124th Annual Scientific Sessions of the SLMA

124th Annual Scientific Sessions of the Sri Lanka Medical Association were held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel from June 7th to 10th, 2011. The theme for the sessions was "The March Towards Millennium Development Goals". Some batchmates including the SLMA President Sanath Lama are seen in the following pictures.

Venue for the 50th Anniversary Batch Reunion 2012

Although the dates for the 2012 Batch Reunion have now been confirmed, a decision regarding the venue has not yet been made. According to Swyrie who is looking into this, a new hotel is coming up in Beruwela which she feels would be the ideal venue. However, the earliest she will get to know whether the hotel would be ready by August 2012 is early next year.

If by chance, the Beruwela hotel is unlikely to be ready by August 2012, the refurbished Coral Gardens Hotel in Hikkaduwa (soon to be Chaya Tranz) would be the choice.

Chaya Blu in Trincomalee and Cinnamon Lodge in Habarana were considered, but ruled out due to the very long time that we would have to spend traveling.

Please await a further announcement regarding the venue.

Lucky

E-Mail from Priya - 2012 Reunion Dates Confirmed

Hi all of you,

Come 2012 & the 50th anniversary of the Colombo Medgrads 1962 would soon be upon us. Some of us have 'set the wheels turning' for a celebration of the event to be held here in Sri Lanka.
The date - Friday 31st August to Sunday 2nd September 2012

Details such as venue etc would be notified in due course. This is but the most initial of tidings requesting all of you to keep the dates free for a tryst with the batch mates of 1962. Please do your utmost to make it.
We look forward to your participation!
Best regards,

Priya
(Priya Gunaratna)

Announcement - Colombo Medical Faculty Alumni Association

Inviting all Graduates and Academics
Of the
Faculty of Medicine
University of Ceylon and University of Colombo

To become proud members of

The Faculty of Medicine
Alumni Association

By attending the inaugural meeting

On

01st July 2011 at 7.00 pm

At

The New Building Lecture Hall, Faculty of Medicine,
Kynsey Road, Colombo

Your presence is invaluable on this historic occasion

Please confirm your participation before 27th June 2011 to facilitate the arrangements

Contact
Dr Athula Kaluarachchi kaluarachchi@sltnet.lk Mobile 0714765180
Dr Nalika Gunawardene nalikaguna@hotmail.com Mobile 0776975402
Dr Piyusha Atapattu piyushaatapattu@yahoo.com Mobile 0779501610

Visiting old friends

                                                                               L-R Lucky, Rajan, Nada
On my recent visit to San Francisco, Rajan (Patas) Ratnesar hosted a dinner at his Castro Valley home on April 21st, 2011. I met R. Nadarajah there for the first time since our graduation in March 1967. The visit to Castro Valley brought back fond memories for me as I had spent two years in the San Francisco Bay area in 1974/75 when I was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley.

Achievers All

Hi Everyone,

This is just a request from members of my Colombomedgrads1962 batch. I would like to make this a regular feature on this blog. I want each and everyone out there to contribute. What you send me can be any noteworthy achievement (professional or otherwise) ranging from a newly acquired professional qualification to anything that you have done for fellow human beings. Or it can be something in your personal life that you would like others to know. It can even be something that your spouse, child or grandchild has done. Or even the loss of a loved one. Surely, nothing is too small to be shared with your colleagues. This is our own blog! It's meant for that. However, in making your contributions, please don't lose sight of our main focus - that we are zooming in on our 50th Anniversary. This is all a build-up towards that.

It's best that you send such news and information in concise form to my personal e-mail address in the first instance. It is:
adnl1102@gmail.com.
Big or small, it will be published after an initial dialogue (if necessary) with the sender.
I am sure you will appreciate the fact that I cannot keep track of all such achievements and news of some 160 members in the batch.

As an example, I picked up Sanath Lama's achievement in being elected SLMA President in 2011 and posted it as a news item. I would rather get you all to send in such information voluntarily.

Who would like to volunteer first? Please don't be shy and too modest.

Thank you.

Lucky

Remembering Anna Ponnambalam Sathiagnanan

Anna Sathiagnanan (nee Ponnambalam) was fondly called "Anna Marie" after the song of the same title made famous by Jim Reeves in the sixties.  She passed away on the 13th of March, 2011 after a prolonged illness.

I first met Anna in June 1962 when we entered medical school.  She came from Methodist College while I was an entrant from Visakha Vidyalaya.  As medical students, we used to travel in the same direction after lectures.  Later, I had the good fortune to share a room with her at the women’s medical hostel.

I will never forget the way she used to bring my daily morning coffee unfailingly at 6 am each day, all the way to the 4th floor from the ground floor.  She looked after me like a sister and encouraged me to study. She was an accomplished violinist who kept us entertained, playing her favourite musical instrument in the room during leisure hours.

In her professional career, Anna worked mostly in Zimbabwe (1976-2004) at the clinic on Aberfoyle tea estate, where her husband Gnanamuthu Sathiagnanan too worked. She moved on to working in the Infectious Diseases hospital in the nearby town, and after a few years, set up her own practice as a GP.  She also worked at a mission hospital in Lesotho from 2004 to 2006. After her husband passed away, she moved back to Sri Lanka in 2007, where she continued to work at Navajeevana until she fell ill in early 2010. 

They were the parents of two lovely daughters who looked after their mother devotedly during her last illness. Anna was very fortunate to have two daughters who sacrificed a lot to be with their mother and look after her during those final difficult days.   With her demise, I have lost a very dear friend and a good companion.

Anna's family hopes to take her ashes back to Mutare to scatter and have a memorial service for her in August.

                                                                                                    Kusuma Jayasuriya Ruberu