Spanish Gypsy Flamenco returns to India with Anoushka Shankar
Romani girl from Kosovo goes to India to discover her roots
This blog is about the entrants in the year 1960, to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ceylon, Colombo. The email address for communications is, 1960batch@gmail.com. Please BOOKMARK this page for easier access later.Photo is the entrance porch of the old General Hospital, Colombo, still in existence. Please use the search box below to look for your requirement.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Life and reflections - email from Lucian Wijethunge
Subject: Life as it needs to be reflected upon today
To all of you wonderful people who mean so much to me.
This perfect reflection on life as the years go by is something so meaningful and true. Hope you enjoy it.
"Happy people don't necessarily have the best of everything,
But they make the best of everything they have. "
"Happy people don't necessarily have the best of everything,
But they make the best of everything they have. "
And You dear people have contributed a great deal to the happiness we share here.
This is in appreciation.
Aging . . . . Absolutely stunning Photos, beautiful music
PS
When I'm sixty four - Beetles; Click on each link below:-
1. http://youtu.be/ldIfhc1pJpk
2. http://youtu.be/uHGe09wXwX0
The song is sung by a young man to his lover, and is about his plans of growing old together with her. Although the theme is ageing, it was one of the first songs McCartney wrote, when he was 16.[3] Played by the Beatles in the early days as a song they could play when the amplifiers broke down or the electricity went off.[5][6] Both George Martin and Mark Lewisohn speculated that McCartney may have thought of the song when recording began for Sgt. Pepper in December 1966 because his father turned 64 earlier that year.[5]
2. http://youtu.be/uHGe09wXwX0
The song is sung by a young man to his lover, and is about his plans of growing old together with her. Although the theme is ageing, it was one of the first songs McCartney wrote, when he was 16.[3] Played by the Beatles in the early days as a song they could play when the amplifiers broke down or the electricity went off.[5][6] Both George Martin and Mark Lewisohn speculated that McCartney may have thought of the song when recording began for Sgt. Pepper in December 1966 because his father turned 64 earlier that year.[5]
Some
people are getting the facts mixed up. At 15 McCartney just wrote the
basic tune in which he copied his father's style, and the lyrics were
just thrown and weren't that great, Paul was only 15. It wasn't until
Paul was 25 that the Beatles, including George Martin, rewrote and
improved the lyrics for a Beatles album. It's an odd song of getting old
satire, with the wife leaving him and him asking her if she'll send him
a postcard and drop him a line, and him wanting her to fill in a form
to tell him if she'll share a cottage with him, like they've grown very
distant, and this being written during a time of the hippie generation
of peace and love. The lyrics must have been scoffing at the older
generation and how they treated each other, the way my parents were
around that time.
- Harry, Sunnyvale, CA
Philip G V
Colombo Medical Grads 1962 entrants - email from Lucky Abey
Please click on the following link to see Aug 14 CoMSAA Ex Co meeting in progress (and other postings).
Scottish Bag Pipers - email from Gallege De Silva
--Spectacular
Some do not like Pipes but this is absolutely beautiful
Dianne
Amazing Grace with Bag Pipers..!!
The size of the audience is absolutely amazing!This takes place in Australia – the pipers are Australians. Andre Rieu provides world-class music wherever he goes – his music is always beautiful..
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Sri Lanka 100 years ago - email from Nihal Gooneratne
Sri Lankan's Seen (100 Years ago) in Sri Lanka - YouTube
A collection of Photographs taken during British Colonial Era (1815-1948) downloaded using Internet.
YouTube - Videos from this emailTrue Democracy in Action - email from Lakshman Karalliedde
forwarded as received.................................. JOGISHWAR SINGH
As a Swiss citizen born in India, I am many times brought to think about my experiences of the democratic systems prevalent in the two countries.
Before Indian ‘patriots’ start screaming murder at what I am going to say, I should point out that I am fully aware that I am talking about two different historical realities.
Switzerland has been independent for over 800 years while India is a newly created entity, now a mere 66 years old.
Switzerland has a population of only 8 million while India has the second highest population of any country in the world at over 1.2 billion (give or take a few million). And expected, in the near future, to even outstrip China, and become the world’s most populous.
The trigger for this set of reflections was what I saw on the 7.30 pm eve. news on Swiss TV a couple of weeks ago.
The Swiss President, Mr Ueli Maurer, was leaving on a five day state visit to China. The news showed him arriving at Zürich airport in an ordinary private vehicle. The President got out of the car by opening the car door himself. He walked to the nearby baggage trolley stand outside the airport entrance. He took a baggage trolley out, rolled it towards the car, lifted his suitcase and travel bag himself, put these on the trolley which he then rolled towards the entrance like any passenger lambda like you or me. He walked up to the check in counter with just two other persons walking behind him. He checked his luggage in for a commercial flight without any special treatment being meted out to him.
For any Indians (or others) who might find it difficult to believe what I have described above, you can CLICK on the link provided hereunder, at the end of this article, to view a TV news clip from the evening prime time news for July 16, 2013..
This clip is really worth watching.
Conditioned by my personal experiences of dealing with politicians and government ministers in India while serving as an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer, I was so struck by the contrast between what I had experienced in India and what I was seeing on the TV screen that I told my wife that this represented one of the finest examples of democracy for me, certainly of the Swiss variety. It made me proud to be the citizen of a country where the serving President behaves like an ordinary citizen and does not feel the need to consider special privileged treatment as his divine birthright.
I remembered the countless times when I had seen the fury of Indian politicians, much below the level of the President of a country, at what they considered as a slight because they had not been treated as demi-gods.
I am not a psychologist. I do not know whether centuries of slavery have generated this distorted VIP culture in India but I remember that we all did curse the politicians there for causing so much inconvenience to the general public by expecting, demanding and getting privileged treatment.
Who in India, except maybe some politicians or bureaucrats, has not been inconvenienced by VIP visits for which miles of roads and highways, even entire neighbourhoods, are blocked off to traffic, and flights are delayed, awaiting the arrival of some VIP or even his/her flunkies/family members?
Any such inconvenience would cause an uproar in Switzerland.
In India, it does not generate even a whimper.
In this context, an incident from the not very distant past strongly lingers in my memory. A few years ago, a former IAS batch-mate of mine (1976 batch) had visited Switzerland.
I have noticed that Switzerland becomes a prize destination of choice for a lot of Indian ministers and bureaucrats during their hot summer for attending all kinds of useless conferences which are essentially talking shops organised by the United Nations, an organisation which is a hotbed of nepotism and inefficiency.
This IAS officer wanted to see Switzerland, so I acted as his local tourist guide.
While we were going around the Swiss federal capital, Bern, it was lunch time so we decided to have lunch at a restaurant very close to the Swiss parliament building.
As we took our seats at a table, a Swiss gentleman sitting at the next table, reading his newspaper while sipping his coffee, greeted us in English. While we ordered our meal and waited, he finished reading his newspaper, drank his coffee and called for his bill which he paid before leaving. While going out, he again politely wished us goodbye, even saying, “I hope you enjoy your stay in Switzerland” in English.
After he had left, I asked my visitor if he knew who the man had been. Obviously, my visitor did not know the answer. I informed him that we had just been greeted by the then serving Swiss President, Mr René Felber.
My guest thought I was making fun of him. He would not believe me so I called the restaurant manager to confirm the veracity of what I had told him. The manager duly confirmed what I had said.
My Indian visitor was flabbergasted. He said, “How can this be possible? He actually paid his bill before leaving”.
So, what struck my visitor the most had been the fact that a VIP had actually paid his bill! I wonder what he would say if he saw our current President, Mr Ueli Maurer, personally loading his bags on to a baggage trolley and wheeling it to a check-in counter just like any ordinary citizen. His disbelief could only be countered by visual evidence on the TV!
My visitor’s reaction brought back memories of when, as a serving sub-divisional or district level official, I had been called upon to organise lunches and dinners for numerous collections of freeloaders travelling with ministers or bureaucrats in India.
I seldom remember any politician or bureaucrat actually paying or even offering to pay for the bonanza laid out for them. Those who did offer to pay, did so at the ridiculously low official daily fare of eleven rupees (today, a mere 20 cents US) per person or something like that.
Nobody ever asked how it had been possible to lay out a lavish meal comprising several dishes, accompanied by expensive alcoholic beverages, for such a petty sum. I never found out myself who used to pay for all this extravaganza at the end of the line.
Like a good Indian bureaucrat, I just used to pass the buck down the line to my junior magistrates and revenue officials. To this day, I am unable to clarify which poor victim -- read, citizen! -- who got stuck with paying for all the freebies on offer.
While working as chief of staff to the President of the Swiss Commission for the Presence of Switzerland in Foreign Countries many years ago, I had the chance of accompanying him to Strasbourg for meetings of the Council of Europe. I also had the privilege of close interaction with several Swiss members of parliament over an extended period of 12 to 14 months.
The contrast to the behavioural pattern of what I had experienced in India with politicians was so stark that it has stayed seared in my mind even till today.
I am by no means suggesting that Swiss politicians are angels, but the kind of behaviour that Indian politicians or bureaucrats get away with as a matter of routine in India would torpedo their careers in Switzerland in a jiffy.
Each such incident deepens my gratitude to Waheguru Almighty for having made me settle down in a country like Switzerland where the President carries his own bags to the check-in counter.
Where no roads are blocked for hours so that some VIP can, in the name of security, be whisked around in convoys of official vehicles.
Where politicians and bureaucrats pay their bills in restaurants.
Where grossly sycophantic behaviour is not the general and accepted norm.
Where no red-light beacons or screaming sirens signal the passage of VIP vehicles. Indeed, the red-light-beacon culture of officialdom in India merits a full story in itself.
I might accept India as a true democracy the day I see its President or Prime Minister behaving like the Swiss President before his departure on an official visit abroad.
I don’t think I will ever see such a sight in India (or Sri Lanka) during my lifetime.
You think, maybe, my grandchildren will?To view the TV news-clip, please CLICK here.August 25, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
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