When I die - Rumi

 

Please click on the web-link below:-

 

https://youtu.be/ucqbkJVzurI

 

Generation gap

 

Lakshman Karalliedde

We are progressing around the belly. 

                       GENERATION GAP

 

  

Milroy and Punya with the COVID vaccine

 Milroy and Punya with the COVID vaccine

 

 

Celebration of Christmas in a hospital.

 Christmas is a time for giving and sharing.

Celebration in a ward during Christmas.

https://www.facebook.com/100000068888947/videos/3903316883013903/

The spirit of Christmas.

Please click on the web-link below with your speakers on :- 

 

https://www.facebook.com/100000068888947/videos/3903316883013903/

 

A review of 'RememberedVignettes', by Prof.Walter Perera, Prof English, Peradeniya

Prof.Walter Perera, Prof English, Peradeniya.

Although I had agreed to review “Remembered Vignettes: The life of a Medical Student in Ceylon, of the Early 1960s,” I had misgivings when I actually received the publication. After all, I was being asked to respond to reminiscences by those who were “freshers” at Medical College the year that I was admitted to the lower-kindergarten; it included a plethora of medical terms that were beyond my understanding; and as an academic who had specialized in postcolonial literature I felt uncomfortable at reviewing a book that included so many politically incorrect jokes and confined itself to the crème de la crème of society (those whom Jean-Paul Sartre called “the whitewashed elite” in his preface to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth) and gave scant attention to the masses. On completing the manuscript, however, I felt privileged to have been invited to perform such a challenging task. This book of reminiscences captures for posterity an epoch that may never be restored. It portrays a Sri Lanka poor in material possessions but rich in community, where students enjoyed life to the lees but not at the expense of others, where student politics did not constantly interfere with the university calendar or its administration, where talented undergraduates studied under the best of teachers in Sri Lanka and then obtained outstanding postgraduate qualifications overseas but seldom thought of abandoning their country, and where students would actually undertake bicycle trips from Colombo to Jaffna. I hope that this book is eventually translated into Sinhala and Tamil so that current students will be better acquainted with the rich traditions handed down to them. Indeed, it may even prevent the recurrence of the kind of incident that took place in Peradeniya recently when student leaders insisted that a new hall of residence be named after one of their martyred leaders and not after Sir Ivor Jennings, the first vice chancellor of the University of Ceylon—forgetting that none of them, including their martyred forbear, would have attended the University of Peradeniya had Jennings not worked so hard to establish it in this site. Compiled and narrated by Philp G. Veerasingham and edited by Tissa Kappagoda, this is a collective effort. Views of other contributors are either reported or fused into the narrative which makes the book almost postmodern in conception since it also includes an amalgam of anecdotes; lists of songs, text books, cartoons, prescriptions and films; in addition to pen portraits and straightforward narrative. A prefaratory chapter that deals generally with student life is followed by several which read like a paean of praise for professors, administrators and students at the Medical Faculty. However, while focussing on their professional skills, the compilers also include the quirks, oddities and other characteristics of those like A.C.W. Koch, Clifford Misso, P.R. Anthois, and Milroy Paul, to mention just four, a strategy which humanises people who are but distant (albeit famous) names to those not in the field. Furthermore, many of the individuals mentioned in the book subsequently obtained positions in Kandy or Peradeniya. It was amusing to discover, that the late Rama Karthigesu who lived in a flat above our house, was as boisterous when he was a student in medical college! If one were to select an area in which the era being celebrated diverges from the present, it would be the respect bestowed on teachers. These accounts make it plain that staff frailties and eccentricities were accepted as givens and whatever punishments imposed on students, whether being forced to sit on stage for the duration of a lecture, or having cigarettes, cards and money confiscated when found gambling in the common room, were accepted with grace. Rules were broken but in the understanding that punishment would follow if the authorities identified the culprits. It is a far cry from current conditions where lecturers are sometimes threatened and even assaulted, vice chancellors virtually taken hostage, and stern punishments meted out for dire offences which are then reduced in response to student strikes or interventions by VIPs. That the late 50s and early 60s produced a generation of top doctors who held their own with peers in the rest of the world is a given; in fact, this book would have served a higher purpose had its compilers provided, say, a more comprehensive list of those who had passed out in this period with their qualifications and positions held. In addition to motivating the current generation to emulate their sires, it would also remind the powers-that-be in England the extents to which students from the Commonwealth have contributed to the medical profession in England. Given recent moves by the British government to reduce opportunities for students overseas to obtain higher medical degrees in the UK, such a “nudge” is indeed timely. To reach such heights, these “medicos” would have indubitably studied hard but this book does not give the impression that life was an unremitting “cram” session; on the contrary, they indulged in the standard vices of that generation—smoking, drinking, and small-time gambling, while finding the time to appreciate music, dancing and the Arts. I was particularly struck by the account of an SCM trip to Peradeniya and the manner in which the four part harmony rendered by the participants enriched the train journey of other commuters and perhaps later those who attended service at what is now called the “Gal Palliya” Alas, mine was perhaps the last generation that undertook such excursions. The SCM has since been decimated on account of a tussle for power between overzealous liberation theologians on the one hand, and new-fangled NGO based Christian groups on the other. It is particularly distressful that this organization was destabilized and practically destroyed by the very people who had benefited from it when they were students. What remains uppermost in one’s mind after putting down this book is that, despite being compiled by a Tamil who would have obviously been affected in some way by the 1983 riots and the ethnic conflict that followed, there is absolutely no rancour to be found therein. Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and members of other communities who appear are occasionally laughed at for perceived ethnic peculiarities but all in good humour. Also, the tendency to laugh at others is tempered by that important ability to laugh at oneself. The strife that has rent the country asunder appears to have further strengthened the resolve of the batch of 1960 to maintain the bonds that were established in lecture rooms, operating theatres, halls of residence and at social events. A current first year medical student, born after the pogrom of 1983 in a Sri Lanka in which assassinations, bombings, security check points and constant civil war are the rule rather than the exception, could be excused for thinking that “Resurrection” is a work of fiction. But this reader who was transported into another world, almost another life, in thumbing through these pages can but echo these lines from Yeats’s “Broken Dreams” in concluding this review: From dream to dream and rhyme to rhyme I have ranged In rambling talk with an image of air: Vague memories, nothing but memories.

Obituary, Prof. Eugene Wickremanayake

It is with great sorrow we inform the demise of Professor Eugene Wickramanayake, Emeritus Professor of Anatomy, University of Peradeniya (dearly beloved wife of late Professor Tommy Wickramanayake) and a distinguished alumnus of the Colombo Medical School. Obituary Notice.jpg

May her soul rest in peace. This is further to the Obituary Notice sent earlier today. Prof Wickramanayake's remains will lie at AF Raymond tomorrow (12th December) from 8 am, for cremation at the new crematorium tomorrow at 11.30 am. (According to her son, Lalith.)

With Vignaraja at Ramboda, Sri Lanka.

Cars marketed in Ceylon, 1950 to 1960

https://www.facebook.com/philip.veerasingam/posts/3850274288318163

Anaesthetists, Sri Lanka

Living longer, the Japanese way,

https://photos.app.goo.gl/d25i7TnkZeH3EEzG9

Buddy's Birthday bash

Ayesha Ratnayake wrote: Dear all, A kind reminder on Buddy's Block Buddies Birthday Bash this 4th November! Buddy's Birthday Bash.png

Please click the below link at UK 10.30am / Spain 11.30am / SL 3.00pm / Aus 8.30pm on Wednesday 4th November 2020 to join via Zoom: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73753764604?pwd=c0RWN0RTMnRxVkMvZGk1S2lDbUt6UT09 These details may also be requested if you're attending using a mobile phone: Meeting ID: 737 5376 4604 Passcode: hr1G5e Please note, the online event will automatically end in 40 minutes due to Zoom's rules - but there are no limits on the memories you make! Have a great time! Warmly, Ayesha (Proud Niece of Nalini Rodrigo and Official Zoom Party Facilitator) Virus-free. www.avast.com

Buddy's Birthday bash

daya & nalini rodrigo AttachmentsThu, Nov 19, 8:44 AM (21 hours ago) to me OUR PHONE WHATSAPP IS. 0713266320 ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Ayesha Ratnayake Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2020 at 15:56 Subject: Re: Batch Buddies To: Siobhan , Perera Travis , Ramani ..... , , , , , Rajakariar Osmund , Arumugam Thavarasah , M Sadiq , , , Sujiva Ratnaike , Aru Wijay , Asoka Sujaee Tinto , G U De Silva , kamalini arul , luckyhb14 , Soma Herath , lawrence Ratnam , Piyaseeli Wedisinghe , Piyaseeli Wedisinghe , Udula Pathirana , Arjuna Ponnambalam , , , Cc: Buddy Reid , daya & nalini rodrigo Dear all, Thank you for attending "Buddy's Block Buddies Birthday Bash"! Terribly sorry about the timing mixup for those in the UK - will triple check the timings before the next birthday bash. Here are some photos from the occasion, and a recording of a witty and wonderful composition by the brilliant birthday boy about his "Lovely Bunch of Doctor Friends"! PLEASE WATCH IN "FULL SCREEN'

Buddy's Birthday Bash 1

Buddy's Birthday Bash 2

Buddy's Birthday Bash 3.png

As the birthday boy mentioned, please let us know when each of your birthdays are so we can arrange more celebrations like this one. Warmly, Ayesha

Memories of the late Sivaraja

Philip Veersingam Mar 14, 2019, 8:05 AM to Rasiah Hello Ganesh, Glad to hear from you. My first encounter with Sivaraja was a few days into starting our second MB. My dissecting partner of the upper limb Vasanthanathan invited me to visit him at his boarding in Cotta road. I went there after work still reeking of the post-dissection formalin. Vasanthanathans bicycle with the attached cane basket in front, was parked outside with two more bikes. Entering via a narrow corridor I went into a smallish room where three beds and a table were squeezed in. All three inmates, Sivaraja, Sankaranarayana and Vasanthanathan were seated inside and welcomed me. There was a picture of Lord Ganesha on the rear of the table propped upright. Sankaranarayana asked me 'Would you like a drink? I following the courtesies of Jaffna politely refused expecting a second offer for tea or a softt drink. Sankkaranarayana, pulled out a glass and a bottle of half empty arrack from behind the framed picture of Lord Ganesha and offered it to me. Brought up in the puriitannical upbringing of Hartley College was astounded and refused it..... Wednesday, April 16, 2014 Five regrets people make on their deathbed. Email forwarded by Sivaraja. For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learnt never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them. When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five: 1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it. 2. I wish I didn’t work so hard. This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence. By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle. 3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result. We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win. 4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying. It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships. 5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before ......... Posted by Philip Veerasingam at 4:32 PM I am attaching a photo of our second MB trip to the Peradeniya gardens where you may be able to identify Sivaraja. Otherphotos on Public Health trips and in one of our get-togethers

A beautiful photograph to admire and analyse

Vignaraja at the Seetha Dewi temple, Nuwara Eliya

ZOOM meeting on Buddy's Birthday bash

Batch Buddies Inbox daya & nalini rodrigo Nov 1, 2020, 8:30 PM (8 days ago) ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Ayesha Ratnayake Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2020 at 18:57 Subject: Re: Batch Buddies To: Siobh daya & nalini rodrigo 6:18 AM (13 minutes ago) to me ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Asoka Tinto Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2020 at 15:01 Subject: Re: Batch Buddies To: Sujiva Ratnaike Cc: daya & nalini rodrigo Dear Suji, Thank you for understanding . Sorry to have missed you all, though I did manage to speak with Lawrence, Chandran P and Makuls and Sugi. It was good. Thank you for your good wishes to Spain . We need it. Love Sujaee Sent from my iPad On 5 nov 2020, at 2:29, Sujiva Ratnaike wrote: > Dear Sujaee > Wondered why you weren’t there. The time zones are difficult to negotiate and having summer time doesn’t help. > Next is yours. Our restrictions are being eased now after 3 months ! We have had no cases deaths in Victoria for 6 days ! > Stay Well and I wish “ Sabba rogo vinassatu” to Spain. > Love > Suji > > >> On 4 Nov 2020, at 10:07 pm, Asoka Tinto wrote: >> >> Dear Nala, >> >> Sorry just seen this. I joined at the allotted time 11.30am, spoke with Lawrence, Chandran Ponnambalam and Sugi and Makuls. They said the meeting was over and they had mistaken the time. >> Sorry to have missed it. Wish Buddy a Very Happy Birthday and many more with best of health, that wish is for all. >> Love >> >> Sujaee >> >> Get Outlook for Android >> >> From: Ayesha Ratnayake >> Sent: Wednesday, November 4, 2020 11:26:15 AM >> To: Siobhan ; Perera Travis ; Ramani ..... ; dgjaya@hotmail.com ; cwgun46@bigpond.net.au ; rudihooledoc@gmail.com ; frevics@bigpond.com ; Rajakariar Osmund ; Arumugam Thavarasah ; M Sadiq ; lswije@bigpond.com ; apreena@bigpond.net.au ; Sujiva Ratnaike ; Aru Wijay ; Asoka Sujaee Tinto ; G U De Silva ; kamalini arul ; luckyhb14 ; Soma Herath ; lawrence Ratnam ; Piyaseeli Wedisinghe ; Piyaseeli Wedisinghe ; Udula Pathirana ; Arjuna Ponnambalam ; apreena@dodo.com.au ; farouk.sikkander@gmail.com ; pearl.hettiaratchy11@gmail.com >> Cc: Buddy Reid ; daya & nalini rodrigo >> Subject: Re: Batch Buddies >> >> Dear all, >> >> Thank you for attending "Buddy's Block Buddies Birthday Bash"! Terribly sorry about the timing mixup for those in the UK - will triple check the timings before the next birthday bash. >> >> Here are some photos from the occasion, and a recording of a witty and wonderful composition by the brilliant birthday boy about his "Lovely Bunch of Doctor Friends"! >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> As the birthday boy mentioned, please let us know when each of your birthdays are so we can arrange more celebrations like this one. >> >> Warmly, >> Ayesha

Nihal Gooneratne - 'Let it be',

Nihal Gooneratne Nov 1, 2020, 7:44 PM (10 hours ago) to Nihal The story behind Paul McCartney's LET IT BE! In his own words: I was going through a really difficult time around the autumn of 1968. It was late in the Beatles’ career and we had begun making a new album, a follow-up to the “White Album.” As a group we were starting to have problems. I think I was sensing the Beatles were breaking up, so I was staying up late at night, drinking, doing drugs, clubbing, the way a lot of people were at the time. I was really living and playing hard. The other guys were all living out in the country with their partners, but I was still a bachelor in London with my own house in St. John’s Wood. And that was kind of at the back of my mind also, that maybe it was about time I found someone, because it was before I got together with Linda. So, I was exhausted! Some nights I’d go to bed and my head would just flop on the pillow; and when I’d wake up I’d have difficulty pulling it off, thinking, “Good job I woke up just then or I might have suffocated.” Then one night, somewhere between deep sleep and insomnia, I had the most comforting dream about my mother, who died when I was only 14. She had been a nurse, my mum, and very hardworking, because she wanted the best for us. We weren’t a well-off family- we didn’t have a car, we just about had a television – so both of my parents went out to work, and Mum contributed a good half to the family income. At night when she came home, she would cook, so we didn’t have a lot of time with each other. But she was just a very comforting presence in my life. And when she died, one of the difficulties I had, as the years went by, was that I couldn’t recall her face so easily. That’s how it is for everyone, I think. As each day goes by, you just can’t bring their face into your mind, you have to use photographs and reminders like that. So in this dream twelve years later, my mother appeared, and there was her face, completely clear, particularly her eyes, and she said to me very gently, very reassuringly: “Let it be.” It was lovely. I woke up with a great feeling. It was really like she had visited me at this very difficult point in my life and gave me this message: Be gentle, don’t fight things, just try and go with the flow and it will all work out. So, being a musician, I went right over to the piano and started writing a song: “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me”… Mary was my mother’s name… “Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” There will be an answer, let it be.” It didn’t take long. I wrote the main body of it in one go, and then the subsequent verses developed from there: “When all the broken-hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be.” I thought it was special, so I played it to the guys and ’round a lot of people, and later it also became the title of the album, because it had so much value to me, and because it just seemed definitive, those three little syllables. Plus, when something happens like that, as if by magic, I think it has a resonance that other people notice too. Not very long after the dream, I got together with Linda, which was the saving of me. And it was as if my mum had sent her, you could say. The song is also one of the first things Linda and I ever did together musically. We went over to Abbey Road Studios one day, where the recording sessions were in place. I lived nearby and often used to just drop in when I knew an engineer would be there and do little bits on my own. And I just thought, “Oh it would be good to try harmony in mind, and although Linda wasn’t a professional singer, I’d heard her sing around the house, and knew she could hold a note and sing that high. So she tried it, and it worked and it stayed on the record. You can hear it to this day. These days, the song has become almost like a hymn. We sang it at Linda’s memorial service. And after September 11 the radio played it a lot, which made it the obvious choice for me to sing when I did the benefit concert in New York City. Even before September 11th, people used to lean out of cars and trucks and say, “Yo, Paul, let it be.” So those words are really very special to me, because not only did my mum come to me in a dream and reassure me with them at a very difficult time in my life – and sure enough, things did get better after that – but also, in putting them into a song, and recording it with the Beatles, it became a comforting, healing statement for other people too. – Paul McCartney

Paintings, Wineetha Fernando

Wineetha Fernando These are my oil paintings if anyone wants to buy write to me on messenger

Photos taken by Geri Jayasekera, on a trip to Alupola Estate, Ratnapura.