Late Professor Fred Bartolamus the Mathematics Professor par Excellence

Late Professor Fred Bartolamus the Mathematics Professor par Excellence

Eng. MK Chandrasekera/Qatar

13^th January 2013

Having read the Rnjan Abeysekera’s letter on Prof. Bartholamus which appeared in the Sunday Times on the 13^th January, my memories of this great human were re –awakened. 

I was in the Peradeniya Engineering Faculty from 1969 Nov. to end 1973.

We as Batho's students could write volumes of his humanity.

As mentioned by Ranjan, the EFAC Canteen Committee that was his brainchild provided an invaluable service to all of us in addition to providing subsidized meals.

Who could ever imagine buying a Slide Rule for Rs. Forty at that time if not for the LOGAREX Slide Rule which had been obtained by the Canteen Committee under Prof. Batho’s directions?

The alternative was Faber Castle which was three times the cost of LOGERX and beyond the purchasing capacity of many of us.

During our time Batho was our counselor too. Due to change of the AL to swabhasha, there were many students who were not fluent in English at that time.

Whatever problems we had, academic or private, we could approach Batho anytime. Irrespective of the broken English we used to communicate with him, he was very compassionate every time we expressed our worries to him and he was always able to find a satisfactory solution to all our academic and personal problems. For our great relief he also could understand and speak little Sinhala and Tamil!

Out of many interesting lectures he used to deliver, the lectures on ‘Classical Mechanics’ he delivered to third year students ‘under pin drop silence‘was the most loved by us. For his lectures he used to bring lecture notes, but never would he open the file as he had an excellent memory and concentration of what he delivered.

So immersed in the subject, at times he would take a couple of extra minutes to complete the lecture while the next lecturer has already arrived at the doorstep of the Lecture room. But all other lecturers had so much respect in him that they will never show up themselves until Batho's lecture was finished.

The incident that I will not forget until death is how he took care of a group of students including me while we were staying at the E Quarters in Meewathura.

That was the first day of the first JVP Insurrection: 5th April 1971. The faculty was closed before noon after hearing of the attack on Ampara Police Station.

 By the afternoon, Govt. declared curfew. We went back to the boarding houses in Meewthura. We lived on one side of the road and were taking meals from a house on the other side of the road. Because of the curfew, we wanted to have early dinner and set off  to walk across the road to go to the house on the opposite side.

It was getting little dark and there was no one else on the road. So as usual, we were relieving the urine pressure directing ourselves onto the road embankment in the cool breeze.

Suddenly the lights of an oncoming vehicle flashed from the nearby bend. Immediately, we sensed the danger and all but one in the group managed to climb up  the road embankment into the safety.

The oncoming police jeep stopped and bundled the poor fellow who was unable to climb to the safety  into it and raced away.

In the flash of a second we felt that our friend was in danger.

Who else would come to our mind instantly except for Prof. Batho? We ran into his residence which was close by. The moment he heard of our story, he did not lose any time, took the big risk of taking all of us into his house and he locked the door from inside.

He then put all of us into an interior room, gave mats, bed spreads etc. got their house maid ( amme) to prepare and serve a makeshift meals to us.

Then he called Peradeniya and Kandy Police stations to check if our friend was in their custody. As yo would expect, the reply was 'no'.

The next morning giving us strict instructions to take care of our movements, he and Prof. Chinnappa, the then Dean of the Faculty went in search of our friend. When they walked into Peradeniya police OIC’s room our man had been in the cell had seen the two professors going to OIC, but the Police OIC had said that they did not have any person by that name or description.

Then they had gone to Kandy Police and got the same answer. In desperation they then met SP Chanmugam who himself was a graduate from Pera. Univ.

Mind you, this is the second day of the insurrection. The answer given was that if the only offence committed by our man was violation of the curfew, he might be released; otherwise, give up any hopes of seeing him again.

By about noon Batho came back with these details and advised us to be patient  for a while.

On the same afternoon, our friend and others who were caught by the Peradeniya Police were brought to the town by the Police. Our friend had then pleaded with the OIC to let him go. For some little luck, the OIC let him come back. So he walked 2 km to Meewathura. Overjoyed, all of us ran back to Batho, who then kept us in his house that night too. The following morning, he advised us to go back to our homes. For those who did not have money he gave expenses too.

By that act alone he proved that he was a true counselor of the students.

I would say, without any reservations that Prof. Batho was a god disguised as a human.

In late 1973, when we learned that he was leaving to Zambia to educate his children, we felt extremely sorry. If we had money, we would have given all our money to him and not have allowed him to leave.

I would say that he was one of those humans whom I regard with very high esteem until my death.

May the god bless his soul?

May he attain the supreme bliss of nibbana.

Eng. MK Chandrasekera/Qatar

13^th January 2013