Pasyala

            It is really amusing to see and hear the differences in perceptions of the younger generation of medical students in Colombo and of ours, nearly 40 years back in the early 1960s. I was having a discussion, on general topics, with some of the students, doing clerking with me, at the old GH Colombo, in 1998. I asked the group of 15 "What is Pasyala famous for?" Promptly a youngish tall pretty girl put up an eager hand and replied "Alli pappadam". None of the other medical students, had heard the significant tourist land-mark, where the dolled-up 'cadju -girls' sold their ware. The eager girl had seen an advertisement repeated 'ad nauseam', on the TV regarding a 'pappadam factory', situated at Pasyala and its products. I sent the whole batch on a fact-finding mission to the 'Kadju Gama', as it is called now. This was done the following Sunday by all of them. They submitted a written report on their trip to this place, subsequently.