'Ves Mangalya', St Mary's Vidyalaya, Avissawella, Srii Lanka.

Waiting for the auspicious hour to place the cap on the head of each member of the band.

Getting a school oriental band ready for a performance, St. Mary's College, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Applying 'make-up'.

Lining up.

Oriental band ‘Ves Mangalya’.

Please click on the web-link below to see a video of the event :-

http://youtu.be/s6Ked11M5vU

Flowers, home garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Flowers, home garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

A multi-colored Rose in bloom.

Mango-flowers in bloom.

Hartley College and Methodist Girls' High School, Point Pedro, Sri Lanka, more than 150 years after founding.

Entrance to the Methodist Girls' High School.

Entrance to Hartley College, Point-Pedro.

1.    Hartley celebrated 100 years of its founding in 1952 when I was a student there. It was claimed by our teachers that it was founded by the Rev. Peter Percival 125 years earlier, even though we celebrated 100 years of its founding.

2.    Prof. Eliezer, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Ceylon and Mr. K.B. Ratnayake from Anuradhapura, later a cabinet minister studied there. Mr. J. N. Arumugam another Alumnus became a member of the Ceylon Civil Service. Mr. Navaratnam who became a Superintendent of Police in the late 1960s and Mr. Anandaraja who became Inspector General of Police studied at Hartley. Dr. Jeganathan my batch mate at Hartley became the Director General of Health Services and I was Senior Surgeon at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka in the late 1990s. Mr. Chinniah a batch mate in the HSC joined the ‘Dufferin’ in India to train in the Merchant marine. He rose up in his field and became the harbour-master in Colombo and later took part in the education of youngsters in the Merchant Marine. There was Kirupaharan from Thunnalai my hostel mate at Hartley who immigrated to Germany. He became a Director of a large container firm in Bremen. He donated a school bus to Hartley and gave funds to rebuild the Hartley Hostel. There were numerous others in varied fields which I lose count of.

Philip G Veerasingam