India during British Rule -  Old photos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su-_XbJE-Dg

'Dingiri dingale'

 Clip contributed by Geri, after his recent Jaffna trip, with Vignaraja. 

Please click on the ymage below:-

Passenger train passing through flood waters, at Rambukkana, on the Colombo to Kandy line, Sri Lanka.

 

The 7 types of Kingfishers found in Sri Lanka.

On Tue, Oct 17, 2023 at 11:29 PM Nihal S. Gooneratne <nihal408@att.net> wrote:

 

THE 7 KINGS (A retrospective study of the seven types of Kingfishers found in Sri Lanka ) – By Prashanth Sentilkumar

 

 

Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) – known as Pilihuduwa ,its contrasting black and white feathers are really beautiful.The bird is a little bigger than a mynah.The male has two black lines (gorgets) across its breast while the female has only one.They live on fish, tadpoles and small aquatic animals in the low country wet and dry zones.

 

Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) – The Ceylon Small Blue Kingfisher, or Podu Mal Pilihuduwa , are slightly larger than sparrows with a brilliant blue feathered upper body and chestnut undersides. They fly very fast over water; and are found in most parts of the island.The diet comprises of small fish, aquatic insects, small crabs and frogs, they love hunting in the sandy beaches and the muddy mangroves.

 

Ceylon Blue-eared Kingfisher (Alcedo meninting) -Referred to as the Neela Karnial Pilihuduwa .They look like the common kingfisher except the feathers are deeper blue and chestnut colored. The birds prefer to stay in the secluded streams in the dry zone jungles and the foothills of Uva.

 

White-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) – known as Laya Sudu Pilihuduwa in Sinhala and Meenkotti or Kikilupai in Tamil.The bird as a white bib-like patch on its breast surrounded by a chocolate brown plumage. The species can be found all over the island mainly in gardens, tea estates, open country, but rarely close to expanses of water. They don’t eat fish that much, instead on small frogs, grasshoppers, lizards and worms, generally feeding on the ground than over water.

 

Black-capped Purple Kingfisher (Halcyon pileata) – Known as Hisa Kalu Dam Pilihuduwa ,it has a black head, purple upper parts, reddish buff underparts and a white collar. It is a very rare winter migrant. found near brackish water and mangrove swamps and also the Uda Walawe National Park. They live on fish, frogs, crabs, small crustacea etc.

 

Stork-billed Kingfisher (Pelargopis capensis) – Known as the Watura Anduwa or Manathudu Maha Pilihuduwa , the bird is smaller than a crow .It’s the largest kingfisher in the island. It has a geyish-brownish head and a blood red beak, with a brownish yellow feather upper body. They feed on fish, crabs, frogs, small mammals and even birds.found all over the island mainly in the dry zone areas of the low country.

 

Three-toed Kingfisher (Ceyx erithacus) – Known as Ran Pilihuduwa ,its upper back is sapphire blue feathers, whereas the lower back is amethyst and rump pinkish. The kingfisher gets its name from the fact that it does not have a second toe, hence only three toes all the others have four. They love the forest, jungle rivers and streams of the low country nestling on trees. They live on small fish, crabs, grasshoppers, frogs. When inflight they utter a shrill and piping call.

 

 

Address of a UK parliamentarian

WhatsApp Video 2023-10-19 at 07.23.22_6147b581.mp4

Please click on the image below :-

365-year-old, Portuguese settlers in Batticaloa and their present way of life.

 Please click on each of the underlined web-links in turn, to view separately.

1.Lovely choir, singing in Portuguese- https://youtu.be/KDWdRtrwrA4

 2. Kaffringa & dancing at a wedding - https://youtu.be/OT0G0IUtF2

3. Kaffringa - https://youtu.be/bvILaBS5zCI

Remanants of Portuguese in Srlanka now - https://youtu.be/XLZsQPea2Kg

The 'Grand ward round' of Dr. Lalith Perera, Consultant Surgeon, NHSL, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 When a 'Consultant' usually from a major speciality in the medical field retires, on his retirement day, usually on his birthday, a final ceremonial ward round is held, on this day. This is called a 'Grand ward round'. This tradition goes back over decades. I had this 24  years ago when I retired from this same Surgical unit at the NHSL, which had been under the famous Dr. Noel Batholomeus, when we were medical students in the early 1960s. 

    Dr. Lalith Perera Trained with me as Registrar and subsequently Senior Registrar in Surgery. He completed his MS in Surgery and went to  the UK for post-graduate studies and obtained his FRCS Ed. He returned to the Island and served in various parts of the Island being being posted to the NHSL and back to the same surgical unit as Consultant Surgeon. He had served in the same surgical unit as Intern House Officer, Registrar, Senior Registrar and now was its Consultant in Charge.

    He has an ever-ready smile and gets along well with people. His surgical skills are excellent, and he has sense for fair-play and honesty. He had a very good family support and his material needs were amply met by his earnings.

    I was living in quiet retirement when he rang me up and gave the news that he was retiring on the 9th of October 2023, a few days ahead, and he invited me to attend his "Grand ward round' and subsequent reception. I promptly accepted.

I am attaching a web-link below, to show you the ceremony of a Popular Consultant Surgeon's retirement, at the NHSL:-

https://youtu.be/Y7fBT1F-06c

Chop, chop, chop not the answer to avert tree tragedies

Chop, chop, chop not the answer to avert tree tragedies

The Carnival Is Over, The Seekers

Please click on the web-link below:-

https://youtu.be/evamto7MV1k

Very popular among the batches of the 1960s medicos.

Say goodbye, my own true lover
As we sing a lovers' song
How it breaks my heart to leave you
Now the carnival is gone

High above the dawn is waiting
And my tears are falling rain
For the carnival is over
We may never meet again

Like a drum, my heart was beating
And your kiss was sweet as wine
But the joys of love are fleeting
For Pierrot and Columbine

Now the harbour light is calling
This will be our last goodbye
Though the carnival is over
I will love you 'til I die

Like a drum, my heart was beating
And your kiss was sweet as wine
But the joys of love are fleeting
For Pierrot and Columbine

Now the harbour light is calling
This will be our last goodbye
Though the carnival is over
I will love you 'til I die

Though the carnival is over 

Old age - Shared by Geri

Shared by Geri :-

 

The Zero hour, needing a doctor's care.

 A presentation I did at the Avissawella Clinical Society, Annual sessions as a guest lecturer.

Please click on the video-link below :-

'Magey podi maamey', Popular song of the 1960's

 Please click on the weblink below ;-

https://youtu.be/dnzabgfd_R0?si=biko3eUsoXkdL1UB

Address to connect to on desk-top or mobile devices

 Please share this web-link,among batch-mates and friends, to get some news and updates.

Kynsey road, Colombo, 1960 entrants Medical batch blog

A day in the life of a medical student at the Peradeniya Medical Faculty, 2023.

Life at the Peradeniya Medical Faculty, Sri Lanka.

Please click on the web-link below :-

A day in the life of a medical student at the Peradeniya Medical Faculty.

Having 'pull' at the head-office.

 We, the 1960 entrants' medical batch, had finished our internships and were waiting for our post-intern postings. The Brahmins at the Head Office in the Health Department drew up the list of peripheral units, where the post-intern doctors would go. This was theoretically done on the merit list of the Final MBBS in Colombo, because this was the only medical faculty in 1965 - Peradeniya would produce their first pass out with MBBS 2 years later. The  GMOA did not have a say in the drawing of the list. Quite a few post--interns used their acquaintances at head office, to get posted to stations close to Colombo. This was called 'pull' in the vocabulary of the medicos.

The interns at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital had a party - a night of booze, tastes, singing and fried rice was the order of the day. Thavarasa, Ooyirilankumaran, Weerasinghe, Tissa Kappagoda and Geri Jayasekara were there in addition to the  Senior House Officers. Near the end of the party by way of conversation I remarked to Geri "Machan Geri, I am sure you will be getting a posting close  to Colombo, because you may be having a lot of 'Pull'. Geri's immediate response  was ' What 'pull' Machan, the only thing that I can pull is my fore-skin'. A Doctor who had been circumcised as a child added ' I can't even do that'.

The One and Only 275 Batch of 1960 entrants, to the Colombo medical faculty at Kynsey road,, celebrates their 53rd Anniversary.

Asoka Jayaweera, Sydney Hettiarachchi, Raja Makuloluwa, Asoka Dissanayaka, Derwyck de Zylwa
                                                   University of Ceylon Rugger team 1964 

Copy of a newspaper article

 On Saturday the 7^th of July some 50 plus members of the Medical Batch of 1960 will be celebrating their 53^rd Anniversary at The Jetwing Lagoon in Negombo. This batch is unique in the history of medical education in Sri Lanka in that for the first and last time 275 students were admitted to the medical faculty in Colombo in September 1960. Many readers would ask “how come such a large intake was possible then, whereas not more than 180+ are admitted to any one state medical faculty in this day and age? Three hundred were admitted as a result of a government decision after the 1959 University Entrance / H.S.C. common exam, to scrap the then 1^st year (1st MBBS) which was spent in the Science Faculty of the University of Ceylon. Thus some 150 of us who had spent 1959 doing a “ridiculous” truncated 1^st MBBS year at the Science faculty were admitted along with 150 “direct” entrants to the Medical Faculty in September 1960 constituting the “300” batch.

    Initially it would be worth recalling how the Medical Faculty (there was only one medical faculty then in the Island) coped with this huge number. There was no lecture theatre capable of accommodating such a large number. Construction of the The “New” Anatomy Lecture Theatre was completed only when the batch reached its third year. This “New” Anatomy Lecture Theatre is now no more having been demolished to accommodate a large new complex which is yet to be finished. The students were divided into two batches and while one had lectures in the morning the other half had practical classes and vice versa. Thus the work load for teachers as well as support staff doubled overnight.  As far as I can recall, some additional lecturers were recruited for Anatomy and Physiology but no support staff. We the batch have to be thankful that at that time the Staff both academic and non- academic did not agitate nor even complain about the increased work load. I am not sure whether there even were trades unions for academic and non-academic staff at the time. If there weren’t any we have to thank God for it!  Attendance was compulsory at lectures and each student had to sit in the assigned seat in aphabetical order. So those seated on either side remained the same for much of the course at lectures. Constantly being next to one another did result in some being coupled for life! When it came to tutorials, and ward classes and clerkships in our clinical years the groups were extremely large. Some groups had to do their “professorial” appointments in our third year.  All of these would now be considered unsuitable as per present guidelines / criteria for an MBBS program. Yet succeed we did thanks to the efforts of our beloved teachers. Those days there were no multi-media, no E boards, no slide projectors and if I recall even an overhead projector was a luxury. It was all 'chalk and talk' and it was left to the pedagogical skills of our teachers, some of whom used the vast expanse of a black board, that often extended the whole breadth of the lecture room most effectively like in an anatomy lecture to impart knowledge to us.

    The Batch may have been unique in more ways than one. We were 'ragged' a second time. This too with official sanction by order of, rumor had it, the much-feared Sir Nicholas Attygalle who was Vice Chancellor at the time, for a misdemeanor committed by some of our batch during the Law – Medical cycle parade. The Rag then was a pretty innocuous affair with the seniors having some fun at the expense of us freshers. The writer remembers being ragged by those whom he had known in School or those with whom he was already playing rugby as he had spent a year in the Varsity being a part of the 1959 intake. In those good old days, elections for office in the Medical Student’s Union unlike for the main Union at the Thurstan Road campus were not politicized.  One of the batch now a retired Surgeon was nominated from “The Bottle Party” and was elected to The Medical Student’s Union! In our days we had study groups from within the batch. The groups were made up of those with similar interests and often school backgrounds unlike today where I believe “Kuppis” or tuition and part indoctrination sessions  by one or more seniors is the fashion.

     In 1965 some 290 odd graduated in two batches in March and July or August. For those doctors who graduated much later, medical students and others interested reading this, it should be said that according to the curriculum and examination rules and by-laws, if a student was not able due to illness or other legitimate reasons to sit the regular 2^nd MMBS exam in our case held in December 1961, he / she still missed out and graduated later resulting in a loss of seniority in the health service. This was because not long after graduation we were given our internship appointments. One of those thus affected was a member of the well-known singing duo at the time the J- brothers. Later this younger brother Geri went on to become a well know surgeon and Professor. The batch was also unique in that we had an extended period of internship – 3 months beyond the 1 year. This I believe was to enable post-intern appointments to be made for the whole batch. There was no GMOA to protest such a decision by the Ministry of Health. Some of us used the extra 3 months to do a third specialty by exchanging positions by mutual consent. There was no official “Merit List”. It was assumed that the top performers got internship in Colombo if they so wished and also the opportunity to choose who they would like to intern with. In our graduating year, the Government decided to bring in a rule that there would be a five-year period of compulsory govt. service at the end of the internship. A few skipped out of the country choosing to do their internship in the United Kingdon as the Ceylon M.B.B.S. degree had full recognition by the General Medical Council of Great Britain. Most others sent in an application for GMC registration soon after the end of internship and became fully registered with the G.M.C. No sitting the PLAB or equivalent! Certainly the standards were very high and also the vast majority of students were quite competent in English. Our teachers not only staff of the Faculty but also the Clinicians who imparted their knowledge to us to whom I’m sure we all are grateful are too many to name. A few among them come to mind, like Prof. C.C. de Silva, and Dr. Drogo Austin who used to entertain every batch clerking under them to a dinner and in Dr. Austin’s case an 8mm film of wild life taken by him. Dr. P.R.Anthonis was well known for his generosity in doling out money to students in need of text books.

    There have been vast changes in both the pattern of disease and the way medicine was practiced then compared to now. While we were in clinical training, Polio was still very much around and at The Lady Ridgeway Hospital there was a “Polio ward” with the huge machines hissing away. These were called “Iron Lungs” and helped the patient whose muscles were paralysed to breathe. It was probably in our 3^rd or 4^th year that Prof. Sabin the discoverer of the first oral Polio vaccine, visited The Faculty. Prof. Sabin was most impressed with a question asked by one of our batch who went by his abbreviated name Ooyir. His full name was a real tongue twister Ooyirlangkumaran..

    It was not “all work and no play” many among the batch were topflight sportsmen and include the Double International Buddy Reid who excelled in table tennis and cricket. The P. Sara trophy winning team of 1963 had among its members Buddy Reid, brothers Carlyle and Travis Perera; Chandran Ponnambalam who was a National basketball player and Keerthi Makuloluwa who represented Colombo clubs in rugby. Many others played for the Varsity in Rugby, Hockey, footbal etc. Buddy continues to excel in Veterens T.T. and I hear just the other day he won a Gold medal and a Bronze medal in the over 75 year category World Championships in Las Vegas, U.S.A.

    Despite the large groups at clinical classes etc., the members of the batch have significant contributions to Medical knowledge and medical practice both here and abroad. At least 10 went on to become Professors many here in Sri Lanka and some overseas. A very large number obtained U.K. postgraduate qualifications quite a few returning to Sri Lanka  and some ending up as consultants at The National Hospital while many others served with distinction in hospitals in the U.K. Quite a large number are in U.S.A. and almost all without exception have done their residency training successfully distinguishing themselves. Yet others have ended up in Australia and New Zealand doing equally well.  Some have been honoured for their services in the countries of their residence. Others have authored textbooks in medicine and books of interest. Space limitations does not allow me to mention them all in detail.

The late Sarath Kapuwatte who was the mainstay of The Organizing Committees for all the previous batch reunions was a doyen of Rugby in Kandy having contributed enormously to Kandy Sports Club becoming a rugby powerhouse.

 Those interested in knowing more about the batch should read “Remembered Vignettes” –Bay Owl Press 2008 by Phillip Veerasingam.. Philip is not only a reputed surgeon but a great storyteller and writer of several books and articles of interest. His article in the Ceylon Medical Journal - https://cmj.sljol.info/article/10.4038/cmj.v47i2.3458/galley/2825/download/ and was of immense value as it suggested some aspects of intrigue within the Royal family - more importantly it was probably the first clinical description of tetanus-even the effects on the autonomic system when these were not known to man. Philip is an avid photographer too and helps maintain our Batch Blog site  - http://1960medicalbatchcolombo.blogspot.com/ and several blogs on Birds (of the feathered kind) in Sri Lanka -  http://photosofbirdsofsrilanka.blogspot.com/    and http://philipv203.blogspot.com/  

 

A.S.D

 

Life at the Kynsey road medical faculty, 2023

 

Please click on each of the underlined web-sites below.

Taken from a Vlog, published by a first year medical student.

1.Anatomy classes - https://youtu.be/5MjDZ0cuHKc

2.Kynsey road – Tea party celebrating a birthday - https://youtu.be/v-SGJVi4piI

I would love to get your comments 

Philip

Kynsey road, Colombo, Sri Lanka, – First year Medical student's life

 Please click on the web-link below;-

- https://youtu.be/4fbyFMAUQT0

Present life of a medical student at Kynsey Road, Colombo, Sri Lanka - 2023.

 Please click on the web-link below :-

https://youtu.be/RSBP94v4Gwk?si=hWTFYKbWoUNyQJMA

A completely different world from what we went through in 1960 - 1965..

Quick recommended action to take in a suspected ? heart attack'

Forwarded by Prof. Lamabadasuriya through Dr Lakshman Karalliedde.

 

Obituary - Dr. S Thangavadivvel.

 Much respected and loved Obstetrician and Gynaecologist,expired in serving his country and people selflessly..

Funeral and burial were done at his hometown in 'Periya-Kallaaru, Batticaloa.

Please click on the web-links below:-

https://youtu.be/UH9r5fmIYmEhttp://www.m

addunewsm/2023/09/blog-post_32.html