An Ode to the Blog

By Nihal (ND) Amerasekera

This is a corollary to what Mahendra has written with such elegance. I will reiterate what I had said before on this blog – “Friendships are natures great gift to the human race. Ones made in our youth had a certain closeness which we could never replicate later on in life.  Even now those friendships remain close despite the passage of years and the oceans that separate us. They seem priceless and have lasted a lifetime.”  Despite all this our lives have moved on in a myriad of ways and in multiple directions sometimes even without our knowledge. We all have changed mentally and physically to become different people. This makes it more interesting to meet many years later if we accept things have changed. While some of us remained in Sri Lanka others have dispersed far and wide and we have acquired the characteristics and the psyche of our adopted country. This I am sure is evident whenever we meet at reunions. For good reason I am not a great fan of reunions but appreciate its value as so many do. I have enjoyed enormously the company of my medical school friends when we have met at the London reunions. There was that emotional element of nostalgia which was the main driving force. Although they live so near to me, we haven’t kept in contact by phone or seen any of them ever since. This fact can both support and dispute the worthiness of reunions.

 As Shakespeare has said in Julius Caesar there is one person I know who has remained as ‘constant as the northern star’ and he is Mahendra Gonsalkorale. I am certain he would refute this but I mention it as a compliment. When I speak with him the years simply melt away to return to the noise and the din of the Faculty Common Room of the 1960’s.

To meet together as a group in medical school for 5 years was a chance meeting and perhaps our destiny. I think of it no more than that. There were some whom we met on a corridor or a lecture room and became friends for life. There were a few whom we met in our formative years we learnt to avoid. That experience would be common to anyone attending any institution anywhere in the world. During reunions our emotions take over and before we say our goodbyes we plan our next reunion. But infact our lives don’t revolve round reunions as so much goes on in between. We do have our own lives. This is different for those living in Sri Lanka as there are so many of them concentrated in Colombo where space is never a problem and fine catering services are just a phone call away. They are like one family, all have remained close for so many years and have grown up together since medical school.

The loss of friends due to death is inevitable but when they have been close like ‘Claude’ Bernard was to me it leaves an echoing void that cannot be filled. But we all have learnt to accept that and move on as our time will come. So many from our batch have now departed this world. May they find Eternal peace.

Now I come to the Blog which for me is the mainstay, the pillar and the centrepiece of our batch. I have the ability to keep in touch with everyone at anytime. I can say what I like without using profanities. I can write as much or as little as I like. Amazingly when I write to someone on the blog the image I have of the person is what I hold from medical school days. There are the regulars who prop up the blog, the infrequents who enlighten us and the intermittents who mesmerise us. They all provide an invaluable service and long may it continue. Importantly it is a free service for us through the kind courtesy of Lucky Abeygunawardene who has managed it with such meticulous care. It is a labour of love. Reunions will come and go and have their place in our psyche but for me personally for its mere presence 24X7 and ease of use I value the blog more than anything else.