The Peradeniya campus, in the telling by Thalif Deen, is a place where scholarship and satire mixed as naturally as monsoon winds and mango trees — a compact world of rituals, inside jokes, high-table formalities and the kind of campus legends that survive generations. The Sunday Times piece collects a string of such vignettes — from a mock viva that riffs on a nursery rhyme to a student who tested the limits of a hall’s dress code by appearing at dinner in nothing but a tie — and uses those moments to sketch a wider portrait of life at the University of Peradeniya in the mid-20th century. (sundaytimes.lk)
The University of Peradeniya is one of Sri Lanka’s oldest and most celebrated institutions, founded as part of the University of Ceylon and officially opened in the 1950s as a distinctive campus model blending British academic traditions with local culture. Its hill-country setting near Kandy, leafy avenues and a strong arts and humanities presence made Peradeniya a cultural as well as intellectual hub — a place where theater, music, student societies and formal hall life mattered as much as examinations. (en.wikipedia.org, colombotelegraph.com)
Peradeniya’s residential system — several halls of residence with formal dinners, visiting scholars and rituals of hospitality — shaped a distinctive social world. Rules about dress and decorum at lunches and formal dinners were part of that inherited structure: sarongs were discouraged in dining halls and a tie was expected for high-table events attended by foreign guests. Those conventions, products of a colonial-era university culture, set the stage for the anecdotes Deen collects, many of which hinge on a tension between decorum and youthful irreverence. (sundaytimes.lk, site.pdn.ac.lk)
At the same time, the piece is an exercise in selective memory. Readers should enjoy the wit while remembering that nostalgia compresses complexity. For anyone interested in the history of higher education, the article is a prompt — a delightful introduction that calls for archival work, corroboration and critical framing. That second stage — pairing laughter with documentation — is how these charming stories become enduring, reliable parts of institutional history. (sundaytimes.lk, en.wikipedia.org)
Source: The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka The lighter side of life at the Peradeniya campus
Background: Peradeniya’s campus life in context
The University of Peradeniya is one of Sri Lanka’s oldest and most celebrated institutions, founded as part of the University of Ceylon and officially opened in the 1950s as a distinctive campus model blending British academic traditions with local culture. Its hill-country setting near Kandy, leafy avenues and a strong arts and humanities presence made Peradeniya a cultural as well as intellectual hub — a place where theater, music, student societies and formal hall life mattered as much as examinations. (en.wikipedia.org, colombotelegraph.com)Peradeniya’s residential system — several halls of residence with formal dinners, visiting scholars and rituals of hospitality — shaped a distinctive social world. Rules about dress and decorum at lunches and formal dinners were part of that inherited structure: sarongs were discouraged in dining halls and a tie was expected for high-table events attended by foreign guests. Those conventions, products of a colonial-era university culture, set the stage for the anecdotes Deen collects, many of which hinge on a tension between decorum and youthful irreverence. (sundaytimes.lk, site.pdn.ac.lk)
What Deen’s piece actually says — a concise summary
- The article foregrounds nostalgia: Peradeniya in the 1950s–60s is presented as a “community of closed living” with its own values, jokes and rituals. (sundaytimes.lk)
- Entrance to the liberal arts faculty often required passes in European History, Ceylon History, Government and English; failure to meet marks could mean a viva voce interview. The author explains the Latin origin of viva voce (literally “with the living voice”) and shows how the campus used the shorthand “viva.” (sundaytimes.lk, merriam-webster.com)
- Deen reprints or retells a humorous piece attributed to Mervyn de Silva (writing as ‘Daedalus’) in which an interview board teases a candidate with the nursery rhyme “Old McDonald” to clue him toward the answer “Macdonald” (Ramsay MacDonald, Britain’s first Labour prime minister). The gag is delivered as satire: the candidate guesses “Mr Farm,” “Mr Old” and finally “Mr Macdonald,” prompting laughter from the board. (sundaytimes.lk, theguardian.com)
- Campus life included afternoon siestas after heavy lunches, students skipping lectures, and a culture of wry repartee — Deen gives a short exchange where Mervyn de Silva jokes that he came to a lecture for his siesta. (sundaytimes.lk)
- The article relays hall-of-residence legends: one student appeared at a high-table dinner wearing only a tie to mock the dress code; another final-year law student insisted on typing his exam answers and joked later about getting “honours in typewriting.” (sundaytimes.lk)
- Off-campus gossip and comic misstatements — notably an MMC (municipal councilor) mangling English to the point of public comedy — complete the cast of characters. Deen also recalls the American PhD students whose Sinhala learning produced amusing misunderstandings (the “Paang / Huka Paang” anecdote about bread). (sundaytimes.lk)
Why these anecdotes matter — what Deen’s nostalgia reveals
The social architecture of a classic campus
Peradeniya’s halls, formal dinners, societies and shared rituals created an institutional grammar — a predictable set of behaviors students learned and sometimes mocked. That grammar shaped social capital: knowing how to behave at high table, being able to recite the right historical facts, or having a quick wit in faculty company could matter as much as exam marks for one’s reputation. The article captures that texture. (en.wikipedia.org, sundaytimes.lk)Humor as a memory economy
Anecdotes and jokes function as mnemonic anchors: they compress complex social life into memorable scenes and characters. Deen’s piece is less an academic history than an oral-archive entry — a selective curation of the campus’s “lighter side.” Where formal records note dates and structures, these stories transmit tone, hierarchy and everyday values. But selection also matters: what’s funny gets preserved; what’s uncomfortable or shameful may be elided. (sundaytimes.lk)The colonial afterlife in rituals
Dress codes, high table etiquette, and the very language of “viva voce” are markers of the British academic inheritance. Deen’s anecdotes show students both adopting and satirizing those marks: the tie becomes a prop for rebellion in the streaking-naked-but-for-a-tie tale, while the oral-viva parody lampoons institutional pretension. These stories illustrate how postcolonial campuses inherit, domesticate, and sometimes lampoon colonial forms. (sundaytimes.lk, en.wikipedia.org)Verifying the facts (what’s solid, what’s anecdotal)
- The piece and its author: The Deen article appears in the Sunday Times and is a contemporary republication or reflection on Peradeniya memories. The Sunday Times page hosts the text and places it in the paper’s “Sunday Times 2” section. This is the primary source for the vignettes Deen presents. (sundaytimes.lk)
- Mervyn de Silva’s Peradeniya roots and career: He is a well-documented alumnus of the University of Ceylon (Peradeniya campus) and a major figure in Sri Lankan journalism — editor of leading papers and author of the “Daedalus” column. Multiple independent biographical sources confirm De Silva’s connections to Peradeniya and his reputation for satirical prose. That background strengthens the plausibility of the column Deen quotes or references. (en.wikipedia.org, dailymirror.lk)
- Viva voce: The term and practice are well established in academic contexts worldwide; viva voce translates from Medieval Latin as “with the living voice,” i.e., an oral examination. Academic guidance and dictionaries corroborate the use and meaning of the term. (merriam-webster.com, britannica.com)
- Ramsay MacDonald as first Labour prime minister: The punchline of the “Old McDonald” anecdote rides on the historical figure Ramsay MacDonald, who led Britain’s first Labour government in 1924. That fact is historically verifiable. The humour in Deen’s retelling is rhetorical, not historical revisionism. (theguardian.com)
- Hall rules and formality: University rulebooks and alumni recollections document formal hall traditions at Peradeniya, including expectations of dress at certain formal events. Contemporary hall rules published by the university and retrospective accounts of student life confirm that formal dinners and attendant expectations were institutionalized. That said, specific episodes (naked student wearing only a tie; the typing-exam law student) are campus lore — entertaining and plausible, but not independently documented beyond the oral/columnist record. These should be treated as anecdotal. (site.pdn.ac.lk, colombotelegraph.com)
Strengths of the piece
- Vivid color and texture. Deen’s selections put the reader inside hall dining rooms, interview boards and corridor chatter. The language is economical, warm and wry; it conveys atmosphere more than exhaustive detail. (sundaytimes.lk)
- Human-scale historical memory. By focusing on individuals (Mervyn de Silva, anonymous undergrads, visiting PhD students), the article shows how institutional life is built out of personal interactions. This makes the university’s history feel lived-in rather than abstract. (sundaytimes.lk)
- Cross-generational resonance. The rituals — formal dinners, viva voce, siestas — have equivalents in many global universities. The piece therefore functions as a bridge between local history and universal campus experience, useful for comparative reflection on higher education culture. (en.wikipedia.org)
Risks, blind spots and critical caveats
- Selective nostalgia can obscure structural problems. A focus on witty exchanges and banquet pranks risks romanticizing a campus that also navigated uneven access, language divides, political tensions and practices like ragging that later became the subject of serious criticism. Memory often preserves charm while softening conflict. Deen’s piece is no exception: it celebrates the lighter side but doesn’t examine exclusion or coercive hierarchies that also shaped campus life. (archives.sundayobserver.lk, islandback.lankapanel.net)
- Anecdote vs. evidence. Several of the best lines are memorable precisely because they’re improbable. The tape-recorder nursery-rhyme viva and the streaking-in-a-tie episode are entertaining, but their evidentiary weight is limited. In absence of corroborating documentation — contemporaneous reports, multiple witness accounts or archival records — they function more as folklore than verified fact. The piece correctly reads as reminiscence; treating it otherwise risks overstating its authority. (sundaytimes.lk)
- Colonial hangovers are presented lightly. The article invites laughter at the tie’s symbolic power, but it does not interrogate the deeper implications of colonial cultural retention and its social effects (language hierarchies, status markers, and gatekeeping in admissions and social access). A fuller account would weigh who benefited from these customs and who was excluded. (en.wikipedia.org)
- Language and translation pitfalls. The “Paang/Huka Paang” anecdote is charming but relies on a narrow linguistic exchange. When foreign students learn local languages in compressed ways, misunderstandings can become caricatures; relaying them without context risks exoticizing the ‘other’. Responsible memory-keeping benefits from noting the power dynamics of such portrayals. (sundaytimes.lk)
Practical lessons for campus historians and archivists
- Preserve oral histories systematically. Recordings, transcripts and metadata (dates, witnesses, corroborating documents) convert memorable anecdotes into verifiable cultural resources. Short of that, clearly label recollections as reminiscence.
- Cross-check colorful claims against multiple independent sources where possible: newspapers, hall minute books, alumni newsletters and faculty recollections. Deen’s piece is a springboard; the archives are the next step.
- Contextualize rituals historically. Explain the provenance of dress codes, oral exams and formal dinners — who instituted them, when and with what institutional purpose — to help readers assess continuity and change.
- Use humor responsibly. Archive and display the funny bits, but pair them with structural analysis so the archive doesn’t become a mere nostalgia chest.
How Peradeniya’s social rituals compare to other classic universities
Peradeniya’s mix of formal dining, hall culture and oral examinations shares DNA with older British institutions (the college high table, the viva voce examination). Many former-colonial universities adapted those rituals, sometimes retaining them long after independence. That continuity explains why a tie could signify respect or rebellion, and why an oral exam remained a recognizable rite of passage. Observers of campus culture will find similar contrasts — formal ritual versus student levity — at universities across South Asia, Africa and beyond. (en.wikipedia.org, merriam-webster.com)A short annotated reading list for readers who want to go deeper
- Contemporary university web pages and hall-rule PDFs to understand formal regulations and how they changed over time (for Peradeniya, institutional rulebooks and student-accommodation pages set out formal expectations). (site.pdn.ac.lk)
- Biographical profiles and obituaries of Mervyn de Silva to situate the columnistic voice Deen invokes; de Silva’s Peradeniya background and literary persona are documented in journalistic retrospectives. (en.wikipedia.org, dailymirror.lk)
- Academic dictionary or higher-education guidance on viva voce to trace the term’s origin and current academic usage. (merriam-webster.com, britannica.com)
- Alumni recollections and cultural history essays that map how campus rituals evolved in the 1960s–1980s and the tensions between tradition and modernization. (colombotelegraph.com, islandback.lankapanel.net)
Final analysis — what to take away from Deen’s vignette
Thalif Deen’s “The lighter side of life at the Peradeniya campus” excels as a short cultural history: it preserves mood, lampoons pretension and celebrates a particular campus sensibility through sharp character pieces and memorable one-liners. The article’s greatest value is its capacity to make readers feel a place — an invaluable service when institutional archives can feel dry.At the same time, the piece is an exercise in selective memory. Readers should enjoy the wit while remembering that nostalgia compresses complexity. For anyone interested in the history of higher education, the article is a prompt — a delightful introduction that calls for archival work, corroboration and critical framing. That second stage — pairing laughter with documentation — is how these charming stories become enduring, reliable parts of institutional history. (sundaytimes.lk, en.wikipedia.org)
Conclusion
The anecdotes from Peradeniya are more than gossip; they are cultural fingerprints that tell us how a university’s social code, humor and hierarchy shaped student identities and public memory. Deen’s piece does what good reminiscence should: it opens a window into the rhythms of a campus — the formal dinners, the oral exams, the mockeries of authority — while leaving historians, archivists and critical readers the work of parsing myth from documentary fact. In that layered reading, the lightness of the tales and the gravity of institutional history find a productive, if sometimes uneasy, balance. (sundaytimes.lk, en.wikipedia.org)Source: The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka The lighter side of life at the Peradeniya campus