Remembrance Day- Final Post 2021 (5)

 REMEMBRANCE DAY 2021– medical batch of 1962- 67

I am sure that colleagues will agree with me that Remembrance Day 2021 has been an unqualified success. My thanks to all who contributed and commented and also the many who read but have been unable to post comments.

I like to end the 2021 day by posting the images of those who have departed and adding a series of further recollections. Those who have not figured in individual posts are by means forgotten. Indeed ALL will remain etched in our memories.  

Our thanks to Lucky and Nihal (ND), the chief architects of this wonderful concept  - Speedy

   Message from Harsha Boralessa

It has been a very moving experience reading the poems, articles, comments and listening to the music, in memory of our dear friends who are no longer with us. Thank you all.

Tilak Dayaratne

I got to know Tilak during our Block days, a friendship which grew with time resulting in him eventually becoming a much loved friend of our family.

One afternoon, Tilak found a five/ten rupee note on the dissecting room floor. The honest boy knocked on the professor’s door. As there was no response, he gently opened the door to find the teacher waking up from his kip. After a couple of questions, the irate Prof concluded that Muniandy (the cleaner) had not swept the floor thoroughly.

Tilak looked the part on his red motor bike sporting dark glasses. Some of his friends referred to me as his pillion rider. He was a talented artist and at the second MB exam, answered some of the questions successfully using diagrams and words.

He had a good voice which was put into good effect at parties after a few drinks. That said, his musicality was not reflected on the dance floor. On one occasion whilst on the dance floor he was treading on his partner’s toes (playing a type of footsie). When the girl complained, he confidently convinced her that it was all her fault.

Quite regularly we used to enjoy a Lion Lager and chips at the Savoy Hotel, chatting about sports, our school days, music and films etc. He occasionally used to elaborated on a couple of female batch mates whom he adored at different times.

Tilak had a very likable personality, reserved and shy at times, a candid friend.

For me the most striking quality was that he was a man of honour, in fact too honourable.

  Suren Iyer

I did not know Suren that well as a batch mate but became a very close friend later on in the UK. A caring and competent GP who was well thought of by his staff and colleagues.

A very sociable and pleasant character. He and his wife, Sweeni, were a very loving couple and attended many Sri Lankan dances. The two of them appeared good on the dance floor, particularly when doing the Cha Cha which was like poetry in motion. At our last reunion in Negombo, he experienced angina whilst dancing. So both of us went to his room and he took GTN which relieved the pain. Despite protests from Swini and us, he returned to the dance floor, continued to have fun with his batch mates and stayed till the very end.

He was very loyal to his alma mater and generously supported the Ananda OBA in the UK financially. A very keen cricket fan and a close friend of Arjuna Ranatunga the Sri Lankan World Cup winning captain.

Message fom A H T Sumathipala (Sumathi)

K.Sundarampillai, 

I had a close relationship with him.

He was my Anatomy dissection partner, and he got me to do the dirty job of dissection. He did not want to get his hands smeared with formaldehyde. He was a very reserved person and had very few friends. Perhaps, I was the only person invited to his home to have a cup of tea on one occasion. His home was very close to the Ladies hostel and the nurse's quarters. He avoided the Law-Medical match and his home was invaded by Anton Ambrose and his crowd. Unfortunately, I lost close contact when he failed at the 2nd MB exam. During my short holiday in Colombo in the early eighties, I heard that he was in private practice somewhere in Kotahena and had MRCP added to his name board. Disaster appeared to have struck him while he was in his surgery and he was buried under the rubble from the collapsed building.

.

BL(Balasuriyage Leelananda) Perera

BL remained a friend of mine during the five years in the faculty and thereafter.

I met him in Nugegoda when he was working in the JMO's unit not far from the Anatomy block and later in Birmingham. He was a GP in Birmingham and used to visit my home. We too visited his home in West Bromwich, not too far away from Birmingham. He enjoyed his Scotch Whiskey. He succumbed to several chronic illnesses and had to take early retirement. His family moved to Scotland and he passed away several years ago.

K. Sri Kantha,

He was my friend from Bloem days who did not do well at exams, but matured to be a successful Anaesthesiologist, with special interest in pain relief. I met him accidentally in a shopping mall in Birmingham City centre and was told that he was undergoing training in Anaesthesiology. He was a Consultant in Sandwell District general for a short period, before emigrating to the US.

Balakrishnan Somasundaram,

He was better known as Soma among us and as Bobby among his British colleagues. He enjoyed his booze during student days and I have seen him drinking undiluted arrack off the bottle. He had a rough time as a practising doctor during his days in Sri Lanka. Fortune struck on emigration to the UK. He opted for Psychiatry as his Speciality of choice and he excelled in his chosen Speciality. He visited us in Birmingham in order to offer Alms in memory of his first son who passed away following a road traffic accident. I have never visited him as there was no invitation to do so. No sooner than he retired he succumbed to a bad fall that took his life away from this world. I hope readers will excuse me if I have inadvertently used any words that could have brought disrespect to the deceased.

 

 Message from Kumar Gunawardane

Desmond Gunatilaka (CD)

He was a  mate from STC. A year junior to me at school. He nursed a secret sorrow,  of which only a few were aware of, “For he “didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve”.  His brother Geoffrey who was in our class died at the age of fourteen from a malignancy. They buried him on the 31st of December 1956, as his parents didn’t want to impinge upon the  New Year.

He wrote to me later about his brother-“Not a day passes without me thinking of him. I cannot get over why this happened so early in life to a near-perfect human being“.
He adjusted better to medical school than me and was a tower of strength to a lot of us. Methodical and consistent in his studies, I should have emulated him. Instead as so astutely, noted by one of my teachers, I worked only under duress. If I had only looked up that word then, I might have mended my ways!

Although quiet, he was well informed on men and matters. Bora playfully dubbed him “News of the World”. We were regulars in the red CTB double-deckers on the Galle road plodding to the Eye Hospital junction. The STC mates Bora, Sydney, CD and I always had lunch together in the Block years and then moved onto the common room. All of us missed out on Billiards, Carrom and other tabletop games.

We drifted away after moving to the Bloem and lost touch after graduation. He had a very successful career as a pulmonologist in the USA. We kept in touch in later years.
May earth lie softly on this good friend.

Message from Rohini Anandaraja (Two wonderful poems from earlier posts)

Manohari Navaratnarajah Shanmuganathan 

Manohari-a maiden fair

Her carefree youth with us did share

though often with a distant air

of her kindness we were ever aware.

 

A gentle soul, so soft of speech

Well mannered, reticent, ever discreet.

Shy as a doe, never into mischief,

Her friendship was a treasure indeed.

 

T'was sad we had to part our ways

On reaching the end of our med school days

Such is life- too short to waste

May her spirit find eternal rest.

Arul (Sivaguru) Balasubramaniam

Arul my dear friend of med school days

So gentle, thoughtful and caring in her ways

Her quiet wisdom, her beauty, her grace

Stay etched in my memory for ever unerased

 

'Tis sad our paths never crossed again,

 With the best of intentions it was too late -

Yet from our brief encounter there was much I gained

From compassion, empathy, sharing - a few to name

To all of the goodness that ran in her veins.

 

My life was enriched by having known her

My love and sympathy to all her family