It would have saddened and even brought tears to the eyes of many an Anandian of my era to hear the demise of former Army Commander Gen (Rtd.) Rohana de S Daluatta. Gen Daluatta was a legendary Anandian who brought great honour to his Alma Mater. He was a highly decorated Army Officer, an Ambassador, a loving husband to his wife Jayanthi and a wonderful father to his son Radesh and daughter Radesha. He was a gentleman to his fingertips and valued his friends and never forgot his teachers.
It would have brought nostalgic memories too, to many of his colleagues and friends of his era, especially to those who were in the Ananda College Hostel. Dalu, as he was popularly known, was four or five years my senior. He was a great role model and a shining example for all of us. I will restrict this tribute to what I remember of him as a student at Ananda.
Ananda has produced many excellent sportsmen. However, I do not think there was anyone before or since who excelled in so many sports as did Dalu. It would be easier to list the games he did not do, as there was virtually none! He represented the College in athletics, basketball, badminton, cadetting and rifle shooting, cricket, soccer and tennis. He won his colours in many of these sports and captained the basket-ball and badminton teams and was a Lance Corporal of the Herman Loose trophy winning Senior Cadet Platoon.
For me, the most memorable performances by Dalu was at athletics and basket-ball. I remember him waltzing down the court from one end to the other, shirt soaked in sweat, bouncing the ball past the opposing players and putting baskets on the run.
I think it was in 1959 that we beat the much fancied Benedictines by just two points, spearheaded by Dalu.
During these basketball games, we found it most amusing to watch our diminutive coach Kadiramathambi in animated manner instructing the team during half time while Dalu the six footer with his hands on his hips panting down on his coach. Dalu and Maj Gen (Dr) Thurairaja were synonymous with Army and Sri Lanka Basket Ball for many years. Besides, Dalu found the love of his life in Jayanthi too, due to their mutual love of basketball.
1957 and 1958 were golden years for athlectics at Ananda having won the Tarbet Chalenge Cup (awarded to the Best All-round Team at the Public Schools Meet) in 1958 after being joint runners up with St. Peters College in 1957, under the guidance and coaching of KLF Wijedasa. Dalu was a member of both teams. Having been the runnersup in ‘57, Wejedasa had been confident that Ananda would annex the Championship Trophy in 1958.
The 1958 Ananda Athletics Team in addition to Dalu, included Priya Lecamvasam (Captain), Vijitha Wijesekara, GN De Silva, HB Jayasekara, W.H (Hema) Amarasinghe and Rohana Amarasinghe. Wejedasa was pinning his hopes on Dalu winning the long jump and triple jump.
Ananda now had to win the final event the 4 x 440 relay to annex the Championship. GN did the 1st lap, Vijitha Wejesekara the 2nd Lap, Dalu the 3rd Lap and Rohana Amarasinghe the 440 specialist taking the 4th lap.
Ananda was leading when Vijitha took the baton for the 2nd lap. Vijitha being a star athlete at the time, but us not knowing the drama of Vijitha being unwell, were now sure of victory. However, with about a 100 yards more to go, Vijitha was struglling and when he handed the baton to Dalu, Ananda had dropped to 3rd place. I still remember the look of determination on Dalu’s face as he thundered down the track with his neck moving to and fro, reminiscent of a Giraffe in full gallop
Dalu was slowly but surely gaining ground, and we in the stands started our cheering chants of “go Dalu go” and “come on Dalu, Dalu Dalu”. He did a superb lap and handed over the baton to Rohana Amarasinghe to win the relay and also the Tarbet Challenge Cup for Ananda.
It would not be wrong to say that Dalu was an accidental cricketer. In 1960, under the captaincy of Yatagama Amaradasa, Ananda was arguably the Best Schools Team - winning seven matches for the season. The team comprised star players, such as Para Polonowita, Sarath Wimalaratne, TD Rajapaksa and Mohanlal Fernando in addition to Amaradasa. All of them could have walked into any schools cricket team at that time. The wicket keeper was Kumar (Bada) de Silva. Kumar was a charming guy, a very good batsman, but tending to be a bit tubby. He was not nimble as a wicket keeper.
PW Perera who was our coach had been somewhat peeved with Kumar for dropping a catch or missing a stumping chance in the previous match. Then while at practices, Kumar missed collecting a swinging ball from Mohanlal. This was too much for PW sir. It so happened that at that same time Dalu was warming up for his athletics practice. PW Perera seeing Dalu had called him up and said, “I say Daluatta, you’ve got long limbs and can jump about like a grasshopper unlike our wicket keeper here, why don’t you pad up and have a go at keeping wickets. Kumar you give the gloves to Daluatta and you run two rounds”. Dalu donned the gloves and like every other sport, he took to cricket too like the proverbial duck taking to water. Dalu became the wicket keeper and a lower-middle order bat, while Kumar retained his place as an opening bat for the rest of the season.
Dalu’s other passion was cadetting and rifle shooting. Dalu, together with two other Anandians, Upali Karunaratne and Daya Aththanayake was selected as an Officer Cadet of the British Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, in the batch of 1960.
The other Officer Cadet was Vajira Wijeratne from Thurstan College. While Dalu ended up as Army Commander, Upali and Vaji retired as senior Major Generals. Daya Aththanayake had opted for early retirement while serving as a Major. Two of Dalu’s team mates also were Army Officers. Vijitha Wijesekara his athletics team mate was also a Sandhurst Graduate and cricket team mate TD Rajapaksa also joined the Army and retired as a Major General. Both Vijitha and Dalu did excellently well in their events while at Sandhurst bringing honour to Sri Lanka.
Fate also may have had a hand in Daluatta becoming the Army Commander and later Chief of Defence Staff. In 1960, a Ceylon Public Schools Athletics team was selected to tour Australia.
Three Anandians, Daluatta, HB Jayasekara and WH (Hema) Amarasinghe were in the squad. However, only Hema ended up going to Australia. Dalu had been down with mumps just before the team was due to leave and missed the tour.
However, if he had gone, he may have missed his written test and selection interviews for Sandhurst Officer Cadet candidates. HB too didn’t go as he had done his written tests for the University Entrance Exams, but as it was the practice in those days, prospective students had to face a viva voce -interview before the final selections were made.
When HB had sought permision from the then Principal of Ananda SA Wejethilake, the Principal had told HB, “Jayasekara, you can go to Australia any time after you graduate, but you may not have a second chance of going to university. So you better not think of going to Australia!” May be that too was fate as HB was a brilliant student and later a brilliant civil engineer.
Dalu obviously had sports in his blood but never any blood in his sports. He played hard but fair and showed us all what good sportsmanship is. He was kind and encouraging at all times and led by example. He was not just a sportsman, but in later life, was the “head” of a sporting family. His wife Jayanthi had also been a national basketball player, son Radesh excelling in tennis, badminton and squash and was also a good athlete in throwing events, while his daughter Radesha was a national squad swimmer.
Dalu Aiya, you were a great role model and an inspiration not just for your immediate juniors but for generations of Anandians to follow, as evidenced by the “hordes” of Anandians who followed you to our Defence Forces and excelled in their duties so well.
Thank you for the wonderful memories, but I thank you even more for being an inspiration and a guiding light to follow in my life.
Prasanna de Silva