My Father, Harmanis Appuhamy by name, was an unqualified veterinary surgeon who had learnt the art of veterinary surgery under the watchful eye of our hard working uncle Dr. Juanis Appuhamy who was a fully qualified veterinary Surgeon much respected in our village and had a very large practice. Dr. Juanis our uncle however skilled as he was, getting on in years and about 20 yrs. senior to my father Harmanis. Ours was a village full of cattle farms and in this kind of environment a veterinary Surgeon was absolutely necessary, for some bulls used to get excessively violent due to hormonal imbalance - such bulls were sexually violent, used to sexually abuse the cows. Those could be never used for drawing carts and at times it was like a disease since other innocent bulls also used t follow the same aggressive behaviour. In such cases the only cure was to castrate the animals to bring them back to normality and stop the havoc. Our uncle, the qualified Dr. Juanis Appuhamy was an expert castrator, (this, amongst his other skills) and my unqualified father was taught castration and all the other skills required by a good veterinary surgeon to look after cattle in a cattle farm. As mentioned earlier our uncle and my father’s "guru" developed cataracts in both eyes, had a bad tremor of his fingers - Some attributed tremor to the large quantities of the illicitly brewed "Kasippu" while others attributed it to "Parkinson’s decease but with further passage of time it became highly impossible for my uncle Dr. Juanis to work and luckily by this time he had taught my father Harmanis Appuhamy all skills and though unqualified the mantle of old qualified dear Dr. Juarnis Appuhamy fell on the shoulders of his brother, the unqualified but skilled Harmanis Appuhamy. However, whereas the qualified Vet. Surgeon Juanis was humble and silent, I must say that my Father Harmanis was quite a different man - he was a proud man and even though he was not qualified he made it clear that he should be addressed as Doctor Harmanis and far from been humble, right from the start he used to brag about himself and almost gave the people the image that he was more skilled than his uncle! Not long afterwards my poor uncle Dr. Juanis passed away and my father as usual was the Master of ceremonies at the funeral, ordering people about with a loud voice (unlike my late uncle) and doing everything his own way, and even the Grama Sevaka, and village headman had no say.

My Father was almost like the boss of the village. He had a fair amount of wealth and now being the sole veterinary surgeon he made more than his share of money - with his acquired false superiority he raised his charges, bought a car and employed a driver and began to wear trousers and a coat, which quite amused us but we dared not tell him anything. One of the biggest changes was when he employed a retired old English Civil servant from a closeby village and got him to give him English classes. The Englishman was paid handsomely and we were quite amused when one day my father was dressed in trousers, coat, waistcoat, a bow and wore a felt hat presented by his English tutor. To go further, he gave up chewing beetle and now smoked cigars instead - again I think on the advice of his tutor. Who was trying and had almost succeeded in completely westernising him.

To get back to his veterinary surgery he now had a separate building which he called his surgery. He wouldn’t let any of the family to watch his castration of bulls and myself and my brother (Only two children of the family) used to wonder way? It was rumoured that his surgery was rather crude but no further details were known. Our house was quite some distance from his "surgery" but even we used to hear the agonising cries of bulls, their bellowing and screaming. Then trouble arose - complaints were made by the temple priest, and the nearby school teachers that the loud bellowing and screaming of bulls at his surgery was disturbing the peace, disrupting the teaching and meditation or listening to sermons at the temple when Dr. Harmanis Appuhamy began his surgery. Complaints were made to the ‘Grama Sevaka’ but it fell on deaf ears - probably the Grama Sevaka and the principal of the school would have received good amounts from our father, the unqualified veterinary surgeon.

Suddenly, almost overnight 4 hefty loudspeakers sprang up at the four corners of the surgery - and from the time Dr. Harmanis started his surgery, the loudest of Pirith came over the speakers. But still the agonising cries of animals in distress could be heard from time to time, but the loud "Pirith" partially succeeded in drowning the death cries - However this ingenious device managed to stop the complaints to a large extent.

Of the friends we had in our village, there were quite a few Sinhalese folks .But one of the best friends of our family, specially myself and my brother were a Muslim family and a very kind hearted Muslim gent Mr. Hussein. We were very closely attached to his children and there were eight of them since Mr. Hussein had married thrice (under Muslim Law), but myself and my brother were particularly fond of his last 2 boys, Hamza & Hamzi who were twins and a little junior to us at school. Very often we used to visit the Mr. Hussein to play with these two boys - sometimes we used to play indoor board games, snakes & ladders and sometimes out door games like "hide & seek". Hamza and Hanzi were going to have a big ceremony soon - the twins were going to e circumcized in about two wks time, and as usual the master of ceremonies at the celebration was going to be my father, whom they respected a great deal. My father was always wanted to be in the forefront. He had somehow persuaded Mr. Hussein to make him the master of ceremonies since it was going to be a great event attended by the Member of Parliament and also the government agent of our district - and Mr. Hussein who respected our father so much had readily agreed.A special room was first prepared for the circumcision which was going to be done by the famous Muslim cleric of our area Mr. Mustafer Lebbe who was also agreeable to my father being the master of ceremonies at this important function.The readers (earlier mentioned) will remember the protests made by the temple priest and the school teachers of the area about my Father Dr. Harmanis’s surgery and the agonising cries of the fulls being castrated which I had mentioned earlier and where we were forbidden to go. Myself and my brother made further inquiries about this and the stories we herd made our blood fill and the two of us almost fainted. It was related by a school master who had disguised himself and entered the surgery to witness a castration done by our father and the story he related was gruesome.

Well, here is how (according to my teacher) the castrations were done. The huge bull was hauled by a rope round his head and pulled by five men who according to our old traditions looked like "Yodayas" - (Giants). It was forcibly pushed down to the ground of the surgery and its four legs were tied by coir ropes to 4 poles on the ground. Its head was entrapped in a metal cage so, he could scream but made completely immobile.

My father Surgeon (Dr.) Harmanis after scribing up (at least he did that) and dressed in a surgical kit made his majestic appearance. The pirith was at its loudest now muffling the howls and the screams made by the full.

Then a specially made piece of players was expertly manipulated by my dear old father and a giant click was heard along with the loudest roar of the bull and of course the loudest volume of ‘Pirith’ over the four giant loupskeakers which still was not loud enough to drown the haunting cries of the bull. Then, all went very quiet - why? The bull had fainted and the "pirith" was gently reduced in volume. The "Yodayas", specially trained by my father then stopped the bleeding, occasionally helped by my cruel father, and dressed the bleeding wound and Dr. Harmanis got up, to his full height, his head held high, the "Kasippu" he had consumed giving a red glow to his cheeks and a triumphant "another great surgery achieved, another bull made to stop all his misdeeds. All this made both my brother and myself sick and in fact vomited all what we had eaten.

And then the ceremony of the circumcision of Mr. Hussein’s boys Hamza and Hamzi where there was going to be a collection of V.I.P’s - the member of parliament, the government agent, their own father, the famous Mr. Hussein and the most respected Muslim cleric Mr. Musaffer Lebbe (who was doing the circumcisions) My father was so excited that he adorned himself in his best clothes, stood before the minor, and asked us whether he looked perfect, standing this way in front of the Hall mirror and finally when he realised that none of us was really interested, he called out for Carolis dressed in his best attire to bring the car out. His final words before he left was None of you realise my importance and he left us in coat, trouser, waistcoat, bow tie, and felt hat with a "Havana" cigar between his lips, with Carolis at the wheel.

We, Mother, myself and my brother heaved a sigh of relief . After maybe about ½ to ¾ hrs we heard, not only crackers which were expected at a ceremony of this sorts, but other odd sounds like hoots and jeers, from the area of Mr. Husseins house which was not very far from our place. They yelled and sounds of breaking glass and faint the sounds of filth in Sinhala. My mother, and two brothers ran down our garden from where we could get a fair view of Mr. Hussein’s house and in next to no time Carolis, our father’s driver came running back to our house, as if competing in a 200 yds sprint with blood all over his white cap and uniform and in a complete state of shock and not in a position to to speak.

Finally after sipping a glass of water, Carolis began to speak. He said. "Ceremony was called off and lot of people got injured in a big fight there There was a big fight between our Sir and Lebbe. He held his head and started crying "Aiyyo".

Just then a police jeep appeared and in it was my father Dr. Harmanis, blood all over him, a big gash on his forehead but still in a fiery mood and saying "I’ll teach that Lebbe a good lesson, Next time be won’t escape like this". "I am going to castrate all the Muslims in our village,he said. The Police Police inspector then said they were taking my father to hospital to get his wounds attended to,and that there was nothing to worry. They told us if we wished they could take us also to the hospital. Myself and my brother got in and the jeep drove us to the hospital.

Later on I got to know in detail what had happened from a Muslim friend of mine who had also been at the ceremony.

My father had come on the stage first staggering a little and when he started speaking in English, it was quite apparent that he had consumed a fair amount of liquor, There had been thunderous applause when he appeared on the stage. His speech had gone something like this. "This is a great occasion for me to be the chief quest at this ceremony. But I am sad that they choose Lebbe Mussafer to circumcise these twins of my dear friend Hussa, Everybody in village know that I’m the greatest castrator in the village", At this stage there was a roar from the crowd with hooting and stones and other objects being flung at Dr. Harmonis. Lebbae Musaffer, naturally angry and red in the face had got on to the stage and given Dr. Hamanis a thundering blow with his huge umbrella. After this it was all mayhem, my father naturally was struck blow after blow by the angry Muslim crowd, but his violent nature made worse by kassippu, made him to fight back like Cassious Clay. Attempts were made to stop the rumpus and driver Carolis had made a valiant effort to pull my father away. Chairs were thrown at my father and another section of the crowd had set fire to his car. The ceremony was naturally called off and by now, the police had made a timely entrance, and brought the situation under control, for there was such a crowd and such anger against Dr. Harmani’s mistake of using the word CASTRATION FOR CIRCUMCISION. About 3 or 4 policemen had also sustained injuries and had to be taken to hospital along with (Dr.) Harmanis. There the story ended and the three of us, Mother, my brother and I, though naturally feeling sorry for our father also felt that he had been taught a bloody good lesson.