Lakshman
Karalliedde had an alias "Charlie" bestowed on him, due to his
fondness to visit "Charlies" bar, at the Queen's hotel in Kandy. As
was
mentioned before he and I became close friends. Along with Kapuwaththe, Alky
Bala, Sunil Liyanage, Ponna, the late Rama Karthigesu, Syed Ahmed with the late JBC de Silva joining in sometimes, we formed a study and play group. Once we decided to hike up to Nuwara-eliya. It was great fun but on the way down, Kapu
was was found to have got Chicken pox. Having come to Kandy where as usual we
planned to stay at Karals', the problem arose of getting Kapu back to his home
at Matale. Karal's mother was adamant in not giving their Grey Austin A50 to take him to Mathale. Luckily, Mr.Wijesuriya who happened
to be one of Sunil's family friends lent us his, if I remember correctly a Green Opel car. Long years later,
Karals married Mr. W's daughter, Kanthi.
‘After exams parties’ -all male affairs- were at Sunils' parent’s home in
Gregory's avenue, Colombo, a logical choice as Sunil's father was the youngest
dad amongst ours. He would join in the fun along with his elderly ‘Appu’. Ponna and Syed Ahmed were teetotallers and sobering influences. Dr. Stanley de Silva paediatrician, was Sunils' opposite neighbour.
My place at Bambalapitiya was frequently the study centre. Between breaks we would head to 'Sarawathi hotel' for 'thosai and wade' feed, and later stand at the top of the lane on Galle Road and watch the world go by. A practice my father too did. He had a phenomenal memory for car numbers and names of people whom he identified
passing by.
Asoka
