NARTHANA VISHARADA CUM MBBS DOCTOR UDUMBARASEVWANDI IS MULTIFACETED TALENTED PHENOMINAL RARE PERSONALITY IN AN UNVANQUISHED JOURNEY WORTHY OF EMULATION – by Sunil Thenabadu
Narthana Visharada Dr Udumbara Sevwandi Kumari Aradhya Chandrarathne possesses a medical degree MBBS ( Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery) from the Faculty of Medicine, Karapitiya affiliated to the Ruhuna University, is a reputed dancer qualified in a diverse of dance genres fondly labelled as the ‘Dancing” Doctor having concurrently later in year 2012 after her medical degree had been capped with Visharada degree in dancing from the Bharatha Natyam , Bhathkande Sangeeth Vidyapitha, Lucknow, India.
She is the eldest in a family consisting of four siblings with two younger sisters and a solitary brother. Her parents are both teachers, father had given up his medical degree midway at the University of Peradeniya opted to take up the teaching profession. Udumbara has no hereditary affiliations to her flair for dancing which is only through her absolute innate competences. She has had her primary and secondary education at the Welimada Central College in Welimada where her mother had been in the tutorial staff. The family are the inhabitants of a gorgeous village Nugathalawa between Nuwara Eliya and Welimada. In school ,Udumbara had excelled to overwhelming heights in numerous academic adherents.
‘There are three defining qualities of highly intelligent students.’ In the end ,true intelligence is marked by how you acquire and improve on the necessary skills needed not only to flourish in school but also in life.It needs to dispel the idea that accolades defined one’s intelligence. True intelligence is not measured by one’s ability to memorize facts and recite equations Hopefully intelligence can be manifested and developed beyond the four walls of the classroom.”…Quotes of Educationalists
Udumbara has had an unbelievably outstanding student in her school from grade one coming the first in class always carrying all prizes. In the competitive fifth year scholarship exam she had topped the marks from Badulla district. Though she could have entered to any popular girls’ school in Colombo on the insistence of teacher mother at Welimada Central College had remained in the same school. Her supremacy in each class had continued in the same vein coming first in class also winning prizes for all subjects in both in arts and Maths streams at successive prize distribution ceremonies. She had in addition participated in extra activities like in many varied all-island school competitions. She had established a record in winning prizes for five consecutive years in the inter school competition for composing lyrics for songs and poems in the drama and music category in the inter schools” v.i.z., Sangeetha Rangana Gee Naluwa” competitions. Her English vernacular too was at a very high ebb which had eased her to clinch awards in inter school competitions in English essay writing. Udumbara during her tenure in school had recorded invincible indelible achievements not easy to be emulated by the next generations of children. She had confessed that she has had immense innate talent within her for dancing which her father had complained that dancing could ruin her studying career .She then had to listen to him to select Art ‘Kalawa” and English Literature for her senior school But as time grew when able to take her own decisions she had opted to continue dancing..But Udumbara had quipped that she has dancing talent scripted within her such that even watching and listening to dancing classes she could grasp the steps, what a talent?
Udumbara with her such intelligence, admission to the medical faculty of the Ruhuna University was a mere formality. She had quipped that the tenure at the Medical faculty was a very strenuous with workouts with clinical work in addition to theory. She had jested that there are so much of reading needs to be done which is also a terribly fatiguing exercise. It is during this time she had opted to attend to Bharatha Natyam dance classes under veteran dancer Dr Mirenda Hemalatha. She had affirmed that though she had classes only once a week she used to practice daily as a strategy to neutralise her mental fatigue condition also to be physically fit..
During the first year in the medical faculty of the Ruhunu University she had keenly participated in the first year “Kala Ulela”. Udumbara had proved her prowess overwhelmingly capturing the first place for dance, also for best lyrics writer for poetry which hitherto had been a preferred area of hers. She quipped that while a junior student she had entered into a competition of the cultural department to compose lyrics for a song for the proposed “Weera Abhimana”, to which to her surprise as she was still very young her lyrics had been selected to first place. It is learnt that a music melody had been made by musician Sena Weerasekera while the song had been sung by students in the Sirimavo Bandaranaike school. But lately as the field of lyric writers have become corrupt and commercialised, she had stopped writing lyrics for songs but continued to write for poems only to satisfy her innate passion.. Nevertheless, lately she had composed lyrics for a song “Saraswathi Abhinandhana Geethaya” for her own dance to the “Siva Ranjini Raga” to which Dr Rohana Weerasinghe had made the musical score, sung by Sangeeth Nipun Sadhana Ranathunga. With her innate talent for dance styles though she had not prolonged much while in school had come in that valuable to scientifically apply to enhance the talent she possessed abundantly. Nevertheless, as she had quipped the dancing steps and movements were etched within her though not at all via hereditary affiliations.
The studies in the faculty of medicine she had affirmed as very tedious having to read a lot of books in addition to attending to clinical ward work. She had felt the strain as it needed a huge amount of sacrifice . In order to neutralize the strain she had to face she on her own had opted to continue the Bharatha Natyam classes of versatile dancer Dr Mirendo Hemalatha .She had quipped that this practice had enabled her to balance the two, studies with dancing in equal proportions via which the impending stress was neutralized.
It was in year 2014 Udumbara Sevwandi had held her Bharatha Natyam ‘Arangethram’ just after her training period after passing out.as a passing out student of then Veteran 79 year old Dr Mirendo Hemalatha at a massive ceremony at the Tower Hall Foundation in Colombo10. To Sevwandi Baratha Natyam is similar to a ‘Bawananwa’. As many are aware this program lasts uninterrupted for three and a half hours and the participant need to dance continuously to the live music and singing of an orchestra. In the event a member of the orchestra makes a mistake the participant need to adjust accordingly, hence it is a massive exercise to complete effectively. After her two years after passing out she was attached to the Lady Ridgeway hospital. She had positively taken part in a prolonged project at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital along with Dr. Mirenda Hemalatha and Prof. Manouri Senanayake to utilize ‘dance therapy’ concept for children suffering from Downs’ syndrome and to those for loss of brain cells who are unable to think. Even to date Sevwandi dedicates day and night to save children with heart ailments which she does with supreme sacrifice.Sevwandi after her ‘Arengethram” had prolonged in other dancing genres having learnt ‘Russian Ballet dancing’ at the Russian Ballet academy in Sri Lanka, then had followed ‘Katak; dance genre at the Indian Cultural Institute under guru Moksha Samarasuriya, then Ballroom dancing under guru Sandyatilleke, then the upcountry dancing genre from Deepika Piyaratne.Sevwandi had won a bronze medal at an international dancing concert under the guru’s Hiruni and Wasantha Colombage experts in work outs. Also studied Kandyan dancing from Jayawanthi Paneebharatha. Also she had learnt Belly dancing from Anaesthesia -Patiala
Sevwandi with her expertise in many dance genres had performed in a number of dance concerts to collect funds for various projects like cancer projects and Childrens heart projects. Initially she had performed in three dance concerts termed “Sevwandi’ concerts.In year 2016 she performed in a dance concert termed ‘Induwara Nu Pura” to raise funds for the ‘LRH Childrens Heart Project.Then in year 2017 she did a concert in the auditorium of the Karapitiya hospital to raise funds to put up a separate building for the cancer patients to be housed separately very close to the hospital.She continues to date in collecting funds from her solo concerts for charity.
Sevwandi had made several dancing covers which had been interestedly viewed by many of her followers, like ‘Mage hadha madalama duni pawara’, “Pranirsha’s Raa Raa”, “ Madura wasanthe”, ‘Mere Dholna”. Then she did her official video ‘Ran Roo’. Viewed by lakhs of viewers. In addition Sevwandi had participated in many dance concerts, had contributed to the ‘Dancing Performances of Sri Lankan Doctors organised by the Sri Lanka medical Council held at the BMICH in year 2022.
Udumbara had won two international awards in successive years 2018 and 2019 for classical dancing at the “Nritangana” dance academy in New Delhi, India. She had quipped that she had given priority for her hospital work had completed work on a Friday morning to look after babies in the baby clinic at the base hospital Elpitiya in Galle district in the premature baby unit as the medical officer in charge.After completing her duties had rushed to Colombo to proceed to KIA to board a flight to New Delhi at mid night and thereafter had to travel to the auditorium of the Sri Jawaharlal Nehru university to participate in the international classical dance festival organized by Nrityanjali organisation all by herself had won an award and returned all alone winning the award. What a courageous endeavour by the young ‘dancing doctor’ Udumbara a feat that need to be celebrated with acclaim and ovation for her brave attitude.
She remembers another interesting incident worth reminiscing. After she landed in New Delhi it was early morning when she had no alternative but to rest on the exit passage at the Indira Gandhi international airport when a lady in a uniform had identified had asked “doctor do you remember me”, having taken treatment from her at the Asiri Central hospital.To her surprise she had been the young pilot who had piloted the plane to new Delhi. She had helped her to find the exit from the airport.It had been a beautiful unforgettable moment in her life when was lonely at an unknown airport.
She had followed many dancing styles had obtained a distinction in Ballet exam conducted by the Russian centre of Sri Lanka along with the Moscow national ballet academy. She had won a Bronze medal in Ball room dancing .
Udumbara had been adjudicated as the Miss Talent in Miss Sri Lanka for Miss British Empire 2019.After which her photo was published on cover pages of many magazines in November 2019. Udumbara Sewwandi the acclaimed dancing doctor became instantly more popular when a song and dance video singing the song of Visharada Shashika Nisansala “Chandra Paayanna” went viral taken for fun only when a colleague doctor while the duo was working together. However a cover song was made which has been hit where Udumbara excels with her enormous dancing talent. A lot of articles had been published in Sinhalese newspapers with captions like “Punchi Dostara Nona” “Natana Dosthara Nona” etc .
From the above it is positive that Dr Udumbara Sevwandi Kumari is a physician with multipotentiality as a strong intellectual with curiosity, excelling in many diverse fields. All her followers and fans would no doubt wish her more triumphs in her future career which would blossom to unprecedented tall elevations.
Sunil Thenabadu in Brisbane
e mail sthenabadu @hotmail.com
WhatsApp 0061444533242.
