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Focus on correct use of Sinhala

Basa Nasena Heti

Author: D. F. Kariyakarawana
Publisher: The Sri Lanka Press Association
Reviewed by: Florence Wickramage

'Basa Nasena Heti' (the way the language is getting killed) is the first in a series of books written by the author highlighting the incorrect use of the Sinhala language in the written, spoken and broadcast media. Book one comprises a collection of 'columns' written by the author to the Silumina paper over a year. These columns focussed on the incorrect use of the Sinhala language which has become increasingly common in daily use and in the newspapers.

Having concentrated first on the print media the author ventures on to pinpoint the incorrect use of the language in the electronic and radio broadcast media. The use of the Sinhala alphabet is a complex issue unless correctly learnt. Unlike in the English language certain alphabet letters in the Sinhala language are depicted in different forms which should be appropriately used in writing.

The author highlights the glaring misuse of the language in the electronic media by news and programme presenters. In many instances words have been coined with 'english' words and this practice is colloquially known as 'singlish'. It has become fashionable in the present day to effortlessly mix sinhala and english words in communication.

Written in simple language and sometimes with a touch of humour the contents are easily understood. Kariyakarawana, in the 240 chapters of the book has projected most of the commonly used incorrect sinhala letters, words and sentences with the correct versions simultaneously for easy reference.

Therefore the book can be regarded as a valuable educational guide/handbook by both journalists and students.

The Book has been published as a result of several requests made to the author by journalists, students and teachers. Noteworthy is the fact that this book is timely due to the increasing rate of incorrect use of the sinhala language in speech and in writing.

D.F.Kariyakarawana, a veteran journalist commenced his journalistic career in the Mihira newspaper. Thereafter he joined the first Lankadeepa and later the Dinamina. He served as Chief Editor of the Janatha, Yovun Janatha and Silumina newspapers and retired from active journalism in 1992.

However he continued to be in Lake House as Editorial Consultant for a further period of five years. In 1996 he was requested to rejoin Lake House as a Media Consultant.

During his tenure as Media Consultant Kariyakarawana established an Educational Institution for young sons and daughters of working journalists. Some of the students who followed his classes are today active journalists.

Having served the Sri Lanka Press Association as President since its inception Kariyakarawana is presently assisting in the activities of the Association as its Supreme Advisor.

Though in retirement Kariyakarawana is quite active in his chosen profession, imparting his knowledge and valuable advice to young aspiring journalists while contributing at the same time interesting 'colums' to the newspapers.

He has authored several other books which have been published. D.F.Kariyakarawana has the distinction of being the senior-most Journalist in the country today.

Worthy forum for Sri Lankans writing in English

Channels Vol. 11 Number 1
Edited by Faith Ratnayake
Published by the English Writers Cooperative of Sri Lanka

Channels, Volume 11, Number 1 edited by Faith Ratnayake has come my way. I am always glad to see this journal, which is a worthy forum for Sri lankans writing in English. But the task of sustaining such a publication is never easy, particularly in a setting where the English readership is not that great, or as Faith puts it 'admittedly dwindling'.

Channels provides a forum for both aspiring and established writers, and the editors deserve praise for the sheer resolve with which they engage themselves in this task in the face of overwhelming odds.

There are short stories and poems in the present volume by both the young and the more established writers that provide the reader with a rather wide spectrum of observation and emotion. Stories deal with diverse aspects of life; for instance, how individual fate revolves on false values of elders as depicted in Kamala Wijeratne's The Engagement, where a young woman is forced to remain unmarried.

Perhaps of more immediate concern are the two stories, The Bamboo Fronds by Parvathi Arasanayagam and An Accident by Joyce Silva, which deal with the life of ordinary men and women in refugee camps and the cruel fate they are subject to.

In the former story, Parvathi compares the tranquillity offered by the swaying bamboo fronds with the daily life in the camp.

The tragedy of men and women bundled together in a camp and their sheer helplessness is poignantly caught in this story.

To quote. "As I study the shadows of the tree against the window pane I think of Mani. I met her in the camp today. She was a former school friend who attended the same convent as I did. Her brother had high fever, so we contacted the doctor who came and attended to the child. 'Better send him to the hospital', he had said. The fever's like fire on his temples.

It's raging through his system'. Once more I am reminded of fire. Mani's home had been burnt down, so they came to the camp.. she tells me of her own fears..a man pursuing her, trying to pull her towards him and the neighbours who came to save her".

Joyce Silva writes of a woman who begets a child by a man in a refugee camp who forces himself on her. She doesn't even remember who he was; only that it was someone in charge, and when the episode was over, 'I had a bigger share of rations for the next two weeks and then...' But the baby in her womb never sees the daylight.

It was born dead. That the life in the camp was not conducive to carrying a child in the womb is movingly suggested: "I was wet and there was this puddle around me, the stain hardly visible against the dirty brown of my sari. They helped to get the baby out. It was dead.

Had been dead since I carried the bags of rice for the camp. Who cares these days? Before returning to the camp she steals an orphan from the hospital. Plodding her way back to the camp she pauses hiding the child in a bush so that human eyes may not catch sight of it, and muses: 'No man is your friend, especially in war. At best of times they would harass you by frisking you for arms or both sides will grill you for spying.

You could be shot or maimed by human error. At worst you'd be dragged to a bush and raped, by one or more, and then shot.

There are no saints here, believe me. Just humans, brutalised by war, each suspicious of the other'.

In the poem Bindunuwewa, Jean Arasanayagam returns to the national problem. With Biblical allusions, a deep sense of humanity pervades the poem; and what is captured is done without rancour or hatred. Apportioning blame is something that any mediocrity can do; but there is always the larger canvass. Isn't everyone, in a sense, responsible for the chaos?

Our hands fold over the shape of life
Yet taste the cindered crust of memory.

Dinesha Wickremanayake's "The House is Empty" captures the loneliness of waiting with fresh imagery.

Warm moments linger
Suspended
In the dusky corners of our room.
Voices echo noiselessly
Forgotten smiles
Remain trapped in mirrors...

Sita Kulatunge's poem Globalization is a biting satire on the attitude of affluent countries towards the third world. When they set foot on the moon they boasted that such advancement in science and technology would usher a new world order which will benefit the entire humankind. But Gunapala in the remote dry zone village is dying of respiratory failure simply because he cannot afford an imported inhaler. His wife laments, but takes it with traditional resignation:

For whom it is all 'our sin'
Even the heap of 'wattakka' by the roadside they cannot sell
Or send to Colombo, is all fruit of 'Karma'
She sighs.

I have only discussed a few examples, but let me hasten to add that it does not mean that I think the others may not have a claim to equal recognition. It is just that the constraints of space and the particular representative quality of the works discussed made me select them.

As was observed at the outset I admire the effort put into this publication by its editors. The forum it provides to aspiring writers in an environment where even the established writers in English experience difficulty and frustration in finding a publisher is indeed praiseworthy.

- Edmund Jayasuriya

Channels is available at leading Colombo bookshops Lake House, Vijitha Yapa, Sarasavi, Bookland and Barefoot. Also at publicable price from English writers cooperative, C/O 25/13, Kalinga Mawatha Polhengoda, Colombo 05.

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