Sunset in Florida - By Indra Anandasabapathy

Blogs, Batch mates – Reminiscing and Reliving

When Lucky started the Blog, it was an electronic medium to supplement and enhance our Reunions. It has achieved that and more.

I began to ask myself questions like, “what is the purpose of bringing together people who shared a significant era of their lives but have since drifted apart?”. Some have maintained contact others haven’t. A lot of water has flown under the bridge and it is unrealistic to have the view that 50 years of eventful life since we were together has not changed us. When we meet a batch fellow after 20 years or more, we begin by conjuring up a mental image of that person as he/she used to be including the personality, character and even physical appearance. We then await with eager anticipation the first meeting. This is often a bit of a shock and could be quite disappointing. But very soon, the gap in years seem to melt away in most cases we hear expressions such as “you haven’t changed at all- apart from a few grey hairs and loss of cephalic foliage”. The interesting thing is that from that moment, your mental image of the person changes from the stored memory of 50 years ago to that most recent contact. A new relationship could arise depending on common interest but more often, life reverts back to the familiar. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and one must never lose the reality behind that.

We shared 5 years of formative life together in varying degrees of intimacy (some were very intimate!). The intimacy depended firstly on your Surname as that determined your immediate neighbours. There were other groups such as school mates and sports and other recreational interest. Within this, close friendships arose and persisted for varying lengths of time depending on circumstances. It is a strange fact that some very close associations made at that time also drifted away slowly to the extent that some were attenuated while others were totally lost. This is perfectly natural. Change after all, is the only permanent variable. When circumstances such as a Reunion arose, a kind of hope arose when looking forward to meeting your once close mate but sometimesresulted in disappointment, for the simple fact that both parties have changed so much that the meeting really is of two very different people who once shared the same spot on Mother Earth.

My own feeling is that Reunions and Blog chat is rewarding if one’s expectations are realistic. We are now old enough and mature enough to know where we stand in the Community we live in. Close family and close friends come first and this centre is surrounded by rings of others according to time, associations, and interests and so on. A Batch colleague may be within that circle of close friends but not because he was a batch colleague. That was the start but what happened between then and now is the determining factor. Human nature is such that we prefer some to others and we have our own preferences when it comes to long term friendships. On the other hand, you may have a very negative image of a person and find it a pleasant surprise to see a very changed person, much more to your liking. New friendships are created and maintained.

What is important in my view is to reflect on the fact that there is something we all share, and that is the good fortune to have had a wonderful education is a Country which has free education. (I for one, would never have been a Doctor without Free Education. My parents had 6 sons and 1 girl!).  I don’t think we should ever forget that and whenever the opportunity arises; we must support our Institutions and indeed, not wait for opportunities to arise but create them. I hasten not to use the term Patriotism. Being grateful and thankful is a good human characteristic, it has nothing to do with Patriotism which is questionably not a worthy attribute to have when what we need in the World today is Humanism and love for all human beings with as few barriers as possible.

So let us communicate, reminisce and be aware of our good fortune. . Let us never forget our Teachers both academic and clinical. Let us not expect too much when we meet. Let us accept people as they are and rejoice in our common medical heritage and let us help each other in any way we can. Let us use the Blog to be creative, share our experiences and rejoice in the successes of our colleagues and families.

Vivat Blog! Long live the Blog!

Mahendra (Speedy) Gonsalkorale

Back to being regular - Razaque

Lucky please post this in the Blog...... Raz. 

Sorry mates that I was  silent for a while. During that time my thanks from bottom of my heart to Rohini Ana & Sumathi for their kind & concerned messages of enquiry of my fickle health & well-being and ND & Mahen for their kind phone calls & long, interesting chats.

My issues were that I went into 'Hibernation' and in that period was down with a lingering "SNOTTY SUMMER" & progressed on to a lingering "SNOTTY AUTUMN"!!! I then developed a pretty bad Chest Infection that was sorted by a course of A'biotics. Admission to hospital was evaded as a result, but alas, the Blog was the only loser as there was no 'Story' of Hospital experience!!!  

I am pleased to announce to Our Blog followers that I have acquired TWO Companions!! One is from NZ (Waitangi) and the other locally!!!.It was all very amicable and in fact at the behest of Farina!!!.

One of them always. accompany me where ever I go....... the garden to potter-about, GP, Hospital, and even to BED to lay beside me..

I can see hear the sound of the wheels in your heads going at full speed......like "THREE-IN-A-BED" scenario???

I shall leave it to your imagination and await your 'suggestion' & comments.

I solemnly swear that everything said above is TRUE in content.

Your friend forever,

Razaque.

Meeting old friends at Pram's Hyde Park Residencies

Pramilla Senanayake (Pram to all of us) hosted a lunch at the poolside at her Hyde Park Residencies today to meet and greet Mahendra Gonsalkorale (Speedy), Rohini Abhayaratne, Chitra Perera, Kumar Gunawardene and Gitanjali Jayanetti who are all on holiday in Sri Lanka. Others present were Harsha Samarajiva, Chandra Gnanissara, JC Fernando, Suranganie Fernando, Sanath Lamabadusuriya, Swyrie Balendra, Suriyakanthi Amarasekara, Lakshman Abeyagunawardene and spouses. Click on pictures to enlarge

Rain forest masks - Sent in by Indra Anandasabapathy

 The artists are back today and at work . The paint used is acrylic.

Masks - Sent in by Indra Anandasabapathy

I should have inserted this introduction in the appropriate place, but some how missed it. I see that Indra has done the needful by publishing it as a comment. So sorry about it.

Introduction by Indra:

We went to the opening day reception yesterday of this annual exhibit of RAINFOREST MASKS BY Costa Rican BORUCA tribe in a local botanical garden in south east , Florida.

The masks are carved in soft wood and then hand painted by craftsmen & women who hail from the southern part of the country.This year has been an exception because usually there are 1-3 of these artists in attendance demonstrating their work. Most of the masks get sold on day one itself and a line forms hours before the show opens. The masks have become collectors items and I could see the prices going up every year.There is one of our Sri Lankan doctors ( not our batch ) who has a extensive collection of masks from different nations and most of you know him. However I am not sure if he has one from Costa Rica because I saw his collection over 15 years ago.

Costa Rica is a Central American nation, Spanish speaking , has no army and one of the top environmentally conscious nations in the world and incredibly clean & pretty. It is known for its beaches ( the west coast ones have white sand, east coast beaches have volcanic sand)  the country is host to an active volcano in Arenal ,which also has wonderful  thermal springs, pretty rainforests, several species of pretty multicolored frogs, most of them however  are poisonous, varieties of birds including Toucans and the endangered gorgeous Quetzal. We went zip lining over the rain forests several years ago.

I have included here photographs of the masks from the exhibit at Marie Selby gardens in Sarasota. The ones with red stickers were sold on day one within an hour of the start.

A picture is worth a thousand words according to an old Chinese saying. I hope you do enjoy what we loved very much.

Click on photo to enlarge

Greetings from Kumar Gunawardene

I received this message from Kumar.

Kanthi and I wish you, Mangala and all our colleagues a very happy, healthy and peaceful New Year. 

I thought you and our colleagues would be happy to learn that I have been awarded the position of Consultant Emeritus from the Townsville hospital ; I worked there as Director of Medicine/Cardiology and was largely instrumental in setting up a tertiary level cardiac service.

Being the modest man he is, Kumar does not want any further publicity! Hence not including the letters from the Chairman of the Hospital Board and the executive director of medical services.