Open Mike with Emcee Duke Ramachandran
Source:STCOBASydney
Rewind 1987, way before our OBA association was formed, a group of Royalist and Thomians organised a Harbour Cruise. With booze flowing and the crowd reveling in the festivities of the night, someone (our Royalist colleague) who could not make it all the way to the lower deck toilet, took his business to the flower pot! Small job completed he then proceeded to grab the ‘plant with pot and all’ and hurl it into the harbour! The official emcee of the night Rajan Saravanamuthu was immediately whizzed off to “cool down “the situation and the mike was thrust upon Duke to complete the night. Like a duck taking to water he rose to the occasion and has ever since played an integral role at Thomian dances.
From there on Duke recalls going to Thomian events at Ryde Civic and at the Scout Hall in Gladeville where many fun nights were compered by either Rajan Sara or Imtiaz Issadeen. The handing over of the baton was inevitable with Rajan moving interstate and Imty spending more time in Japan with work commitments. In 1990/91 he remembers yet again being asked to emcee the dance when star attraction from Sri Lanka, Manilal and Upekha came Down Under.
1992/93 with Suren Viswalingam representing Royal College our Duke co-hosted a sell-out dance featuring the dynamic stage entertainer Desmond de Silva (living in London at the time).
Duke was a salesman back then and his natural flair for dealing with people was evident; the requests kept coming and our amiable emcee aka Rama and Tangles (fearsome fast bowler too) always obliged.
As the President of the Sydney/ACT OBA association (2003/4) sadly Duke could not take to the mike that year due to the passing away of his dear dad in Sri Lankan. Former president Ananda Amaranath (our current patron) stepped in and Kumar Rasiah assisted with the emceeing duties that year. Since then though, it has been Duke Ramachandran all the way at every Thomian dance or event.
What a glorious unbeaten innings it has been our mainstay emcee and “die-hard” Thomian has never missed a beat; first to arrive and last to leave with his usual clip-board and run sheet (these days tablet) he has ALWAYS been there. An emcee by profession these days with regular events to host, he blocked aside the Thomian dance weekend to serve his Alma Mater.
Dear Duke, We Salute & Thank You with a few noteworthy pictorial recollections along the way.
