Wanderers in Eternity – Chapter 3 (Page 1)
3
Lionel, Anula and Visaka
1969 – 1971
Anula met Lionel for the first time at the Peradeniya University. They had both arrived there as undergraduates in the arts faculty. Lionel had come from Nugegoda while Anula was a girl from a village called Nadun Oya which was some distance away from Anuradhapura. It would be accurate to say that from the moment they set eyes on each other that there was an attraction between them.
The first day that they arrived in the campus they faced the unavoidable ragging from the second year students. The girls who took Anula away for the hazing made her drink a whole lot of tea and then prevented her from going to the toilet for a long time. Within this time frame, they rubbed cow dung all over her face and her arms. Some girl spat on her face. Anula accepted all this with great patience. All this took place in a room in a boarding house. Several others who were brought there for hazing were locked in that room. Two of the girls’ braided hair was tied together and they were made to perform a dance this way.
When one new student talked back she got slapped. She was led out of the room. For a very long time, Anula did not find out as to what happened to that girl. She suffered through all this abuse hoping that all this would end sometime somehow. At times she wondered whether she studied so many hours sleeplessly to face such indignities. She wiped away her tears remembering her poor helpless mother and two younger brothers.
Lionel faced a worse fate than Anula. After filling out all the necessary forms to enter the university, he was captured by some second year students. He was led away along with some other newcomers like a herd of cattle. They crossed the bridge over the Mahaveli river and were taken under the boiling sun towards the Akbar Hall. Forced to carry their paper work and application papers on top of their heads, they were not allowed to utter a word or to smile.
If a newcomer made the vaguest attempt at smiling, he was given the command to “Cut the smile and put it in his pocket” and was asked the question “Hey devil, why are you sniggering?” Lionel faced this situation once. He covered his mouth with his hand and then put his hand in his pocket as he was told to do.
The group thus crossing the bridge like a procession were taken into a room in the Akbar Hall. Here, Lionel and three other new students were stripped naked and they became prisoners of the torturers. They faced many revolting situations. They were bathed with the urine of the abusers, and were forced to drink this bitter stinking liquid. Then they were made to swim in the same filth.