Tales of an Enchanted Boyhood

In this memoir, Dr Philip G. Veerasingam provides an informative personal and historical narrative about growing up on the tea-estates and his educational journey to becoming a medical doctor. The chapter headings provide a glimpse of the mileposts along his life’s path: Alupola, Ratnapura, Jaffna, the Story of the Tamils of Sri Lanka, Thondamanaru, Achchuveli, Uduppiddy and Point Pedro.
This book is dotted with pictures, poems and with words from a hymn. And like any dutiful son, the author has dedicated his book to his parents Ayya and Amma! (Ayya in Tamil refers to Father)
The author provides small and personal details of his childhood and education, including how due to the quality of his voice, he was in the school choir, and how he missed the school bus on occasion due to his principal’s stubbornness.
He recounts his education both in the North and in the South, including his time at Hartley College, passing the HSC examination and entering the Colombo Medical College. Dr Veerasingam also references with a sense of poignancy, the sad event of the Jaffna Public Library burning down.
Many personalities familiar to me and perhaps readers of this paper feature in his memoir, including Lakshman Karalliyadde (My senior at Trinity College, Kandy); Victor Benjamin (Connected to my senior at Peradeniya and then later to my student at Peradeniya, when I was the Chaplain), and church members Dayasiri Fernando and Deepthi Mendis.
Our political leaders also make an appearance in the book, including D.S. Senanayake, the father of our nation; S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, who crossed over to the Opposition, founded the SLFP, formed a coalition with a group of Marxist parties (MEP) and won the 1956 Parliamentary Elections; and his widow, the world’s first female Head of State, Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
It is quite an accomplishment that a very busy surgeon has found the time to author this volume (As well as an additional two books)! Thank you very much, Sir, for writing this very interesting narrative.
To the readers of this review and this book, Happy Reading!