Dr.Lester Jayawardena (Philip G V)
'Lester' was a senior lecturer in Anatomy when we entered the
>medical faculty in Colombo in the year 1960. He was soft-spoken and
>charming in speech and manner. He used to come to work, in a black Peaugot
>403. Our seniors warned us about 'Lester'. They said that he would be
>charming if you met him in the canteen, having a tea break during
>dissecting hours. He would greet you and talk to you, but fail you at the
>next signatures. This fear was so strong that whispers of Lester's approach
>to the canteen would result in the exodus of all the block students from
>the canteen. Such was the power of rumor. He used to do Embryology for us.
>We needed a lot of imagination to visualize the changes an embryo
>underwent, to become a fully formed foetus. Lester proved himself equal to
>the task. His favorite way of asking questions at the signatures could be
>given by an example. In a signature covering the dissection of the middle
>ear, he would start off by asking "Supposing that you were seated on the
>floor of the middle ear, can you tell us how you will see the course of the
>facial nerve". It was like being in 'Alice in wonderland' but the results
>were hilarious. I enjoyed every minute of it.
>
> "Lester' went as the first Professor of Anatomy to the
>Peradeniya Medical Faculty. I met him subsequently at the Primary FRCS Viva >in Colombo. He took me round the dissected specimens and I did not miss a
>single question. At the end of the exam when they announced that I had
>passed, myself and a Malaysian candidate were called in to meet the
>examiners. Lester told me 'You walloped every question' and I told him 'Sir
>you were my teacher in anatomy'. He must have felt very proud. Later when I
>was Resident Surgeon in Batticaloa, before going to the UK, to do my FRCS,
>I met him again. He had come voluntarily as Medical Officer Mantivu
>Hospital on his Sabbatical leave. He was not motivated like his colleagues,
>to go overseas on his sabbatical leave. Mantivu island in the Batticaloa
>lagoon had a leprosy hospital, those days. The doctors quarters was in the
>mainland and Lester stayed there. His wife was a specialist Venereologist
>and used to visit him. I met him and he told me how he met all the
>different types of nerve injury pathology in Mantivu. All the different
>types of 'claw-hand' and 'drop-foot' were to be seen there he told me and
>invited me to come over there. Subsequently I heard that he had developed
>malignancy of Colon and had surgery done for same. I found always that he
>was such a gentle and charming person, contrary to the fear instilled by
>our seniors.
>medical faculty in Colombo in the year 1960. He was soft-spoken and
>charming in speech and manner. He used to come to work, in a black Peaugot
>403. Our seniors warned us about 'Lester'. They said that he would be
>charming if you met him in the canteen, having a tea break during
>dissecting hours. He would greet you and talk to you, but fail you at the
>next signatures. This fear was so strong that whispers of Lester's approach
>to the canteen would result in the exodus of all the block students from
>the canteen. Such was the power of rumor. He used to do Embryology for us.
>We needed a lot of imagination to visualize the changes an embryo
>underwent, to become a fully formed foetus. Lester proved himself equal to
>the task. His favorite way of asking questions at the signatures could be
>given by an example. In a signature covering the dissection of the middle
>ear, he would start off by asking "Supposing that you were seated on the
>floor of the middle ear, can you tell us how you will see the course of the
>facial nerve". It was like being in 'Alice in wonderland' but the results
>were hilarious. I enjoyed every minute of it.
>
> "Lester' went as the first Professor of Anatomy to the
>Peradeniya Medical Faculty. I met him subsequently at the Primary FRCS Viva >in Colombo. He took me round the dissected specimens and I did not miss a
>single question. At the end of the exam when they announced that I had
>passed, myself and a Malaysian candidate were called in to meet the
>examiners. Lester told me 'You walloped every question' and I told him 'Sir
>you were my teacher in anatomy'. He must have felt very proud. Later when I
>was Resident Surgeon in Batticaloa, before going to the UK, to do my FRCS,
>I met him again. He had come voluntarily as Medical Officer Mantivu
>Hospital on his Sabbatical leave. He was not motivated like his colleagues,
>to go overseas on his sabbatical leave. Mantivu island in the Batticaloa
>lagoon had a leprosy hospital, those days. The doctors quarters was in the
>mainland and Lester stayed there. His wife was a specialist Venereologist
>and used to visit him. I met him and he told me how he met all the
>different types of nerve injury pathology in Mantivu. All the different
>types of 'claw-hand' and 'drop-foot' were to be seen there he told me and
>invited me to come over there. Subsequently I heard that he had developed
>malignancy of Colon and had surgery done for same. I found always that he
>was such a gentle and charming person, contrary to the fear instilled by
>our seniors.
Philip
> Speaking of getting mauled by Rajasuriya, he did not like me, from the day, I unknowingly parked my scooter in his spot.
During a ward class, having seen
that I did not seem to have a penlight, he asked me to examine a patient’s
throat.
I smugly pulled the penlight out of
my hip pocket, to which he said, ‘it must be contaminated with strep fecalis’.
Malin.
