His Worship the Mayor ....substitute
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President Mahinda Rajapaksa with Omar Kamil, Special Commissioner of the Colombo Municipal Council at Temple Trees. Presidential Advisor A.H.M. Azwer is also in the picture.
Extreme left: Faizer Mustapha, MP, extreme right:FA Yaseen, ex-president, SL Football Assn
Picture by Chandana Perera
CDN- 4/20/06
posted by Royal 1961 Groupies @ 11:23 AM
2 Comments:
I strongly second Bala's proposal that Omar be deputed to Chennai. Our city could do with some improving, especially the traffic. In fact our Corporation or Municipality has been in a bit of a controversy with the Deputy Mayor absconding and going into hiding for over six months!
Bala, I was breaking my head all these days about who Eric Manny was, and how come I could not remember him. And you solved the riddle. Of course, Eric Gnanasigamany!!. Sorry Eric, you had me completely fooled. Been reading all your correspondence and enjoying them.
Jawahar
06 May 06
Hi Bala,
I certainly remember our good friend Omar's many names. One day Mr.J.E. De Silva in class 6C at Royal Primary asked Omar to stand up and said, " I say, how many names do you have men? M. Omar, Omar Zuraik, Omar Zuraik Kamil, or M.O. Zuraik?" I don't think even Omar knew for sure!
As for changing names, a long and difficult to pronounce name like Gnanasihamany was always a headache. Every time I was asked my name I had to constantly repeat how my name was pronounced, how it was spelled, etc. And this was in Sri Lanka. Imagine what it was like in Canada!
My father was always known as 'Manny' from the last four letters of Gnanasihamany. So in 1988 I changed my name to Manny. It was very easy, just paid a small fee to put a notice in the Govt. Gazette, and headache gone! No objection from my family, and everyone was happy. I still keep Gnanasihamany as a middle name.
Thanks very much for the feedback on the Bible tract. I am constantly amazed that 99.9 percent of Christians, including myself until I was 26, have never heard of Dr. Panin's work.
You describe our classmate A.G. Perera exactly when you say he was a "really nice guy and always smiling while talking."
I came to a small town in Canada in 1971,and in 1975 moved to the big city to find work. Since I did not know anyone there, I stayed at the YMCA, which looked like the Colombo YMCA. I used to go down to the cafeteria for breakfast every morning. One day I looked up from breakfast and got the shock of my life to see A.G. Perera carrying his breakfast tray to a table! Of course I jumped up and went after him, and we were both equally surprised to see each other. We had a great conversation. He had just arrived in Canada, having completed Engineering studies in England. We were both staying at the Y to look for work. Eventually we both found jobs and kept in touch. Then after two years he disappeared. I would really like to know where he is now, because he was such a nice guy.
Samad, Paul and I all live in Canada, but I am in Vancouver, and they live 3000 miles away from me in the Province of Ontario. That's as far as China is from Sri Lanka! You're a great guy Bala, and I hope you and I and all of us continue to keep in touch, thanks of course to Sam's efforts in ciculating all our e-mail addresses.
Best wishes,
Eric
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