University days at the edge of a revolution

In the early days of university, the author, Jayantha Perera, sought employment at his uncle's shop to repay kindness shown to him. While working as a cashier, he encountered two young girls arguing with the shop staff. The younger girl, 12 years old, wanted a free bag of sugar after her mother was angered by the assistant's poor packaging. Despite the criticism from senior staff, Perera gave the girls extra sugar, which amused him and went unnoticed by his uncle.

Upon the publication of examination results, Perera won one of the exhibition prizes for being among the top three students. He applied for a special degree course in Sociology, which was approved after passing the English translation test. Two young women enrolled in the department as English medium students, and Perera participated in some of the lectures held for Sinhala medium students.

In consultation with the English Department, special English classes were arranged for sociology students. Concurrently, he studied the 'History of Social and Political Thought' at the Department of Political Science. The Professor, whose lectures were challenging to follow, taught the contributions of thinkers such as Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas, Machiavelli, and Gandhi to modern social and political thought.

During the second year, Perera lived off campus and shared a spacious apartment with six other university students. Once, while playing near the Mahaweli River, he nearly drowned. He participated in various research projects, including fieldwork with visiting researchers in rural Sri Lanka studying changing Buddhist culture and mass communication and development. His research efforts earned him a stipend and attracted the attention of fellow students from other departments.