Business

Recent literary activities in Colombo

The Gratiaen Prize and the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize, 2004 Awards ceremony took place at Barefoot Gardens on April 2. Primarily a journalist, copywriter, translator and writer in Sinhala with occasional writing in English, Jagath Kumarasinghe won the coveted prize established by Lanka born Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje.

The prize given in memory of the scholar, librarian, bibliographer and writer, the late H.A.I.Goonetileke for translation was given to former journalist, writer and a translator Vijitha Fernando for her translation of bilingual writer and broadcaster Sunethra Rajakarunanayake's novel.

Who were the respective judges for these two prizes? The judges for the Gratiaen Prize were Ruwanthie de Chickera, a successful playwright in English (chairperson), Richard Boyle, a British researcher, writer and electronic producer and contributor to Oxford Dictionary compilation and now settled in Sri Lanka and Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, a political commentator and head of a non-government organization engaged in wide range of social and related activities.

I liked the way the young lady, Ruwanthie de Chickera briefed the audience both at the announcement of the short listed works and at the finale, analyzing the works with appropriate citations.

Varieties of English

I appreciate very much the selection of the winner primarily because, the winner Jagath has apparently produced a work of interest in Lankan English, thus contributing to the Varieties of English, now endorsed by academics all over the world. However, I am yet to read his work. I know Jagath Kumarasinghe, personally as he and I have worked together as copy writers of the then J.Walter Thompson advertising agency.

At that time, a leading journalist and columnist Lucien Rajakarunanayake was the head of the copywriters. Jagath had studied in Mattakalappu when he was young and had picked up a little Thamil language. In his valediction speech, he quoted a maxim in Thamil - "Uppidaavatai Ulallavum Ninai" (Think eternally the one who has fed you (with salt)).

Jagath is interested in philosophy, religions, ethics and the like. He is a vegetarian. I met him for the first time at the German Cultural institute watching a German film some decades ago.

Competing with Jagath Kumarasinghe's work "Kider Chetty Street" were David Blacker's "A Cause Untrue", Neil Fernandopulle's "This Side of Serendipity", Pradeep Jeganathan's "At the Water's Edge" and Carl Muller's "All God's Children". I am sorry I haven't heard of David's contributions before and I am not familiar with Neil's books either. But Pradeep's and Carl's books - I have read.

The Panel of Judges for the prize for translation were Carmen Wickramagamage (who made a wonderful speech of substance, most of which I endorse wholeheartedly), head of the English Department at the University of Peradeniya, Emeritus Professor in classics, Merlin Peris and P.B. Meegaskumbura, a don in Sinhala literature. We were told that no entries were received as English translations of Thamil works.

One must congratulate the secretary of the Gratiaen Trust, Kamini de Soysa, for her untiring organizing ability and executing the tasks smoothly.

Apart from Kamini, the other members of the Trust are Godfrey Gunatilleke, Ranjini Obeysekere, Nihal Fernando, Radhika Coomaraswamy and Walter Perera - all scholars- and Gilian Ratnayake.

Speeches

The speeches at the function were greatly appreciated. This included speeches by Godfrey, Vishnu Mohan, (Lanka born Canadian who is the CEO of the Standard Chartered Bank in Colombo) and Nimal Sandaratna. The latter is a well-known economist who had held prestigious jobs in the country, and he is presently a publisher and a creative writer and columnist.

I was happy to listen to him pronouncing my mother tongue as "Thamil", instead of "Tamil', which is a wrong pronunciation and a wrong spelling from my point of view. I liked his speech very much as he traced the main cause of writing in English in this country. He mistakenly said that Poet Tambimuttu edited "Poetry Ceylon". The fact is that the Lankan poet edited "Poetry London and "Poetry New York".

It will be interesting to note who the winners were in previous years (1993-2003):

Lalitha Witanachchi, Carl Muller, Punyakante Wijenaike, Sybil Wettasinghe, Rajiva Wijesinha, Tissa Abeysekera, Gamini Akmeemana, Jean Thwaites, Neil Fernandopulle, Visakesa Chandrasekkaram, Ruwanthi de Chickera, Lakshmi de Silva, Elmo Jayawardena, Sumathy Sivamohan, Vijitha Fernando and Nihal de Silva.

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