As done in every year in the past, the customary Senior Citizens' Day was celebrated at the Thornleigh Community Centre on Sunday the 21 st of March 2010 with the participation of around 100 Sri Lankan origin senior citizens from all ethnicities of the Sri Lankan Community.

The chief guest was Mr Dayasiri Fernando the Sri Lankan Consul General of Sydney accompanied by his wife Minoli and mother who is also a senior citizen herself.

From 10:00 a.m. our seniors started crawling in, some were on wheel chairs helped by friends and family members but all were in a great spirit. It was astonishing to see the enthusiasm rendered by our seniors towards the event by singing, dancing and mingling with each other remembering the great old days passed by.

The day was made fascinating by charming Master of Ceremonies Krishan Lye and live music provided by Lye duos (Ezmal Lye and Fayiz Lye). The first item was the music session and this was glamoured by Mrs Sumana Peiris coming to the floor and offering solo slow moving dance session. Singing session started by aunty with Mrs Corey and a live chorus, both young and old, joined her with popular oldies like “bring back my Bonny” and “oolu pipila” to the much enjoyment of the seniors. Many spirited ones supplemented with Red and White took to the floor to the tune of “Cha Cha”, “Baila” and “Waltz” reminiscing the good old days.

President Dr Nimal Edirisinghe in his short speech thanked everybody for their participation and explained the commitment of Sri Lanka Association of NSW recognising and paying gratitude to our seniors as a continuing community event. He also thanked the committee members, their families and others who made this event a success by contributing in various ways. It is with pleasure that the key note speech had to be delayed to allow the enthusiastic participants to continue their singing and dancing session which over ran the time allocated.

Exhausted seniors after singing and dancing were given a hot Sri Lankan meal with plenty of rice and curries including brinjal, fish, kola mallum and ever loving parripu and pappadam supplemented by a sweet desert. Delicious morning and afternoon tea were provided with sweets where some rare varieties such as 'laveria' were available.

As usual the event was filled with fun including games like ”Bingo” a “Raffle Draw” and enjoyable “Musical Chairs”. This time the Expertise Advice session for Seniors was conducted by Dr Sunimali Fernando and seniors had many long but interesting questions to deal with. “How to stop the aging process” was questioned but told not to bother with but to continue with the normal and day to day healthy life.

Dr Shelton Peiris gave thanked everybody involved in the event in various ways. As every good thing comes to an end this year Senior Citizen Day ended with singing the national anthem in a highly cordial environment and some greeting others “see you next time Machan” .

We wish Long Life for our Senior Citizens!