Life Abroad – Part 26:
WITHOUT CAP, GOWN OR CONVOCATION
Sir Arthur C. Clarke found his way to Sri Lanka in 1956 intending to
stay for six months to write a book on exploration of the Sri Lanka’s
coastal waters. Until his demise, not so long ago, he decided to remain
here for life. Sri Lankans are generally reputed to a have a higher
intelligence quotient (IQ). For a small country of 20,263,723 (2012
Census) million people she has raised outstanding scholars in a multiple
of professions out of which a good proportion has left her and living
and working abroad to raise the economies of other nations.
A British Franciscan missionary nun, who lived in Sri Lanka for 60
years, was quoted once as saying: '“The day I reach Heaven, I am going
to ask one question from the Almighty God” - as to why God did not let
her be born in Sri Lanka’!
For those of us who have been blessed a little more in many respects
can only be thankful to God for our Sri Lankan birth, figure, and form,
literal and metaphorical.
By the same token it has to be acknowledged that the ingenious
intellectual acumen of the Sri Lankan brains have also been put to
nefarious activities even at international level!
How many of us who live in Sri Lanka and abroad have an inspiration
of the many-faceted beauty of our Motherland? We once became a divided
nation with a terrorist war ripping the very fabric of our society.
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Sri Lanka, the paradise isle that
enchants all |
Now that we have achieved peace after 30 long years we need to pull
ourselves together to maintain our brotherhood as a people who used to
enjoy without allowing it to disintegrate into smithereens.
Missing link
We need not allow once again to raise the ugly head of race, hatred
and division in our social fabric or on religion, but need to try our
best to be united and understanding.
Something seems to have gone wrong with our fundamental education
system from the very beginning that some of us, who are recognised as
‘educated genius’, seem to lack the knowledge and experience of our
Motherland? Is it due to such a vacuum that we often fail to blossom
into a patriotic love and commitment to make our Motherland more than a
taste of Paradise?
Being ‘educated’, intellectual, or professional alone will not help
our country’s urgent need. Various kinds of educational reforms over the
last few decades have not made the majority of us to be visionaries
either! Even University education at home, Oxford, Cambridge and London
curricula have managed, largely to confine only to cap, gown, and
convocation! Is it then a sense of pure humble and humanistic
inspiration the simple answer we need to overcome this problem?
Deep down in every one of us, Sri Lankans, there is this peculiar
innate feeling for ‘just being there’ rather than doing something for
the country. Amidst such a paradox there emerged a single Sri Lankan who
shone from the London expatriate community and elevated to greater
heights with humanitarian feelings, dedication and a lot of
determination to help the poor and needy at home. Podi Appu Hamy
(‘Podi’) whom I referred to in my previous week’s column did a modest
job as a cook at the Sri Lanka student Centre while working hard at the
Supreme Headquarters of American Allied Forces in Europe at 7, Grosvenor
Square, London. He was not an affluent type to be seduced by alien
values and culture even after living in the heart of London for over
four decades.
Human qualities
His sober and humane qualities gave him the power to fan into a
bright glow and to be recognised and treated as a real charitable man
who by-passed even his personal financial perimeters to extend a helping
hand to his people at home at the hour of need.
Starting from self-effacing beginnings in London since 1962, he
achieved his goal over the decades without any Oxford, Cambridge
curricula or a cap, gown and convocation, but doing his humble bit by
feeding the hungry stomachs of students with his culinary skills as a
‘modest’ cook!
Sri Lankan expatriates
Once the Student Centre was closed down and he retired from his
second job with the Americans in London, he set his mind to do a service
to humankind, especially to his own people, the very who needed the most
- the poor, disabled, sick and the orphaned in Sri Lanka, out of his
life’s savings with the cooperation of the Sri Lankan expatriates in the
UK, especially at a time Sri Lanka needed desperately.
His aim was to give access to the down trodden and the helpless in
far out terrorist border villages with free medical facilities during
the terrorist war.
By coaxing and reassuring the UK based Sinhala Diaspora he opened
eight free small scale medical centres (dispensaries) in many remote
villages in Anuradhapura, (including one at Atamasthanaya),
Pollonnaruwa, Kotiyagala, Tantirimale, Willachchi, Kiriwehera and
Ambilipitiya.
He also gifted industrial power generators to Kataragama, Vidyodaya
Pirivena at Maligakanda, Vidyalankara Pirivena at Peliyagoda,
Mirisavatiya in Anuradhapura and Parama Dhamma Chaittiya Pirivena at
Ratmalana.
With the help of his friends in Sri Lanka, especially with the
support extended by the former IGP Rajaguru, Podi managed to establish
an operational base in Ratmalana and made a plea to many local
pharmacies to undertake and help those dispensaries in border villages
with free pharmaceuticals and drugs.
His altruistic wisdom of innovative ideas of free medicine and mini
dispensaries hit a chord over a short period of eight years his with the
village folk, unknown to many intellectuals, policy makers or experts in
Sri Lanka, to break down the barriers of nation and race and reach out
to the poor and the helpless.
Without much publicity container loads of valuable items to the Sri
Lanka Police and the Army arrived out of his involvement from London at
a time the Sri Lankan Army ran his Kotiyagala and Tantirimale
dispensaries.
On January 2, 2001 his shipment in a 40’ container contained 50
artificial legs, 200 wheel chairs, 2,000 clutches, one remote control
surgical bed, 18 hydraulic beds with cupboards and mattresses, 1,000
oxygen masks, four commode chairs, one electric scale cum chair, boxes
of surgical bandage, surgical gloves and equipment, 1,000 spectacles,
lenses, clothes, shoes and children’s books and toys. In addition, there
were medical journals and books to be used in the Medical College and a
piano and 50 kV generator for the Dhamma School at Vidyalankara Pirivena
Peliyagoda, Kelaniya.
A collection of such a magnitude is not an easy task, especially
single handed in England. Podi achieved this with the help and moral
support of his equally dedicated friends in the UK. All the medical
equipments had been sourced from the National Health Service and
shipping charges were borne by Podi’s own purse.
When containers reached Sri Lanka Podi Appuhamy was always there in
person to punctuate the occasion and to see to its fair and equal
distribution with the help of Police escort. I had lost his bearings for
the past many years but at the eleventh hour when I sat down to write
this column; suddenly Podi’s voice reverberated in my mobile phone.
This time he had come down to Sri Lanka to participate in a three
month’s alms giving for his former general practitioner in London, the
late Dr. Daya Silva, who acted as the Sri Lanka High Commission’s GP in
London.
During his short stay in Sri Lanka he was, as usual involved in
participating in various ‘Dana’ at different venues. When I tried to
contact him just after the Sinhala New Year holidays he was at Rajamaha
Vihara, Kotte to offer another Dana.
His mate at the Student Centre, Shelton Silva, left employment at the
Ceylon Students’ Centre prior to its closure, ventured into a business
of his own (mobile service) by making his own brand of curry powder and
Sri Lankan spices.
Within months his business flourished and he opened up his own
‘corner shop’ at Swiss Cottage NW London under the name of ‘Fleet Food’
which gave access to many Sri Lankans to buy their Sri Lankan food
items.
Diversifying his business 2nd ‘Fleet Food’ shop emerged from
Colindale, Edgeware, Middlesex. He was last seen in London running about
in a Jaguar motor car carrying a bulky ‘prototype’ mobile phone which
was known to Sri Lankans as ‘Gadol - baage’.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to
continue that counts.”
- Winston Churchill
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