Everyone morning, when I woke
up, I would ask myself whether or not I should go to school. Kola
kenda changed all that. Now I have
four cups a day. I don’t feel
fatigue. I stopped all the medicines
I’ve been taking for so many years now.’
The cure of course is in the packet of ingredients -- the
rice and the particular vegetables. Those
who produce the kola kenda ‘packets’,
Mr Gunasekera says, have agreed to provide enough to feed close to 100,000
students in areas in the North Western Province that have been hit by CKDu
(Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Causes).
‘Unknown’ of course is qualified designed to facilitate the continued
poisoning by agro-chemicals. The
‘project’ if you want to call it that is therefore ‘national’ in both potential
and logic.
If Royal is ‘greening’ these days it is not only because of
the kola kenda. Upali Gunasekera has made quite a name for
himself as an advocate of hands-on learning with children getting involved in
school-gardening. Chemical-free
gardening that is. There’s a
comprehensive solid waste recycling program in place. Lighting will pay for itself in a few years
time courtesy solar power.
It is unlikely that the Blue-Gold-Blue of the flag will
change with one blue stripe being replaced by green. The school, however, is slowly but surely
being encased in a ‘green’ frame in thinking as well as practice. It is not hard to replicate. It’s not, after all, as bit a challenge as
getting dubious powdered milk multinationals replaced by local dairy farmers
organized into cooperatives.
Royal has taken a ‘greening lead’. Other prominent schools lose nothing but
would benefit much if they too went green.
Who knows, there might come a day when that pernicious habit-changing
putting-down-the-local question ‘thamuse
kenda beelada inne?’ (have you had kenda?)
would be replaced as it should be (and as Prof Nalin De Silva recommends) by
the far more pertinent dismissive, ‘Why do you look as though you’ve just had
powdered milk?’ It would amount to a
(healthy) greening of the mind and indeed, one might say, ‘a healthy greening
of the nation’ –an unshackling from incapacitating and subjugating colonial
ideologies.
Royal is going green. Will Ananda, Nalanda,Viskha, Sirimavo
Bandaranaike, Dharmaraja, Mahinda,
Maliyadeva and other prominent schools remain ‘mis-colored’ as it were?
2 comments:
Best article I ever read. Surely it will affect to not all the schools but the whole country in near future.
It is great to see Royal taking the lead from ex-BTS schools on Nation friendly issues and also to read aricles from a Royal product with the Nation's interest at heart.
Will the St. schools join hands and follow suit???
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