Creative Spot - "Meditation" by Zita Perera Subasinghe

(Introduction by Speedy).

 

This YouTube clip of a Zita performance is recommended to be shared with our colleagues. She plays "Meditation" on her Yamaha Clavinova 309. "Meditation" is one of the all time great musical pieces, composed by the French composer Jules Massenet for Violin and Orchestra, for the opera Thais in the late 19th Century. Zita performs with feeling and expression. It was a pleasure to listen to it while watching the beautiful selection of scenes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENLYhyBqPoY

Creative Spot - Speedy's newest creation

Sent in by Mahendra (Speedy) Gonsalkorale

This has been sung as a duet too by Jim Reeves and Deborrah Allen. I love its sentimental nature and gentle pace.

Speedy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEpw7c0KPCk

Professor A.S. Dissanaike

Prof. Dissanaike was Professor of Parasitology during our time and later became the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

The obituary in today's Ceylon Daily News is as follows:

PROFESSOR A. STANLEY DISSANAIKE (Former Dean of Faculty of the Medicine and Emeritus Professor, Head of the Department of Parasitology in Sri Lanka & Malaysia, Ex WHO, Geneva). Beloved husband of the late Ellerine, father of Surini, Niranthi, Eoma and Gerarde, father-in-law of Shanthi, Viktor & Caroline, darling papa of Rajiv, Ruwani, Kevin, Renuka, Glenn, Fiona, Jonathan, Christina and Lindsay, great grandfather of Keirys, son of the late Edmund & Adelaide, brother of the late Ben, Professor George, Bernice, Estelle and Joyce, brother-in-law of June, Vije, Cubby and Nuala Wijetunge. Service at residence No. 28, Welikadawatte, Nawala Road, Rajagiriya at 1.30 p.m. on Thursday 29th January. Cortege leaves thereafter to General Cemetery, Borella for cremation at 3.00 p.m. 013930 - See more at: http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=obituaries#sthash.r4jZ8mtZ.dpuf


A member of our batch Manel Ratnavibhushana Wijesundera had written a nice tribute to our late teacher and it appeared in the Ceylon Medical Journal in 2004. It is reproduced below.

Ceylon Medical Journal › Vol 49, No 4 (2004)

Click here for the CMJ article by Manel

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-WZIe6yC7IbgW2Kw-fTgFw-dSFmYtdEr6SdBbH1KlT0/pub?embedded=true"

 

---

Sportsmanship on the Tennis Court

The Australian Open Tennis Championships in Melbourne are in full swing. Rohini Ana has sent in this interesting news report on the second round match between Tim Smyczek of USA and 2009 winner Rafael Nadal of Spain. Although I am an ardent tennis fan myself, I had somehow missed it.

Smyczek's incredible moment of sportsmanship against Nadal

This could quite possibly be the greatest moment of sportsmanship we see all
year. And with so much talk of the death of the gentleman in sport it was refreshing
to witness this beautiful moment on Rod Laver Arena last night.

First, a moment of scene setting.

Unknown American qualifier Tim Smyczek is in the match of his life. He is on
centre court at a major against one of the greatest players the game has
ever seen, Rafael Nadal.

They have been battling for four hours in oppressive heat. Smyczek was long
odds to even get a set off Rafa but they are 6-5 in the fifth, the crowd is
on the edge of their seats. A huge upset is not too far away.

Imagine what is going through Smyczek's head. Playing against one of his
idols, going toe to toe with one of the greats. The pressure is intense.

At 30-0 with Nadal serving to win the match he throws the ball up and an
idiot in the crowd screams out during the ball toss. Rafa faults.

Instead of sniffing an opportunity for a shot at a second serve to get back
into the match Smyczek tells Rafa to replay the point, have his first serve
again.

It was an incredible moment during the most intense game of the American
player's life.

 The crowd responded warmly and he received a standing ovation when he left
the court after finally succumbing to Nadal.

Rafa summed it up best when, in his post match interview, he said,"Firstly I
want to congratulate Tim, he is a real gentleman. What he did in the last
game was not a lot of people would do something like this at 6-5 in the
fifth after four hours."

 This from one of the true gentlemen and champions of the game.
 

My Dancing Debut

For the benefit of those who may not have read them before, I thought of posting some of my old articles that were published elsewhere.  Today, I want to tell viewers how I made my dancing debut.

Lucky

My Dancing Debut 

More than five decades ago when we were young schoolboys, we didn't give much thought to ballroom dancing. But on leaving school and entering medical college, we soon discovered that learning to dance is a must, if one were to advance socially. At least that is what was drilled into us by our all-knowing seniors. I remember the day in the early sixties when one evening, I myself walked in gingerly with three of my medical student buddies, to Vivil de Kauwe’s Dance Studios in Kollupitiya. The urgent desire to grasp the fundamentals was that the biggest social event in a medical student's calendar, the annual Block Dance, was just around the corner.   

As tradition goes, our seniors had given us a thorough orientation as to what goes on and what is to be expected at social gatherings such as the Block Dance. “You will not be able to make any headway with any of the girls if you are unable to get on the floor with them”. To us juniors, that was the Gospel Truth. The vision of great things to come made us part with our scarce pocket money to acquire the much needed skills. 

Thanks to Vivil de Kauwe (and his pretty assistant), we learnt the basics. Oozing with confidence, we were ready for the Block Dance, which usually followed the Block Concert where the Block Juniors like us were to take centre stage. The effect of liberal doses of alcohol imbibed during our concert performance had not completely worn off when it was time for us to shower and change into our kits for the Dance. Transport was at hand and it was just a quick trip to the "Bloem" for a bath and scrub.

But we still needed booster doses of the same stuff (I cannot remember now whether it was "Gal" or "Pol" arrack) to gather sufficient courage to “approach” a girl of our choice. So the binge continued. On that night of nights, equipped as I was with my newly acquired dancing skills and fortified by the fiery liquid refreshment, I was brimming with courage (Dutch or Sri Lankan) and much needed confidence. I had no difficulty in extending my hand and asking the girl I was eyeing that evening “May I have this dance with you?” I was thrilled beyond belief when she readily obliged. So began a night of fun, floating around on the floor of King George’s Hall, with a girl in my arms in the semi darkness, whispering sweet nothings in her ear.

 

Anti climax

It was only the next morning that I found to my utter dismay, that I had not been able to make it to the Dance after all. Some time after our great block concert performance, I had “passed out”. The rest of it was only a dream.

Author's note: What I have written above is partly fiction. I remember very well that I did make it to the Dance after all. To put the record straight, I must confess that in my lifetime, it was only on one occasion that I had “passed out” after overstepping the mark. Or to give it straight, drinking excessively. More about that memorable drinking episode later.

Lakshman Abeyagunawardene

 

Creative Spot - A new song by Mahendra (Speedy) Gonsalkorale

Please click on the following link for Speedy's latest creation. Another lovely song with music, lyrics, keyboard performance (on his Yamaha Tyros 4) and singing, all done by one man - none other than Speedy himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSBPNRU1cuk

 

The words tell a story. It is about two people who were in love and one had to go away, but although the other had hopes he/she would return, it didn't happen.

These are the words.

 

There was a time

 

There was a time

There was a place

When nothing mattered

Just the two of us

Hand in hand

We walked together

 

You had to go

Leaving me here

You said good bye

As I held you close

I knew you’ll come back

So I waited

As time went by

I never heard

My heart was broken

 

 

We came unscathed

Through stormy seas

So much to give

So much to share

You are my dream

I want no other

Please come to me

I’ll make you happy

Now and forever

 

 

There was a time

There was a place

When nothing mattered

Just the two of us

Hand in hand

We walked together

An important note from "Speedy" to to all viewers

Please see Speedy's note below.

Hi Friends,

 

As you know, we have a blog site for our batch but only a few interact by writing a comment on a post. A lot of people said they don't know how to comment and I have helped our blog administrator Lucky to post instructions on how to make a comment.

 

Would you mind visiting  the blog and posting a comment on the post about "Visitors on holiday"? I want to see whether you could do it just by following the instructions given in the blog. This would help me a lot and if it is not clear or you run into problems, could you please come back to me stating the difficulty?

 

This link will take you to the blog.

 

http://colombomedgrads1962.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Speedy

 

PS: Users of the browser Safari would not be able to insert comments. (unless they have registered in the blog) but Lucky would be happy to add their comment on any particular post, if they send the comment to the email address given at the top of the blog or to Lucky's personal e-mail address. This applies also to anyone who wished to send a comment and are unable to do it through the means that I have outlined.