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