Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Zita writes.........

Dear Lucky,
 
I have just finished a task which I set myself, when you started our batch blog and especially after I read your memoirs in. I wrote the following tribute to you as you have taken immense trouble to bring our '62 batch together through the medium of the blog, your book of memoirs plus all the activities you and few other active, hardworking and faithful batch-mates have organised for us. All of these have gone a long way towards keeping us in touch with one another. So, as you are the leader I send you my offering which I would like to call Lucky Story for inclusion in the blog if it meets with your approval. To all my other batch mates I would like to say, please read Lucky's memoirs ( details given at the end). You'll laugh and cry and it will remind you of special landmarks in your own journey and special people you met.
 
With best wishes,
 
Zita (Perera) Subasinghe

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Lucky Story
 
Here begins the story of Lucky
Born in Hikkaduwa in ‘41
It’s the start of a memorable Journey
For two loving parents’ son




Family moved to Manning Town
That Colombo’s prestigious pad
Dad never ever let him down
In his ambitions for this young lad

 
Early education in Ananda College
Was in him, to impart and nurture
Life’s skills and valued knowledge
Learning became his second nature

Soon this young man enterprising
Found in Talatu Oya a venue
To start working life in teaching
Prior, to adult life, making his début

Medical College beckoned in ‘62
Where he excelled in his quiet way
Work was hard and challenging too
But learning medicine was his DNA


With aim never to leave his motherland
He found doctors’ exodus strange
But one’s resolve however grand
Force of circumstances can change

But finally back in Sri Lanka
Is this country’s worthy son
For now ensconced in Battaramulla
Lucky’s here, after a job well done 

The interim period is a long story
From Hikkaduwa to Carolinas, USA
Life was not all hunky dory
Some grim events in memory stay

In a ’78 plane crash this lad plucky
On an Indian trip educational
To live to tell the tale was Lucky
As the escape was indeed phenomenal

There were many other highlights
Which needed good survival instinct
Like avoiding eating dog-meat bites
Although hospitality was distinct

This happened in West Timor
Where Lucky was then posted
On a project by W H O
One of many, it gallantly hosted

Lucky amassed a constellation
Of qualifications post-graduate
Also held jobs in health education
These, one can highly rate

On the family front, proudly stand
Mangala, a wonderful wife
A son, daughter and children grand
What more Blessings one needs in life?

With lucid memory of past dates
Lucky excels more than any
He never forgets names and traits
Of those he met on life’s journey

Now in retirement he spends
Some quiet time in well earned leisure
But his help he readily lends
To the needy, in good measure

It’s sad indeed to bring to an end
This account of a real nice guy
Who to all, is a batch mate and friend
So it’s ‘See you again’ not Good Bye!
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Sent by Zita
Reference: From Hikkaduwa to the Carolinas, Memoirs of a reluctant expatriate by  Lakshman Abeygunawardena. Printed by
Kaurnaratne and sons 2009