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Tag Archive | Lactogen Baby
October 2, 2015  

Lactogen Baby: Where YOU One … IF So Please Join.

lactogencan Anura Guruge December 2014 thumbnail…
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by Anura Guruge

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 >> Search ‘Lactogen’ for other related posts >>>>
**** Check Category ‘Sri Lanka’ for a boat load of posts >>>>

Where YOU a Lactogen Baby?

I was. This is I. Aged 1. In 1954. In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

I am trying to FIND others — from around the world.

Yes, I was a ‘Lactogen Baby’, in Ceylon, from 1954 to 1962.

But, I was NOT the only one. There was a Lalith Oswald Perera.

I Googled that name. There is a (rather (in)famous) Lalith Perera BUT I don’t think he was ‘Oswald’.

There was girl. I knew her from elocution classes or something like that. She lived fairly close to us in Nugegoda. Her last name, I am sure, was ‘Fernando‘. Her father was a coroner. That I remember vividly. He might have been the chief coroner for Colombo. When you are 8 years old coroners are intriguing figures. I had been to her house a few times. I remember exploring the house with her, even crawling underneath her parent’s bed, looking for what secrets a coroner might have at home! Kids! She is unlikely to be a ‘Fernando’ now. That would have been her maiden name. She is going to be as old as I.

It does NOT matter IF you were NOT a ‘Lactogen Baby’. IF you grew up on Lactogen YOU still qualify as a Lactogen Baby.

I am going to set up a page on Facebook so that we could, with luck, have a Lactogen Baby community.

OK?

Here is my story:

‘Lactogen Baby’, 1954 to 1962, Ceylon, ads, with this picture, with the heading ‘Baby Guruge’, appeared in 12 newspapers, in 3 languages, every day. SEE BELOW. ‘Lactogen’ was a Swiss baby formula company. My ‘father’, the clever one in the family, declined any monies from them! He said that he was ‘OK’. I was chubby even then, though I was born very sickly, physically twisted (arms and legs intertwined) and unable to pee. This was my maternal grandmother’s work and she mainly used coconut oil! Once I started eating she fattened me up on a strict diet of eggs, chocolate, meat, fish, rice and lentils. My ‘mother’ made me fancy cakes and puddings. I was doomed from birth.

Newspaper clippings of MY PICTURE I have from c. 1955.

The holes are actual worm holes! Something you will find in books and papers from Ceylon of this vintage!

You can see ‘Lalith Oswald Perera‘ in the first two images.

The 3rd image is from a Sinhalese paper.

Click to ENLARGE.

 

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August 14, 2014  

Oh. Oh! Cliff Richard Is Being Investigated.

Anura Guruge, June 8, 2013.
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by Anura Guruge

cliffrichardsaug141q

Click to access BBC coverage. Google for TONS more.

Not good. Not good at all. I am not 100% sure that I can claim to be very surprised. Well, of course, the underage allegation is BAD and if true then he should have the book thrown at him. No excuses. We will NOT tolerate any nonsense when it comes to child abuse by Cliff or anybody else — even if they are Catholic.

Bloody Jimmy Savile was BAD ENOUGH. That was enough.

I have never had any misconceptions about Cliff’s orientation. It was pretty obvious to me. But being gay does not mean that it has to involve boys under 16. In Britain it was ALWAYS about ‘consenting ADULTS’.

Of course given my age and my British background I had no choice but to be a Cliff Richard’s fan. I like his music. But, my main ‘connection’ to Cliff has been with people saying I look like him — despite our 12 year difference in age. I guess I must look old. This has been going on for years. I used to get asked on planes, by girls, whether I was Cliff! I then used to have a friend who use to belittle my little, if any, success with the women, with: ‘It doesn’t bloody count. It is so easy for you. You look like bloody Cliff Richard’. So, I can’t ever think of Cliff without remembering that I was supposed to look like him. I will confess, when I saw my picture from July of this year, with Gordon Lightfoot … it did cross my mind ‘Geee … I do look like Cliff‘!

June 13, 2013  

Does He Look Like My Long Lost Younger Brother?

Anura Guruge, June 8, 2013.
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.by Anura Guruge

myyoungerbrother

Some of you may have noticed that I started using a new ‘avatar’ picture on my posts this last weekend — it being a crop of the great picture of me and my “best friend”, Executive Councilor Ray Burton, at the Laconia Airport Open House on Saturday.

Given my dual-monitor PC setup, I invariably happen to have an open tab with one of the posts from this blog displayed. On Sunday while working on something else I just happened to notice my picture and was immediately struck by something.

There was a period of about 4 – 5 years, in the mid-1980s, when people, especially girls would come up to me and ask whether I was … Even happened on a plane once. I am seated and this lady walk up to me and says are you …

One of my best friends, one of the most successful womanizers I ever knew (at least per his boasts) (and I have known quite a few exceptionally successful womanizers), especially when he was on his 3rd bottle of single malt would be known to say: ‘It is not easy for people like me. You don’t ******* understand. You look like ******** ….. . So how is that fair.‘

I was never really that flattered by this comparison. He is 13 years older than me and though I liked him, I don’t think he and I shared many common values. But, it was funny. This was the FIRST time I had seen myself and thought … wow, I look like …

Then in the 1990s I went through a phase when people thought I was Harry Belafonte! That is even worse. He is 26 years older than ME! Do I really look that old. This was c. 1992. I was ‘working’ the (huge) InterOp show in D.C. After a business lunch, with a bunch of folks, we were walking back to the Convention Center when this person came bounding up the road, grabbed my hand and going on and on, that I was ‘Harry’. The group that I was with thought it was hilarious. For the next few weeks all I go were Harry jokes.

Only ONCE have I ever been recognized for who I am. And that was in the 1980s, on the Champs-Elysees, Paris. I was again with a group of people. Two brown men, who obviously had to be from Ceylon, were walking towards us. We could see them pointing. When we got close, they come right up, grab my hand and say: ‘You were the Lactogen Baby … righ?‘. Again … I was in my 30s. I was the Lactogen Baby when I was 1.

Oh, I forgot. In the early 1970s, in New Delhi, people used to think I was Sai Baba! One person even prostrated themselves on the ground and worshipped my feet.

January 24, 2013  

It Sure Is Cold. I Vetoed My 5°F (-15°C) Threshold And Went Running At Noon When It Was 3°F (-16°C).

Dec2013x125
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.by Anura Guruge

Related posts:
>> Wow. It Is Cold Up Here … — Jan. 3, 2013.

My usual route up Prospect Mountain. This was not from today. Today was bright blue, cloudless skies. Click to ENLARGE.

My usual route up Prospect Mountain. This was not from today. Today was bright blue, cloudless skies. Click to ENLARGE.

Lactogen baby

‘Lactogen Baby’, 1954 to 1962, Ceylon, ad, with this picture, with the heading ‘Baby Guruge’, appeared in 12 newspapers, in 3 languages, every day. ‘Lactogen’ was a Swiss baby formula company. My father, the clever one in the family, declined any monies from them! He said that he was ‘OK’. I was chubby even then, though I was born very sickly, physically twisted (arms and legs intertwined) and unable to pee. This was my maternal grandmother’s work and she mainly used coconut oil! Once I started eating she fattened me up on a strict diet of eggs, chocolate, meat, fish, rice and lentils. My mother made me fancy cakes and puddings. I was doomed from birth.

I had come up with the must be 5°F (-15°C) or warmer threshold somewhere in 2003 or 2004 when we had a long stretch of really cold weather and people said I was crazy to go running in such cold weather. My contacts used to freeze too, which was not that funny. So, I have lived by that 5°F rule, quite happily, for a long time — until today.

Today, I no longer had a choice. I have to exercise. I have to lose weight. I have to cut back on eating. I have to say no to Carbs. Today, I got the dreaded results. I am now officially pre-diabetic. I have been waiting for this day for 43 years!

I was 7 when my uncle, my mother’s older brother, a gifted doctor, who had birthed me, said out of the blue, when all of us were seated around one evening: ‘Well, YOU are going to be diabetic. Stop taking any sugar. You might as well also stop taking salt’. I was 7 and there was nothing much wrong with me at that stage. I was still the ‘Lactogen Baby‘! But, there is a bad diabetes on both side of the family. So, I was not going to escape.

So, for 43 years, I have been waiting for my uncle’s prediction to come true. He was a pretty amazing doctor — physicians to Prime Ministers, Governor Generals and Presidents, and, of course, me.

I have to lose weight — fast. By my own standards I am borderline obese. My BMI is 26.6. I need to get down to 169 lbs. I think I was 165 lbs, 10 years ago, when we got married.

I need to lose 11 pounds. That will get me the 25 BMI. If I cutout all carbs, which I can easily do, and have done, I can drop 5 within a couple of months. The problem is that this then hikes my cholesterol. I can’t win. I have done strict Atkin before, with great success and luck. Cheese, ham, chicken, pork, greens, cauliflower, eggs. Did it for about 3 years. Blood work was never better. Felt great. But, missed my carbs. Love bread. Love sweets and believe that I need chocolate to maintain my body color.

So starting today, I have to work on this. Getting rid of 11 — and I am no longer young. I lost 70 pounds, when I was in my late 20s, in about 6 months. Went from 205 lbs to 135 lbs. I was quite a sight when I weighed 135 lbs, since my shoulders never got any narrower. I lost that 70 pounds within 7 months — but I was possessed. Didn’t use to run those days. I was not fit, though I did play cricket, sporadically (and badly) during the Summer. The first day I went running I managed about 1/4 mile and then crawled back home — and I do mean crawl, on all fours. I couldn’t breath. Went out again the next day. Went a few yards further, but in the end still crawled back. Within 2 weeks I was running a mile. Within a month 2. At the end of 3 months I was running 7 miles every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I was also doing it in about 7 – 8 minutes a mile. On Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s I fasted. One apple and one chunk of cheese. Lots of coffee and wine. I super busy, and not eating gave me the time to run. Once I got to running the 7 miles the pounds just fell away, daily. Biggest problem was clothes. I was Customer Support Manager for ITT Business Systems in the UK — and had to dress for the part, with white shirts and snazzy suits. I would only wear Van Heusen shirts. I needed new shirts every week and new suits every month. It was an expensive hobby. I would give the clothes away. No time to get them altered. Plus no kids.

So … now. I will have to go running again tomorrow. Hope it is a tad warmer. Just as I was getting home had some tears freeze. Maya’s muzzle was coated with ice from her breath. She didn’t seem to mind the cold. Didn’t say anything.

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