PALMISTRY: A Personal experience

I had a personal experience In late 1971, when I was waiting to travel abroad for Post-Graduate studies, I decided to have my palm read by one Kingsley Goonetilleke, who was a well-known palm reader at that time. He had his office at Galle Road, Ratmalana. I had long hair at that time (JVP times!) and having parked my Triumph Herald car some distance away, I walked in with an unbuttoned shirt wearing a pair of slippers.  After accepting a fee of 10 rupees, he daubed my right palm with Indian ink and got a print on to a sheet of paper. He asked me what my profession was and I replied that I was a bank clerk. He retorted that I could not be a bank clerk and unless I assisted him, he was unable to give an accurate reading. Then I told him that I was a doctor. He said that although I was a doctor, I had to be involved in more activities, rather than treating patients. When I requested for a clarification, he told me that I should be involved in teaching and/or research as well. I was a lecturer in the Colombo Medical Faculty at that time and involved in a lot of teaching and some research but I remained silent. He mentioned a few events of my past which were factually correct but wrong by a year or two.He told me that I was due to travel abroad very soon for further training and would return after a few years as a single person (not married). He went on to mention that I would eventually get married to a person known to the family. At that time, I had no idea who my future wife was going to be. (My father was very happy with this particular prediction because he did not want me to get married to a foreigner!)

Goonetilleke also predicted that I would become a professor before my 40th birthday. At that time it was not possible because Ceylon had only two medical schools—in Colombo and Peradeniya—and both its professors were due to retire in the early 1990s (by that time I would be close to 50 years!). I travelled to London in late December 1971 and returned home single after three years. In February 1976 I married Buddhika Ediriwickreme and our marriage was arranged by my parents. Buddhika’s father was a cousin of my father’s and both of them hailed from a village called Pahalagoda off Tangalle.In 1976, during Sirima Bandaranaike’s premiership, members of the Opposition like Gamini Dissanayake made speeches in Parliament mentioning that when they came to power, they would abolish standardisation at the university entrance examination. After J. R. Jayewardene’s resounding victory in 1977, the government had to implement what they had promised earlier and standardisation was abolished. Then more Tamil students qualified to enter the two medical faculties, which was not politically palatable. As a balancing act, more Sinhalese students had to be admitted as well.When this was done there were insufficient slots for all of them in the two existing medical faculties. This resulted in the creation of two additional medical faculties in Jaffna and Ruhuna. When the Professor of Paediatrics post for the University of Ruhuna was advertised in 1978 I applied for it. (I was the only applicant!) After returning home from sabbatical leave in November 1979 I was appointed to the Chair of Paediatrics and Iassumed duties on the 1st of August 1980. (I was 37 years and 7 months oldon that day).

This is my very own experience with palmistry!

Sanath P. Lamabadusuriya