FAMILY NEWS FEATURE -1

FAMILY NEWS FEATURE: Contribution No 1: FROM SANATH LAMABADUSURIYA

Sanath Lamabadusuriya very kindly responded to my request to batch colleagues to send me news of family members' achievements. Sanath is justifiably proud of his son Harshan. This is his email to me.

Please send me any family news you would like to share.

Dear Mahendra and Nihal,

Thank you very much for the invitation to contribute to our blogspot

Our second son, Harshan Indrajith Lamabadusuriya is currently a Consultant Paediatrician in Swindon. He is an Oxbridge graduate, domiciled in the UK. He is married to Michelle Gunasekere, a Consultant in Nephrology, and has one son, Inesh. 

Before he left for the UK in 1996, when I went there on sabbatical leave with my family, he won many Scrabble tournaments and represented Sri Lanka as well. He became the British National Scrabble champion in 2003, defeating a British physicist 3-0 in the final.

This year he won the UK Open Scrabble Championship, which is more prestigious. because there were participants from all over the world, unlike the earlier tournament which was confined to British citizens.In 2017 he held the world record for the highest number of points for a single word, namely Kreuzers which scored 329 points.

In 2017 he was the runner-up in the World Scrabble Championship.

In the mid 1990s he won the Countdown tournament on Channel 4 of British TV.

He was featured in the London Times recently, the links of which I sent both of you via WhatsApp.

Kind regards,

Sanath

UPDATE FROM CYRIL ERNEST

 Cyril Ernest. Retired Cardiologist  (Update No: 7)

Cyril sent this update for the Blog at my request. I am most grateful to him.

Speedy, here is my resume of my career in the USA as a Cardiologist.

The year was 1972 and the date- February 28th - when I landed in JFK airport in New York. To pick me up was my lifelong buddy Lareef Idroos.

It is 2021 November now and I wonder how the intervening years have passed by so quickly it seems. I did my internship and residency in Internal Medicine and switched to Cardiology for my Fellowship. This was not my choicest of appointments, but our Professor Dr Ernst Grief saw something in me and offered me the Fellowship and I accepted it. I finished my Cardiology training in 1977 and obtained my FACC and I moved to California. Initially I was in a Sri Lankan Group but I subsequently switched to a solo practice and I joined up with an Indian doctor to continue my Cardiology. My partner died about 10 - 12 years ago and I have been on my own since then. I used to be an invasive cardiologist in my earlier years but switched to non-invasive practice subsequently, letting my partner do all the invasive work. This was due to twofold reasons - exposure to radiation and the anxiety it entailed until a case was completely done. I sold my practice to a Family Practitioner and I still do work in his office, primarily taking care of my patients who have insisted on my being their Cardiologist. I do a lot of the non-invasive work, checking on Echocardiograms, Holters, Stress tests, EKG’s . I am also the sole Cardiologist at the local County Hospital and I do see my share of the numerous Cardiac patients who come to the clinic.

Speedy you have inherited an enormous load of keeping track of the numerous requests of your batchmates, a thankless task! But I am sure you are able to handle it.

Lucky was an efficient blog “master” which he handled very cleverly. I am not sure what his illness was that he decided to hand over his chores to you. Whatever it is, my sincere wishes for him to recover.

Best wishes Speedy - a worthy successor

 Continuing Family News

(6) FAMILY UPDATE FROM RAJAN “PATAS” RATNESAR

Sorry for not writing earlier, have been busy with family matters and believe it or not I am back working. 

First, my oldest brother Balu an engineer passed away at age 93 in Perth Australia. He really had no illness that caused suffering, his mind was perfect till the very end, playing the stock market, communicating via the internet in spite of severe Glaucoma which had blinded one eye and had taken away about 75% of his vision on the other eye. He lived by himself, refused to go to a nursing home though he had difficulty in walking and had fallen many times. This time he knew he would not be returning to an independent living. On a brighter note of his life, he went to that so-called “prestigious school on Reed Avenue” in Colombo, and played 1st XI cricket under Mahes Rodrigo sometime in the forties but was a reserve for the big match with “school by the sea”. He also won the De Soysa science prize which I am told is quite an honour. In fact, I took him to the hall where the prize winners’ names are there and did recognize a few of our batchmates who also had won this prize. 

A few years back I started a free primary care clinic for the low income underserved and served as their Chief Medical officer for a couple of years. I have been enjoying retirement happily, till I got a call from the CEO asking me to come back on an Interim basis, so here I am in my eighties reading through federal gazettes, excel financial statements, developing policies and procedures to comply with the feds. So to all our batch mates never say you are too old we can function nearly as well as those young pups. 

To add to all this my wife Queelan and I were blessed when my children decided to spend a long weekend with us. We had 6 adults plus and 5 children between the ages of 8 and 1 and half. Lots of excitement noise laughter, cries and toys in every room in the house including the bathroom. What joys those kids bring.

That’s my update and I do enjoy reading the updates.

Family News from Colleagues

Starting a New Feature

I hope that others will send me their stories too. So much has happened since we were together over 50 years ago. Grandchildren seem to feature a lot in informal conversation and here is your chance to share your experiences with your Batch colleagues. I will keep adding contributions as they come, to this post to keep it all together.

Speedy - Acting Blog Admin

We have five contributions so far. (1) Srianee Dias (2) Lucky Abeyagunwardene (3) Appu Sumathipala (4) Sanath Lamabadusuriya (5) Chirasri Jayaweera Bandara

(1) Family News from Srianee Dias. (scroll down for the others)

It turns out that my grandchildren are having far more interesting experiences than I am having at this time.  While I am finally bracing myself for my first international trip since March 2020, heading just across the northern border to Canada, my grandchildren have launched themselves into their ‘gap year’ experiences. Taking time off from academics for a year after high school has been a longstanding tradition in Germany, but it is not so common in the United States.  I confess, I am just a little bit envious and wish that I had done something like that after leaving Ladies’ College and embarking on the grueling journey in the field of Medicine.

My 19-year-old grandson, graduated from high school (called the Gymnasium, in Germany) in June 2020, just as the pandemic was gathering momentum.  His graduation ceremony was pared down with limited attendance.  Only the parents were allowed to be there, not even his sister.  The gap year activities he had been planning had to be completely abandoned.  Instead, he enrolled in courses at the nearby University of Hamburg, but never left his bedroom, because along with other young people all over the world, he had to follow all his classes online. He was bored beyond comprehension!

In 2021 he signed a one year contract with AmeriCorps, as a deferred gap year project. AmeriCorps is an organization that works in partnership with other non-profit agencies mostly within the United States.  He joined a team based in St. Louis, Missouri, in a program called ‘Beyond School.’ It is designed to keep young kids engaged in school, with interesting after school programs, and the goal is to prevent them from dropping out of school as they grow older.  The AmeriCorps volunteers are paid just enough to cover their rent and food, but not much else!  He seems to be enjoying the challenge, based on the limited details that I get via texts! He is also enjoying the various aspects of American life, sharing an apartment with a roommate and attending his very first baseball game!  It will be interesting to observe how all these experiences will influence his future decisions.

My granddaughter, who just turned 18, graduated from high school in June 2021, after coping with all the COVID restrictions in Germany, including a scaled-down graduation ceremony similar to the one her brother had.  She decided that her brain needed a break after all the stresses of the final year of high school!  Since she had already spent a semester in Connecticut as a high school freshman, she now wanted to experience something entirely different in another part of the US, but something easy!  One idea was to scoop ice cream at an ice cream shop!  She is presently living with my older daughter and son-in-law in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, and working in a vegan cafe!  Life is not too shabby, because in her free time she gets to enjoy the beach and the colourful sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico every evening.  Her coworkers, however, are from a ‘different world’ and she is observing and listening to them without getting into any conflicts.  When she first started her job, she wore a mask the way most sensible people do. But when she observed that the people around her, neither the staff nor the customers, were wearing masks she ditched her mask in a bout of self-consciousness. Luckily, that was short-lived, and sensibility won the day! She decided to ignore any comments or funny looks that may come her way and resumed her mask-wearing at work.  As far as I know, she has not had any problems about her choice. Beginning in January she hopes to return to Germany to do a few internships before she begins her university studies later in 2022.

I decided to share the news about my grandchildren’s activities because these opportunities were not available to us when we were students, but I believe are accessible to present-day high school graduates.  Most parents urge their children to continue with higher education immediately after graduation from high school, but I wonder if that is the best choice?  I hope that parents (and grandparents)  of young people will encourage them to sample the ‘real world’ at least a little bit before they focus on higher studies and have to make important decisions about their future.

(2) Lucky celebrates his "big one" with his family including children and grandchildren

Our Blog creator Lucky celebrated his 80th Birthday with his family. Those present apart from his wife Mangala were his children  Shehan and Dilushi, and grandchildren - Prashan (16), Anisha (13) and Nimesh (11). His Daughter-in-Law Prasadani was also there.

Lucky still has problems with his eyes and find typing very difficult.  I got his permission to post this with pictures of his family. What a happy occasion! 

I am sure all of us will join me in wishing him many more productive and happy years.

(3) Appu Sumathipala

My daughter's elder son who is 19 yrs, took a gap year, in order to see the world. He obtained the necessary grades to enter Aston University to read computer science. Covid 19 ruined his plans and he joined the supermarket Sainsbury's Supermarket to spend his time until next Academic year. My son's daughter, similarly obtained grades to do languages, most probably in University in Edinburgh. She too has applied for a gap year with the same idea of travelling around the world. She will be 19yrs on the 1st of November. My opinion was that they should complete their degrees and embark on tours. During our days, in school, we never heard about gap years and getting short term jobs during vacations. There was no opportunity at all, even in the private sector.

(4) Sanath Lamabadusuriya

Elder son-Shamin Prasanna, born in 1976, studied at Richmond College, Galle and Ananda College Colombo and represented the latter school in Chess and Badminton. Graduated from Colombo. Captain of the University of Colombo chess team. He specialised in Rheumatology and is presently working as a Consultant Rheumatologist at the Nuwara Eliya District General Hospital. He is married to Prabodha Panditharatne with one son, Sasmin.

Second son-Harshan Indrajit, born in 1979-Studied at Richmond College Galle, STC Mt Lavinia and at Royal College, Colombo. Studied at Steyning Grammar School, and obtained five "A" s at the London A level examination.(Best results of the school, after many years). Studied Medicine at Clare College, University of Cambridge and at the University of Oxford. Presently working as a Consultant Paediatrician at the Swindon Hospital.

Represented Royal College and Sri Lanka in scrabble and won many tournaments Won many scrabble tournaments in the UK and represented the country as well. In the Countdown series on Channel 4, he was the Runner-up.  In 2003, he was the British National Scrabble Champion and was the runner-up in the World Scrabble Championship in 2017. In 2017, he was conferred the title of Grand Master in scrabble. At one time he held the world record for the highest number of points for a single word, which was "Kreuzers", (an old German coin) scoring 329 points. He is married to Michelle Gunasekera, (Peradeniya graduate) who is currently working as a Research Fellow, at the Royal Infirmary, Oxford. They have one son named Inesh

Daughter Dilusha Amriti  attended Ladies College and Visakha Vidyalaya..Later she graduated from the Colombo Medical Faculty, topping the batch with First Class Honours, obtaining four out of five distinctions and winning 11 Gold Medals.(I also topped the batch in 1967, obtaining two out of three distinctions and with a second class. She outdid her father by more than a mile!). Later she obtained the MD (Colombo) and became a Board Certified Specialist.  She worked at the Norwich Hospital until recently as a specialist for the Care of the Elderly before deciding to return to Sri Lanka for good. She is married to Upul Wickramarachchi who is  a Peradeniya graduate who worked at the Norwich Hospital as an Interventional Cardiologist and obtained a MD from the University of East Anglia.His name is in the Specialist Register in the UK. He has the MRCP(UK), as well. They have a son Tharusha, who is four years old and a daughter, Samadhi, whose first birthday was on the 26th of October.

I have three grandsons and one granddaughter, whose first birthday is today. Dilusha's son Tharusha is 4 years old. They decided to return to Sri Lanka for good and are living with me since their arrival, about 10 days ago.

In Sri Lanka there is an enforced gap period after the A-Level examination. It extends usually beyond one year. During our time it was entirely different. We used to sit for the University Entrance Examination in December and enter the University around next June.

(5) Chirasri Jayaweera Bandara

My son Anju studied at St. Thomas Prep. Colpetty and Royal College Colombo.

He studied Medicine in English at the Kursk State Medical University, Russia.

He is working as a Medical Officer in an Orthopaedic unit at the National Hospital, Colombo. He didn't want to do postgraduate studies saying he will be posted to faraway places after qualification This would lead to leaving the family and going on his own. Since he was interested in photography he decided to pursue that line. He is a professional photographer and has followed many courses in photography. He enjoys doing wedding photography and other special occasions.  

This is a photograph of an Indian couple who came to Sri Lanka for their wedding and Anju was the photographer.

My daughter Anjali studied at Methodist College Colombo and Visakha Vidyalaya Colombo.

She studied Medicine at the Kasturba Medical College Manipal, India.

She passed her finals in M.D. Ophthalmology in Jan. 2021. She is working at Eye Hospital, Colombo as Senior Registrar for one year. She has to do one-year training overseas.

She will be board certified as a Consultant Eye Surgeon after her training period.

She does pencil drawings and these have been published in the Journal of the Medical College, Manipal, India. The painting of the pony is one of her many pencil drawings.