Short stories with a humane humour

Prof. Sunanda Mahendra

FICTION: Satyapala Galketiya has been known to the Sinhala reader as a translator of Hermann Hesse and Khalil Gibran. With translator experience and working in distant places as a bank officer he has gained sufficient materials for his own stories, the first of which is now published as a collection of eight short stories titled Oluvila Kelambila (author publication 2006).

These stories depict the manner in which he has seen the various changes taking place in the life of urban and semi-urban set-up with characters such as government servants, teachers, husbands and wives, hospital workers and even clergy community.

He witnesses a certain degree of hypocrisy at which he evokes a thin layer of humour behind them seeing the lack of humanism. It looks as if he is asking a simple Chekovian question; gentlemen, is this the way you should behave? Can't you live better?

lifestyle

For instance in the very first story Nava alevi samskrutiyak (a new marketing culture), which revolves round the lifestyle of a certain man employed in a new private firm, where the protagonist Kitsiri has to succumb to all manner of new mannerisms which result in a tug-of-war between him and the manager culminating in an uneasy behaviour, more clownish than real, evokes humour.

Kitsiri, a man of common behaviour pattern, gradually is forced to change on account of the insistence of his boss. This shows how artificial a man can be made to look physically as well as mentally in this case. It is a matter of forcing a man to change his appearance in order to gain more attention as regards the sale of commodities.

Kitsiri, novice to a tie, is forced to get used to, and in the first instance it becomes troublesome and he gradually changes his entire attire, which is not conducive to his normalcy makes the reader feel a puppet made out of a man in the hands of his manager.

This uneasiness as recorded by Galketiya through a series of events that culminate in the transfer from one place to another as he tries to overpower his superior. The vanity and crudity of some of the commercial factors are highlighted sensitively in this story.

Sammukha parikshanaya (the interview) is another narrative with a humane experience where a young man sensitive to his own interests like finding matters pertaining to the field of arts and culture is made to face an interview in a private firm for the post of an accounts clerk, which is diametrically opposed to his likings.

But he anticipates good results as the interviewers seem to have shown a liking to him giving hopes directly and indirectly indicating his sufficient qualifications for the post, allows him to leave the room full of bubbling expectations.

Alarmingly though, the young man is disillusioned at his own folly where he is interviewed, for he gets a letter which is indicative of the negative effect stating their reluctance to select him.

He is further made to know that a business firm needs an accounts clerk - not a sensitive man educative and knowledgable on matters of society, arts and culture, and clearly indicate that his suitability should be tested with places like the department of cultural affairs or some such place connected with it. The thin layer of sadness that runs within the narrative makes the reader feel that there is something terribly wrong in our own lifestyle.

sanctity

The theme is strengthened and captured more sensitively when it arrives in the title story, Oluvila kelambila (The lotus pond is stirred), where one sees that even the seekers of sanctity like participants in a meditation session are made to transform themselves into the garb of a pack of agitators in order to get the service of their meditation master, a priest in this case, in the manner akin to the strikers demanding their legitimate rights.

The experience in the story is a clever juxtaposition of the subtle nuances of the modern day life highlighting once again the aspects of crudity of the lifestyle one encounters in day to life as opposed to the traditional pattern that is said to have existed.

Galketiya is a sensitive observer of human experience surrounding him both in the urbanised office rooms as well as outside units of schools, hospitals, and temples, panning his panoramic vision from one area of darkness to another, enabling to see intimately the pitfalls of the human existence.

The story titled Viyapruti vartava (The project report) in this direction, is one of the most effective experiences recorded dramatically in Sinhala narratives, where the writer shows how an individual (a bank officer) can succumb to grave corruption at the expense of the power of his position aiding and abetting a cunning funeral undertaker to commence a new business by raising a bank loan in the easiest possible manner at the expense of the new projects designed for the needy.

As much as possible writer Galketiya avoids the promotion of his own commentarial expressions by creating a dialogue and at times a monologue and transfixing age old maxims used as a communication technique to express more allusively which ultimately enable the reader to clarify the intended social ideology.

In all these narratives one emerging sensitive feature is the underlining of the conflicting factors between the so-called old or the traditional as against the so-called the modern or the new world, where the writer cum researcher enters to the areas of darkness in order to express his desire for the more sanctified past.

Those who call themselves modern holders of the identity of knowledge are challenged by those who had led a more humble life in a sane frame of mind seem to be the recurrent theme. This factor is brought to light more forcefully in the three stories, Podimama enakan (waiting for the small uncle) Naga damanaya (the taming of the snake) and Tuvakku dekaka hevanali (The shadows of two guns).

The story titled, Kamala nam varagana (the fairy maid named kamala), I feel is one of the few superb stories written about a young university lecturer torn between two worlds; the world of his inner self of education, and the world of his outer world full of misjudgments, fancies, romances, playfulness, intimacies etc.

Though a number of narratives has been written on the subject, this creative piece tends to outshine. The dominant factor in each of these creations is the humane humour evoked as a mission of rebuilding the lost traditions.

Above all, I found the collection of stories quite readable and resourceful and a remarkable addition to the repertoire of modern Sinhala writing.

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