Prof. Carlo Fonseka…irreplaceable personality
At an exhibition to celebrate hundred years of Colombo Medical Faculty in the early 70s, I saw Prof. Carlo Fonseka and his students walking on live charcoal to debunk a belief that fire-walking had a spiritual and religious significance.
In the heady days of flower power, well known rationalist Prof. Fonseka became something of a cult figure with his open challenges to shamans and fake soothsayers who hoodwink innocent people to become millionaires.
Atheist, intellectual, rationalist, university don, physician, song writer, critic, social and political activist, humanist, Prof. Fonseka passed away on September 2 at the age of 86. Born on March 4, 1933, he was educated at Maris Stella College in Negombo and Colombo St. Joseph’s College.
“He is a brave person who became a thorn in the side of fake psychics and oracles,” says Fonseka’s nephew, actor turned politician Ranjan Ramanayake.
“He went to the Sri Lanka’s popular Kataragama shrine, drank arrack, ate pork before the ‘kapu mahaththayas’ (shrine workers who portray themselves as the holy middle men between god and the believers) and walked on hot charcoal to discredit the belief that one has to survive only on vegetable for six months to fire-walk,” he added.
He had performed this ‘feat’ in all the major devales in the island and once in Dehiwala some shrine workers chased after him with knives to attack him.
“It was my uncle Vijaya Kumaratunga who rescued him from the ambush and drove him to safety in his car,” the straight-talking politician, who has many legal suits stacked up against him for stepping on powerful people’s toes, said.
Vijaya Kumaratunga, Prof. Fonseka’s nephew and actor-turned politician was brutally gunned down on 16 February, 1988 at his home.
A tearful Prof. Fonseka delivered the funeral oration at the actor-politician’s cremation held at the Colombo Independence Square, saying, “The killers did not spare my nephew’s handsome face that charmed a nation. They shot at his face point-blank,” he said hinting that more than his political views the killers were jealous of his beautiful appearance.
Ranjan, just after his debut tele-drama Bhaghya, was seen seated opposite the dais at Kumaratunga’s funeral.
Addressing the media a few days ago, Ranjan said: “Prof. Fonseka accompanied me to most of my court cases and often feared that I would be killed, saying that he can’t deliver another funeral oration of another nephew,” said Ranjan, adding that Fonseka and his uncle Kumaratunga are irreplaceable persons in Sri Lanka.
The late professor’s fears about Ranjan’s life points to the trouble times he had to put up with, despite his sterling unblemished career as a medical professional and lecturer shaping two generations of doctors.
He is a fine example for today’s doctors who demand free vehicles, luxury schools for their kids and many other unreasonable perks, said Ranjan. “My uncle was the only doctor in Sri Lanka who protested saying that he was getting paid too much. He said he became a physician mainly due to free education and he actually believed that he had to pay back to the country. He wrote to the government asking to reduce his salary. He served the nation on a reduced salary.”
Prof. Fonseka is a talented lyricist and composer and produced several albums. Two of his well known albums are Carlochita Gee (1992) and Raththaran Duwa (2006) containing his original compositions sung by well-known Sri Lankan singers.
According to Chandrarathne Bandara, writer and journalist based in Toronto, Prof. Fonseka had gone out of his way to help him, even without knowing him properly, to aid a close relative of his to recover from a life-threatening illness.
According to Prof. Fonseka’s last wish, on September 2 his body was handed over to the Colombo North Medical Faculty where he served as the dean from 1991 to 1997.
“He was an atheist till he passed away and it is pointless to implicate Nirvana or the heaven in relation to his final journey,” said Ranjan. – Somasiri Munasinghe
