Remembrance day 2025: In Memory of Dr Lakshman “Lucky” Abeyagunawardene by Speedy

REMEMBRANCE DAY 2025 POSTS

In Memory of Dr Lakshman “Lucky” Abeyagunawardene. (Our much-valued and loved batchmate who passed away in December 2024)

by Mahendra "Speedy" Gonsalkorale

In March 2024

Remembrance day posts have continued to accumulate, and the response from colleagues has been heartening. The Blog is there because of Lucky. The Blog has been the most used medium through which colleagues have kept in touch for a mind-boggling 60-plus years!

I therefore thought of honouring him with this special post. 

I was going to base it around his wonderful book “From Hikkaduwa to the Carolinas: Memoirs of a Reluctant Expatriate” by writing a review. However, I discovered that an excellent review had already been published on our blog on the 13th of September 2013. Lucky posted it, but the author’s name is not stated for some reason. What follows now is my short addition to this review, followed by the more detailed one first posted 11 years ago.

 Review by Mahendra Gonsalkorale.

Lucky sent me a copy of his book in 2010. I value this book with his handwritten message very much and enjoyed reading it. It has been a while since I read it and I decided to read it again and again found it to be a valuable record of not only many aspect of his life journey but also to be rich with connections with so many important people from that era who have crossed our path. His recall is amazing. He has produced names which ring a bell at each stage of his life and as there is an overlap with our lives, these triggered many recollections.

The themes I discovered are how he valued his parents and grandparents, his teachers, his wife and children, his friends and most importantly, his gratitude to his homeland for the education and opportunities he was so fortunate to have received.  The theme of humanity with total acceptance of a multiethnic and multireligious society, which he strongly advocated, resonated with my own views. He did not just say it, he lived it.

The book is very readable and has been set out well with good chapters and subheadings. The photo section adds value. His writing displayed a strong literary talent. In the following extract from page 29 he paints a vivid picture of scenic Talatuoya.

“Acres and acres of lush green paddy fields ever so neatly terraced in hilly upcountry terrain; crystal clear waters gushing down incessantly over a rocky hillside to form a natural pool in the nearby  “oya” where village damsels clad in colourful “diyareddas” bathed; the ancient bridge that spanned across the stream with few people and vehicles moving unhurriedly across it; the hustle and bustle of the vibrant bazaar in the centre of town where traders did brisk business selling a variety of items ranging from foodstuffs to hardware. That is how I would describe the country landscape in Talatuoya that I knew so well”. 

He was exceptional, and we are very fortunate to have had the pleasure and honour of knowing him.

Another aspect that his memoirs must make us more understanding of is when making judgments on those who left the country. The political situation, economic climate, ethnic conflicts, education of children, professional aspiration to give your best to the whole of humanity and not just to those in one country, ability or inability to have a decent income, need for physical presence to support elderly parents, marriage and spouses requirements, and compromising principles of whether or not to indulge in private practice, are all factors which operate when making the decision to leave your home country. There are many more, and mine is not a comprehensive list.  These factors operate to varying extents in the individual case. Lucky dealt with the blocks he faced and kept his desire to return to Sri Lanka a silent aspiration, and he succeeded!

May his memory live with us forever. 

This is the post I referred to above.

 
Review of “From Hikkaduwa to the Carolinas: Memoirs of a Reluctant Expatriate”

 “Memory is the treasure-house of the mind”. - Thomas Fuller

Someone famously but anonymously said this:“The glory of summer is best appreciated, when one is shivering in winter’s cold.” 

Dr. Lakshman Abeyagunawardene’s Memoirs, seem to derive directly from an identical situation. The main title of his book is “From Hikkaduwa to the Carolinas”. He adds an elucidatory second title: “Memoirs of a Reluctant Expatriate.” 

Ten thousand miles away from the land of his birth, memories from ‘good old Sri Lanka’, kept on flooding his soul. The present volume, represents an expanded version of those fond home-thoughts. His professional sojourn in the distant carolinas, provided him with the proper perspective to adore and esteem the allure and the appeal of the place he always calls home. Recollections gushed forth, from the depth of his being. There was no need to recourse to notes. What remained to be done, was to impose book-form, upon the contents.

Briefly, that is the process that ensured the genesis of this book. 

The pages are crowded with memories of persons and places. He narrates the evolution of certain places in the spirit and the style of a dedicated historian. One could feel a sense of affection coming through those descriptions. 

The author hails from Hikkaduwa - a township in the South of Sri Lanka. It is quite a noteworthy “hail”, because Hikkaduwa is replete with a rich lore, centring upon great scholars, affluent families and many who achieved national stature. 

Dr. Abeyagunawardene, traces the ramifications of his own family. He, quite modestly, considers himself a residual legatee of the vast achievements of those earlier stalwarts of Hikkaduwa, who shone at various levels of life. 

Personally I cherish the author’s narration of the history of the area that is well-known as Manning Town, where, according to the author, he lived a good part of his childhood. Since I am currently resident at Manning Town flats, the author’s detailed descriptions of that area, with a touching sense of intimacy, fascinated me no end. The author’s in-depth recounting of the phases of evolution of Manning Town, is eloquent testimony to his impassioned attachment to his childhood haunts. The key to his close involvement with the life at Manning Town, is his memory of the house numbers, in many instances. 

As you continue to progress through his memoirs, you cannot help but be overwhelmed by his phenomenal ability to recall the details of the places he had known, while growing up. Recounting his schooling phase, the author takes the reader to his days at Ananda College. His undiminishing loyalty to Ananda is enshrined in his resounding statement: “I found that greatness in a school does not depend on the locality. My Alma mater, would have flourished anywhere on earth as an outstanding seat of learning!” 

We meet the author next, as an Assistant Science Teacher, at Talatuoya Central College. It is there he experienced the thrill of earning his first salary. As a dutiful son, he bought a twenty-four-Rupee silk saree for his mother and a fourteen Rupee Hentley Executive shirt for his father, using his first pay. 

There were only the minor preliminary steps, towards the entry into a wider world of massive challenges and trying ups and downs. 

The latter half of the Memoirs, is, in effect, a chronicle of his main professional career, as a Doctor of Medicine. It records the story of his professional postings both here and abroad. The total “Memoirs”, speak of a gentle, humane practitioner of medicine, deeply engrossed in the way of life of people. The large number of personalities, mentioned by name in this book, makes it a unique work. It is, veritably a “Who’s Who” of people, who flourished in various fields of like, during the decades, this work focuses upon.

For all you know, your name too is likely to figure here, in some context. 

The calm restrained style of writing, makes the book eminently readable. Although the work traces the progress of a professional practitioner of medicine, the major and minor events, that the author has had to wade through, make it, strangely enough, as absorbing as a work of fiction. The cliche, that fact is stranger than fiction may be apt here. There is, for instance, the episode in which the author is caught up in a plane crash. This real-life tragedy and the miraculous escape of the author, unscathed, but for a swollen ankle, add a dramatic depth to the whole narration. 

Professional travels, took the author to various parts of the world. His narration of these tours, gives the work the feel of a “travelogue’ as well. 

The total impression given by the ‘Memoirs’, is that the reader has been given the opportunity to meet a cultured professional, who has an intense love of his mother country and a marked ardour for serene domesticity. In his concluding segment, we come upon the author as a voyager who has reached a calm haven, after tumultuous travails. He nursed the dream, that the day he and his wife will live in retirement, in Sri Lanka. He reinforces this resolve by saying that “my homeland attracted me like a magnet”. 

The work comes in an elegant hand-cover version. And, all the author’s experiences are available to the reader at Rs.750. This is indeed a memorable Memoir.

https://shop.slma.lk/product/from-hikkaduwa-to-the-carolinas/

You will have to be quick because only 6 books are in stock.

Postscript. In a subsequent post, Lucky said this (and I publish it to show what a sensitive man he was)- "I had failed to mention Speedy's father Edwin Gonsalkorale in the opening chapter ", My Birthplace Revisited". This I think is unforgivable because I distinctly remember my mother talking about the Gonsalkorale family long before I met Speedy in 1962". My response was, "As for not mentioning my father Edwin Gonsalkorale, you are totally and unconditionally forgiven!"