Stories related by Dougie - Douglas Arulanandam.

 

1. Dougie was with Sydney Hettiaratchi our batch-mate at Trinity College, Kandy, Ceylon. One day Sydney had been ‘gated’ for some misdemeanor inside the Trinity premises. The master who ‘gated’ him, Mr.Jacob, Mary Jacob our junior batch student’s father, while shopping in the Kandy town, thought that he saw Sydney walking ahead of him. He walked fast behind the presumed Sydney and gave him a slap on the back to see that he had mistaken someone else for Sydney. It was time for the master to look foolish in front of a large crowd. He realised his mistake, apologized profusely to the injured party and disappeared from the scene quickly.

 

2. Dougie was working at Medamahanuwara as Medical Officer of Health, in the late 1960s. He said that while trekking on a foot path, to go to a remote village, he was surprised by wild elephants and had to beat a hasty and breathless retreat. Luckily the elephants did not chase him very far.

 

3. Unlicensed liquor sales were common in the remote villages. The two brands sold were the cheaper Gal-Oya arrack, also called ‘Gal’, produced from sugar cane molasses and the more expensive Coconut arrack, also called ‘Pol’ produced from coconut toddy. If you wanted to acquire these from the shops in these remote villages, there was a secret pass word used, as police raids were a perpetual danger. It was ‘Ballata Gahana Badu’ (The item you use to throw at dogs) for ‘Gal’ which meant ‘stone’. For Coconut arrack the term used was ‘Deiyanta gahana badu’ (The item you smash in front of Gods) for ‘Pol’ which meant coconut

Dougie's trip to Kandy by bicycle

 

Douglas Arulanandam, known as ' Dougie' and a few batch-mates decided to do the Colombo to Kandy trip by bicycles. After 50 Km cycling,from Colombo, they came to the old bridge at Mawanella, at the half-way mark to Kandy. The flowing waters of the Maha Oya, provide an ideal bathing spot for the nearby villagers. Dougie and friends were sweating and stopped for a river bath.

Mawanella Bridge is the oldest operational brick bridge in Sri Lanka. The bridge was built in 1833 in Mawanella over the Maha Oya. The arch bridge has four arches, with each arch 15 m in length and is constructed entirely from bricks. Wikipedia

    A few of 'Dougie's' friends were using ‘Jock straps’ as under wear. When they got into the water wearing this type of clothing, exposing the buttocks which was not covered by this type of underwear, there was a brief, shocked silence from the villagers bathing in the river, at the same spot. After a few minutes, one of the male youngsters shouted out loud ‘Ado puka penawaa’- ‘Hey, your buttocks are exposed’. Our friends quickly got out of the water and beat a hasty retreat, accompanied by a crescendo of hoots from the crowd bathing in the river, which included females.

A study of 'Jock straps'

The word jockstrap has purportedly been in use at least since 1891, a likely contraction of "jockey strap", as the garment was first designed for bicycle-riding messengers and deliverymen, or 'bike jockeys'. The Bike Jockey Strap was the first jockstrap manufactured in America in 1874.

 History - The jockstrap was invented in 1874 by C. F. Bennett of a Chicago sporting goods company, Sharp & Smith, to provide comfort and support for bicycle jockeys working the cobblestone streets of Boston.^{[citation needed]} The original incarnation of the jockstrap resembled a thong, as it featured a strap that went between the buttocks.^[5] In 1897 Bennett's newly formed Bike Web Company patented and began mass-producing the Bike Jockey Strap

The jillstrap (a.k.a. a "jill") is the female equivalent of the jockstrap but is designed to protect the vulva from getting struck. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jockstrap)

 

Two contributions by the ever hilarious Geri Jeyasekara