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| Wednesday, 24 December 2003 |
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Out of the cannon mouth - death and the deathlessness of love One hero-heroine is usually considered enough when a writer takes pen to paper.On screen however, and even in space, we may find immense satisfaction in "Blake's Seven" or "The Magnificent Seven" and we are content to allow a perahera of villains pop in as long as the hero/heroine does what is expected of him/her in the end. Who is the real hero/heroine in Nihal de Silva's absorbing book, "The Road to Elephant Pass"? From the beginning there emerges the woman. She, Kamala Veleithan, is a trained killer; and our hero, Captain Wasantha Ratnayake, does all his years of military training a disservice when he allows his first impression of this "enemy" to hold him fast.
I saw her then, a tall slim woman with a young boy by her side... She was wearing a brown cotton skirt that reached her ankles, and a loose white blouse. Cheap, black rubber slippers. She had straight black hair parted in the middle and pulled into a braid at the back. Widely-spaced eyes set in an oval face. No ring, bangles or chain, just tiny gold ear studs. She walked confidently, holding herself erect like an athlete. She looked to be in her mid-twenties... She stood very straight and answered correctly. She stared confidently at me as she spoke, unafraid. Her eyes had an expression I had seen before. Defence mixed with a good measure of contempt. I like my Tamils deferential, I wanted to take her to the back of the hut and slap some respect into her..." This is a book that thumbs a nose at procedures, so-called "discipline" and strait-jacketed thinking. An Army Captain and a Tiger woman soldier. It all begins ordinarily enough, but when the two are thrown together, have to fend for themselves, the author unwittingly or not, gives to the woman a remorselessness of character that makes her the stronger. It also tells us, surely, that the LTTE train their cadres well. Drama Too well. They are also merciless, and it is the cruelty that turns the woman against them, makes her decide with a characteristic coldness of mind, to betray them. The true drama of this story is not in the many ways and means this strange couple take - from Pallai to Mirisuvil, across the lagoon to Kalliyadi near Mannar, to the Wanni, Wilpattu, Puttalam. Who takes command? Let's say they each contribute to the other's survival, but one can't help feeling that it is the woman who shows leadership quality, the ability to think ahead in every step of the way. Search They will search this area when they find the boat. We have to move before that happens. ...you will have to pass for my brother. Your name is now Wasu Veleithan.... The adventure, to the Captain, is tinged with unease, even fear. He thinks all the time that it would be foolish to trust this woman. She would support me only so long as our objectives are the same. If they should diverge, I had no doubt that she would slit my throat with the same detached unconcern with which she had handled every other situation. Considering the conflict that has spread its own cancerous death in many parts of the island, the picture of a Sinhalese Army Captain riding a bicycle from Murunkan to Madawachchiya with a Tiger woman soldier seated "side-saddle" on his bicycle bar, both intent on ambushing a lone motor-cyclist, does not seem as unreal as it sounds. When they do get their man - she , "young and pretty, standing in the morning sun" and he, with a cudgel of deadwood in his hand -they use teamwork with little quarter given. Suspense The writer has shown us how well suspense can be held at every turn in the tale. The very association of two soldiers of opposing sides is in itself a monument to suspense. The Captain's thoughts betray the hatred he holds for her kind, and as they parry and thrust, the reader can't help but ask: "When will it all end - and how? Will it be in a blazing row... or death? Yet, even as they claw their way through jungle and marsh, there come small slivers of confiding, sudden realization of each other. She was a victim of Sinhalese rampage. She was eight when the mobs torched her home in Wellawatte. She went to Jaffna with her parents and the iron had entered her child-soul. Thrown together, the ice thawed somewhat. They began to learn about each other and found the difference in their stations not too great and not too distant. I have to ask whether Nihal de Silva is also telling us of something more deep, more important. Captain Wasantha and Kamala, his Tiger companion (for they ARE companions on this awesome journey) begin to stand together, face odds together, talk together and, above all, knit their thoughts. This is what true cohabitation is, is it not? Of course, there will always be that difference, but when they can walk together, each propping up the other's courage as they face a snarling leopard with its kill, it shows us how well a strong unity of purpose can take on every threat. Exactly what this country now needs! How can one travel in a peace scooter with only one wheel? Yet, the old Adam will keep rising and even childhood traumas will bedevil this relationship. "The Sinhalese have no right to peace after what they did to my family", she says...." why should I care if the war never ends?" What do we take note of? The Captain realizes where his weakness lies. His is the Southern penchant to fly into blind rages, get violent, then cool down quickly. The Tamil woman displays cold-blooded control and masks her feelings at all times. A good hater! "You don't have to give anything", she says, referring to the land the LTTE claims, "We'll take it!" The Captain and his prisoner (for so she is, although it is not really accepted by either) trek through Wilpattu. Always, their conversation is in short, sharp bursts. They talk tangentially on many things. He is also prodded to say: "We won't win until the politicians leave us alone to run the war!" He even tells her of the rampant corruption in arms purchases; of armchair generals who make strategic and tactical decisions. "There are explosives stashed in every major city in the South. And the people to set them off are in place. The only reason the South has been spared is the value our leader puts on the goodwill of Western countries. If you adopted a scorched earth policy in the Wanni, the South will burn!" Adversity Elephants, bear, cattle, leeches, leopards, wild boar, pythons, sambhur, and what may also be deemed a mini-bird-watcher's manual! The writer cannot be faulted for he is, as the blurb says, a keen amateur naturalist. It all makes fascinating reading and also tempers the awful reality of the many perils the two travellers face. Adversity brings them closer together. The Sinhalese simply has to protect his Tamil companion from a band of thugs and rapists. "You know, Captain, in spite of being a Sinhalese, you are a good man". "Shut up!" Soon, there is less cut and lesser thrust, and the need for each other overpowers all else, but like the true combatant she is, she tells shim: "You are a soldier. You can't afford any personal involvement with me". The ultimate sacrifice. Life has ceased to be sacred in these nightmare times. Past returnes to horrify the present, then takes an Angoda bus to drive the future into Bedlam. This is the way it all ends - when the very breadth and goodness of a man's soul is riven by the awful truth that he will emerge on one side of a minefield while the Tamil woman he has come to love remains on the opposite side. Make love, not war, the pacifists say. Nihal de Silva gives us a plainer truth. Out of the cannon mouth come death and also something else: the deathlessness of love! - Carl Muller |
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