Colombo Medgrads 1962

Series 1, No 2 October 11th 2020

The second of the popular new series featuring the inimitable Harsha Boralessa aka “Bora”, who has the knack of recalling humorous incidents “like no other”.

Wedding Crashers!

Four Thomians gatecrashed a wedding at Mt Lavinia hotel.  They were comfortably seated enjoying the iced coffee, sandwiches and cakes.

From time to time, they smiled and waved at no person in particular, just to show that they were familiar with the guests. Unfortunately, this caught the attention of a man in a coat and tweed sarong, dressed like a kapurala who started to walk towards them. One of the boys whispered,” Here comes trouble”. The man warmly exclaims, “Aney, meh John Aiya ge putha ne the”?  (“You are Brother John’s son aren’t you?”). He continued, “John Aiya vaga mai” (“You are just like Brother John”).

The Thomians had to make a prompt response: “Father was not feeling well so we came instead”.

The man very surprised, responded, “I thought John Aiya passed away a few years ago.”

They amicably decided that it was a case of mistaken identity!

Hitch Hike to Chilaw

My two batchmates  (A and B) and I decided to visit a friend in Chilaw. The challenge was to go by CTB to the Kelani bridge and get lifts thereafter. At the bridge, we started waving our arms at the oncoming traffic. After a few minutes, an Opel Kapitan pulled up. The driver was a pleasant-looking, middle-aged gentleman whom I recognised straightaway as the father of one of our batch mates. We said we were hitchhiking to Chilaw and asked whether he could give us a lift if he was heading in that direction. He asked us to get in as he was heading that way.

As we were proceeding, he started chatting, and I explained that we were third-year medical students and his son was one of our batchmates.

After a short while, he asked “Apart from studies what else do you do?  Sing, dance or play sports”? Having noticed plenty of bottles of Arrack spread on the floor of the car, I replied, “We enjoy a drink”. The kind gent told us to open a bottle and help ourselves. We promptly took up the offer.  Our next stop was a toddy booth. It was obvious that the vendor was known to him and we had a wonderful break sampling fresh toddy straight from the tree.

Finally, we arrived in Chilaw. We thanked him profusely for the lift, his hospitality and company.

When we went to our friend’s place, he was not at home- our fault for not informing him. My friend B said he knew a local senior government official and suggested we pay him a visit. The host welcomed us with open arms, provided us with a super lunch which we relished. We were then provided with a room and a double bed as it was time for a siesta/Doiyah. A and B fell asleep stat, but I was beginning to feel the after-effects of the booze. Feeling sick I went to the garden to vomit. After a little while, friend A comes out to the garden looking very agitated. Unfortunately, the host had taken my place on the bed and tried to be too familiar with friend A. We thanked the host for his kindness & hospitality and made a rapid exit.

Following this eventful day, our batchmate’s (Jayaratnam) brother, a local GP came to our rescue. He entertained us that evening, gave us a delicious dinner and provided a comfortable, safe and secure overnight stay. 

An interesting telephone conversation

At GHC. I was allocated a room in the medical officers’ quarters. When I arrived,to my surprise I found a sitting incumbent. – Dr Ranmuthu. It was a large room but there was only one bed. Ranmuthu insisted that I sleep on the bed and he will be the floor patient until we got a second bed. I was overwhelmed by his kindness. Later I found that officially the room was allocated solely to me, and therefore he was the squatter.

Ranmuthu had a lovely sense of humour and I enjoyed his company very much. I will never forget the phone call he received from a ward nurse.

Nurse: “May I spoke to Doctor Ranmuthu?”

Ranmuthu replies:” Spoking, Spoking.”

 

Continental Breakfast .. in Zurich

After obtaining the MRCP Part 1 in Colombo, Kumar and I got no-pay leave from the DOH to go to UK to complete Part II.  We took the flight to England on the 5th of December 1973 with an overnight stay in a hotel in Zurich. On checking in at the hotel that evening, we were given a voucher which entitled us to dinner or two drinks at the bar. As we had plenty to eat on the flight, we were not particularly hungry and therefore opted for the drinks and helped ourselves to plenty of nuts and crisps which was complimentary. We woke up  next morning  feeling extremely hungry, remembered  Carlo talking about “Hunger pangs “at a Physiology lecture. I was really looking forward to breakfast.

Kumar and I went for breakfast. On our table were bread rolls, butter and apricot jam. Kumar started on the rolls and I told him “Machang I am not going to fill myself up with rolls, instead I will wait for the Bacon and eggs.” I patiently waited for some time and nothing was forthcoming. Finally, the waiter came looked at me in a strange way and asked, “Are you not eating anything?”  I told him that I was waiting to have bacon and eggs. To my utter disappointment, he replied, “Continental breakfast has no cooked food”.

I pleaded and got him to bring back the rolls, jam and butter.

Await the next instalment of Bora’s Banter soon!