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Candy Hunt
The departure of a solitary rebel
Anuradha Malalasekara
The sad news of Professor Sucharitha Gamlath's departure came at the
time I sat in front of the computer to write the Candy Hunt. Without a
doubt it is an unbearable loss for our tiny island. Apart from that
reason, some other fact made my heart heavier. In my near twenty years
old newspaper encounter, I have not had a single chance (or I would
rather say, never attempted) to write about this literary giant of our
times.
The guilt strikes harder when I realize that professor Gamlath was a
great linguist and translator as well. It is surprising that how great
people who are so close to your area of expertise slip out of your
writing topics. At this moment, I write this with a heavy heart and a
mortified soul.
 When they get ill treated or discriminated, most of the academics as
well as other professionals generally quit and fly to a destination
where they get the fair go. Usually this destination is a first world
country which welcomes such professionals with open hands as they
recognize them as assets to their developed nation. I am one of them who
got drained through the gully of unfairness and currently living
caressing scars of wounds which took long time to get healed.
Thinking about professor Gamlath changes my attitudes and drives me
to think in a different way. He has been thrown out of the state
university system and never gets acquired back to the mainstream
education system. As a prominent scholar, he might have got countless
offers from the world, but standing firmly on his devoted political
grounds, he might have got determined to serve the repressed.
As far as I know he did English tutoring for living. Professor
Gamlath was a scholar who embraced English with widely opened hands. The
Sinhala - English dictionary he compiled is remarkable product and the
money I spent it on was well worthily spent. He was a master coiner. He
has introduced a number of Sinhala words for many science and
technological terms.
I honor him as the most rebellious critic Sri Lanka has ever
produced. Although I have not met him personally he supplied me tons of
energy to stand by the point you bring on in a critique. He was a role
model who taught me to be armed adequately before you strike someone
with your critical review. He knew his Sanskrit, Pali, Western and
Oriental philosophy and aesthetics, Marxism and etc. Person who holds
such knowledge would never fear in criticism, and so was professor
Gamlath.
Following his footsteps, I never bring out a point either in my
academic or general writing without having proper resourceful
information.
A strong and true criticism will take the creators to a higher
position from the where they originally belonged. The problem is a very
few are capable of tolerating a true critique. With his harsh but true
reviews he made an effort to open eyes of a whole nation. Most fall
again to sleep, but some, like me, step into a path which could take you
wherever you want.
I have heard that at University of London, he opted Philosophy as his
area of research for his PhD. Although he has not done philosophy as a
subject for his first degree, university of London has unanimously
agreed to offer him the chance. Since then, he seems taking challenges
until he lost his battle with cancer. His political view was his
religion and he can be claimed as an ardent follower of his philosophy.
I know this is a hard time to Isha Gamlath, the loving daughter of
Professor Gamlath, who was a teacher of mine at the University of
Kelaniya. Isha, this is not just a loss for you, this is a vacuum which
will never be replaced, not in the farthest future.
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