PALMISTRY- A Personal Experience

by Prof. Sanath. P. Lamabadusuriya

In late 1971,when I was waiting to travel abroad for Post-Graduate studies, I decided to have my palm read by a Mr. Kingsley Goonetilleke, who was a well known palm reader at that time with an office at Galle Road, Ratmalana.

I then had long hair (JVP times!) and having parked my Triumph Herald car some distance away, I walked in with an unbuttoned shirt wearing a pair of slippers.  After accepting a fee of ten rupees, he daubed my right palm with Indian ink and got  a print on to a sheet of paper .

He asked me what my profession was and I replied that I am a bank clerk. He retorted that I cannot be a bank clerk and unless I assisted him he was unable to give an accurate reading. Then I told him that I am a doctor. He said that although I am a doctor I have to be involved in more activities rather than treating patients.

When I requested clarification, he told me that I should be involved in teaching and/or research as well. I was a lecturer in the Colombo Medical Faculty at that time and involved in a lot of teaching and some research  but I remained silent.

He mentioned a few events of my past which were factually correct but wrong by a year or two. He told me that I was due to travel abroad very soon for further training and will return after a few years as a single person (not married). He went on to mention that I will eventually get married to somebody known to the family.

At that time I had no idea who my future wife was going to be.(My father was very happy with the ‘you’ll return single from abroad’ prediction  because he did not wish me to marry a foreigner!).

Goonetilleke also predicted that I will become a professor before my 40th birthday. At that time it was not possible because Ceylon had only two medical schools in Colombo and Peradeniya and both it’s professors were due to retire in the early 1990s (by that time I would be close to 50 years).

I traveled to London in late December 1971 and returned home single after three years. In February 1976 I married Buddhika Ediriwickreme, a marriage arranged by my parents. Buddhika’s father was a cousin of my father’s and both of them hailed from a village called Pahalagoda off Tangalle.

In 1976 during Sirima Bandaranaike’s premiership, members of the opposition like Gamini Dissanayake made speeches in parliament mentioning that if and when they come to power they would abolish standardization at the university entrance examination. After J.R. Jayewardene’s resounding victory the government had to implement what they had promised and standardisation was abolished.

Then more Tamil students qualified to enter the two medical faculties. This was not politically palatable. As a balancing act more Sinhalese  students had to be admitted as well. When this was done there were insufficient places for all of them in the two existing medical faculties.

This resulted in the creation of two additional medical faculties in Jaffna and Ruhuna. When the Professor of Paediatrics post  for the University of Ruhuna was advertised in 1978, I applied for it (I was the only applicant). After returning home from sabbatical leave in November 1979 I was appointed to the Chair of Paediatrics and I assumed duties on August 1, 1980 (I was 37 years and 7 months old on that day).

This is my very own experience with palmistry!

Sanath P. Lamabadusuriya MBE

Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics

University of Colombo