A review of the above book
"Medical students in the 1960s didn't have it as easy as today's students but they appear to have worked hard, played hard & benefited from the expertise of excellent teachers who taught them value and integrity along with medicine. Dr.Veerasingam who was a medical faculty student during this period....shares humorous anecdotes that are often politically incorrect and which border on the risque' while remaining free of malice. One cannot help but be taken up with the story-telling and the chances are that you will begin recounting these vignettes to your family, around the dinner table long before you even get to the end of the book".
A review by Senaka Abeyratne, winner of the Gratien Prize 2006.
– A Darn Good Read
by
Seneka Abeyratne
“The
Resurrection” is a charming, anecdotal account of life at the Colombo Medical
Faculty in the 1960s, written by eminent members of the “Batch of 1960”, namely
Philip G. Veerasingham, with the assistance of Shanthi Fernando, Heather
Nicholas, Kalu Nana, Milroy de Silva, Bernie, Chandran, Sadiq, Singaratnam,
Victor Gnanadurai, Daya Jayasinghe, Karals, Tissa Kappagoda (editor), and many
others. The title, says the main author in the acknowledgements, derives from a
decision taken by him and his colleagues (at a reunion in Habarana) to dig deep
into their respective memory banks and “resurrect” their lives as medical
students almost five decades ago. In the process of compiling this book
(through an exchange of emails), they have, in effect, immortalized one of the
most cherished periods of their lives.
I was a young
schoolboy in the 1960s (first half in Kandy, second half in Colombo) and had no
trouble tuning into the book’s mise en
scene as well as its nostalgic pitch. The description of new medical
students tumbling on the carpet of yellow flowers on Kynsey Road (opposite
Koch’s clock tower) brings back fond memories, for I too skidded on it once
while cycling in the rain.
The book gives
due prominence to the “icons” who lectured the Batch of 1960 – Prof. A.C.E.
Koch, Dr. Valentine Basnayake, Dr. David Jansz, Dr. Tommy Wickramanayake, Prof.
Milroy Paul, Prof. D.A. Ranasinghe, Dr. Ernie Pieris, and Dr. P.R. Anthonis, to name a few. I was recently given clean
copy of the manuscript (prior to publication) and found it a darn good read.
Underneath all the zany stories, ribald humor and smutty jokes, there is a
serious thread – a sincere attempt to show life as it was at Medical College
before the country slipped into an unending cycle of violence, bigotry and
lawlessness.
To quote from
the Foreword by Tissa Kappagoda: “The last years of the sixties saw an
unparalleled exodus of physicians from the country … A few like myself departed
the shores at the first opportunity that presented itself, while others of a
more optimistic frame of mind stayed, until the roof began to show definite
signs of falling in. The resilient ones who are the real heroes, depicted in
the pages that follow, stayed the course and completed careers of exemplary
service to the country and its people.”
One has to keep
in mind that this book is not fiction. But since it resembles a collection of
short stories, arranged in a logical sequence and presented in a rich,
anecdotal form, one might call it creative non-fiction, for it is meant to
inform as well as to entertain. All the events, incidents and episodes are true
(I presume) and all the people are real. The “protagonists” (there are plenty
of them) include the lecturers, professors and consultant physicians who
dominated the medical scene in the 1960s. Some of these legendary figures are
dead, some are still living. Those who are alive, I would imagine, are in their
eighties and nineties. They will no doubt enjoy this book immensely and find
themselves chuckling from beginning to end, as every page is likely to ring a
bell. I do not think they will mind it at all if they find themselves the butt
of a good-natured joke or quip. The author has taken a swipe at practically every
one of his mentors, but in a civilized manner, of course.
The book is
peppered with jokes of a medical nature – some of them concerning the most
intimate parts of the anatomy. Cracking anogenital jokes, I guess, was and
continues to be an integral part of lectures at Medical College. It is
considered a perfectly normal state of affairs by the doyens of medicine, and
the students dare not criticize them in this regard. If there is one
institution in Sri Lanka that does not give a hoot about gender-sensitivity, it
is the Medical Faculty, and “The Resurrection” will attest to this. The wild
jokes, the infamous digs, the hilarious anecdotes…They comprise the meat of the
book, its flexible, connective tissue. This is virtually a recipe book on
medicine, for contained in almost every joke or anecdote is a miniature lesson
on some aspect of clinical medicine.
For anyone who
would like some “quick and dirty” lessons on medicine, this book is a
must-read. The buffet of “naughty” extracts taken from scholarly lectures over
a five-year period (straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were) is sumptuous
and likely to test the limits of one’s intellectual curiosity, not to mention
one’s gastric capacity. The more you read, the greedier you get for those spicy
tales and mouth-watering anecdotes. If the book triggers a bout of acid reflux,
do not be alarmed. It simply means you have tasted every tidbit, every morsel
laid on the table, and are thereby suffering momentarily from a phenomenon
known as “spice overload”. (This is not a medical term.) The heartburn will
soon give way to a dreamy sensation and you will find yourself basking in the
afterglow of what has turned out to be a fine and entertaining piece of
literature. This will be true especially for those who have been to Medical
College and can identify closely with the tales, as well as the characters
described in the book.
The book is very
well crafted. It moves briskly from one rib-tickler to another, and in the
process we get some rare insights into the lives of men and women who graced
the annals of the Medical Faculty in the 1960s – either as teachers or as
students. The teachers, of course, are the main focus of the book and the
writer deserves praise for the artful manner in which he has depicted their
personalities, including their idiosyncrasies.
This is, indeed,
a little gem of a book; wickedly funny, entertaining and deeply evocative
at times; a lovely slice of topical, Sri Lankan, post-colonial history. The
stories and characters are as real as they are unforgettable. Veerasingham is a
fine storyteller and has shown considerable skill in the way he has used the
valuable template provided by his batch-mates to create a fascinating picture
of what life was like at Medical College in the sixties. The editor too has
done a good job in cleaning up the manuscript and can be forgiven for having
overlooked some minor syntax errors.
The penultimate
chapter is titled “The Bicycle Trip to Jaffna”. Veerasingham did this trip in
1962 along with two other medicos and two outsiders. The trip involved
traveling though dangerous, elephant-infested jungles in the Wanni and taking
the ferry from Poonery to Karaitivu. It was an arduous trip but they eventually
made it to their destination. Says Veerasingham: “My mother happened to be at
the entrance to our house when I arrived. She inquired from me where I was
coming from. When I told her that I had come from Colombo, she was struck
speechless. I took my bike inside, parked it, had a quick meal prepared by my
mother and lay down to sleep.”
Talk about nostalgia. This is the Sri Lanka we have lost,
perhaps for ever.
..."This is, indeed, a little gem of a book; wickedly funny, entertaining and deeply evocative at times; a lovely slice of topical, Sri Lankan, post-colonial history. The stories and characters are as real as they are unforgettable. Veerasingam is a fine storyteller and has shown considerable skill in the way he has used the valuable template provided by his batch-mates to create a fascinating picture of what life was like at Medical College in the sixties. The editor too has done a good job in cleaning up the manuscript ..."
Cost per copy USDollars Eleven with postage.
Please contact philipv203@gmail.com
