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| Friday, 10 September 2004 |
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From the fictional Island of Pala: Prof. Valentine Basnayake talks on lessons for healthy living
Prof. Basnayake Emeritus Professor of Physiology, University of Peradeniya who is a regular reader of this page and contributor of articles has sent us this article for healthy living based on the life of the Palanese people, in a novel 'Island of Pala' written by Aldous Huxley which he had been reading with interest and found worth focusing public attention on. Here goes Prof. Basnayake on the novel Bodily well-being in Pala. Bodily well-being in Pala in the fictional utopian island of Pala, situated 500 km to the east of Sri Lanka, the people, had, from the late 1840s come under the influence of a philosophy which made them live fully as human beings. This meant proper cultivation of all aspects of health - of the physical body, the mind and the spiritual aspect of the people. The present article describes the customs of the Palanese people for bodily well-being. The people were pacifists and they were overrun by a militarist neighbour in about the year 1960. The utopia was described by Aldous Huxley in Island: a novel (1962). Diet was vegetarian plus fish. "Carrying at tray, the little nurse re-entered the room she said, as she tied a napkin round Will's neck. 'All except the fish. But we've decided that fishes are vegetables within the meaning of the act'... He finished the last of his cold boiled fish and vegetables Nurse Appu handed him a plate of fruit salad." (Ch.6) Muscular work. Everybody was trained to do daily muscular work. They believed that "the life force must find an outlet through striped muscle". They did muscular work at prevention to make therapy unnecessary. "In Pala even a professor, even a Government official generally puts in two hours of digging and delving each day, as part of his duties and as part of his pleasure". (Ch.9) Sensations. The bodily sensations are cultivated, partly because they contribute to well-being, and partly because they can lead to larger kinds of awareness. The sensation of sight could, for example, lead to awareness of beauty and of larger aspects of Mind. * "... and when anyone looks up, even at a god, he can hardly fail to see the sky beyond. And what's the sky? Air and scattered light; but also a symbol of that boundless and(excuse the metaphor) pregnant emptiness out of which everything, the living and the inanimate, the puppet-makers and their divine marionettes, emerge into the universe we know - or rather that we think we know". (Ch.13) * 'The one that doesn't talk - just looks and listens and feels what's going on inside. And sometimes', Mary Sarojini added, 'sometimes she suddenly sees how beautiful everything is. No, that's wrong. She sees it all the time, but I don't - not unless she makes me notice it. That's when it suddenly happens. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! Even dogs' messes.' She pointed at a formidable specimen almost at their feet." (Ch.14) * Turning to Will, 'In Pala', she explained, we don't say grace before meals. We say it with meals. Or rather we don't say grace; we chew it'. 'Chew it?' 'Grace is the first mouthful of each course - chewed and chewed until there's nothing left of it. And all the time you're chewing you pay attention to the flavour of the food, to its consistency and temperature, to the pressures on your teeth and the feel of the muscles in your jaws'.... She looked round the table. 'Shall we begin?' 'Hurrah!' the twins shouted in unison, and picked up their spoons. For a long minute there was a silence, broken only by the twins who had not yet learned to eat without smacking their lips. 'May we swallow now?' asked one of the little boys at last. Shanta nodded. Everyone swallowed. There was a clinking of spoons and a burst of talk from full mouths. 'Well', Shanta enquired, 'what did your grace taste like?' 'It tasted', said Will, 'like a long succession of different things. Or rather a succession of variations on the fundamental theme of rice and turmeric and red peppers and zucchini and something leafy that I don't recognize. It's interesting how it doesn't remain the same. I'd never really noticed that before.' 'And while you were paying attention to these things, you were momentarily delivered from daydreams, from memories, from anticipations, from silly notions from all the symptoms of you." (Ch.13) Siesta. It was habitual for children and patients to take an afternoon siesta. "Tom Krishna and Mary Sarojini had gone to take their siesta with the gardener's children next door." (Ch.4). "And now', she (Nurse Appu) resumed in another, brisker tone, 'it's high time we left you (Will Farnaby) to your siesta'. From the door the little nurse turned back for a final word. No reading now', she wagged her finger at him. 'Go to sleep'. 'I never sleep during the day', Will assured her with a certain perverse satisfaction." "He could never go to sleep during the day; but when he looked next at his watch, the time was twenty-five past four, and he was feeling wonderfully refreshed." Clothing. In a warm tropical country the clothing of children for ordinary everyday outdoor and schoolwear was minimal. Young boys wore only a loin cloth or shorts, and girls a loose skirt from waist down to ankles. "Will opened his eyes and saw to exquisite children looking down at him, their eyes wide with astonishment and a fascinated horror. The smaller of them was a tiny boy of five, perhaps, or six, dressed only in a green loin cloth. beside him, carrying a basket of fruit on her head, stood a little girl some four or five years older. She wore a full crimson skirt that reached almost to her ankles, but above the waist she was naked. In the sunlight her skin glowed like pale copper flushed with rose..."(Ch.2) School, Upper Fifth, Maths. "At their desks a score of boys and girls were frowning in a concentrated, pencil-biting silence, over their note-books. The bent heads were sleek and dark. Above the white or khaki shorts, above the long gaily coloured skirts, the golden bodies glistened in the heat. Boys' bodies that showed the cage of the ribs beneath the skin, girls' bodies, fouler, smoother, with the swell of small breasts, firm, high-set, elegant as the inventions of a rococo sculptor of nymphs. And everyone took them completely for granted. What a comfort, Will reflected, to be in a place where the Fall was an exploded doctrine!" (Ch.13). We thank Prof. Basnayake who is a regular reader of this page for contributing this article, focusing attention of the reader to the life style led by the people in the novel Island of Pala, which Prof. Basnayake told us is healthy, worthy for consideration for adoption by us today. - Health Watch ############### SLAAS in Rs. 3 million: Schools programme on Science for productive healthy living
A Rs. 3 million science popularisation programme for healthy living among schoolchildren in rural areas is now in full swing in several districts. The funding for this programme launched by the Science Popularisation Committee of the Sri Lanka Association for Advancement of Science (SLAAS) from 1960 has been done by Unilevers Sri Lanka. The Rs. 3 million grant for this year is the highest for the programme since its commencement says Kumudu Samarasekera Unilevers Development Manager for Food. She was speaking to the Health Watch on the programme at a meeting with Prof. Colvin Goonaratna ex-General President of SLAAS and the Chairman of the Committee for Popularisation of Science (CPS). Prof. Goonaratna said the SLAAS members who are conducting this programme are doing it on a voluntary basis, putting their heart and soul into it. Therefore it has become very popular with the school-children. Their attendance and active participation in the programme was very encouraging to SLAAS. He said the programme sponsors, Unilevers, was also very satisfied with the healthy change being brought about in the student community and their families as a result of this project that they have been increasing their funding annually. Last Saturday the programme had been conducted in Galle at Sangamitta Girls School. Speaking about the CPS, Prof. Goonaratna said, the Committee for the Popularisation of Science (CPS) is one of the major organs of the SLAAS charged with the mandate of popularising science since 1962. More specifically it is expected to take suitable action to popularise science with a bearing on the national interest, advise the general public or any person or institution on the application of scientific methods to various activities in their day-to-day life. This is done particularly with the objective of fostering an attitude leading to the scientific way of thinking and conducting programmes/activities (with the common objective of popularising science) that may be considered necessary and incidental to the above function. The CPS, for the past several years, has very successfully conducted lectures, seminars etc. on the less privileged sections of our community, particularly outstation schoolchildren to disseminate scientific knowledge for a healthy productive life. To achieve its objectives, the Popularisation of Science Committee organises annually, district school science day programmes, nature diaries programmes, popular lectures, astronomy days and observational camps, science popularisation awards, press conferences, agricultural workshops, health awareness programmes for schoolchildren and the general public. In addition, publications on science in Sinhala and Tamil media are also produced. This year, we have already conducted the above activities in the districts of Colombo, Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Puttalam, Nuwara Eliya, Polonnaruwa and Kurunegala in Sinhala and Tamil. Award winners of the above activities will be invited to Colombo to receive their awards during the annual sessions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) where these students get an opportunity to participate in educational tours to National Planetarium, National Zoological Gardens and Meteorological Dept. etc. |
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