WHEN HORSES LED A CYCLE PARADE
By Iqbal Hassen
The Cycle Parade itself is a time old tradition started by the
Royalists somewhere in the beginning of the last Century,
Mr.Viji Weerasinghe confirms that the Cycle Parade was well
established when he was in School way back in 1939. The Cycle
Parade Started with only the school boys in Cycles subsequently
a metamorphosis took place and it became a giant parade in the
70's and 80's. There was a certain must do in a Cycle parade
which was the route to the Captains house had to go past as many
girls schools as possible and in those days the girls school
gates were not closed and the Principals of these schools turned
a blind eye, as it has been said that the attendance at the
girls schools on the Parade route almost reached 100% and the
attendance in certain girls schools not on the Parade route
dropped to below 50% on the Royal Cycle Parade day. It was
reported to me from a very reliable source that our dear Mr.
Viji Weerasinghe, an icon of Royal, as a school boy in the
Parade MISTAKENLY took a wrong turn at the Horton place
roundabout and found himself cycling down the corridors of St.
Bridgets much to the delight of the girls.
This Tradition also found its way into S. Thomas's, which is
acceptable by us .this was confirmed to me by a Thomian and good
old friend Ajit Jayasekera former Thomian cricketer in the late
60's who said , Only Royal had the Cycle Parade during his
playing days as he vividly remembers this, when he was capping
Jacintha (subsequently married her) the daughter of "Rupperty" a
famous master of Royal, he was sneaking in to give her a ticket
for the match and got caught in the 68 Royal Cycle Parade . The
ridiculousness is that every school now wants a Big Match and
Cycle Parade, which are the traditions of these two great
Institutions of learning. Any Old Royalist will tell you
numerous stories about the Cycle Parade of their year. Believe
it or not each one is totally convinced that theirs was the best
Cycle Parade. To me, being no different, claim the Cycle Parade
of 1978 was the best ever. The organization of the Parade was
started in the usual manner by the Prefects and the ruggerites
and immediate past Old Boys who wantonly flaunt their newfound
freedom from the School Hierarchy to do the specialities. There
was always the 'sporty' masters who would mingle about and made
sure things did not get out of hand. I remember an incident at
the big match itself where DIG Ghafoor, then IP Ghafoor, caught
a Thomian Schoolboy i ugby player Wazil in a Karate suit doing
the usual antics at the match and told the police to take him
out of the match in the police jeep, Mr. Dixon a Thomian master
witnessing this vehemently protested and when the police did not
release the student he slept in front of the jeep and said "You
will have to drive over me tu take this boy out". The Police did
not have a choice but release him .This was the calibre of
masters who punished us and admonished us when we were wrong but
always protected their Students. Hats off to you "Sir". Few of
us from the English medium namely Rahim Junaideen and Raheel
Hashim ofrugby fame Pradip Jayawardena the then President JR
Jayawardena's grandson, Noel Christie David and Brian Hearsey,
both now domiciled in Australia, Naushad Mohideen and myself
decided to do something unusual and came up with the idea of
taking pan in the Parade on horses. After a firm No from the
Horse Owners we settled for ponies, I don't think the pony
owners of Slave Island knew what they or their ponies were in
for. Rahim Junaideen and Christie David being the 6 footers were
mischievously given the shortest ponies, 1 can still picture
Junna crouched on the pony with his knees almost touching his
chin and Noel with his dandy long legs hanging on the sides of
the pony touching the ground. Due to the novelty of the ponies
we were given the honour of leading the Parade. I don't think
these ponies or handlers had witnessed or taken pan in any event
of this nature and the Parade was delayed many a time with a
pony dumping its rider and bolting off into some unsuspecting
surprised spectators luscious green gardens. I yet think Raheel
bribed the Pony handler as his pony much to our jealousy ran
into Ladies College.
The Royal Cycle Parade was a major event on the
calendar of the girls schools in the vicinity and specially to any
Royalist's girlfriend or wannabe girlfriends who would line the
streets with their friends to watch the parade and point out their
"man", the boys never let them down providing extra entertainment at
these preplanned viewing points. The Parade was incomplete during
our time without "Kadlai" in his immaculate white shin and sarong
who would be lovingly dragged into every papare dance session and
extremely popular with the 'thirsty' young Old Boys. In "78 there
were a minimum of 5 Papare bands in attendance and the route was
along Flower Road, Turret Road , Galle Road, Bullers Road and ending
up at Ranjan Madugalle's House.
The Cycle Parade is a must-be kept tradition as
long as it does not contravene the law and everyone, including the
participants and spectators, should enjoy it and not be a bother to
others. I recall in the good old days if we were copped for
disturbing the peace or the decor in the Truck was obstructing
traffic. When told, we removed them and reinstalled them 10 minutes
later till we got copped again. If anyone was a bit too boisterous
we were marched down to the cop shed and detained till we pleaded
our selves out, I mention this as we were in the Jeep registered to
HE The President and his grandson driving with the Son of the Army
Commander with us but we did not have Security personnel with us or
used influence, we knew when we were wrong and always talked
ourselves out of it not like the present day where unnecessary
influence is used. The Police of that time were very well aware of
the innocent fun and gave the revellers a lot of the calibre of
masters who punished us and admonished us when we were wrong but
always protected their Students. Hats off to you "Sir". Few of us
from the English medium namely Rahim Junaideen and Raheel Hashim
ofrugby fame Pradip Jayawardena the then President JR Jayawardena's
grandson, Noel Christie David and Brian Hearsey, both now domiciled
in Australia, Naushad Mohideen and myself decided to do something
unusual and came up with the idea of taking pan in the Parade on
horses. After a firm No from the Horse Owners we settled for ponies,
I don't think the pony owners of Slave Island knew what they or
their ponies were in for. Rahim Junaideen and Christie David being
the 6 footers were mischievously given the shortest ponies, 1 can
still picture Junna crouched on the pony with his knees almost
touching his chin and Noel with his dandy long legs hanging on the
sides of the pony touching the ground. Due to the novelty of the
ponies we were given the honour of leading the Parade. I don't think
these ponies or handlers had witnessed or taken pan in any event of
this nature and the Parade was delayed many a time with a pony
dumping its rider and bolting off into some unsuspecting surprised
spectators luscious green gardens. I yet think Raheel bribed the
Pony handler as his pony much to our jealousy ran into Ladies
College.
The Royal Cycle Parade was a major event on the
calendar of the girls schools in the vicinity and specially to any
Royalist's girlfriend or wannabe girlfriends who would line the
streets with their friends to watch the parade and point out their
"man", the boys never let them down providing extra entertainment at
these preplanned viewing points. The Parade was incomplete during
our time without "Kadlai" in his immaculate white shin and sarong
who would be lovingly dragged into every papare dance session and
extremely popular with the 'thirsty' young Old Boys. In "78 there
were a minimum of 5 Papare bands in attendance and the route was
along Flower Road, Turret Road , Galle Road, Bullers Road and ending
up at Ranjan Madugalle's House.
The Cycle Parade is a must-be kept tradition as
long as it does not contravene the law and everyone, including the
participants and spectators, should enjoy it and not be a bother to
others. I recall in the good old days if we were copped for
disturbing the peace or the decor in the Truck was obstructing
traffic. When told, we removed them and reinstalled them 10 minutes
later till we got copped again. If anyone was a bit too boisterous
we were marched down to the cop shed and detained till we pleaded
our selves out, I mention this as we were in the Jeep registered to
HE The President and his grandson driving with the Son of the Army
Commander with us but we did not have Security personnel with us or
used influence, we knew when we were wrong and always talked
ourselves out of it not like the present day where unnecessary
influence is used. The Police of that time were very well aware of
the innocent fun and gave the revellers a lot of leeway and were
very lenient in their impromptu punishments like making the Papare
play inside the cell or get the most sloshed reveller to do dips or
walk in i ,1 straight line etc. An interesting factor is that the
guys who were most often /^,^ copped, reprimanded and noted for
their antics are now holding top positions in law enforcement like
DIG's, key positions in the Attorney General's Department, top notch
lawyers etc.
If we are to nourish and promote this tradition
to carry on .specially we the Old Boys and school authorities with
the help of some "sporty' masters and prefects control the do's and
don'ts , The other factor to take into consideration is that the Old
Boys participation should be monitored to a certain extent as the
Do's and Don'ts of Old Boys and students are different and clearly
demarcated. Whatever we plan and do I earnestly plead with the
School Authorities to achieve the ultimate goal, Which is to keep
this wonderful tradition alive.
To culminate I will pen down an excerpt from the
old Royal Junior school song.
'Labour
and Toil await us in life but if' United we stand
To Love our School till our Journeys end
Floreat Floreat it's Song."
"Hoisey"
