Old email from Heather Knower

Hi Phillip
Thanks for the e-mails  They made very entertaining reading , besides
bringing back nostalgic memories. Here's one for you.!
  I don't know how good your knowledge of Sinhalese is . I hope it is
sufficient for you to appreciate the humor in this anecdote.

It was the 1st lecture in reproduction by Dr. David Jansz (My Brother -in
law). He took great pleasure in trying to embarrass me , because of the
relationship!

We entered the lecture hall to find an epidiascope ,covered with a cloth ,in
the middle of the lecture  theater. When we were all seated, Dr. Jansz made
his entrance and surveyed the crowd over the rims of his glasses. Then he
said pleasantly "Ladies and gentlemen, as an introduction to my first
lecture  on reproduction, I am going to show you some bioscope!" He looked
at me , and shouted "Nicholas!! Mehe wareng!(Come here)---now I must explain
that My married name is Nicholas ,and his lab boy was also called
Nicholas.------
  The boy came running in.  Still looking at me ,he yelled 

" Redda Ussapang!" (raise thy cloth)
Nicholas blushed and stared at him.  The audience was screaming with
laughter.
Without a smile on his face he looked Nicholas up nand down and repeated his
request. When nothing happened he said severely to Nicholas " Umbe Redde
Nevai bung Ara redde"  (Not your cloth man that cloth) and pointed to the
cloth over the epidiascope. Then he said "You people have a one track mind"
and started his lecture.
        Enjoy your new year! Bye for now. 

Heather

Old email from Sadiq

I knew Avissawela very well as I used to attend the Magistrate’s court, there in my capacity as District Medical Officer (DMO)  District Hospital Karawenella in 1967-69.

Karawenella was a small village close to Yatiyantota, i.e. Dr. NM Perera ‘s–electoral constituency  (of Ratharan Mulle –‘’Golden Brain’’ fame as dubbed by Sirimavo Bandaranayake. He was her Finance Minister)

. Karawenella was about 15-20 miles from Avissawell and close to Dehiowita. It was a very pretty village then, with the Mahaweli flowing through a large beautiful Iron Bridge. We used to enjoy bathing in its cool waters and picnicking on the river banks.

I have also worked at Kitulgala  Rural Hospital which was close to the Rest House river site where Bridge over the River Kwai was filmed, with Sir Alec as the British Army Commander. I used to cover Kitulgala in the absence of the DMO there.

As a lot of illicit liquor was being brewed in the surrounding small villages of Karawenella, consequently there were a lot of knife and gun crime. Seriously ill patients with fatal stabbing and gun shot wounds were brought into our hospital, at all odd hours in the night especially during festival holiday times. . Following this the morbidity and mortality were very high. As DMO I used to do a lot of postem-mortems.  My attendent who used to accompany me in my car to far off places like Berranawa- a most beautiful remote hillside village, used to help me with the dissection.

During my period at Karawenella I collected more than a 1000  so called ‘’Police Tickets’’ issued by the local police in connection with the homicidal cases. That is how I got involved with those court cases. Invariably I was summoned to give medical evidence at the Supreme Court in Ratnapura and sometimes at the Hulftsdorf  Supreme Court  in Colombo. I remember I was thoroughly cross-examined on one occasion by Dr. Colvin R De Silva’s son-in law   Daya…. (who died prematurely)

On the other hand talking of regard, we were almost revered by the public at Karawenella, for our  service dedication. Of course there was no overtime as such. We used to work to the point of exhaustion at no extra overtime pay, which was unknown in those days. I never did Private Practice.

Sadiq 

A Golden Oldie

From a film screened at Liberty Cinema during our student days -

Hi lili, hi lili, hi lo, hi lo ...

https://youtu.be/eLIUzUnoomY?list=RDeLIUzUnoomY