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, September 24, 2015
'Around The World', Song.
Around The World In 80 Days - Franck Pourcel
Orchestra! (ALBUM)
NAT KING COLE - Around The World
Around The World (Frank Sinatra - with Lyrics)
The Assassination of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike
An Anecdotal Reflection
by
Senaka Weeraratna
It was a Friday fifty
six years ago to be exact on September 25, 1959 at around 10.30 a.m. in the
morning when I was in the class room listening to Mr. H.P. Jayawardena’s
English lesson in our final year at Royal Primary School, that my eye caught a
movement in the corridor adjoining the class. When I looked sideways to my left
I saw young Anura Bandaranaike being accompanied by his Ayah leaving the
premises. In that relatively quiet moment my class mates too saw Anura being
led away but none was able to second guess the reason.
It was during the
lunch hour that we got the distressing news that Anura’s father, Mr. S.W.R.D.
Bandaranaike, then Prime Minister of Ceylon, had been shot. Amidst a variety of
reports streaming in of the shooting it was not possible to give adequate
attention to any class room instruction for the rest of the day. In that very
class of Mr. H.P. Jayawardena we had a number of students who shot to national
prominence in public life as adults. Ranil Wickremesinghe (Prime Minister), Dinesh
Gunawardena (ex - Cabinet Minister), late C.R. de Silva (former Attorney –
General), Dr. Ajita Wijesundere (leading Gynecologist), and Sarath Abeysundera
(successful Sri Lankan entrepreneur in UK) were among them.
In 1959 Anura
Bandaranaike was in Mr. T.William’s class, which also had Anura de Alwis (son
of Duncan de Alwis, Private Secretary to the Prime Minister). Both were close
friends. It
is said that when Anura had wanted to invite only his favourite friends to
celebrate his birthday, his famous father had given him an important lesson
saying ‘ if you are inviting any one to your birthday party, do not pick and
choose. Invite the entire class’. To a politician alienating someone by not
inviting was far more damaging than the benefits accruing from inviting a close
friend.
Anura’s mother Mrs.
Srima Bandaranaike used to visit Royal Primary School to inquire into Anura’s
well being as a school boy, at a time when her husband was running the country.
In 1957 S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was the Chief Guest at the Royal Primary School
Prize Giving held on February 15, 1957. Both S.W.R.D. and Mrs. Sirima
Bandaranaike were present on that occasion. ‘ Gateway ‘ the Magazine of the
Royal Primary School in its last issue ( in 1958) has faithfully published the
Annual Report of A.F. de Saa Bandaranaike, then Headmaster of Royal Primary
School, where he pays a glowing tribute to his name sake the visiting Chief
Guest. A.F. de Saa Bandaranaike, retired as Headmaster in 1958 and with his
retirement the highly informative Magazine ‘Gateway’ which he started and continued for 10 years,
was discontinued by his successor for reasons that are not rationally
fathomable.
Bandaranaike’s last
appeal to the nation – show compassion to my assailant
The train of events
commencing from the time of shooting to the rushing of the Prime Minister to
the General Hospital at Borella is well known and constitutes public
knowledge. He
was operated by a team
of top doctors in an operation that lasted for more than five hours. The
country held its breadth during that time. Dr. M. V. P. Peries, Dr. P. R.
Anthonis , Dr. L. O. Silva and Dr. Noel Bartholomeusz were in that team.
Upon being admitted to
the Merchants’ Ward after surgery, the Prime Minister issued a message to
the nation from his hospital bed showing extreme generosity of spirit towards
the man who had shot him. He described the assailant as “ a foolish man dressed
in the robes of a monk” and then said ‘‘I appeal to all concerned to show compassion to this man and
not to try and wreak vengeance on him’.
His condition took a turn for the worse in the early hours of
the morning the next day. He passed away at around 8.00 a.m. on Saturday
September 26. About 13 years ago I met Dr. P.R. Anthonis at a public Meeting
held in Colombo and had an opportunity to talk to him at leisure. To my
specific question Dr. Anthonis said that he was present when Mr. Bandaranaike
died on the bed in Hospital. He i.e. Mr. Bandaranaike had asked for a bottle of
Orange Barley which had been supplied to him. Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike had also
been present. After he drank a glass of Orange Barley, the body had turned
‘blue’ due to a clot in a blood vessal restricting the flow of oxygen to his
brain. Soon afterwards Mr. Bandaranaike had died. Dr. Anthonis also gave
another important clarification. He added that he was present in the Hospital
until the remains of Mr. Bandaranaike were taken to his residence at Rosmead
Place. He had not seen any Christian priests administering last rites in
Hospital as falsely rumored. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike died as a Buddhist, Dr.
Anthonis told me.
Upon the announcement
of the death over the Radio the country was plunged into mourning. The Radio
played solemn music. A verdict of homicide was recorded by the City Coroner. People
started queuing in their hundreds to pay their last respects to the man who
ushered in the ‘Common man’s era ‘through the political revolution of 1956
which he led.
Personal memoir
On a personal note I
wish to mention here that I visited No. 65, Rosmead Place in the company of my
father, mother and brother at around 7.30 p.m. on Saturday September 26. We did
not join a queue. We were ushered into the main house. I saw the inside of the
house full of black ebony furniture and the bullet holes in the glass panes. I
met both Anura and one of his two sisters probably Chandrika and conveyed my
condolences. My parents and brother did likewise. Anura recognized me but he
was too dazed to engage me in a conversation. Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike was
inside a room naturally in a state of deep grief. I had occasion rather my
father to speak very briefly to the driver of the Cadillac car who drove the
injured Prime Minister to the Hospital. His name was Miskin. He was a Police
Sergeant. Around the time we were paying our respects to the late Prime Minster
at his residence, I remember seeing very clearly Mr. Sydney de Zoysa, then a
senior DIG, slowly circling in measured steps the coffin with both his hands
inserted in his trouser back pockets while hundreds of mourners were filing
past the remains of the late leader in despair. The poignant scene at the
Bandaranaike household which I visited and saw in the evening of September 26,
1959 in the capacity of a tender age school boy will always remain etched in my
memory.
The story is not over
yet. On Sunday September 27, 1959 morning at about 10.00 o clock I was
travelling with my father and uncle in our car and near Cambridge Place we
switched on the Car Radio and I heard the last few sentences of a sermon
praising the late Prime Minister and the Radio Announcer thereafter saying that
it was a talk delivered byMapitigama Buddharakkhita Thero as a tribute to the late Prime
Minister. On reaching our Shop at Maradana that morning I met Mr. Egerton C.
Baptist, the well – known author of several Buddhist texts, for the first time.
He had come to meet my uncle. His son Randolph Baptist was my classmate at
school.
The next day Monday
September 28, 1959 was the day that Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was scheduled to
leave the country for the United Nations to address the General Assembly.
Instead his remains were taken carried on the shoulders of his Cabinet
Ministers from his residence to the top of Rosmead Place where the Coffin was
placed inside a Hearse and taken to the Parliament. I was an eye witness of
this procession as I was seated on a wall adjoining a piece of land in Rosmead
Place where my uncle was building a House whose first tenant was incidentally
Dr. Mackie Ratwatte, Mrs. Bandaranaike’s brother.
In that procession of
Cabinet Ministers carrying the coffin on their shoulders was Mrs. Wimala
Wijewardena (then Minster of Health). I can still remember her clad in a white
sari using one hand to keep up the Coffin while using the other hand to adjust
her Sari Pota which was constantly dropping down. The role played by Mapitigama
Buddharakkhita Thero in the conspiracy to assassinate the late Prime Minister
is well documented. Mrs. Wimala Wijewardena was an accused in the political assassination
inquiry into the death of the late Prime Minister.
My class at Royal
Primary School was taken by bus to pay our last respects to the late Prime
Minister when the remains were kept on display in the Parliament. To us
schoolboys the assassination of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was somewhat of a nerve
racking event from many points of view. His son Anura was our class mate whose
funeral also I attended a few years ago at Horagolla, together with several of
my RC 1960 group friends.
Anura – an enigma
Anura ‘s life was
shattered by the assassination of his father at such a young age. He never
received the guidance of a father figure. He became reclusive in the first few
months following his father’s death. He was always dressed in white and was no
longer the bubbly boy. He had more security whenever he came to school
intermittently. We all felt very sorry for him.
Anura was no ordinary
boy. He had a deep voice. A commanding voice which I had not come across in any
other school boy of his age. He had a liberal spirit and was very much inclined
towards the West. In year 1961 when I was the class monitor in a class
conducted by Mr. T.D.S.A. Dissanayake ( famous author and diplomat) there was a
debate held after hours presided by the late Mr. Upali Attanayake (dramatist).
The topic of the debate was Capitalism or Socialism. It was the time when
President John F. Kennedy was the US President. Anura, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Vijitha Kuruwita (later a
well known Vet) spoke and defended Capitalism while W.S. de Silva, Chitta
Ranjan de Silva ( Bulla )and myself spoke on the merits of socialism. The
debate was well attended. We were not hesitant in adopting positions that we
had faith in at that point in time.
I have shared
these thoughts as they relate to several schoolboys, my class mates, who have
later become national figures and whose life stories have become part of the
national story. I
would like to end this anecdotal account by quoting Voltaire who said as follows:
“ Whoso writes the
history of his own time must expect to be attacked for everything he has said,
and for everything he has not said: but those little drawbacks should not
discourage a man who loves truth and liberty, expects nothing, fears nothing,
asks nothing, and limits his ambition to the cultivation of letters”
Lesson from a Bank Robbery
email from
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During a robbery in Guangzhou, China, the bank robber shouted to
everyone in the bank: "Don't move. The money belongs to the State. Your
life belongs to you."
Everyone in the bank laid down quietly. This is called "Mind Changing
Concept Changing the conventional way of thinking.
When a lady lay on the table provocatively, the robber shouted at her:
"Please be civilized! This is a robbery and not a rape!"
This is called "Being Professional Focus only on what you are trained
to do!
When the bank robbers returned home, the younger robber (MBA-trained)
told the older robber (who has only completed Year 6 in primary
school): "Big brother, let's count how much we got." The older robber rebutted and said: "You are
very stupid. There is so much money it will take us a long time to
count. Tonight, the TV news will tell us how much we robbed from the
bank!". This is called "Experience. Nowadays, experience is more
important than paper qualifications!
After the robbers had left, the bank manager told the bank supervisor
to call the police quickly. But the supervisor said to him: "Wait! Let
us take out $10 million from the bank for ourselves and add it to the
$70 million that we have previously embezzled from the bank .
This is called "Swim with the tide. Converting an unfavorable
situation to your advantage!
The supervisor says: "It will be good if there is a robbery every
month."
This is called "Killing Boredom. Personal Happiness is more important
than your job.
The next day, the TV news reported that $100 million was taken from the
bank. The robbers counted and counted and counted, but they could only
count $20 million. The robbers were very angry and complained: "We
risked our lives and only took $20 million. The bank manager took $80
million with a snap of his fingers. It looks like it is better to be
educated than to be a thief!"
This is called "Knowledge is worth as much as gold!"
The bank manager was smiling and happy because his losses in the share
market are now covered by this robbery.
This is called "Seizing the opportunity. Daring to take risks!
So who are the real robbers here?
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Connie Francis
Connie
Francis - Everybody's Somebody's Fool
Al di la (w/lyrics by:connie francis )
https://youtu.be/GnwqNCL7lQE
Song from the 1962
american movie "Rome Adventure", perforned by Emilio Pericoli.
CONNIE FRANCIS - Never on Sunday - St.A4
Connie Francis - Que Sera Sera
Connie Francis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Connie Francis
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Background information
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Birth name
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Born
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December 12, 1938
Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
Occupation(s)
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Instruments
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Years active
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1943–present
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MGM Records, Polydor, GSF Records, Ivanhoe Records,United Artists
Records, Malaco Records, Herzklang, Legacy Recordings,
Carlton Music, Concetta Records
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Associated acts
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Website
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Connie Francis (born Concetta
Rosa Maria Franconero, December 12, 1938) is an American pop singer and
the top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although
her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top
concert draw. Despite several severe interruptions in her career, she is still
active as a recording and performing artist.
Contents
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