some aspects of Indian culture and personalities
 

by Prof Sunanda Mahendra

Followed by the success of his first collection of Sinhala columns entitled Madurasi Koluva [The Madras boy] columnist Neil Wijeratne has brought out his second collection of columns entitled Bengali Yeheliya, with its launching at the international book fair by Suriya publishers [2005].

Perhaps a continuation of the same trend of creativity with the focal point pivoting on his travels to and from India and the association he had with various types of people from different walks, attempting to bring about a bridge between the two countries.

In the first instance, the reader does not get the impression that these are mere travelogues or accounts of his travels as there is a narrative blended like a thin thread filled with sensitive dialogue and monologue with dramatic situations.

But on another layer the reader comes across quite a lot of information pertaining to the culture, history, philosophy and family attachments like love, intimacies and sentiments and perhaps even detachments.

As a traveller he does not visit places like a tourist but like an investigator hunting on why, how and what happens attempting to trace various cultural traits in individuals and groups in various walks of life.

cultural events

Obviously enough, Wijeratne is fond of India and its cultural events connected with literature, performing arts, history, philosophy religions and sports and tries his best to make a literary genre resembling a new creative form in his writing style.

This form of writing resembles a new form of self referential short story writing as well as prose poems intermixed resulting in good page moving reading as well as narration enabling one to hear which we may brand as audio conscious.

Some of his columns were read out by the veteran radio narrator Karunaratne Amarasinghe the other day at the book launch which was one of the finest sensitive listening exercises, which I encountered recently.

It was a memorable event for the audience for there was a welcome variant to the print medium for which the columnist contributed, but nevertheless the verbal patterns as written poetically suited the sound medium as well.

Wijeratne presents a series of his personal encounters with common people like vendors, street singers, rickshaw pullers and house holders [p.264] as well as specialists [p.184-187] in professions like farming and business dealings where both groups are fond of emanating a lively experience worth noting possessing a common cultural link between the two countries Sri Lanka and India.

literary figures

In this direction he writes on various literary figures like Kushwant singh, Narayan, Nirad Chouwdry Mulk Raj Anand, Taslima Nasrin and a few others as well as film stars of yesteryear like Nargis, Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapur [p.247-248] and film makers of the calibre of Satyajit Ray [p27-28] enabling us to identify our lives and experiences with their contributions.

Wijeratne is fond of taking us around the bookshops, libraries, schools restaurants, museums, weddings, highways, streets and by ways in India and allows us to listen to Indian music for a while before shifting his focal point to another subject area.

He makes an attempt to draw our attention onto some of the aspects of the formative stages of the Sinhala cinema industry with its South Indian links and some of the personalities who spent their time and energy trying their best to acculturate themselves with the industry.

film personality

One such case is cited about the film personality named J A Vincent, a Sri Lankan who bade farewell in Madras [p.139-140]. Though unknown to many at home the columnist Wijeratne states that he had rendered a yeoman service to uplift the standards of Sinhala cine works that were produced in the studios of India.

One more fascinating area I felt was the creative notes on the aspects of readership and the availability of English books published in India by the Indian writers generally known to us as well as newcomers to the field [p.79-81].

According to Wijeratne the writing especially in English is rapidly changing and the readership is recognisably wider. This is a noteworthy point as the aspects of creative writing in most commonwealth countries are undergoing changes both in the form and the content.

The reading habits of the Indians according to our columnist is elevating the mere planes of reading to intensive habit formation for reading for a purpose and cites occasions where the ordinary person is engrossed in reading something like a magazine, newspaper or a pocket book bought from a nearby bookstall.

Then he refers to the affordable prize one got to pay on buying such an item as our complaint here is the expensive state of books, which is yet another factor to be regarded seriously by our book sellers and publishers.

Bengali Yeheliya author Neil Wijeratne not only presents his Indian experiences but also makes use of his space to raise pertinent questions pertaining to various issues of the society enabling us to make a cultural bridge between the two countries.

[email protected]

..................................

<< Artscope Main Page