BERTRAM NANAYAKKARA - Appreciation by Sanath Lamabadusuriya

DR BERTRAM NANAYAKKARA - January 3, 1939 - May 24, 2024

I first met Bertram (Berty) in 1961 when we entered the Science Faculty of the University of Colombo at Thurstan Road in 1961, to follow a six months course in Zoology. Those who failed in one out of the four subjects at the University Entrance Examination in December 1960, had to follow a six months course in the failed subject. Zoology was the biggest casualty. We had a gala time because we had lectures and practical classes only on two days of the week. During weekends, some of us, including Indra Anandasabhapathy and Senarath Jayatilleke, used to play softball cricket at the Frazer Avenue grounds in Dehiwala. Bertram lived down Pirivena Road in Mt. Lavinia, and I lived down 42nd Lane, Wellawatte. He owned a BSA Bantam motorbike, which he had inherited from his elder brother Michael, who specialised in anaesthesia.

After the six months course, most of us worked in the EPF Department of the Central Bank in the Fort. We were paid five rupees per day, Monday to Friday. On Friday evenings, each of us received five crisp, newly printed five-rupee notes, which went a long way at that time

In October 1962 we entered the Colombo Medical Faculty to start a career in Medicine. Few of us (Bertram, Senarath Jayatilleke, C. Maheswaran, J. G. Wijetunge and myself) used to do joint studies, either in Senarath's (Aponso Avenue), Bertram's (Pirivena Road) JG's (Arethusa Lane) house or in my house.

During the Law-Medical cricket match in 1963, during the revelry, Bertram rode onto the Reid Avenue grounds on his motorbike during a cricket match between Royal College and Trinity College. The next day, a photograph appeared on the front page of a Sunday paper displaying Bertram on his Bantam. On that Sunday morning, when he came to my house to go for the match, I showed him the newspaper displaying his photograph; he panicked and wanted to park his Bantam in my garage and go for the match with me on my Vespa scooter! Later, most of us were suspended for two weeks for the misdemeanour. All the boys were suspended except for Jimmy Wickramasinghe and Ravi Nadarajah, who did not participate in the revelry.

After the results of the Final MBBS examination were released, Bertram, Harri Boralessa and myself went on a pilgrimage to the Kataragama Kovil by bus.

After graduation, Bertram left for the UK in the late 1960s and worked as a SHO in Paediatrics in the Children's Annex at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital in Luton. In late 1971, I went to the UK on a Colombo Plan scholarship for Postgraduate studies. Quite often I used to travel from north London, to visit him and spend the weekends. Although Bertram had lived in England for a few years, he had not gone to the continent as he was not the adventurous type. In the summer of 1972, I coaxed him to embark on a trip to the continent; both of us went to Europe on holiday. We travelled in Bertram's Volkswagen Beetle car, driving and camping. We travelled in a hovercraft from Dover to Calais and then to Paris. Mr. Tissa Wijeyeratne, our ambassador in France, hosted a party for us at his residence. At that party we met the father of Pramilla Senanayake (nee Kannangara) as well. Later, both of us camped in Bois Boulogne, Paris, on our first night. When we woke up the next morning, we found it difficult to stand up because the tent had collapsed on us, during the night!  The second night was in Lyon and the third night in Interlaken in Switzerland. From this campsite, we had a beautiful of the snow-capped Matterhorn mountain. The next campsite was in Vienna. In Germany, I took over the driving for the first time and managed to reach 100 kmph. I teased Bertram because he could not exceed 80 kmph, when he was at the wheel.  We visited the Olympic Village in Munich a few weeks before the Olympics were staged. A few weeks later, we saw the massacre of the Israeli athletes in the Olympic Village on TV.

We crossed the Dutch border at Arnhem towards twilight. After attending the immigration formalities, when both of us returned to the car, we discovered that the hood-rack was missing, together with the camping equipment, including two sleeping bags! Then I realized that I was able to reach 100 kmph, because of the lack of wind resistance.    As we didn't have much cash or credit cards, we were unable to book into a hotel and decided to spend the nights inside the car. We parked the car near the Amsterdam railway station so that we could visit the restrooms for our ablutions. Later, we drove south to Brussels, and after viewing the Mannequin-Pee statue in the Golden Square of the City, we drove back to Calais and returned to London after a couple of very enjoyable weeks. At that time petrol was quite inexpensive, costing about 28 pence for a gallon (it was prior to the formation of OPEC).

In the summer of 1973, both of us decided to embark on a camping trip to Scandinavia. We drove to Harwich and travelled by boat to Hamburg. From Hamburg, we travelled to Copenhagen and saw the famous Mermaid statue in the harbour. From there we crossed over to Sweden via Malmo and drove to Stockholm via Jongkopin. Stockholm had numerous islands and bridges. From Stockholm, we went by boat to an Island called Aland on a day’s trip, the western half of which was governed by Sweden and the eastern half by Finland. The very first case of Von Willebrand disease had been reported from Aland.  Later we drove to Oslo in Norway. Although we planned to travel further west to Bergen, we had to curtail the trip because Bertram's family had arranged for Bertram to see a girl in Colombo. About a week later, he returned to England together with Sunil de Alwis, after the wedding. Sunil’s brother, Palitha, was one year junior to me in school. Her elder sister, Themiya, who was a Rheumatologist, was married to Dr. Nimal Vidyasagara.

When I went to England again on sabbatical leave in 1979, Bertram and Sunil were living in Birmingham. When I met them, they informed me that they were planning to migrate to the US. In the US, after completing the residencies, Bertram specialised in Paediatrics and was based in Rockford, Illinois. They had a daughter and a son who specialised in Medicine; unfortunately, their son died under tragic circumstances.

I last met Bertram and Sunil when they came for a reunion of our batch in Negombo.

May his journey in Sansara be short and productive.

Professor Sanath P Lamabadusuriya MBE