SriLanka, April 4 -- The sudden demise of Piyasena Ariyasinghe, my English Guru, saddened not only the immediate family and residents of Weniyarawela, Ampegama in Sri Lanka, but also his innumerable pupils scattered overseas, beyond any doubt. In fact, his passing away was a profound sorrow to me because I was his apple of the eye among his numerous students. This teacher of English language and literature of high calibre left us as a nonagenarian, only shy of five years of a century. He was born on the second of February 1931 and breathed his last on the twenty-fifth of December 2025.
It is common knowledge that many teachers complain that they are unable to teach in classrooms without adequate facilities. But this doyen of English langua...