Grandma and the cane

Grandma and the cane
by scorpion

It was 1973, and back in those days, which I call the spanking years, corporal punishment could be found everywhere. In schools, at your neighbor’s house, family gatherings, and of course, at home. But not at my home. Well not really that is. Sure my sister and I got the occasional smack on the butt from time to time, but we never received the good old fashioned, over the knee bare bottom spankings like some of our friends told us about. Our parents tried to use the more refined style of discipline, such as being grounded or having privileges taken away instead of the brutality of a spanking. Even though they were both spanked when they were younger. I guess they just thought they were being smarter than the other parents who blistered their kids’ bottoms at the drop of a hat. Who would think this could possibly change my life in such a dramatic way.

අවන්ති

by Colombo Caner

colombocaner@gmail.com

මම අවන්ති සෙනවිරත්න. මම දැනට පදිංචිය ඇමෙරිකාවේ මිසිසිපි වල. මගේ අප්පච්චි විශ්‍රාමික විදුහල්පති කෙනෙක්. මට අක්ක කෙනෙක් ඉන්නව. එයා මට වඩා අවුරුදු 10 ක් විතර වැඩිමල්. අම්මා ගුරුවරියක්. ඒ කාලේ අපි පදිංචි වෙලා හිටියෙ ගම්පොල, සිංහපිටිය කියන පැත්තේ. අපි ඉස්කෝලෙ ගියේ ගම්පොල සාන්ත ජෝසෆ් බාලිකා විද්‍යාලයට. මම ඉපදිලා තියෙන්නෙ පහුවෙලා නිසා, මම උසස් පෙළ කරණ කාලෙ මගේ අක්ක බැඳලා. ඒවගේම අම්මයි අප්පච්චියි විශ්‍රාම ගිහිල්ල.  අප්පච්චි වැඩිපුර හිටියෙ ඉස්තෝප්පු කාමරේ පොත් කියවමින්. අම්මයි ගෙදර උදව්වට හිටපු සීලක්කයි වැඩිපුර හිටියේ කුස්සියෙ හරි කෑම මේසේ  තිබිච්ච හරියෙ. අම්මයි සීලක්කයි හරියට එක එක දේවල් කථා කළත් ඒ කිසි දෙයක් ගැන මට උනන්දුවක්වත් වැටහීමක්වත් තිබුණේ නැහැ. මගේ ජීවිතේ ගොඩක් ගෙවුනේ අල්ලපු ගෙදර. ඒ ගෙදර මගේ වයසෙ ගෑණු ලමයෙකුයි ඊට අවුරුද්දක් බාල ගෑණු ලමයෙකුයි හිටිය නිසා මම ගෙදර කට්ටියට වඩා කිට්ටු ඒ ගොල්ලත් එක්ක. වෙන මොනව කරන්නත් කළින් ඉස්කෝලෙන් දෙන ගෙදර වැඩ කරළ ඉවර කරන්න ඕන කියල නීතියක් තිබ්බා. මම කරන්නෙ පුළුවන් තරම් ගෙදර වැට ඉස්කෝලෙදිම කරනවා. ලොකු පහේ වැඩක් තිබුණොත් ගෙදර ඇවීත් කෑම කාපු ගමන්ම ඒව ඉවර කරලා දානවා. ඊටපස්සේ අල්ලපු ගෙදරට දුවන මම ගොඩක් වෙලාවට ගෙදෙර එන්නේ හවස 6 ට විතර. බුදු පහණ තියෙන වෙලාවට ගෙදර හිටියෙ නැත්නම් අම්මට තරහ යන නිසා තමයි කොහොම හරි ඒ වෙලාවට ගෙදර එන්නෙ බයට.

Hiranthi's Education

By Colombo Caner

colombocaner@gmail.com

Hiranthi Bandara Senviratna recently received a scholarship to do a three year post graduate doctoral program in Pathology at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. This is a program many young pathologists aspire to get in to. Hiranthi first managed to obtain a first class upper pass in her undergraduate degree she completed with the University Of Colombo, Sri Lanka.  Thereafter she scored the highest marks in the examination conducted to select a candidate for the scholarship. She knew that her hard work as well her systematic approach to studies brought her to this position. She could not help been appreciative of the coaching she had from Ms. Devika Samarakone, many years ago. After failing miserably in her first two attempts, it was Devika who guided her to get through the Advanced level examination. In spite of the benefit, the chapter with Devika in her life was something she wanted to erase from her mind. That was a period she thought she was stripped of her dignity and pride. It was a period during which on the pretext of helping her in her studies she was subjected to humiliations, severe canings and punishments.

Experience of a girl caned by lady police officers

Experience of a girl from Karaikudi, India

Experience of a girl from Karaikudi, India

(From the forumjar.com, re-casted by Colombocaner@gmail.com )

This incident happened in 1996 when I was in the 12th standard in school. I was attending a girls’ school where I was an average student. We used to have an occasional smoke during the school interval. I was not addicted to smoking but it felt like an adult when we smoked. For this we had a place outside the school premises which is used as some branch of a government office. As we were senior girls there was no issue of coming out of the school during the intervals and going back in. One day when I was alone in our smoking spot I was caught by two lady constables who were passing the narrow pathway.  They told me that smoking in a public place is an offence and insisted that I accompany  them to the police station. I have seen people smoking in public areas before and after this incident. However because of the way they were admonishing me and telling me that I have broken the law I was thinking maybe they were not lying.