Sent by Premalatha Balasuriya
(Ranasinghe)- 1959 batch
1. New students had entered the
Faculty and it was ragging time. I am relating one incident that I can recall.
The fresher boys had to come in white trousers and during the interval they had
to come to the lawn in front of the Physiology block. They had to roll up one
trouser leg, wear jingle bells on the leg, wear the tie front to back (I can
recall only this much). The so called ‘honourable seniors’ got them to march
round and round the lawn saying ‘left, right, left, right’ The Dean – Prof
Abeyratne, fondly referred to as ‘pachaya’- announced his arrival by a small
cough and the seniors ran away. The boys continued to march. He came and asked
‘Are you a pack of lunatics from Angoda?’ No answer came. The boys continued to
march saying ‘left, right, left, right’ for a time until they got chased away
by the Dean. I am sure they enjoyed the fun.
2. There used to be an annual cricket
match- staff vs block students in the 1960s. Sheriff Deen happened to be the
compere. Dr Watson had just started
neurophysiology lectures and it was like Greek to most of us. When he started
to bat, the compere announced ‘Dr Watson is receiving an afferent input
from ???? and he is sending an efferent
discharge’ and so on..
3. When we were doing Prof C C de
Silva’s appointment at LRH, Malkanthi (Dr Channa Wijesinghe’s wife) was the
intern house officer. Prof used to sit at the table and teach with the students
around him. The intern house officers had to be there. He carried a long knee
hammer with which he used to hit anyone missing an answer to his question.
Malkanthi happened to answer a question put to a student. He said ‘next time
you do that, I will put you under the table’ and he did just that. Whenever a
student missed answering a question he used to hit Malkanthi under the table
with the knee hammer. She was shouting ‘Please don’t sir’. She had to wait
there until the end of the class
Dr.D.F.De.S. Gunawardena was a
Consultant Surgeon at the GH Colombo in the 1960s. He had a problem with his
larynx and could not talk loud. The medical students had a joke circulating
that they went to do his surgical appointment, to learn ‘The secrets of
Surgery’. It was a New Years day and a new batch of twelve medical students,
went to see Dr.D.F.De.S. Gunawardena in his ward, to start their surgical
‘clerking’ of two months surgical training. They were timid and got late by ten
minutes. They went up to the Surgeon and wished him a ‘Good Morning. The
Surgeon mumbled something in reply, with a dead-pan face. The students thought
that the Surgeon was wishing them a Happy New Year. They replied in unison
‘Wish you the same Sir’. This time the Surgeon talked a bit louder and they
heard him repeating ‘Get out’. It was punishment for getting late for the
appointment.
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