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 is 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 St 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 rugby 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 to 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 of rugby 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 part 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 getting into. Rahim Junaideen and Christie David being the 6 footers were mischievously given the shortest ponies, I 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 part 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 shirt 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 Décor 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 a 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 a 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.”
“Horsey”
