My Family

My Father:- My father's name is "William" his full name being Wijeratne Mudiyanselage William Perera. He was born in 1899 and died on 8th of May 1979. He studied in a small school at Ambatale, nearby village. His admission to the school is very interesting story indeed.

One day small William's father called him and told "Son, you were not to be seen anywhere in the vicinity in the mornings during last few weeks. Where have you been?" Then he replied, "I am going to the school". "What?, How are you going to school, you were never admitted to a school". "I am going with my friends...I am writing letters and reading". "Oh my god! any way tomorrow I'll come with you and meet the Head Master.

Next morning they went to the school (Ambathale senior boys school). The small boy offered a bunch of beetle leaves to the Head Master as a tradition and the father told him "Sir I came to admit my son to the school". "Oh now it is too late. He had been admitted about a month ago. Actually he came with his friends, I asked the name he doesn't know. Then I gave a name 'William' and enrolled in the register with the full name as 'Wijeratne Mudiyanselage William Perera' because I knew your name is "Wijeratna Mudiyanselage Joranis Perera". I gave a slate and a slate pencil.

When he passed the SSC exam (Senior School Certificate) he bacame a govenment teacher. He served in various schools in the island. Some of them are , Karawita senior school, Meegahathenna Central school, Maligakanda senior school (Colombo), Ambathale senior boys school. He studied and finaly retired from the same school, that is Ambathale senior boys school situated about one and a half kilometer from home. I too had my begining in the same school in 1949. He had a special talent for arithmetic. He used to conduct arithmetic classes for students prepairing for the SSC exam. Those classes were conducted at home and compleatly free of charge.

He was a very healthy and broad-minded person. He had never punished me or my brothers and sisters, and I too followed the same principles. He was a good swimmer and a diver. He was doing cultivation in our garden and the paddy field. The first time he was admitted to a hospital was just a few days before he passed away.( 8th of May 1979)

My Mother:- My mother's name is Withanage Dosihami Perera , born in 1903 and died on 28th of March 1978. She was a teacher and she served in some schools in Padukka, Nawagamuwa and Kotikawattha. She retired from Kuda-Buthgamuwa Junior school at Kotikawattha. It is about three kilometers from home.

She used to get up early in the morning and prepare the meals for us and go to school for the days work. After school she used to do gardning , adding fertilizer and water for vegitable beds. She never waste a time, always did some useful work. She was very healthy, I can remember she was in hospital twice only. The first time was for a womb operation and the second time was just a few days before she passed away.(28th of March 1978)

My Wife:- My wife is Kusum. We met each other on the 9th of Nov. 1967, while we were studying in the Peradeniya Campus of the University of Ceylon. It was the most unforgetable day of my life. We were on a holiday trip to the "Worlds End" organized by a society in the Campus. On the way in the jungle, we stopped the bus for lunch and everybody took lunch packets one by one and she took the last one. I was the last just behind her and she realized that one packet was short and she offered to share her lunch packet with me. Since then for the last 40 years we have been sharing everything. We married on the 24th of Nov.,1971. She gets up early in the morning and prepares the meals for me and our children and then goes for work. She was employed at the National Housing Authority as a Manager and retired few years ago. She has a very good talent for preparing delicious meals.                                                                                                       

      My Children:- We have three children,  one grand daughter and a grand son, the eldest is a daughter, Chathurika having B.Sc. General degree (got married  with Ujith - a network Engineer in Sydney, Australia ) ; and the second , son is Gaurika having a Degree in Computer System Design. He is employed in a software company as an Engineer of System Designing. The youngest daughter, Thilini.    admitted to SLIIT (Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology), after  passed her GCE(Ad.Level). Later she has done CIMA and employed as an accountant. All of them having a computer background since 1984, as I bought SINCLAIR-SPECTRUM+ 48kb micro-computer in 1984 and I programmed some Educational software for them using the BASIC language.

Edited: Thursday, September 22, 2011