Courting a fellow female medical student was
termed ‘capping’ in the 1960s .This story relates to one of our seniors at the
Colombo Medical Faculty. He was a rather shy handsome person with a good
academic record. We will call him ‘N’ He went on his first visit to the De Saram Ladies Medical Hostel
to meet the female medico whom he was ‘capping’ He walked into the lounge of
the hostel, to be met by an elderly lady whom he presumed to be the warden of
the hostel. He told the lady that he wanted to meet the medical student Miss
‘M’. The elderly lady had smiled on hearing the mentioned name and asked who
was calling on her. ‘N’ feeling a bit shy had replied that he was ‘M’s brother.
At this the lady had replied that she did not know of a brother whom Miss. ‘N’
had. She added that she ought to know that with certainty because she was the
mother of Miss. ‘N’ and she had no sons up to that time.
The romance proceeded smoothly and
ended in a successful marriage later.