PURUSHOTHAMA DAS - Appreciation by Geri Jayasekara

Dr Rienzie Pieris had repeated me for being five minutes late for his ward class. My plea for clemency on the basis of having to travel from Moratuwa to Bambalapitya by train, and from there to Medical College by bus, had fallen on deaf years. Not really, he had heard, because he countered by saying I should have then started fifteen minutes earlier!

What a good thing that turned out to be. Because,that’s what made me befriend Das as I had to join his group to repeat Rienzie’s ward classes.

The discussion on the first day was on dislocation of the shoulder joint. We were crowding round a young man who was holding his right upper limb vertically up. Rienzie said, ‘This is Luxatio Erecta’ and explained that it was a rare type of dislocation. Das and I giggled as if by the simultaneous stimulation of a nerve - likely the nervi erigentes,because the term erecta combined with the vertical arm were the triggers for our amusement. And, this term was to play a major part in our long and rather close friendship. More of it in a moment.

Das was the epitome of a Jolly-Good Fellow. Never without a smile on his face, he was always spreading gaiety around with his loud guffaws and witty remarks, often in broken Sinhala, that made them all the more hilarious.

Das had one of the loudest laughs in the Bloem, where both of us were inmates. He didn’t need much to laugh at, and often there was nothing to laugh about! But the effect of his unprovoked chuckles was that they incited others to chuckle themselves. At no time meaning any insult, he would use raw, filthy Sinhala terms to prefix names of people, often using the wrong gender, much to the amusement of the listeners. He was certainly no misogynist, and those were days when the term sexual harassment was unheard of, at least among our batch. So, Das’s description of some of our female colleagues, done totally in fun, was so hilarious as the Sinhala terms he used were most inappropriate!

Right through our time in medical college, ever since that ward class, we greeted each other saying, ‘Luxatio’ while the other responded, ‘Erecta’. After many years without contact after qualifying, I connected with Das who had emigrated to Queensland, Australia. Even then, when he called me, he would say, ‘Adey, luxatio’ and I would acknowledge it by replying, ‘Adey, erecta’. This continued over several years, and was kept up even when we met at our get together in Habarana in July, 2010.

A few years ago Das stopped calling, and my calls and emails went unanswered. Sadly, I got to know that he had gradually ceased to be interested in his surroundings. Our batch mate Ragupathy from Malaysia conveyed the sad news from the States, where he was holidaying, that Das had passed away.

I am sure I speak for all of my 1960 batch colleagues when I express my deepest sympathies to his wife, Mani, and the rest of the family on the loss of our dear batch mate, Purushothama Das.

It’s me saying, ‘Luxatio my friend’. I am very sad not to get your usual response.

                                           

Dear Philippo,

Wonder if this is okay.

Please let me know.

Regards.

Geri.