29th Batch Farewell speech:
President of the Medicos’ Nite organizing committee, The Chief Guest Dr.A.Sritharan, The Vice Chancellor, Dean of the Faculty of medicine, Consultants, lecturers, staff, and my dear colleagues…A very good evening to you all!
It gives me immense pleasure to address you all on behalf of my batch for the first and last time in this faculty.
May I take this occasion to recall with nostalgia the pleasant memories of the past 5 years that this great white palace has given us all.
We entered the faculty in August 2006 and had a very healthy introductory course and mixing up program, which was organized by MSU with the help of 27th batch. After one week of lectures due to the unsettled conditions prevailing then, the faculty was closed for six months and we were left stranded. During those difficult times we helped the MSU to collect food items for the students, and were involved in various other activities in the faculty. I recall how we worked together to renovate the badminton court and garden, and how we together conducted the Vaani vizha & Thai Pongal successfully.
Our proper educational activities recommenced in February 2007 – despite starting off six months late - we are completing this course in 5 years time. Immense credit should go to our Dean and faculty staff for this achievement without which it would have been impossible to achieve this feat. It is noteworthy to mention that we have sat for our final exams with our parallel batches of Colombo and Karapittiya Universities this time.
The pre-clinical activities were well organized and it was an unforgettable period for us in this faculty. Rather than the lectures, the tutorials and dissection were very helpful as they gave room for our interaction. The clinical appointments started in 2008. It is indeed lamentable that we didn’t realize the importance of those appointments until we entered the professorials. But we gained good experience in clinical skills and in various other aspects of the medical field during this period. The professorial appointments were noteworthy and the credit goes to the consultants of the professorial units whose commitment, hardwork and dedication have led us in achieving remarkable standards.
Our dean had a discussion with us some time ago, regarding our opinion on the date for the final examination. We decided to appear for the exams in December 2011, in order to clear the backlog and to finish the course as early as possible. Our professorials started after 1 week of vacation in which we had to finish the uncompleted appointments. It had been a very difficult unexpected journey and many thought whether our decision to sit in december 2011 was the right one to have been taken. We had only a short time to prepare for the exams at last. But we all worked hard, sacrificing our vacations and cancelled our home visits with a determination to sit the exams in Dec 2011 and it became a reality at last. ..At this juncture, we have to thank all those who were with us to make this a reality.
Apart from the educational activities, we have conducted a lot of events of which the memories will linger forever in our minds. We conducted the Block lunch for the 28th batch in 2007 and afterwards the tradition was dropped off and we hope it will be reintroduced in the near future. We also conducted the welcome party for the 30th batch following the introductory course and mixing up. The dramas we staged got widespread appreciation and won the prize for the best drama in medicos week 2007 and runners-up in 2009. We participated in the scientific sessions and rendered our support and contribution in the cultural shows conducted during the past few years. And the medicos week 2009 and its grand finale cannot be erased in the history of the 29th batch, as well as in the history of medical faculty for many reasons. To borrow from Charles Dickens It was both the best of times and the worst of times..It was an opportunity to exhibit our creativity and inherent talents, and develop organizing skills. It was a time to recreate and refresh ourselves from the strenuous medical curriculum. Even the dark days were an experience..we could never have achieved otherwise. It gave as maturity and strength of character, enough to combat any problems.
The medical faculty organized a tour to Ruhunu, Rajaratte and it was a golden opportunity for us to promote interfaculty relationship and share our culture and traditions. It was a very memorable experience where we got to know of the various systems in other faculties and made many friends with whom we are still preserving our contacts. We kindly request the faculty administration and the Medical student’s union to organize such events for other batches too in order to encourage healthy relationship with other faculties and to promote their peer educational activities.
We are thankful to the staff of the faculty for supporting and guiding us during the journey. We are truly obliged to the consultants of the teaching hospital for helping in the academic activities and sparing their valuable time for taking classes for us. We also wish to thank our seniors for their valuable support and guidance without which we couldn’t have made it a success. We also thank the non-academic staff for their contribution in the educational and recreational activities.
And may I now address a few words to our juniors based on our experiences in the faculty..
We can understand that there is lack of awareness regarding the importance of the appointments done before the professorial appointments. Students are taking it light heartedly and tend to realize that they failed to make the best use of them to their full potential when doing the professorials. The students have to pay attention to the learning objectives of each appointment and also interact with their seniors to realize the weight of each appointment. It has become a tradition of the juniors to just ask the seniors as to how to survive and finish the appointment rather than learning things. We hope that the new curriculum, will help at the end of each appointment, to assess the knowledge gained by the students.
When we entered the faculty the senior most batch was the 24th and now when we are leaving the junior most is 34th. Thus we had the opportunity to mingle with nearly 9 batches. It is very unfortunate that the student relationship between batches is unsatisfactory and this may result in serious consequences in future. Senior-junior relationship must be promoted and we welcome healthy mixing up between the batches.
I would also like to point out that the involvement of all students in co curricular activities is reducing and their concern to the faculty is minimal. Students must realize that they will not get opportunities hereafter in their life to exhibit their talents, to give life to their imagination and use their skills. We somehow tend to find lame excuses to justify that we have no time for such activities, which is not true to our conscience. Make use of every single moment of this precious faculty life, please.
Last but not least I thank the 30th batch for arranging this colorful evening memorably.
Thank you.
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