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| Wednesday, 29 September 2004 |
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Azadi in Sinhala by Prof. Sunanda Mahendra Arrangements had been made to hold this year's State Literary Festival from 20th September to 26th. One of the state invitees for this event was Prof. Chaman Nahal, Professor of English of the University of Delhi. Prof. Nahal is visiting Sri Lanka for the second time. His first visit was in 1995 for the launch of the Sinhala translation of his novel 'Azadi' (the fourth volume of the Gandhi quartet - the other three being 'The crown and the Loin Cloth', "the Salt of life' and 'The triumph of the Tri colour). It was translated by Kusum Disanayaka. To coincide with this festival, arrangements are also being made to launch the second edition of the Sinhala translation entitled 'Ginnen Upan Daruvo' (children born of fire). Godage publishers are the publishers of this translation. The translation received two prizes in 1996 - the one from the State Sahitya Academy and the other from Upali Newspapers Ltd. Prof. Chaman Nahal, (born in 1927) is a novelist, academic, editor and commentator. Nahal was educated at Murray College, Sialkot, and Hindu College, Delhi. He did his M A (English) from Delhi University and received a British Council Scholarship in Humanities (1959-61) for higher studies at the university of Nottingham from where he obtained his PhD. He was a senior Fullbright scholar at Princeton University, USA from 1967 to 1970. He has been long teaching English at Delhi University where he is a professor now. He has also taught at Lake Island College, USA, and in the universities of Japan and Malaysia. His novels include 'My true faces' (1972), 'Azadi' (1975), 'Into other dawn' (1977), 'The English Queens' (1979) and 'The crown and the loin cloth' (1981). He has also been editing a journal, The Humanities Review. He has brought out a collection of short stories too, 'The weird Dance' (1965). His two critical works are 'D. H. Lawrence: Eastern View' (1970) and 'The narrative pattern in the works of Hemingway'. His other works are 'A conversation with J. Krishnamurthy' and 'Drugs and the other self'. Historical novelist Nahal is chiefly a historical novelist. Most of his works are written against the backdrop of the pre-independence, Independence and post-independence eras present intense human studies in characters and situations. He is an affirmationist who affirms the values of life, hope, faith and universal love. He views the changing epoch from the point of view of a humanist. Azadi won him the Sahitya Academic award for 1977. The British Queens won the Federation of Publishers prize. His critiques of Lawrence and Hemingway are also penetrating studies. When the first edition of 'Azadi' in Sinhala appeared Prof. Nahal sent a note which exemplified the importance of cross cultural creative studies in the following terms. The translator has a special role to play in the dissemination of culture. But for these selfless scholars, many of us would never have known Russian literature, or German or French. But for them in India would never have known our sacred books, the Vedas, or epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. But for them we would never have known the profound sayings of Lord Buddha or the rock edicts of Ashoka. Consequently, but for them, our mind would never have had such a fund of folklore, legends, rituals and customs to lean upon. It must be equally gratifying for the author so translated into another language. At one jump, he acquires thousands of new friends he may never see physically but whom he would be meeting spiritually on a continuing basis. I, therefore, feel extremely indebted to Kusum Disanayaka for making Azadi available in Sinhala. The English speaking people in Sri Lanka might be familiar with the novel. Now the circle is going to expand considerably. Sri Lanka has been closely associated with India for centuries. For me, it has a very private fascination because of the way the Rama story was narrated to me by my elders. They invariably referred to Ravana's fabulous town as the golden Lanka - a city entirely made of gold, every single house, every single street. No other fable or story they told had such city in it. Golden places Golden temples may be, golden palaces may be, but not the whole city. When I grew up, I searched for myths around the world for a similar marvel, only to draw a blank. Even Troy was not made of gold, or camelot, or El Dorado. And weren't Sri Lankans the first people ever to have the aeroplane (vertically taking off and touching down too)? Didn't Rama and Sita travel back to Ayodhya from Sri Lanka the end of their exile by a viman, by a plane - taking more or less the same time as we do today? I'm so glad to have reached this island of perpetual wonder embedded in my heart. Returning to his homeland from Sri Lanka, followed by the launch of the Sinhala work, Prof. Nahal wrote a column titled 'story line' in Hindustan Times (10.09.1995) wherein he had the following to state. All good things in life come your way only accidentally. I must have been passing through one such lucky phase, when I received a letter from Kusum Disanayaka of Colombo some years ago, offering to translate my novel Azadi into Sinhala. It was that propitious beginning, which landed me in Sri Lanka last month for the launch of Children of Fire - what Azadi became in the Sinhala version. Lanka is sewed into the imagination of each Indian from his childhood. And one feature haunting us above all is that it was a 'golden' of gold including every single house, every single street. No other myth known to man speak of such a fabulous city; golden palaces may be, golden temples may be, but not the whole city. Even Troy was not made of gold, or camelot, or El Dorado. About the launch ceremony he said, the launch was held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in Independence square, and I give some details to show how close Sri Lanka is to us in many ways and yet how different. Ceremony There was a lamp lit at the beginning of the ceremony, but there was no music or singing - no invocation. The lamp was lit not by the chief guest alone but by all the people on the dais, one by one. Then of course there were the speeches and an extract from the translation was read. Thereafter Kusum Disanayaka explained her experiences as a translator. And then the publishers S. Godage, made a presentation of a specially bound copy to me along with a token money gift. The most exhilarating part of the launch happened outside the hall though. On a table, the publisher had placed the newly published novel and all 125 copies of it were sold - in a gathering of 165. When my Gandhi quartet was launched at Indian international centre in 1993, with the late Giani Zail Singh as the chief guest, the number of copies sold was three. This speaks volumes for the reading habits of the Sri Lankans and the level of literary among them. How very exhilarating and stimulating remark! *************** A nuclear attack on the nervous system All God's Children The thing about Carl Muller is that he simply launches himself with devastating effect, then sits back and says, with a straight face: "So what did I do?" This new collection has a cover picture to match. It's hard to pick up a book with a gibbering skull that has to be one of God's children, grinning and empty-brained. To read the stories is to see these children of a designer God in their true colours. Yet, I cannot fault Muller's approach. He has always reminded us of what he calls the "human condition" and in this new collection, has made this condition so stark, so plaguey and so utterly vile that it makes me wonder: what sort of a creature am I? Did God, in a fit of pique, scoop up a handful of dust and think: "Now I'm going to make something unbelievable?" Each story and some poems, too, are unsparing. They shock, jar the senses, take their characters juddering before some hanging judge and fill me with that vomity feeling that I, too, am of this upright ape-tribe; an insidious collection of beings to which I also belong. When I put down the book, I intended to read it again, but I felt I had been blown apart. A sort of nuclear attack on my nervous system. I was tense. Are these God's children he writes about? Sometimes, there is deep sadness, pity, then repugnance, even horror. The drunkard son with alcohol in his genes; the Tiger cubs with raw heroin inserted into their flesh; drug-crazed nightclub girls; refugees with nowhere to run; humanity clinging to corkscrews, deformed in mind and body. Superb exponent Muller has turned out to be a superb exponent of the short story. He moves fast, delineates emotions artfully and writes explosively. Even church-going and the evil of crackpot religious fundamentalism is lashed with a seeming humour - mocking - and the poems he scatters also maintain the theme: hypocrisy, abasement, cruelty, value-distortion. We are dragged into this human habitat he weaves and help prisoner. He dos lay a soothing compress now and then, but I think he tricked me. With his opening story, "The Dinner Party," he seems to say: "See - just having fun. Be amused." And amused I am. Any bunch that call themselves Beaconites need to have their heads examined and their Bibles confiscated for the good of the community. Then there is another silly piece about a silly soak who says he's an MV VD. That's Muller for you. He can simply skim along, raising snort of amusement here and chuckles there. Funny man? But when this man who tickled us no end with "The Jam Fruit Tree" and "Yakada Yaka" suddenly mixes parody, sarcasm, scalding truth, ribaldry, the contents of many human dustbins, passion, strictures, the remains of a couple of postmortems and stirs well, what do we get? A nuclear missile? And another thing: Muller has this facility to write so beautifully too when he is in the mood. His recent reviews in the newspapers tell us that. But he doesn't stick to style or rhythm and I find that aggravating. Shouldn't a writer have some even faint but recognizable style? Or is fixing his moods as he goes with some "maru inguru"? Like his "Birdsong" collection that also tells of his creative range, "All God's Children" is a feast with courses that are positively radiative. Each story carries its own landscape and he doesn't pack them with long descriptive paragraphs. I remember listening to him address a Rotary meeting at Katugastota long ago. Later, he sat, smoked, and talked with me. He said: "Let your characters speak for themselves. I don't go for needless description. If I have to write of a man, I could say: 'Ronnie had strong yellow teeth. He brushed them once a day.' That should do. I haven't the patience to pack my writing with long-winded descriptions. If the sun sets, it sets. If I have to talk of purfling glimmers and a red-gold ball that sets the horizon on fire and the slow waltz of its passage marked by melting red-freaked waves and the many shades of the sky slowly dissolving into a pearl-black night, some fool is going to stand up and say, 'oooh, that's marvellous!' If he wants to get all mushy about a sunset, why doesn't he go to the seaside, sit on a rock, get a damp patch on the back of his pants and see how bloody marvellous the sunset is? There's one every evening, and no charge either. Why keep packing your writing with stuff like this. And I don't want to be marvellous. That's crap." I suppose each writer will treat his or her subject in his or her own way, but taut and stark, with the landscape living in the reaction of his characters is Muller's special way of carrying his readers with him. They may damn and curse at the way he offends but they go along. This is a sort of special power, if that's the word I should use. Reaction We have a very special writer among us. He takes praise and condemnation and I am sure he treats them both as imposters, not to be considered. Yet, when I read of what he has to say about the works of so many others, there is a sort of rallying of spirit, he is rarely harsh and I see quite a rare person indeed. "All God's Children" is a collection to both amuse and make your skin crawl. Many tell of this parody of life that is man. Chesterton's "Donkey" thought that it was a parody. But read "All God's Children" and maybe we should also raise our bit ears and bray. The real parody walks on two feet, fornicates like a pig, wants Kentucky to fly his chickens, and salivates at a beauty contest. This is one book I'm going to keep. I have found to my dismay that to lend a Carl Muller is to never get it back. So my friends, buy your own books please. - Ravi Dahanayake. *************** Comprehensive atlas of Sri Lanka The Orient Longman School Atlas for Sri Lanka T he Orient Longman School Atlas released on September 7,the second day of the International Book Fair at the BMICH in Colombo is a very useful book especially to students of Sri Lanka. Surveyor General P.A. Ariyaratne who graced the occasion congratulated the men behind the scene for their effort to publish an Atlas. The Orient Longman School Atlas is up-to-date, comprehensive and user - friendly. The Atlas issued by the Orient Longman makes the world more accessible through maps and the graphical representation of facts. It helps students of geography to understand the relativity of the physical features and the human activities and helps further in the understanding of the variety of climatic change, the different types of soil, geological divisions. It also takes the student to have some understanding of the political setting and conflict on the basis of geographical situation of the respective countries. Perusing the maps given in this book, the user will be able to grasp the human activities such as agriculture, industry, tourism and communication. The Orient Longman, publishers of the School Atlas say that Sri Lanka a beautiful country has got its natural settings well and is full of ancient monuments, tourist spots, minerals, hill stations, forest area etc. It has been considered as the heaven on the earth. There was a need for students of Sri Lanka to know information regarding the richness of the Island. The main source for this information is an Atlas. "We, at Orient Longman, strongly felt the need and prepared the Orient Longman School Atlas for Sri Lanka with the help and approval of the Survey Department of Sri Lanka. This Atlas is up-to-date, comprehensive and user-friendly and it satisfies the requirements of education in Sri Lanka", the publishers said. The Orient Longman School Atlas has special maps showing geographical facts, depicting natural disasters, cyclone prone areas, paths of cyclonic storms, coastal erosions and areas of landslides, areas prone to landslides. The book also has wide ranging thematic maps of Sri Lanka including population,population density,literacy and education and there is an other map showing places of interest. The key features in the school Atlas include Bar graphs and pie graphs providing important statistical data of Sri Lanka, Up-to-date political boundaries of the world, a map of the world indicating the routes of well-known explorers and adventurers, world map showing the distribution of important wildlife species, world map showing the areas and types of environmental degradation, maps of the polar regions indicating and expedition routes as well as research stations in the Antarctic, key statistics of the world and flags of independent countries and their dependent territories, An exhaustive, easy-to-use, alphanumeric index of over 7,000 entries, including the most recent changes in the world. While the efforts of the Longman publishing company should be commended for their excellent work for bringing out such an Atlas targeting students, it is a fitting gift to children who show an interest in knowing their country well. - WIRUMA. *************** Excellent coverage and definitions Sanskrutha - Sinhala Shabdakoshaya Being an avid dictionary fan I look for two core features whenever I wish to buy one. These two features will help anybody to measure the degree of excellence and achievement of a lexicographer. The first feature is the coverage. The lexicographer must ensure that the reader gets the words used in a wide range of subjects. The subject matter may include technology, sports, literature, social activities, history etc. The second feature is the accurate definition of words. At the heart of definition lies semantic analysis. A good lexicographer should ensure that every major sense of a word is properly explained. Each of these senses has to be explained to the user of the dictionary. Since dictionaries are not meant only for scholars, even those with a nodding acquaintance of the language should be able to readily understand all the meanings of thousands of headwards in a dictionary. Lexicographers are aware that dictionaries are mostly used by learners with a myriad of linguistic needs. These needs include stylistic and pragmatic guidance. Puvasathi Alagiyawanna's Sanskrit-Sinhala Dictionary has been compiled with these in mind. Being a Visiting Lecturer in Inter-lingual Comprehension (Sanskrit) of the Department of Sinhala and Mass Communication, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, the lexicographer knows the needs of students and scholars of Sanskrit. Although Sanskrit has been neglected as a dead language, it has enriched many living languages such as Hindi, Marati, Gujarati and Sinhala. In fact, Sanskrit can be considered the mother of Sinhala. Most of the Sinhala words have been derived from Sanskrit. Therefore, a good knowledge of Sanskrit will help those who learn Sinhala. Puvasathi Alagiyawanna should be commended for giving us a complete Sanskrit-Sinhala dictionary. He claims that he had compiled the dictionary single-handedly. Even the publisher Athula Jayakody has done a great service by putting out an excellent dictionary. Even if you are not a student of Sanskrit, this dictionary will help you trace the origin of many Sinhala words. In fact for more than 90 per cent of Sinhala words we owe a tremendous gratitude to Sanskrit. Whether dead or alive Sanskrit is the mother of Sinhala. Therefore those who learn Sinhala have to know at least the basics of Sanskrit. Alagiyawanna has made the language learning process easy and enjoyable by compiling a very useful dictionary. - R.S. Karunaratne. *************** Focus on Ruhunu civilization Splendours of Ruhuna's Heritage Gamini de S. G. Punchihewa is an old boy of Mahinda College, Galle and Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa. After leaving school he worked as a sub-inspector in the Fisheries Department and then joined the Gal Oya Development Board as a clerk. He was promoted as land officer, block manager and finally as media officer of the Mahaweli Centre. He also edited Vistas of Mahaweli for some time. During his 37 years of service in various capacities and after retirement he has been working as a freelance journalist. He has written extensively on Veddas, folklore, archaeology, wildlife, fauna and flora. He has been a regular contributor to Loris Ceylon Today, Sri Lanka Today, Explore, Sri Lanka and all the English dailies and weeklies published here.] Gamini published his first book Souvenirs of a forgotten heritage in 1990 giving the reader a graphic account of Veddas and their traditions. His second book Vignettes of far off things (1998) is a chronicle of the Walawe basin. The third book Animals far and near was published by Navarang in India in 2000. It is a profile of Sri Lanka's fast diminishing wildlife. In the following year he wrote The history and legend of the great sandy river giving a lot of information about the Mahaweli basin and irrigation works. The book was published by Sarvodaya Publishers. His next book A lost medieval Kingdom of the lion king was published by Sarvodaya Publishers in 2003. It related the story of Mayadunne, Rajasinghe and the rise and fall of the Sitawaka kingdom. Gamini Punchihewa's sixth book Splendours of Ruhuna's Heritage is an exciting account of the Ruhunu civilization spanning from the 3rd century BC to the 12th century A.D. In this readable book he has covered a wide spectrum of subjects such as legends, oral traditions, folklore, habitat and wonders of nature. In the process of gathering information for the book the author has done desk research and visited all the places he is writing about. The maps, photographs and meeting numerous people show the authenticity of what he writes. Without confining himself to hearsay evidence, he has taken the trouble to travel to remote places like a travelling author. Those who live in the city may not know a place called Ranmale Kanda in the Ruhunu Rata. Gamini tells us that it was the battlefield and refuge of many Sinhala kings. For instance, King Valagamba took refuge in a cave in Ranmale Kanda. In chapter 3 the book gives an account of the Mulkirigala rock temple that fascinated Wolfgang Heydt, a German historian. He was deeply interested in temple paintings and the surrounding rock caves. In chapter 12 the author takes the reader to the roots of Mahagama Kingdom where traces of a great civilization exist even today. Most of the dagabas have been excavated and restored. The ancient port of Mahagama had been a great sea emporium in the past when ships from Rome, China, Arabia and India called to collect elephants, ivory, peacocks and spices. Next he takes us to Yangala believed to be the hallowed abode of Arahats. It is also well-known for its bubble-shaped dagaba. The author's account of Tissamaharama - the cradle of Ruhuna's ancient civilization - is without parallel. It was the kingdom founded by King Mahanaga in the 3rd century B.C. The Yatalaya Vihara built by King Yatalaya Tissa has a parapet wall with friezes of elephant heads as found in Ruwanwelimaha Seya in Anuradhapura. The book also has vivid accounts of Kataragama, Yala sanctuary, Ruhuna's hydraulic heritage, Lunugam Vehera, Buduruwagala and popular legends. However, what struck me most are his fine descriptions of Gajaman Nona and Andare. The former was a poet who lived in the early 19th century. According to the author, there is still a stretch of land called Gajaman Yaya at Kasagala. Meanwhile, a statue stands in memory of Andare who was the court jester in the royal court of Kandy. Although some people believe that Andare was a fictional character, his tomb lies off Uda Malala even today. What is more some people still carry his Pelapath name "Sadda Vidda Palanga Pathirana Hewa Thondilage." Taken as a whole, Splendours of Ruhuna's Heritage can be savoured as a book of history, archaeology, legend, folklore and what not. - R. S. Karunaratne. *************** A close look at film techniques Cinema is one of the most popular media in today's society. It is one of the powerful media to convey messages to the people. The effective use of this influential media could change the life of man by introducing new ways or styles to life. In the early days it would take years for finishing a film but these days it is finished within a matter of months. These were all made possible with the growth of technology. This rapid development in technology has paved an easier way to make movies and express its motives. In order to accomplish a movie successfully it requires the hard work and dedication of more than thousand crew members. "Asaiyum Padimangal" by K.S. Sivakumaran talks about the making of films and the aspects of a film that should be considered while reviewing it. It is the first time a book with such a genre has been published in Tamil in Sri Lanka. A movie critic's perception of a movie differs greatly from that of an ordinary viewer. The author explains this quoting Roger Melvin's (a past president of the International film academy.) views about a good critic. The vital duty of a reviewer is to point out the positive aspects of a film and differentiate the film from others. It is the emotions and other feelings that a movie creates that enable an ordinary viewer to understand it. The ordinary viewer would not have watched the movie carefully with the intention of reviewing it but this person called the reviewer should be able to provide reasons for his criticisms and be able to predict the success of the film. The reviewer's responsibility grows when the director struggles to express his ideas and emotions. When such a failure occurs in the plot it is the duty of a critic to point it out. The author also says at this point that it is the reviewer's responsibility to identify faults in a movie, to identity the irony behind the plot and judge the other aspects of a film. He emphasizes on the fact that film critics are not reporters. This strengthens the points he made before. Reporters provide raw facts but a reviewer should be able to point out the positive and negative aspects of a film and be able to analyze them. A reviewer is an analyser and this is the point the author makes by stressing on this particular point. In order to expand on the basics of analyzing a film the author goes into details of different aspects of a film such as its story, screenplay, photography, background music, characters, acting, editing, direction and message. Movies play an important role in today's society. Therefore they must take this as an opportunity to teach disciplines to society by avoiding crime, violence, vulgarity and obscenity in them. After making such points, Suvakumaran also goes into details of how to approach a film. He classifies the types of films into three categories, which are commercial films art films and intermediate films. Most of Bollywood films and Tamil films make the so called "masala" or commercial films. These films are produced for the public considering their interests for the financial benefit of the producer. Art films are created by the director for exposing his individual creations, skills and filming techniques. Intermediate films are produced for satisfying the needs of viewers with lower and higher standards of predilection. Movies were discovered only after the invention of camera. The writer goes into details about the discovery of camera and into the history of filmmaking. Without having invented the camera, it wouldn't have been possible to make movies. It is the shots and scenes that this camera captures that are joined together to make a full length movie by blending sound and other filming techniques. Sivakumaran clearly illustrates the importance of photography by pointing out the several meanings the picturization of a scene and the positioning of the camera could bring out. The writer compares these kinds of professional filming techniques to the current Tamil films and argues that these kinds of techniques are not cautiously performed in Tamil films. Many of us do not know how to differentiate documentary films from other films. The author has differentiated their meaning by saying that documentary films portray facts or real world incidents without any changes or exaggeration. Not more than 30-40 years ago most of the films were based on legends and epics. There were very few innovative stories and the rest were filched from the historical anecdotes. After exploring the literary parts of cinema the writer moves into the changing approach in reviewing films. Here the author point outs that cinema has developed and matured to the level of becoming the seventh fine art. Cinema is a respected and reputed art and these days even the commercial films are given considerable reviews illustrating their story and meanings. K.S. Sivakumaran is the first writer to explore cinema and cine review for the Tamil readers of Sri Lanka. Although there are many people interested in cinema in Sri Lanka very few people are aware of the filming techniques. This book looks at all the aspects of filming including the history of cinema and talks about the different forms it has taken until today. The author has illustrated the requirements of a good film and has also laid emphasis on the need to point out the negative and positive aspects of a film. The book enhances the reader's knowledge on cinema and empathizes the heavy work behind the screen. - Karthiga Rukmanykanthan. *************** Something in the water: New Sri Lankan fiction At The Water's Edge Water comes to mind when you think of any island; blue, green and shining Sri Lankan writer Pradeep Jeganathan's new collection of short fiction. At the Water's Edge, is aptly titled in that sense, and it recalled for me, British-Sri Lankan writer Romesh Gunasekere's much older, and much celebrated collection of short stories, Monkfish Moon. Gunasekere's writing is lovely, but it is a writerly loveliness that we see more and more, almost on cue now. Jeganahtan's book is different. At first, the prose seems utilitarian, very spare, and then you realize you are reading slowly, because nothing is wasted, each detail the main character sees, feels, and lives through just adds up. Krishna Yoganathan is at the centre of several of the stories, and since the stories connect up, it becomes in some way, his book in the first story we see him at 11 or 12 in a class room in Sri Lanka, getting picked on and getting into fights, because he is Tamil and he doesn't quite fit in. It is a sharp, fresh story written almost organically from the child's point of view, a 120 pages later we see Krishna drinking scotch in an old colonial club at the writer's edge in Colombo talking about an Anthropology graduate seminar on violence he is teaching at Harper University. He is reserved, intellectual and ironic, he has grown up. Water becomes a very different metaphor in this book. It is not about it's so beautiful but the natives don't appreciate it, so they are killing each other, oh wow, how sad! A lot of fiction about Sri Lanka is like that. It seems Jeganathan wants to take that idea and kind of turn it around. At the edge of the water, it seems is that grey area where things get twisted, good and bad get confused. The Sinhala-Tamil conflict, with attendant state repression and militant insurgency is addressed in this book, but with such deft touch, that you begin to see new things about these issues in subtle ways. Each story is about violence in some way, and each time we begin to understand in fleeting ways sometimes, sometimes far more directly, always with sadness and pain, why things happen and why things are the way they are. My favourite is "Sri Lanka" which on the face of it is about a couple of dates between Krishna and Ashley at MIT, where he is a physics student and she is a pretty blonde girl writing a paper about Sri Lanka. But it is really about insides and outsides being from somewhere and not being there. And it is an incredibly elegant, seamless piece of writing, the kind that is rare, the kind that might make your eyes wet, or at least want make you go down to the water's edge. - Sarah Saleem. *************** Practical advice on the use of Sinhala Sinhala Pada Vahara The book "Sinhala Pada Vahara" was launched recently at the auditorium of Dayawansa Jayakody and Co. in Colombo. This is the latest work of Prof. Bandusena Gunasekara who is a veteran scholar in the Sinhala language and literature. According to the author's note, the objective of this book is to guide for better Sinhala usage. Everybody knows that so much incorrect Sinhala is used in broadcasting, telecasting and the press. Such sloppy language is a result of muddled thinking. There is no place for grammar in the school curriculum too. In this book Prof. Gunasekara describes how to write a sentence without grammatical errors. He analyses the old and new Sinhala alphabet. It is very important to teachers, students and journalists. The evolution of the language is discussed briefly in this book. The linguistic relationship of the people is also explained. The presentation of everything that is included in the book is interesting. The "Sinhala Pada Vahara" is divided into several chapters, describing Sinhala grammar, punctuation and correct spelling. Considering the practical advice of the author learners can improve their language ability in a short time. The message the author tries to give us is important though the book is small. The author should pay attention to correct the printing errors in a future edition. - Dr. E. M. Ratnapala. **** Back **** |
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