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Second Thoughts by Prof.Sunanda Mahendra

To what extent do you use folk material in your cross cultural communication study purposes? asked one well-known professor of the Middlesex university, UK. I was a bit worried to explain the type of teaching material we make use of, as they happen to be a thin layer of various collections of folk poems, folk stories, fables and legends. But I managed to trace some of the local sources available.

Then came the inevitable question of translations of the same and the availability of the said sources. There are a few collections in translation as well, but most of which have been either buried over the times or gone out of print and forgotten. But I was quite happy to see several folk and historical local sources translated into English or perhaps a better term would be adapted in a simple narrative form by a well-known teacher of literature and a critic cum administrator one D.B. Kuruppu who now lives in Australia.

He has brought out four fine flimsy books more suited for children, titled Saradiel, the Sri Lanka bush ranger, Mahadenamutta, the great know all of Sri Lanka, Andare, the Sri Lankan court jester and Kekille, the king of unfailing justice.

All these books are written in the style more of a dialogue that ensues between a father named Loku Banda and his son Tikiri, who so is desirous of learning the roots of their own country. The mother Sirina too intervenes to build up the rapport, enhancing a further dimension in the narrative.

Reading through these books, I felt that story telling art is not at all ancient, and felt that the age old stories, legends and parables could be retold in such a way to suit the modern conscience.

Tikiri who is symbolic of the computer era, is nevertheless the child of the human heritage, who has crossed the boundaries of narrow thinking patterns. The father Loku Banda helps him to broaden his horizons via creative thinking and creative communication.

As a child living abroad, Tikiri learns more about the historical aspects of his country and gets the chance to compare them with the living cultures of his present day. While Saradiel, a historical character of the imperial and colonial tradition of the local past, he is also depicted sometimes as a robber as well as a hero or a martyr in folk tradition.

The dialogue between the father and the son goes beyond the narrow boundaries of black and white characterization, instead representing the socio historical evidence to understand the realistic stance, like a crystal onto which a colourful sun beam is projected. The author Kuruppu, makes the reader (and the son Tikiri in the narrative) feel that he is learning the history the colonial past through actual historical facts narrated creatively.

As some students say, learning history is tedious. But the author Kuruppu exhibits the new creative dimensions on how it could be made interesting and stimulating. This is a good lesson we have presently experienced from such countries as India, China, Russia and Africa.

At least the students of history in these countries have come to know about their past through creative writings of varying types. Reading the two books Mahadenamutta and Andare I felt that a student will have the opportunity to experience on similarities in folk character, may they be humorous or serious.

The fun and frolic depicted in the adventures of Mahadenamutta and his disciples, and those of the court jester Andare, never remain on the surface level of mere narratives. Instead they help the reader to grasp extra meaning attributed to living conditions. The stories of Kekille, the king of unfailing justice, is a more suited book for all who delve in various types of judgments that spread its tentacles to such fields as literature, politics, education, administration etc. We see day by day more and more Kekilles entering our lives to decide our faith, thinking processes and living conditions.

They decide and perhaps dictate for us the way we should live, according to their way of judging things, whims and fancies. So this is an eye opener to the Kekille conditions prevailing amidst us. The silent man's wonderful weapon had been in almost all folk tradition being the humour.

The kings have understood the serious errors of their ministers through the humour created by the common man as catch phrases and knowledge acquisition.

These traditions have been sensitively recreated by creative writers over the years helping us to understand ourselves when dealing with social situations.

In this background, I wish that the author Kuruppu has taken pains to transform the folk knowledge to those living in other countries in order to make a bridge between several cultures. These are some of the salient factors that should be taken seriously by the Pundits of the cultural authorities in our own countries, on planning cultural and literary activities. All these tiny books are author publications, and it just goes to say that he is a free writer who has not only penned the pages but also had foot the bill for printing them.

Before I forget, I must state that as this column goes on Internet a reader in any part of the world may contact Mr. D.B. Kuruppu at this address which goes as 2b//42, Dudley Street, Mitcham, Victoria 3132, Australia.

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