Sunday, October 31, 2021

I read Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge's "වෛද්‍යවරයෙකුගේ සිහි සටහන්" with great enthusiasm- Dr. Chandani Galwaduge



I read Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge's "වෛද්‍යවරයෙකුගේ සිහි සටහන්" with great enthusiasm. Dr. Ruwan joined Kandy district preventive health team in 1996 as the MOH Minipe. At that time I was the MO (MCH ) in Kandy district. It was difficult to ignore this charismatic young doctor who always was with a smiling face. Very enthusiastic young doctor; participated in the district monthly MOH review meetings without fail despite the distance and the difficult road that he had to travel.  Lively participated in all our discussions and was excellent in monitoring MCH activities within his area including all maternal deaths... That was the time Sri Lanka conducted National Immunization Days to eradicate Polio. During these Ruwan exhibited his ability to coordinate with Government and non Governmental organizations and achieved 100% coverage...Even during those young days, he demonstrated all the signs of success late in his life.                                                                                                                                       

Dr.  Chandani Galwaduge -  Former Consultant Community Physician, Central Province    




                                                                                                                            

 

Thursday, October 28, 2021

ELASTO සහ දහම්සොඞ ජාතකය



මෙතන 1970 ගනන් වල මැද වෙසක් එකට තොරණක් තිබ්බා. ඒ තොරනේ තිබ්බේ  දහම්සොඞ රජ  රාක්‍ෂයාගේ කටට පර්වතයක් උඩින්  පනින කතාව. යකෙක් හදලා පර්වතය උඩ ඉඳන් රජතුමා පනින එක යන්ත්‍රානුසාරයෙන් පෙන්වනවා. මමයි මල්ලියි මේක බලන්න ගිහින් තිබූ කුතුහලය නිසා  තොරණ කවර් කොට තිබූ ඉටි කොලයක් ඉස්සුවා, එතකොට අපි දැක්කා සරං කාරයෙක් දාඩිය දාගෙන බයිසිකල් චේන් වලින් හදපු යන්ත්‍රයක් කරකවනවා. අපි ඉටි කොලය උස්සලා පොරව එක්ස්පෝස් කරපු නිසා මෑන්ට කේන්ති ගොස්   මට කිව්වා"දුප්   කැ... කියලා , මම එතකොට 7 වසරේ විතර​. බය වෙලා අපි මිලාගිරිය සෙන්ට් පෝල්ස් එක ලඟට වෙනකම් දිව්වා.  

Saturday, October 23, 2021

බංකර කුරුටු ගී එකතු කල යුද හමුදා නිලධාරියා

 


මේජර් කමල් ශ්‍රී මනතුංග  උතුරු යුද පෙරමුණු වල සොල්දාදුවන් විසින් ලියන ලද කුරුටු ගී එකතු කොට ඒවා අනාගත පරපුර සඳහා සංරක්‍ෂණය කල නිලධාරියෙකි. ඔහු මට කොලඹ යුද හමුදා රෝහලේදී 2004 වැනි කාලයක හමු විය​. යුද ආතතියට ලක් වෙමින් සතුරු වෙඩි ප්‍රහාර මධ්‍යයේ සේවය කල සොල්දාදුවන් තම දුක , තනිකම සහ හිතේ පීඩනය පහ කර ගැනීම සඳහා බංකර් වල ලියන ලද කුරුටු ගී එකතු කරමින් සිටින බව ඔහු මට කීවේය​. වරක් සතුරු ඉසව්වක තිබූ අත් හැර දමන ලද බංකරයක ලියන ලද  කුරුටු ගීයක් පිටපත් කර ගැනීම සඳහා ගිය අවදානම් සහිත ගමනක් පිලිබඳවද ඔහු මට හෙළි කලේය​. මා විසින් ලියන ලද සංග්‍රාමයෙන් පසු (සරසවි ප්‍රකාශකයෝ)  ග්‍රන්ථයේද  මේජර් කමල් ශ්‍රී මනතුංග  මහතා විසින් මට ලබා දුන් කුරුටු ගී කීපයක් සඳහන් වෙයි. අවාසනාවකට මෙන් මේජර් කමල් ශ්‍රී මනතුංග මීට වසර කීපයකට ඉහතදී රෝගාතුරව මිය ගියේය​. එහෙත් ඔහු විසින් එළි දක්වන ලද ඊලාම් යුද්ධයේදී සොල්දාදුවන් විසින් ලියන ලද කුරුටු ගී කෘතිය අනාගත  පරියේෂකයන්ට වැදගත් වනු නොඅනුමානය​. 




Monday, October 18, 2021

වෛද්‍යවරයෙකුගේ සිහි සටහන් අනගි කෘතියක් - විශේසඥ වෛද්‍ය ආර්.එන්.ජී රාජපක්‍ෂ

 


වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාවේ විවිධ ක්ෂේත්‍ර ගැන පලපුරුද්ද ,හැකියාව සහ අත්දැකීම් ඇති වෛද්‍යවරුන් අදදින සොයාගැනීම විරලය. මන්ද මූලික උපාධිය ලැබූ විගස නගරය ආශ්‍රිතව රැඳී සිටිමින්, යම් විශේෂ ක්ෂේත්‍රයකට සීමාවී එතැන් පටන් විශේෂඥ දැනුම ලබා ගෙන ඉක්මණින්ම වෘත්තිය තත්වයකට එළඹීමට බොහෝ වෛද්‍යවරුන් උත්සාහ කිරීම නිසාය.

වෛද්ය රුවන් ජයතුංග ගැන මා තුල ඇති ආකල්පය ඊට වෙනස්ය. මූලික උපාධියෙන් පසුව දුර බැහැර රෝහල්වල රැඳී සිටිමින්, විවිධ ක්ෂෙත්ර වල අත්දැකීම් ලබමින්, ඒවායේ හදවතින්ම සේවය ලබාදෙමින් ඔහු අත්දැකීම් සම්භාරයක් ලබාගත් බව මම නිසැකවම දනිමි.

ප්රසව හා නාරිවේද විශේෂඥ වරයෙකු ලෙස 1999 -2002 වසරවල මා සමග හලාවත මහ රෝහලේ සේවය කිරීමේදී ඔහු මාගේ සැත්කම් වලට නිර්වින්දන වෛද්ය වරයෙකු ලෙස සේවය ලබා දුන් කාලයේ මම එය හොඳින් අවබෝධ කර ගතිමි. තම සේවය උපරිම ලෙස ලබා දී රෝගියා ගැන මනා සැලකිල්ලකින් කටයුතු කිරීම මා දුටු ඔහුගේ විශේෂ ගුණාංගයකි.





සිය ගණනක් වෛද්යවරුන් මා අතින් පුහුණුව ලැබීය. වෛද්ය රුවන් මාගේ ක්ෂේත්රය තුල නොසිටියත් ඔහු කවදා හෝ රෝගීන්ට අත්යාවශ්ය ,දීප්තිමත් වෛද්ය වරයෙකු වන බව මම එදා ඔහුට අනාවැකියක් පැවසුවෙමි. අද එය ඉටුවී ඇති බව දැකීම සතුටකි.

අද මනෝවෛද්ය ක්ෂේත්රය තුල විවිධාකාරව සේවය ලබා දුන්නත් විවිධාකාර අත්දැකීම් සම්භාරයක් ලබා එම ක්ෂේත්රයේ පොත් රාශියක් ලියා ,තම අත්දැකීම් ගැන මෙවැනි පොතක්ද ලියූ ඔහු ගැන හැඳින්වීමක් ලිවීමට මා හටද අවස්ථාවක් ලැබීම සතුටකි.


වෛද්ය ආර්.එන්.ජී රාජපක්ෂ.
ප්රසව හා නාරිවේද විශේෂඥ.
රාගම

Friday, October 15, 2021

The Terror Management Theory and the Movie Bambara Walalla

  


Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge

Man is constantly building the “Image.” It is an Edifice for the entombment of bones –Irvin Kauffman

 Sri Lankan film director Athula Liyanage’s award-winning movie Bambara Walalla discusses an uncommon topic that has close connections with the futile human existence and death. The movie Bambara Walalla unveils the unsophisticated reality of existence and death in the rural underworld in Sri Lankan society. Athula Liyanage pontificates the unfounded and senseless existence of a man who is persecuted by life’s miseries through his movie.

The existence and meaning of life constitute a philosophical question and some believe that human life is mostly a dream, from which people never really awake. Meaning in life varies from person to person, depending on each one’s variable mental state. Bambara Walalla echoes that in a world filled with chaos and suffering human existence becomes absolutely hollow.


 The Main Characters of the Movie

Mel Mahaththaya (Mr. Mel) and Gonamdithhe Podi Eka (the little fellow) are the protagonists of this film around whom the events of the narrative’s plot revolve. The movie Bambara Walalla could be classified as a gangster movie that has touched the imperceptible mob rules in Sri Lankan rural communities.

 As Lee Horsley once stated the mythologized gangster can only be understood in relation to the wider society, whether he is cast as a villain whose actions confirm the need for law and order or as an outlaw hero admired for the toughness and energy with which he defies the system. Lee Horsley’s edict is mostly applicable to Bambara Walalla .

There are no heroes or archetypal heroes in BambaraWalalla. The two main characters – Mel Mahaththaya (Mr. Mel) and Gonamadithhe Podi Eka (the little fellow) represent the rudiments of the rural underworld that is prevailing in modern Sri Lanka. Both characters are complex in nature. Mr. Mel is a kindhearted businessman (an undertaker) who is ready to help anyone in need. But in-depth there is an alligator inside him. Although Mr. Mel accommodates people he always expects something profitable in return. Mel is driven by power, ulterior motives and he is ready to commit murders if anyone obstructs his path. Podi Eka or the little fellow blindly follows Mel’s orders until he realizes that Mel is a mean character like his uncle who raped his sister and brought irreversible misery to his family.


 Bambara Walalla And the mortality Salience

Mortality Salience is vastly associated with the movie Bambara Walalla. The Social Psychologist Jeff Greenberg hypothesized human behavior is motivated by the fear of mortality. In 1986 with his colleagues Jeff Greenberg introduced a new theory named Terror Management Theory (TMT) that concerns the psychological consequences of the juxtaposition of a biologically rooted desire for a life with the awareness of the inevitability of death.

 Mr. Mel is an undertaker and his world is surrounded by the symbols of death.

Although he sees death and dying on an everyday basis, unconsciously he de-cognizes these mortality-related indicators. Instead, he embraces life deeply, even committing murders.  He is a soft-spoken man with snake eyes and strikes unexpectedly and callously.

Ernest Becker (1973) stated that humans, unlike other animals, have the cognitive capabilities to realize that they will die, which causes deep anxiety( Vaugh 2010). Mel phonates his motility salience anxiety in numerous expressions and in his noxious behavior patterns.


 Mr. Mel and the Existential Death Anxiety

Mr.Mel is a special kind of gangster whom we have never seen before on the silver screen. He is not like Tony Montana (Scarface) who has emotional outbursts or like Capone (Untouchables) who is driven by sadistic instincts or any other villains like John Rooney (Road to Predation) Ace Rothstein (Casino) or Cody Jarrett (White Heat). Mr. Mel is a gangster who has become deeply consumed by his double life.

 Mr. Mel is driven by death anxiety on most occasions. As Dr. Robert Langs point out existential death anxiety is the most powerful form of death anxiety and its activation is based in humans on the definitive, conscious awareness and anticipation of the inevitability of personal demise.  Death anxiety prompts people to believe in anxiety as a uniform or single entity. In Mr. Mel’s instance, he responds in a distinctive manner. These responses are both conscious and unconscious.

The anthropologist Ernest Becker argues all human action is taken to ignore or avoid the inevitability of death. The terror of absolute annihilation creates profound subconscious anxiety in people. Mr. Mel’s reaction to the death anxiety is pronounced throughout the movie. His famous expression “I bury only dead people” sometimes gives us a premonition that eventually he would bury the living too.  In fact, at the end of the movie, the audience realizes that Mel was capable of committing such acts. 


 The Hit Man PodiEka or the Little Fellow

According to the social disorganization theory, a person’s physical and social environments are primarily responsible for the behavioral choices that person makes. Gona Madithhe Podi Eka or the Little Fellow witnessed the sexual exploitation, incest, and eventually, the suicide of his sister, and these family calamities made him kill his own uncle. After the crime, he was imprisoned for long years. When he comes to his native village after serving the prison term his mother had become a mental patient following the overwhelming psychological trauma.

His world was devastated for the second time when he found his pet cow was stolen and sold to the butcher. When he finds the perpetrator he unleashes extreme violence on the thief.  The cessation of his objects of love (sister/mother and the pet cow) leads him to become emotionally numbed and he acts reflexively on Mel’s orders

 Gona Madithhe Podi Eka or the Little Fellow is illiterate and unable to express his romantic feelings to the girl that captured his heart.  When he expresses his desire, the girl discards and humiliates him. He becomes furious and cuts her hair. These events show the immaturity and the imprudent nature of the Little Fellow.

When he was beaten and banished from the village, Mr. Mel the undertaker helps him with a hidden agenda. Subsequently, the Little Fellow becomes Mr. Mel’s one of the hitmen. Gradually Gona Madithhe Padi Eka becomes a deadly character like the grim reaper with his scythe.  

The third episode of  Gona Madithhe Padi Eka or the Little Fellow”…”s life reminds us of Luca Brasi – Don Vito Corleone’s loyal assassin who was immortalized by the great novelist Mario Puzo.    Puzo describes such hitmen using these words. 

 “Man who goes around life with a sign that says ‘kill me’ painted on, this makes everyone want to kill him, but yet no one can. Eventually, this man finds someone who he doesn’t want to kill and fears that this man will be the one to kill him”.

 After the final robbery, Gona Madithhe Podi Eka or the Little Fellow had a gut feeling that he would be killed. He goes into an emotional outburst and asking from Jinne (Mr. Mel’s assistant) Please tell me Jinne who is going to kill me? Whether you or  Mel Mahatthaya? He knew that his days were numbered. His life was saved unexpectedly by Mel’s so-called son.

 Although we see a senseless and callous murderer in Gona Madithhe Podi Eka there is an immature child inside him.  Largely career criminals and psychopaths have a distinctive type of behavior that is characteristic of satisfying their emotional and psychological needs.  This “need” actually feeds the motivations of the individual to commit a crime and then relish it. But  Gona Madithhe Podi Eka became a criminal due to life circumstances. Criminal intentions were never in his blood or in his genes.


 Death Anxiety and Allegiance

 Mr. Mel. builds a criminal organization and recruits henchmen. They become loyal to him and often carry out his orders without rationally analyzing the outcome. Mel expands his business and meets new enemies. When he makes a move he is compelled to strike his opponents with deadly force and let his foes shed blood. 

Mel has a gang of murderers who are allegiance to him and fulfill his orders. Affiliation to Mel’s organization gives his followers a sense of security, a sense of belongings, and meaning of life. 

 Being an associate in Mel’s anti-social organization each member unconsciously tries to minimize their death anxiety. This rural criminal organization declares wars with other gangs killing a number of people. For the members, it is like being on a war front and dying for their leader. This is a primitive form of organization and its function explained by Greenberg in 1986.  

 The war system provides the basic motivation for primary and social organization. In so doing, it reflects on the societal level the incentives of individual human behavior. The most important of these, for social purposes, is the individual psychological rationale for allegiance to a society and its values. Allegiance requires a cause; a cause requires an enemy. (Greenberg 1986)

Mel’s gang needs enemies and they find enemies in every territory. Mel expands his business and each time he meets new rivals. The business rivalry was causing heavy damage to his criminal organization and Mel took every step to silence his opponents. Eventually, the enemy comes within the organization. When the explosion occurs from inside Mel barely has a chance to stay alive.


 The Death Anxiety Continues

As social psychologists pointed out, man has an inherent tendency for self-preservation and has cognitive capability in acknowledging life’s impermanence. He is capable of coexisting with death and makes attempts to lower his death anxiety (Olivarez 2010).

 The Little Fellow alias Gona Madithhe Podi Eka escapes his death and becomes the new leader of the criminal gang. The old Don was murdered. The family needs new leadership. Gona Madithhe Podi Ekawas is unanimously appointed as the head of the family by other members and hence he becomes the new Don.No more internal conflicts and bloodshed. Peace is prevailing within the family. Like Michael Corleone, he does not feel like wiping everyone out, just his enemies. Again they are ready to sell coffins. The entire scenario reminds us of the definition of TMT (Terror Management Theory) which follows this. 

 TMT theorists believe that an individual will be so freaked out by being reminded of his death, or mortality salience, that he will invest more belief in his worldview and resist or even attack anything perceived as a threat to his worldview.

What is the worldview of this rural criminal gang? They too have a fundamental cognitive orientation, possess ethics and values. To the outside world, they are a bunch of businessmen (undertakers). Their dark images are covered by the coffins. Outsiders only see the shows moving. They are ready to oblige their silent customers who don’t yell or curse at them.  Like the previous Don, they too say “we bury only dead people

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Tribute to Sirima Nicole

 



Sirima Nicole, I hear your voice with an awesome melody

You speak to my heart, directly with a sparkling charm

I am stunned; seeing your beauty and your magical voice

Your songs narrate vivid stories about life and love

Often, I listen to your “part of me” and found all of you

Inevitably you have become a part of me now

I wish I knew you, at the time you performed in Paris metro

You were singing while playing your guitar

You captured their hearts with your melody

You knew you were becoming a star performer

You had aspirations and plans for your career

The beautiful dream was turned into a nightmare

Everything was cut short by a jealous man

It was terrible and hard to imagine

Why did he take your life with vicious hate?

He killed a woman with an extraordinary talent

But he could not destroy your legacy

You became immortal with your songs

When I look into your life and wonder sometimes

Did you ever find love and comfort?  

Did you constantly live in pain and agony?

In a way, it is very sad 

Your songs bring comfort and harmony

But you missed life’s congruence

Although you found the rhyme, you could not find true love

The love you found was an illusion and it consumed you

You left us so early with many unfinished songs

It is hard to imagine that you had gone forever

I refuse to believe that you are dead

Sometimes I think you are still alive somewhere

Perhaps in this very moment

You are singing happily in a parallel universe  

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

පැන්ඩෝ‍රා

 


පැන්ඩෝ‍රා
මුදු කුසුමකි ඈ
බයියන් ගේ සරමේ ගැට ලිහනා
නෑ ලෝකෙ ජීවේ ඇයයි
නෑ ලෝකෙ ජීවේ ඇයයි

මායාව මායාව ලොව රවටනා
දේශප්‍රේමය  සිහිනයකි අඳුරෙ පාවෙනා
රොබරියේ තත් අතර මෘදු ස්වරෙ ඇයමයි
පොකට් එක​ට රස ගෙනෙන මදුවිත ඇයයි

මිරිඟුවකි මිරිඟුවකි අප රවටනා
සංවර්ධනය  සිතිජයකි ඉම නොපෙනෙනා
නිරූපමා  බිඟුකැලකි නෙත් සරය සුමුදුයි
තිරූගේ  ජීවෙ වැලි කතරෙ දිය බිඳ ඇයයි

Saturday, October 2, 2021

Sandy Olsson

 





Do you remember Sandy Olsson? 
Danny Zuko's girlfriend 
They met in the summer of 1959
And fell in love forever
Sandy could not stay for longer 
She went back to Australia 
She knew it was the end 
She never came to Rydell 
But hopelessly devoted to Danny 
Sandy died in Brisbane 
Poor Danny never knew 
He danced with a Pink Lady 
Assuming that was Sandy  Olsson
 

Friday, October 1, 2021

විශේසඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය ඩී. පී. ඩී විජේසිංහ මහතා පිලිබඳව

 


ඊලාම් යුද්ධය ආරම්භ වූ අවස්ථාවේදී කායික තුවාල ලද සොල්දාදුවන්ට ප්‍රතිකාර කිරීමට ඉතා දක්‍ෂ ශල්‍ය විද්‍ය විශේසඥයන් ගේ සහාය යුද හමුදාවට ලැබුණි. එහෙත් යුද්දය නිසා මානසිකව තුවාල වූ සොල්දාදුවන්ට ප්‍රතිකාර කිරීමට සංග්‍රාම මනෝ විද්‍යාව පිලිබඳ දැණුම ඇති වෛද්‍යවරු සිටියේ අතලොස්සකි. ඒ අතරින් විශේසඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය ඩී. පී. ඩී විජේසිංහ මහතා ප්‍රමුඛයෙකි. එසේම විශේසඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය සරත් පඞුවාවල මහතාද මෙහිදී  මතක් කල යුතුය​. 

ඊලාම් යුද්ධය නිසා මතුවූ සංග්‍රාමික විශාදය (Post Combat Depression)  , සංග්‍රාමික පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාව (Combat Related PTSD) පිලිබඳ හමුදා නිලධාරීන්ට තබා සමහර වෛද්‍යවරුන්ටත් එතරම් දැණුමක් තිබුනේ නැත​. එසේම බොහෝ දෙනෙකු යුද්දය නිසා මතුවූ මානසික සංකූලතා ගනන් ගත්තේ නැත​. මේ නිසා යුද බංකර් වල දිවි නසා ගැනීම් මෙන්ම යුද හමුදාවෙන් පළා යාම් බහුල විය​. 

එවැනි කාලයක යුද්දය නිසා මානසිකව තුවාල වූ සොල්දාදුවන්ට ප්‍රතිකාර කිරීම අරඹන්නේ විශේසඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය ඩී. පී. ඩී විජේසිංහ සහ විශේසඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය සරත් පඞුවාවල ය​. ඔවුන් ආරම්භ කරන ලද යුද ආතතියට ප්‍රතිකාර කිරීම විශේසඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතා සහ මා විසින් කරගෙන ගියෙමු.   මේ නිසා 2005 වසර වන විට  සංග්‍රාමික පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාව (Combat Related PTSD) සංකූලතා සහිත රෝගී තත්වයක් බව යුද හමුදාව විසින් පිලි ගන්නා ලදි. 

ඊලාම් යුද්ධය නිසා මතුවූ යුද ආතතිය සඳහා ප්‍රතිකාර කිරීම​ට මූලිකත්වය ගෙන ක්‍රියා කල වෛද්‍ය ඩී. පී. ඩී විජේසිංහ , වෛද්‍ය සරත් පඞුවාවල මෙන්ම වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු යන  විශේසඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍යවරුන්ට ප්‍රණාමය හිමි විය යුතුය. 

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