REMINISENSCES OF A PRIZED TRIP TO EGYPT

Zita has sent this article about her own brother and although it is not directly connected with our batch, it contains many interesting facts on a period of time which is of great interest to us. As we all know, we entered the Medical Faculty in 1962 and this story happened in 1963, and as it unfolds, it brings back memories of significant happenings around that time. I have no doubt that readers will gain a lot of pleasure reading it.



REMINISENSCES OF A PRIZED TRIP TO EGYPT

It was 1963, Ceylon, as it was called then. The Ceylon Daily Mirror was “the new kid on the block” of the Fourth Estate of Ceylon. It was priced at ten cents while its peers were sold at fifteen cents. As a sporting thrust to their marketing strategy, the Daily Mirror launched a Cricket Quiz competition with weekly winners picked from correct forecasting of the results of weekly Sara Trophy Matches (a smaller version of English Football Pools), the Premier Cricket Tournament at the time. The weekly prize was Rs. 25/= and out of the weekly winners there would be a Jackpot Quiz with the prize being a Trip to Egypt as a guest of the U A R (Egyptian) Government.

How did Egypt get in to the picture and into Cricket?

It appeared that the Prime Ministers of Ceylon, Egypt and Yugoslavia were the founder members and the prime movers of the non-aligned movement. As such, Ceylon and Egypt had very close good relations. Later I learned that our prime minister was as popular in Egypt as Ceylon Tea!

At that time, I was working at the Central Bank of Ceylon. One of my colleagues at work was reading the Daily Mirror (not while working) and I glanced at it and saw the Cricket Competition. I cut the coupon from his paper(with his permission) and sent a forecast. On Sunday night, while listening to the Bristol Sports Roundup of Radio Ceylon, I realized that it was correct. On Monday morning I met Earle, our dear Cousin, who was really "Cricket Mad", (although he was not Cricket Made!) I told him that my coupon was correct. He laughed and said, "Ronald, every week I have one coupon correct, but never won a weekly contest". "How come?" I inquired. "If you fill 126 coupons with all combinations, you have to get one correct. So I buy, 126 papers and fill up the coupons with all possible combinations. But I never won a weekly competition as you have to be first drawn out as well”. I lost interest. Two days later, the Sports Page of the Mirror carried a caption, "This week's Winner - from Mutwal". I won Rs. 25/=. Mummy was intrigued and pleasantlysurprised when a few days later she found a Post Office Savings Bank Passbook in my name with Rs. 20/= initial deposit, which was out of the prize money.

A few days before the Jackpot Quiz competition was to be held, I had joined the Valuation Department and was posted to an outstation (Matugama - 40 miles away from Colombo) on duty. There were 16 weekly winners for the Jackpot Competition and it was held on a week day evening at the GOH (Grand Oriental Hotel). As I was not supposed to leave my station without permission, I applied for permission beforehand to leave station for a few hours to attend the competition in Colombo. I thought, if I win the competition (was I confident?), my name would definitely come into the papers and if I had left the station without permission, I would have got the sack!The Quiz contained three questions on Cricket and my answers were correct and also drawn out first. The prize was a trip to Egypt and two weeks tour there as guest of the U A R Government.

The morning after the night before, I left home at 4:30AM to travel to Matugama where I had to commence field work at 7:30AM. In Pettah I bought a Daily Mirror and opened it in the bus. I straight away went to the Sports Page (as I always do). To my amazement, the headline on the Sports Page captioned “Ronald jumps the Jet to Cairo” with a photograph and the story unfurled like this,

“It was top value for 20 year old Valuation Inspector, Ronald Perera of Mutwal, who …..”. I think it was the first time that someone in our big family hit the News Paper headlines albeit, the Sports Page.

In Matugama, I was nick named “Cairo”. By the time the trip came around, it was December 1964 (three months after Daddy passed away). During the Sirimavo Government of the time, it was near impossible to leave the country, thanks to the Socialist Finance Minister Dr. N. M. Perera who doctored everything. To obtain a Passport it was so difficult. You cannot buy an Air Ticket, it had to be prepaid. To leave the country you have to obtain an “Exit Permit”. To get an Exit Permit you have to obtain Police Clearance and a chit after surrendering the Rice Ration Book to the Food Control Department. The only exchange allowed for travel was “3 Pounds 10” i.e. £3 Sh.10, equivalent of Cey. Rs. 50/= on the Passport! The Travel Agent for United Arab Airlines (UAA), Sponsors of the prize helped me with the Passport and travel formalities. With all that, I received the Passport only a few hours before the scheduled Flight, that I did not even have the time to go to the Bank to obtain “3 Pounds 10”. However, I did not fly empty handed. I took Air Ceylon from Ratmalana to Santa Cruz, Bombay and from there UAA Jet to Cairo.

To illustrate the exchange restrictions, I will narrate a small incident of Reggie Michael, the Founder Editor of Ceylon Daily Mirror and well known inter alia for his wit and command of the Queen’s Language and for his famous obituary of D.E.M.O’Cracy (see note below).

Reggie managed to fly to London and was greeted at the Airport by an Englishman who remarked “Reggie, you have brought the Sun with you”. Reggie quipped, “That is the only commodity we are allowed to take out in plenty”.

As for the flight and the tour of Egypt, well, that is another story.

Note: Reggie Michael was a pioneer Press Freedom Fighter. During the period when the Government imposed strict censorship of the Press, he inserted an Obituary Notice in the Daily Mirror which ran something like this –

         “Death is announced of under tragic circumstances of D.E.M. O’Cracy, beloved husband of T. Ruth, loving father of L.I. Berty and Justitia ………. expired. Burial will be at Temple Trees …..”

This Article may be continued.

Ronald Perera

7^th November 2019

PS: It has been said that the now famous "obituary" notice was inserted by Dr. Riley Fernando, a GP in Dehiwela who was well known as a prankster. It was stated that even the then Daily Mirror Editor Reggie Michael was caught unawares! The late Dr. Riley Fernando was married to Professor Priyani Soysa's sister.