Opinion

PALMISTRY: A Personal experience

Published

4 years ago

2021/09/2

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

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Opinion

Haphazard demolition in Nugegoda and deathtraps

Published

3 hours ago

2025/03/19

Sahan Weerasooriya

A haphazardly demolished building

The proposed expansion of the Kelani Valley railway line has prompted the squatters to demolish the buildings and the above photograph depicts the ad-hoc manner in which a building in the heart of Nugegoda town (No 39 Poorwarama Road) has been haphazardly demolished posing a risk to the general public. Residents say that the live electric wire has not been disconnected and the half-demolished structure is on the verge of collapse, causing inevitable fatal damages.

Over to the Railway Department, Kotte Municipality Ceylon Electricity Board and the Nugegoda Police.

Athula Ranasinghe,

Nugegoda.

Opinion

Aviation and doctors on Strike

Published

1 day ago

2025/03/18

Sahan Weerasooriya

Crash in Sioux city. Image courtesy Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archies.

On July 19, 1989, United Airlines Flight 232 departed Denver, Colorado for Chicago, Illinois. The forecast weather was fine. Unfortunately, engine no. 2 – the middle engine in the tail of the three-engined McDonnell Douglas DC 10 – suffered an explosive failure of the fan disk, resulting in all three hydraulic system lines to the aircraft’s control surfaces being severed. This rendered the DC-10 uncontrollable except by the highly unorthodox use of differential thrust on the remaining two serviceable engines mounted on the wings.

Consequently, the aircraft was forced to divert to Sioux City, Iowa to attempt an emergency crash landing. But the crew lost control at the last moment and the airplane crashed. Out of a total of 296 passengers and crew, 185 survived.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) declared after an investigation that besides the skill of the operating crew, one significant factor in the survival rate was that hospitals in proximity to the airport were experiencing a change of shifts and therefore able to co-opt the outgoing and incoming shift workers to take over the additional workload of attending to crash victims.

One wonders what would have happened if an overflying aircraft diverted to MRIA-Mattala, BIA-Colombo, Colombo International Airport Ratmalana (CIAR) or Palaly Airport, KKS during the doctors’ strike in the 24 hours starting March 12, 2025? Would the authorities have been able to cope? International airlines (over a hundred a day) are paying in dollars to overfly and file Sri Lankan airports as en route alternates (diversion airports).

Doctors in hospitals in the vicinity of the above-named international airports cannot be allowed to go on strike, and their services deemed essential. Even scheduled flights to those airports could be involved in an accident, with injured passengers at risk of not receiving prompt medical attention.

The civil aviation regulator in this country seems to be sitting fat, dumb, and happy, as we say in aviation.

Guwan Seeya

Opinion

HW Cave saw Nanu Oya – Nuwara rail track as “exquisite”

Published

3 days ago

2025/03/16

Thilina Walpola

Plans to resurrect the Nanu Oya – Nuwara Eliya rail track are welcome. The magnificent views from the train have been described by H W Cave in his book The Ceylon Government Railway (1910):

‘The pass by which Nuwara Eliya is reached is one of the most exquisite things in Ceylon. In traversing its length, the line makes a further ascent of one thousand feet in six miles. The curves and windings necessary to accomplish this are the most intricate on the whole railway and frequently have a radius of only eighty feet. On the right side of the deep mountain gorge we ascend amongst the tea bushes of the Edinburgh estate, and at length emerge upon a road, which the line shares with the cart traffic for about a mile. In the depths of the defile flows the Nanuoya river, foaming amongst huge boulders of rock that have descended from the sides of the mountains, and bordered by tree ferns, innumerable and brilliant trees of the primeval forest which clothe the face of the heights. In this land of no seasons their stages of growth are denoted by the varying tints of scarlet, gold, crimson, sallow green, and most strikingly of all, a rich claret colour, the chief glory of the Keena tree’.

However, as in colonial times, the railway should be available for both tourists and locals so that splendid vista can be enjoyed by all.

Dr R P Fernando
Epsom,
UK