Seated - Ranjan Wattegedera, V. Kunasingham, Nihal Goonetilleka
Standing - Harsha Samarajiwa, AJA Jayaratnam, Rajan Ratnesar
The officials are Mr. PAS Perera, Mr. KLF Wijedasa, Sir Nicholas Attygalle, Dr. EHC Alles.
Others are medical students who were junior to us and those from other Faculties.
Full of admiration for these colleagues. Getting in to the Medical faculty itself was a great achievement and then to excel in such demanding sports takes talent, courage and determination to pursue a goal. Well done!
ReplyDeleteLucky, thank you very much for the post It is called the Cosmopolitan Club which includes all the captains from different sports. Our elder son Shamin appeared in a similar photograph which was taken in 2002 or 2003 as he captained the Colombo University chess team.
ReplyDeleteSanath
Isn't that our batchmate Virginia Swan seated at the extreme right? I could be mistaken, of course. I hope someone will be able to confirm.
ReplyDeleteNot sure. Rajan will be the best person to name her.
ReplyDeletePretty sure that extreme right is not Virginia but I don't know who she is.
ReplyDeleteI do not think it is Virginia Swan
ReplyDeleteSanath
I,am sure Virginia obtained direct admission to Medical Faculty in 1962,hence it is highly unlikely for her to be present in a photo taken prior to 1962.I remember Virginia had Colombo colours and all university colours, subsequently,for swimming.I had Colombo University colours for Athletics consecutively for two years.I missed All University colours.
ReplyDeleteGood point Sumathi, that makes sense. You do have a good memory about all this. You are all correct. I managed to reach Rajan Ratnesar via email and he said that the two ladies were from the science faculty, as far as he could remember.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you again in blog column,Srianee.My memory is functioning well up to now.My Mantra is read,talk and walk to keep Alzheimer at bay.I,am sure you must be enjoying your travelling a lot,now a days.
ReplyDeleteSumathi
I am inserting this as a fresh comment, and not as a reply to any of the more recent comments, so that it will have more prominence and also because it covers more than one comment.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Sumathi's point is valid although Srianee describes it as "good".
Let me first pose a question to Sumathi. What makes you think that it was taken prior to 1962? In the photo, only Harsha, Rajan, Watte, Kunam and Nihal were in the 6-months course of 1961. Jayaratnam entered from Colombo Hindu College direct to the Medical Faculty although he was at St. Peter's earlier. Besides, how can our juniors Joe Wijeyanayagam and Damian Fernando in med school who entered in 1963 appear in this photograph?
I had my own guess about Virginia, but didn't want to say that she is not the person seated on the extreme right. Except for J. Rambukpotha (extreme left standing), I am unable to identify the others (including the two girls) whom I think are from the Science or Engineering Faculties.
Apart from our Batch, I can see Joe Wijeyanayagam (4th from right) and is 6th from Right,Mohanlal Fernando?
ReplyDeleteDr. Mahendra,
DeleteMy Dad mr. Easwaran from Matale was a classmate of Dr
Joe.
Is there anyway to get contact of him, my Dad would be v. happy.
I'm Sharmila Easwaran
No, that is not Mohanlal. Seniors like Mohanlal, Cyril and Lareef have had their turn and hence not in this picture. You are right about Joe W.
ReplyDeleteI admit,it was a wild guess about the year,when the photo was taken.Surely,Rajan,Harsha and Nihal should remember the year,when the photo was taken.I,am sure there is a fair number of students who were with colours in their pockets were missing in the group.I,wish,Rajan can come out with his opinion.
ReplyDeleteNot 100% sure, but I think it is 1965 or1966.I am pretty certain the 2 girls or shall I say ladies to be politically correct are from the science faculty . One of them I remember or I think is Joyce somebody. Virginia was probably Captain swimming a few years earlier so too Lareef Cyril in cricket, Priya in Athletics J C in athletics and I am sure am missing out in some others who captained the University in sports.. Yes we also had quite a few colors men and women, whose contribution was no less than the captains
ReplyDeleteThanks,Rajan,
DeleteI obtained Colombo colours in 65/66 and 66/67.The heading of the certificates are "University of Ceylon,signed by Mr.Leslie Hadunge( Director of Physical Education)Mr Wijedasa was based in Colombo Faculty.Mr,Hadunge was based in Peradeniya.I,do remember very well,that Virginia was present at the presentation ceremony,held at Thurstan Road,campus.The person who captained the athletic team was one Weerasinghe from the Engineering faculty.
Which sport did Nihal Gunatilleke captain?
ReplyDeleteSanath
Rugby.
DeleteSanath,
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know,it must be hockey.As a Royalist,you should know better.
Sanath,
ReplyDeleteI remember Nihal played Hockey and Rugby during the Medical school days,I am not sure whether he Captained either of the sports.HN is another Hockey player.Jimmy(SSG) Wickramasinghe played tennis during his medical student days.Someone had mentioned that he played Hockey and tennis during his school days in Royal.Denzil Saparamadu was a Basketball player for the Colombo University and I wonder whether he obtained any University colours.
Sanath&Rajan,
ReplyDeleteSorry,I have failed to mention Mahesan's name as a Hockey player for the University.I am not sure whether he Captained the Colombo or All-University team.Also among us were Sidath and Kiththa(Kithsiri).Their lives have been taken away from this world,rather prematurely!.Last but least,Ranjith Dambawinna excelled in field events in athletics(shot-put and javelin).The Captain of athletics,I mentioned as Weerasinghe should be corrected as Weeraratna(Engineering Faculty)Athletics&soccer were treated in a step-motherly fashion among high powered sorts such as Rugby&Cricket.
Wonderful to learn of the great achievements of our batchmates.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to you all. Thank you
Rohini,
ReplyDeleteIt's not too late to learn about the high-flyers and low-flyers among us.
Sumathi, I was full of admiration for your achievements in athletics, and my congratulatory comment was intended for you as well.
DeleteAs for low-flyers I can think of none if I don’t count myself !
I was content with being one then and am content with being one now!
I have great admiration for those who made use of their talents.
As you can see schools and backgrounds counted for nothing if one didn’t have the wisdom to make use of opportunities !
You have achieved much with or without any of these things which are of no consequence and you can be very proud of yourself.
We are also proud that you are our batchmate -even more so that you are our blogmate. Thank you for being in touch- Be Happy.
“Blogmate” - a new word coined for “fellow blogger” !!
DeleteRohini, I like the term "blogmate," although I found that there is an App known as "BlogMate" to assist bloggers! I don't see why we can't use blogmate from now on.
DeleteSrianee, thank you -I checked this out -
DeleteLet’s give blogmate an official definition as opposed to BlogMate !
A blogmate shall be a batchmate who is in our blog (if Lucky permits)!
Definition needs amendment to include family!
DeleteA blogmate = a batchmate, relative or friend who is a fellow blogger!
Further improvements welcome!
This is in fun ! Lucky I hope it is in order !
Sumathi, you are always undervaluing yourself! How pleasing to know about your sporting achievements. Well done my friend! You have so much to be proud of.
ReplyDeleteSumathi, I am in total agreement with Mahen, there are no high flyers or low flyers among us. We have all contributed in some way and can be proud of what we have accomplished. I salute all these athletes, whether they achieved colors or not. My athletic abilities were a joke, although at various times in my life I enjoyed playing tennis. I do have fond memories of helping to decorate the venue for 'Colors Night' in the company of friends like Priya Gunaratne de Silva, and enjoying the festivities later in the evening. I wonder if the medical students have as much fun these days. The ones I see near Bloemfontein seem so serious!
ReplyDeleteSrianee&Speedy
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to generate a bit of interest in our comments.You can n't deny that fact that there were very proud of their family back grounds,schools they attended etc.I noticed that during my Medical school days.Speedy!you are one of the exceptions.I remember very well,I had jokes with you on several occasions:you have not changed at all with all your achievements in life.Srianee! every time I looked at you facetime I noticed a sweet mile.I had an excellent spell in Bloemfontein.I,learned from Rohini Ana that all the Ladies College girls were not stuck-up.
Sumathi, it has been a common misconception that Ladies’ College girls were “stuck up”. I was surprised during my internship when some of my female colleagues confessed that they didn’t speak to me during our med school years as they thought I was proud, but were surprised and relieved to learn that I was not ! I found even Prof .Rajasooriya had a “thing” against “ladies from Ladies College”!
ReplyDeleteWe did not consider ourselves superior in any way to be “stuck up”! We just were !
Please also see my reply to your earlier comment addressed to me .
Thank you,Rohini.I came to know you very well during our clinical days.As far as I am concerned,you were very friendly and out going type of person.Prof.Rajasuriya had a point;ladies college girls were from ("well to do)families,who had contacts with;people of so called "high class".Things might have changed either for good or worse,over the years.
ReplyDeleteI have no hard feeling towards any one in my batch from the so called high social strata. It is nice to see the expressions of various individual,in flowery language, especially from products of "Ladies College".
Sumathi, Ladies’ College was located on Flower Road, at some point referred to as “a flowery lane” by our eminent colleague Lucky Abey!
DeleteThat’s probably how we picked up the “flowers” for our language !
You are a kind soul- that’s all that matters- Keep Happy
Nihal G. played 2nd fifteen rugby at Royal College and did not get colours.I do not think he captained the University rugby team. HN, Jimmy and Jaimon also played hockey for the university and the former two captained the team as well.
ReplyDeleteSanath