Memories of Arisen Ahubudu

by Richard Brohier

"The death occurred yesterday of poet, veteran teacher, linguist and artist Arisen Ahubudu following a brief illness. He was 93. A much sought after literary personality, Arisen Ahubudu started his career as a teacher and served S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia for a greater part of his teaching career where many leading personalities of the country learnt at his feet. Later he came under the influence of Hela Haula tradition and founded a new aesthetic language in the Lankan literary field especially in song."

(May 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Brief memories of Kalasuri Arisen Ahubudu – from an old Thomian Mr Ashubodha as I knew him in those days was my Sinhala teacher in my Middle School years.

I remember him as one always immaculately dressed in his ‘Ariya Sinhala’ attire which he wore distinctly and unashamedly in what was a very different college culture.

He would come into class and his first task was to get the attention of a bunch of mostly uninterested boys. I remember well his routine. He would first get everybody seated and then he would say "ath" - meaning place your hands together. Then he would say "pa" and we would obediently place our feet together; "thol" would keep your lips together and if that was not hard enough for us his last dictate would be - "as" where we closed our eyes and trusted him to look out on our behalf that no one else threw any paper spit balls our wWe would have to be in this silent position for a full minute or he wouldn’t begin his class. It was undoubtedly a painful one minute - but he could command it – in his quiet inimitable way.

Knowing too our competitive nature – he would draw three rows with chalk on the bottom edge of the blackboard to depict the three rows of the class. Without consciously drawing attention to it he would throughout the class keep adding marks – minus marks whenever one of the rows caused a disturbance of any sort and plus marks that reinforced good behavior. In this way he got us to keep each other in check without him having to shout above the class! At the end of the class there was always a winner for being the most attentive – and he knew how we loved winners! What a genius teaching skill to grab the attention of the entire class for the full 40 minutes!

Later on I went to him for Sinhala tuition to his home down by the sea in Fairline Road Dehiwela on Sunday mornings. I remember that the road in fact ended in his house. There he lived with the other two bachelor teachers in Mr Coperahewa and Mr. Jinadasa. They were truly inseparable and were commonly hailed as the three muskateers!

From my observation of Mr. Ashubodha I can say he lived simply. He dressed simply. He taught simply - but profoundly as a rare scholar who did not have to push his own barrow! He was an artist that drew deeply from the very soil of Sinhala culture and he was a wordsmith who through his association with the late Munidasa Cumaratunga forged the Hela Haula movement that sought to rid the Sinhala language of its Sanskrit influence. In fact his name change from Ashubodha to Ahubudu was I believe a part of that shift.

I can say that my Sinhala never did justice to his teaching skills. But I can say that he was one of the most unassuming yet influential teachers that made an impact on my growing years at STC. It is no wonder then that he built lasting images in my mind that are still vivid even today.

I can say, I am grateful for the fond memories of such a dedicated teacher committed to the cause of developing his students into the stature of the grown men we are today.

‘Ath’, ‘Pa’, ‘Thol’, ‘As’. Hands, feet, lips and eyes. I now understand today that his simple exercise reflected the whole person that he sought to influence in the classroom.

May he Rest in Peace!