Denzil's Grit - Resilience - Fightback

Rising from Adversity - Epilogue Read  Part I ,   Part II ,   Part III ,   Part IV  and Part  V of this story, before continuing on this final episode.   (a 4 minute read - less if you are a fast reader) Eleander was a master schemer of the crimes that I have described in previous chapters.  Chamuel was his accomplice and they protected each other. Elander was thirty-eight years old and Chamuel was thirty-four years old at the time of these crimes.  These crimes were willful, pre-planned and pre-meditated. Elander prepared the environment to enable him to prey on innocent children.  He relocated the senior boys to a new dormitory on a separate wing in the boarding.  This allowed him to isolate the junior and more vulnerable pubescent boys in one wing from the senior boys who had a better understanding of these things. Elander used religion as a cover to indoctrinate the innocent boys to believe that he is the caring father to them....

Rising from Adversity - Helping Others - Part V   Read  Part I ,   Part II ,   Part III   and   Part IV  of this story, before continuing on this fifth episode. (a 5 minute read - less if you are a fast reader)   This happened in the last school term after I left the Christian brothers boarding.    Richard was my classmate, a handsome boy of fourteen with a great smile.  He and I went back a long way in our friendship.  We were together in junior school some five years ago.  He and I were in the Christian brothers’ formative school together.  Richard’s mother and my mother were friends and were distantly related.   Richard and I were now in the same class in the college, I, travelling from home every day, having left the boarding some months ago while he was a resident at the dreaded boarding school.    I had been a big brother to Richard from the time we both became friends. It did not t...

Rising from Adversity – Recovery - Part IV Read  Part I ,   Part II  and  Part III  prior to reading this   (a 5 minute read - less if you are a fast reader) I was free and felt liberated at home. I determined that I would never allow past incidents to dictate my future. I took charge of my life and promised myself to live it out. A big promise for a 15-year-old.  A do-able perspective by a teenager.  Everything was possible.   I restarted my studies. I wanted to study accounting at Aquinas University bypassing high school. I did not allow my less-than-ideal marks at the general certificate of examination to stop my dream. I decided to go back to year 10 and re-sit my exam again.    Staying Back a year in school was easy. Study subjects were effortless to follow, the second time around. I was not distressed like the year passed. My grades came back.   I was fortunate with a fantastic friendship with my classmate, Ajit Martin. H...

Rising from Adversity - Part III Read  Part I  and  Part II  of this story, before continuing on this third episode.   (a 4 minute read - more if you want to absorb this riveting story in small bites)   Man innovates through adversity.  Through Elmo, a schoolboy who commuted to school every day from my neighbourhood, I wrote a brief note to my father asking him to take me home for the weekend.   My father sent a note in return through Elmo addressed to Chamuel, asking him to send me home for a ‘family event’.  I gave the note to Chamuel who gave me permission to go home on Friday.   I left for home with glee, to spend that weekend with my family.  I enjoyed three days of bliss, playing with my sister and brother and the neighbours’ kids.  My mother and grandmother, Kadayamma made delicious dishes to feed me.  With reluctance, I returned to the boarding on Monday.   Chamuel regularly check...

Rising from Adversity - Part II (a 6 minute read - more if you want to absorb this riveting story in small bites) Read this first, if you have not read  part I of this story before you continue. School holidays came to an end. Reluctantly I returned to the boarding school in a confused state. I did not know where to turn for advice. Evander was the grand authority in the boarding. I felt like I was going to prison.  Evander pretended everything was normal between him and me. He continued on his ‘abba’ theory, thus obligating trust between him and the innocent boys. Evander continued to call himself ‘abba’ and ‘father’. He ordered us to address him as ‘father’ or ‘ තාත්තා ’ in Sri Lankan. I had my own father and could not reconcile this aberration, a distortion of the truth. On hot summer days, it was warm in the dormitory at night. On Fridays, Evander arranged for selected boys to sleep in the summer house on the edge of the beach on the pretext of cooler fresh air. Boys...

Rising from Adversity - Part I (a 5 minute read - more if you want to absorb this riveting story in small slow bites)   We don’t talk a lot about the messiness of recovery, because people like to believe that it is a contained and discrete experience. It happens, it’s over, you heal, you move on. Some are not so lucky.  This is about a fortunate boy who fought back, healed early on, relied on spirit guides and lived a full-on life. This is about how a teenager fought back, recovered and moved on, daring the devils of evil.  This story is painful to grasp.  It is hard to read in the beginning. But is a good riveting story in the end.  It is a triumph over evil.   Read this if you got the balls to read a life defying story.  It is a hard one to absorb.  It is a story about human resilience.  It is was written with no holds barred.  It is graphic, but it has to be told.  It is a story only for enlight...