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| Tuesday, 25 May 2004 |
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An Embarrassment of Riches Selected Journalism, HAJ Hulugalle (1899-1981), Arjuna Hulugalle Dictionaries, Colombo 2004 Twenty five years have not dimmed very much my recollection of Mr. Herbert A. Hulugalle (HAJ); it was probably in 1978 to 1979 that I invited him to address the members of the Golden Age Circle of our Family Services Institute at Aquinas College, Borella. He was a natural choice to address the membership (senior citizens), being a very distinguished golden age (over 50 years) person. His affable and sprightly bearing belied his 80 years.
I was surprised to find the substance of the talk he gave the old folks included in the book under the title, "How I Keep Going", which was exactly what he told the old folks. Reviewing Selected Journalism (SJ) proved to be a daunting and even discouraging task entirely due to what the French would call "embarrassment of riches". It is practically impossible to get on top of all that material - of unbelievable variety; variety of places, persons, events, experiences and reflections. It is a kind of unsystematic, happily chaotic encylopaedia of the era in which the author lived and worked. In the Preface it is stated, almost apologetically, that most of the articles are not meant to stand the test of time and reflecting the circumstances of their birth have become out-of-date in specific particulars. But I believe that is a special, outstanding value of this collection. The articles register the uncontrived, direct impressions made on Mr. Hulugalle by persons, events etc. of his time. Those impressions are specially valuable for a student of those times because of the quality of the person on whom they were made - the quality of the mind, sensitivity of spirit and the journalistic bent of Mr. Hulugalle. For that reason we are very much indebted to Mr. Arjuna Hulugalle and others who made this compilation which is of great historical value. Anybody who has the intention of compiling an encyclopedia of Sri Lanka could not do better than start with SJ. He/she could save him/herself so much time and trouble. There is so much material there on the country and its people, served up succinctly and very readably. Since HAJ had rubbed shoulders with everybody who was somebody not only in Sri Lanka but also in the international scene, his pen sketches of them, even the shorter ones, contain a wealth of information, which perhaps could not be found elsewhere, in addition to his personal impressions of them. For example, in a very short piece, of less than two pages, HAJ speaks of the medical profession and the great doctors of that time who, he says, in contrast to the doctors of today would not imagine seeking pastures abroad. On the contrary he says, "many foreign doctors were glad to take up appointments in Ceylon and enjoyed their work here". I wonder whether I could lay my hands on the script of Dr. Andres Nell, "in his own beautiful handwriting" on the Kandyan Court, that HAJ refers to in the same piece. In the section entitled "private letters to an Editor" HAJ refers to a number of letters and documents received and exchanged with very eminent people such as British Governors, Donoughmore and Soulbury Commissioners and the like. They would be of great value to historians. It is only a privileged few who get to enjoy the social, cultural and spiritual richness that came HAJ's way, both given and achieved. The foreign service gave him ample opportunity to indulge in his wanderlust; his pieces on places are not just touristic descriptions, they are intertwined with anecdotes and insightful personal references: "Like Mr. Belloc I arrived in Rome without any lira", "it was not with any expectation of being received by a King, who is also a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, that I set out on a mushy morning from Jeruselem to Jericho", and so on. Travel in foreign lands did not, however, lessen the fascination of his native land for HAJ. "A Sentimental Journey" follows the scenic railway line from Peradeniya up to Haputale and we are fed with rich nuggets by HAJ, along the way: "Eladetta, where Robert Knox bought a piece of land and build himself a house, is close to Embekke", "At length we reach Hatton. Here is an important town which does not have a Sinhala name. How did it come to be called Hatton?" You will find the answer on pp. 273-74. If you did not discover enough of the man is his own writing, the final section "As seen by others", including two of his sons, will fill the blanks. The accolades that HAJ gets from them are patently heartfelt. An excerpt from an article by Tarzie Vittachi in the New Lanka Review, succinctly sums up the man: "Herbert Hulugalle was the complete Editor. He personified the Terentian ideal: Nothing human was alien to him. He could write knowledgeably and attractively about politics, money and its mysteries, religion and its mysteries, gemstones, art and architecture, paddy farming, the British Royal family, Tagore, the elephant or Lord Northcliffe. If he did not know about something in the breaking news he knew how to find out". (p. 481) Fr. Mervyn Fernando |
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