The Classroom of Brother Felix
The Classroom of Brother Felix Denzil Jayasinghe 5 min read · Aug 24, 2026 The original story credit goes to Rohan Weerakkody, my lifelong pal and classmate in junior school who compiled this storyline in Sinhala T he first week of January 1968 began with a new classroom and a new teacher. We had passed Grade Seven and said goodbye to Mr Jayamanna. From the playing field, the large two-storey school building stood before us. We entered the last classroom on the ground floor, two at a time. It was cleaner and more orderly than the other classrooms. Thirty-six identical wooden desks stood in four rows, each numbered. At the front were the teacher’s desk and chair. Behind them was a huge blackboard built into the wall. But what caught our attention was the painting above the windows — a diver disappearing beneath the sea. No other classroom had anything like it. We liked the room. Then Brother Felix arrived. We stood. “God bless you, teacher,” we said together. “No. No. No.” He rais...