email from Tissa

Dear Nana!
I wish I could take credit for everything you have mentioned! That said, it is huge pleasure to be a part of larger enterprise to help the students. I follow events in Sri Lanka quite closely as I am sure you do as well and I am offended by the sheer waste of public resources to satisfy the egos of politicians. I remember a time when only ministers (and there were very few then) who had official cars. Now every MP has a fleet of them.
In fact on the day I left after the reunion, I missed my connection in Singapore because the President had taken a plane to go to Kiev during the previous week (with an entourage of almost 100 people) and that had ruined the Sri Lankan airlines schedule and a whole bunch of us had to spend a lot of time at various airports as a result. In the great scheme of things, this wasn't much but what is happening to students and the absence of resources to help their basic educational needs is another symptom of the same disease.
When you make these awards, you should give them the widest possible publicity and hopefully it will encourage other Colombo grads working in Sri Lanka to make small donations to the fund as well. A thousand Rs isn't much these days for people who do private practice and a 250 doctors could easily cover a scholarship. There are so many Colombo grads working in the States and we should make an appeal for $10.00 from each one (this amount will barely buy 3 gallons of petrol) and it will be money well spent. I have a tax deductible charity that I use for various other charitable donations in Sri lanka and it has worked quite well in the past. But a 10 dollar donation won't even qualify for a tax donation! I could quite easily use my Pay Pal account to collect the funds. That would keep the administrative costs to practically zero.
All the best,
Tissa

email from Piyaseeli/ / Organising committee

Dear Kasturi
Thank you for your letter, Yes, undoubtedly without participants there would be no celebrations and for their part, Kapu has expressed his thanks in the souvenir as, well as when he made the welcoming address!!.
Your thoughts on the designing of underwear is very interesting and amusing. We are waiting for further communication between you and the Author of designing....Gerri.Yes, it is nice to feel appreciated & we thank all those who sent messages of appreciation. i.
It is also interesting to note that the emails exchanged amongst our batch mates have not fizzled out. Let's keep it going
Best wishes for good ,health, peace & happiness & lots of laughter
Organising committee

email from Nana

Dear Tissa
You have put in so much effort and energy into the production of the "Book of Essays"- (which I would like to call it as "Souvenir Part 11" as it would become a very valuable and a memorable souvenir to all our batch mates). Your decision to send any funds raised from the sales of this memorable book & the cover photos towards our student scholarship Fund is greatly appreciated. You have already proven your generosity and your humility by donating such a large number of computers to the Medical Faculty, to fill a dire need. You did not want any publicity even. Your empathy & the contnuing efforts to improve the present limited facilities provided for the students of the Colombo Medical Faculty will be greatly appreciated by the medicoes in particular and the batch mates & the senior academics in the Medical Faculty in general. Thanks to the generosity of some of our batch mates, I have been very fortunate in negotiating the offer of financial assistance to 2 of the very needy medical students every 5 years. Each student scholarship would cost 2.5 lakhs of rupees. Any extra financial assistance would be most welcome.
Best wishes
Nana C.S.Nanayakkara

email pictures from Yogeswary Kanagaratnam - Kannangara.

email from Tissa - Copies of book of essays & of prints of Medical Faculty Facade.

Copies of the book of essays we prepared for the reunion are available for sale. It is priced at Rs. 600 inclusive of postage (5.50 US$). Those interested in purchasing copies should contact Tissa Kappagoda at: ctkappagoda@hotmail.com
Any profits from the sale of these books will be donated to Nana's fund to help the medical students in the Colombo Faculty.
Giclee prints of the cover are also available ($10.00 + postage). This is the actual cost of production of the prints.
Tissa

email from Kasturi

Dear Organizing Committee,
From the day one, you have been getting nothing but kudos from all around. How come? what about poor us the participants? If we didn't participate en mass, what would have happened? We need plaudits from the organizing committee as well! Jokes apart, dear Organizing committee members, all of us, the participants, are indeed indebted to you lovely bunch of indefatigable people, for being selfless,so considerate and meticulous, going into minor details in giving all of us a memorable get together, which would be reposited indelibly in a safe niche in our hearts for ever! Thank you dear friends, thank you ever so much! We are lucky that our batch is blessed with people like you. A hitch though, you should have left apart at least five precious minutes for questions and answers, especially after a very lucid lecture by an erudite research professor like Geri! At least at this late hour , may I ask Geri the Hon. Professor, whether he made use of live models for checking out his different varieties and sizes of pants and brassiers! I envy him for that. I want to inform him that I have devised a unisex pant, where there is a Zip in the centre, one placed anterially and another in the posterior aspect so that in any eventuality, the wearer can make use of either the anterior or the posterior Zip , depending on the requirement. This I have found, is ideal for emergencies. e.g if you have taken a laxative the previous night and you are stuck in a traffic jam! The wearer can open the Zip in a jiffy. A word of caution though, he or she should be careful in closing the Zip. Take care not to let the Zip catch the piZ. In my next intimation, I will be able to present detailed drawings of the devised pants! Take care, and all the best to every body.
Kasturi (TTK)

email from Makuls Senior.

Dear Philip

Congratulations to you and committee on the excellent get together. It was well organised and we really enjoyed it. Enclosed are a couple of photographs from the last evening including one of the old Colombo South Group! Hope Ramya had a successful operation and is back to normal now. Please convey our best wishes to her Regards