Keerthi Kalahe leaves behind rich legacy for posterity

M. D. S. Maithripala

PROFILE: It was the time when Anagarika Dharmapala was journeying the length and breadth of Sri Lanka delivering the message of being independent of the British suzerainty and also the necessity of saving Buddhism the birthright of the Sinhala nation - from the Christian missionaries.

At one of the Anagarika’s meetings held at the town of Galle, a southerner of middle age dressed in tweed cloth and coat with a headgear of a decorated comb made out of turtle shell, was seated in the middle of the crowd.

“Throw away that comb on your head and come forward.” The Anagarika used his familiar high tone of his

 voice that rang in the ears of the crowd and echoed in the air.

When these words were falling in the ears of the audience, that particular man stood up, took off his comb and cracked it into pieces; he came up to the edge of the stage.

“You are a strong person; you look a good Sinhala man. Why have you become a buffaloes? Do you drink liquor? Do you eat beef?

Trembling voice

“No, no, said that middle-aged man in a trembling voice. This person was one Kalahe Kankanamge Richard Appuhamy.

“If an outsider comes to your house, takes you things away, or if he tries to become the head of your household, do you like such a man? Asked the Anagarika.

“We do not like, we do not tolerate such action.” People shouted out. Richard Appuhamy too said so.

“Suddha fellows have come from abroad, and they have become our masters; they plunder our country and take our wealth away. Do you like their action? Thundered the Anagarika.

Some people in the audience shouted back that they did not like that. “Oh! I see, there are some fellows here who are holding pandam to Suddhas. I see some fellows wearing pairs of trousers with clothes draped over them; wild buffalo! What do you think my man in tweed cloth and coat in front of me”.

The Anagarika pointed out a finger of accusation at Richard Appuhamy. A much maligned Richard Appuhamy looked down at his toes, then raised his head and looked straight at the face of the Anagarika.

That day, Richard Appuhamy came back home with an air of frustration about him. He became a little talkative before his beloved wife. What he spoke centred round the Anagarika’s attitude towards the British administration of the country. Richard Appuhamy was one out of the tens and the thousands of subjects that paid obeisance to the British at that time. When realisation dawned on him, he forthwith became a follower of the Anagarika.

A child at Richard Appuhamy’s household that night was intently listening to the conversation. In the night he searched for a picture of the Anagarika amongst his books and newspapers. On the following morning, this child hung a picture of Anagarika Dharmapala on the front wall of his house.

He paid homage to this picture! Quite a long time after, this child, having become a victim to the seduction of journalism, was blessed with the privilege of being the editor of the Sinhala Bauddaya, the Anagarika’s newspaper published under the aegis of the Lanka Mahabodhi Society.

Age-old tradition

In keeping with the age-old tradition, a horoscope for Keerthi Kalahe was cast by an astrologer. There in this horoscope his date of birth is January 22, of 1922. The birth certificate issued by the Registrar of births corroborates with the date as shown in the horoscope except for the name which reads as Kalahe Kankanamage Edmond.

Sometime later, this name was changed into Nandasena of his own accord, when he started working with Messrs. M.D. Gunasena and Co., Colombo. Still later, the writer and this journalist in him came to be known as Keerthi Kalahe who wrote 112 books. More than fifty percent of these books gained popularity as creations for children!

His parents were Kalahe Kankanamage Richard Appuhamy and Wakwelle Kankanamge Dona Ciciliana Dias.

Small-time businessman as he was, Richard Appuhamy was a reputed manufacturer of curios out of turtle shells. He exported them in big quantities to Malaya, Singapore, Burma and India. These articles fetched him a good income. He could, therefore, manage his family affairs quite well, though it had swelled into a big nest with eleven children.

Economic depression

The world faced a big economic depression during the first half of the decade of 1930. This small time exporter was hard hit, for, his goods could not find a readily market. Consequently he was reduced to penury. His articles were sold within the island in very small quantities. He was a small-time exporter of souvenir articles, yet before the depression set in, his trade was quite lucrative, he could sustain his large family.

Keerthi Kalahe’s first school was All Saints’ College, Galle. The dwindling family income made him suffer very much and his education was almost disrupted.

A paternal aunt came to his rescue; she focused her attention on him and he was fortunate enough to be admitted to the Roman Catholic College at Nattandiya where he had to learn by heart, the doctrine enshrined in the Holy Bible. He had to do it under compulsion. Still, his thoughts of the picture of the Anagarika which he hung on the wall of his humble home were always uppermost in his rather tender mind!

He was, however, in that distant past, was being labelled as one of the mischievous children of the school. Consequently, he was shown the exit from this school by the principal who issued a school leaving certificate with an endorsement - conduct very good.

He gained admission to the Methodist school at Maitipe, Galle; the land for this school had been donated by Keerthi’s grandmother, whose goodwill had really stood in good stead of her mischievous grandchild!

Deep aversion

Prince of Wales, a member of the British Royal family had visited our island before he was crowned as King Edward VIII. A large picture of his depicted as a horseman had been hung on the wall of this school. Keerthi had developed a deep aversion for it. He had, very often told his friends that the white man in the picture was one who plundered our country.

One day he broke the glass of the picture and defaced the face of the man. All evidence forthwith pointed a finger at Keerthi as the culprit. He dared not to deny; his defence was: “Yes Sir, It is I who broke the glass of the picture. I hate white men. This man has no right to possess our country”. He was not expelled from the school. He was thoroughly warned to be more careful in the future.

Keerthi was a clever student of the Daham school conducted at the Sudharmaramaya, Maitipe. He was adjudged the best student at the year-end examination once, and was awarded the gold medal meant for such good student. At subsequent Daham school contests, he won prizes for the best contestant. Most of the prizes were valuable books on Buddhism. Sir D.B. Jayatilleke had been the chief guest at most of these ceremonies.

Voracious reader

Keerthi was a voracious reader; his room was full of books, both in English and Sinhala; clippings of newspapers and all kinds of magazines were his valuable movable property. As far as the meaning of the epithet “Coming Events cast their shadows” goes, Keerthi was cut out for a writer.

His knowledge of the finer points of Sinhala grammar was par excellent. Fundamentals of English grammar were at his fingertips. He was following in the footsteps of Munidasa Kumaratunga and Rapiel Tennakone.

He drew much inspiration from the style of writings of Hemapala Munidasa. Whenever a conversation with regard to his future employment came up, he showed a penchant for work associated with book-selling and book-publishing.

As good luck would have it, Keerthi’s elder brother who was residing at Nugegoda, had happened to be a good friend of M. D. Gunasena, the proprietor of M. D. Gunasena Book Depot, Colombo. He paved the path for Keerthi to become a salesman at the book depot.

The very first formal discussion between the two resulted in a decision to offer employment in the book depot, for, the proprietor convinced himself that this young man would become a very good servant in his book business.

Mr. Gunasena’s impression was that a promising career as a writer was awaiting this man. Contrary to instructions from the Manager, Mr. Gunasena appointed Keerthi as a sales assistant in this establishment.

It happened on a day in 1942; he worked there in various capacities until 1960. As his wont to do, for 18 years, he was gleefully moving amongst heaps of books stacked in shelves, cupboards and almirahs. Then this establishment Messrs. M. D. Gunasena & Co. Ltd., did not look so sprawling, expanding and elegant.

Lethargic nature

The sales assistant whom his brother entrusted to M. D. Gunasena the sole authority of the establishment, came to be known as Nandasena. He was first attached to the English book section of the book depot.

He did not like the patches of dust deposited on racks and cupboards. Whilst attending to the requests of the customers, he cleaned the racks with a careful eye on the titles of the books. These titles enticed his attention very much.

He could hardly appreciate the lethargic nature of the Head of the Section who very often turned away the customers telling them that the book asked for was not available. This quite unfriendly attitude of the Head of the Section, Nandasena thought, could be attributable to the former’s lethargy.

The friendly attitude shown to the customers by the new sales assistant seemed to be a thorn in the eye of the head of the English book section where Nandasena had to do double duties - attending to customers and dusting the book racks. The head of the section meant to punish him for being friendly with the customers; he therefore ordered him to do full time dusting.

Fortunately for him, familiar customers made a bee-line to him for search of books. Boss had no alternative but to allow him to attend to the customers. On occasions when Mr. Gunasena was present, he observed that Nandasena was doing dusting and selling books at the same time.

Mr. Gunasena’s observations bore fruit, he personally asked Nandasena to attend to selling of English books in the English book section only. He passed orders to increase Nandasena’s salary to Rs. 70 and also passed an order to the Head of the section not to attend to sales of English books thereafter.

The proprietor observed, one day, that when customers were few, how Nandasena was seated at his desk and was engaged in writing. That day the proprietor, having gone into his room, summoned Nandasena before him. After a discussion, he passed a note to the Managing Director to appoint Nandasena as a clerk and grant him an increase of salary too.

Luck had been smiling at him, one day, Nandasena, having summoned all his courage, boldly put forward a suggestion to Mr. Gunasena. He explained that there were very few children’s books for Sinhala reading children and there were more titles for English reading children.

He further added that this void could be filled to a certain extent, if more books for Sinhala reading children are published. Without pausing for a moment, he said that he would write a few books for the present if he was allowed to do so. The proprietor looked at Nandasena with wide open eyes and with a glint of surprise in his eyes and asked Nandasena whether he could write books.

“Yes Sir, I have already written a book for children. That is a translation of a book by Hans Christian Anderson, a famous writer of books for children; the name I have given to this book is “Hima Kumari” I shall be able to write a series of books provided you could approve my suggestion.

With the approval of the proprietor, the series of Kumara Katha written by Keerthi rolled out of the Gunasena press. They became very popular and the educational authorities approved them as supplementary readers for children. The first book of the series was “Hima Kumari”.

Thereafter, all the translations written by Keerthi were printed and published by M. D. Gunasena & Co. one after the other. The taste of the children’s English Literature hitherto enjoyed by the English educated families could be enjoyed by the Sinhala educated children too.

Nobody could stop the tide of popularity flowing towards Keerthi and also nobody could stop the flow of money into the coffers of M. D. Gunasena & Co. on the brisk sale of this series of books.

Nandasena’s services were very well recognised by Mr. Gunasena. This faithful servant inheriting a literary career - Nandasena turned Keerthi Kalahe was made the Publishing Manager of the establishing, a most coveted position of a book publishing enterprise.

This position was awarded to him in 1952. He was instrumental in publishing keys to text books prescribed for the Senior School Certificate Examination.

His aim was to help the student population of that time offering Sinhala Language and Sinhala Literature both prose and verse. He was the creator of the “Lihini” books designed on the line of the famous “Penguine” and “Pelican” series of English books published in England.

Ven. Keraminiye Jinananda Thera was, at that time, the head of the Sanskrit department of the Sri Lanka Vidyalaya, Maradana. Keerthi Kalahe who was an acquaintance of the erudite monk, became a student of Sanskrit in his spare time.

He acquired a commendable knowledge of this dead language so that he could read and understand the finer points in the great works of Kalidasa, Kumaradasa etc. in their original form.

He enjoyed the sweet taste of appreciating these valuable Sanskrit poems. He was so engrossed in them that he later produced synopsies of such works as Kumarasambhawaya Sakuntalaya etc. in Sinhala for the benefit of the Sinhala students.

Bataduwa is an outlying village of Galle. Amara Wijesinghe was a comely damsel born in this village. She was led to the altar by this famous Publishing Manager of the Heladiva Maha bookshop in 1952. “Giya Dawasa” was his last book published whilst he was still at Gunasenas.

The writing talents of David Karunaratne and Ananda Kumara were profitably made use of by the Manager for publishing a good number of English books in Sinhala.

At the instance of this indefatigable publishing manager, valuable works of such erudite prelates as Ven. Welivitiye Soratha Thera, Ven. Kodagoda Gnanaloka Thera, Ven. Kiriella Gnanawimala Thera, Ven. Weragoda Amaramoli Thera and Ven. Baddegama Wimalawansa Thera, rolled out of the Gunasena press.

“Manuthapaya” and “Devathapaya” translations by I. M. R. A. Iryagolla - gems of the Western world literature were published during this time by M. D. Gunasena & Co.

Keerthi Kalahe was a freelance journalist; his articles written on various topics of general interest were, very often published in national newspapers. On the request of Mahanama Dissanayake, chief editor of the Lankadipa, Keerthi joined the Times Group of Newspapers in 1960.

He had the privilege of working with such stalwarts as Mahanama Dissanayake, Sri Chandraratne Manawasinghe, Peramune Thilleke, Syrus W. Surendra, D. H. Abeysinghe, Wimal Weerasinghe, George Leslie Ranasinghe, Deegoda Piyadasa, Saman Thillekasiri, Chandrasiri Kularatne, P. R. Wickramasinghe, Sunil Hewage, Dharmasiri Gamage, K. M. Sirisena and Karunasena Jayalath.

Having worked as the deputy news editor and features editor of the Lankadipa, in 1962 he was appointed as the editor of “Rasavahini” the only Sinhala literary magazine published by a Sinhala newspaper. It catered to the needs of the erudite as well as the voracious readers searching for literary tastes in the form of gleanings from the history, archaeology, culture, religion and literature.

Keerthi Kalahe left the Times Buildings in 1979. The Dinamina offered him a position of features writer and he very skilfully carried on this work for about five years. In 1990 he left the Lake House to become the Editor of “Sinhala Bouddhaya” organ of the Sri Lanka Mahabodhi Society.

Keerthi Kalahe considered it a great honour and a privilege to have his hand in the management of the newspaper started by Anagarika Dharmapala whom he venerated from the bottom of his heart as the most honest pioneer who fought for the cause of Buddhist and the national revival of this country.

In August 2000, he retired from newspaper journalism. Yet, he did not abandon the pen which actually brought him a glittering aura of fame but little money.

Keerthi Kalahe was honoured with a Kalabhooshana award in recognition of his service as a skilful writer and a journalist by the government. What he has written as a writer and journalist for over so long a period as 70 years in 112 books and in a large number of articles is a legacy left behind by him to the reading public of this country.

He passed away at the ripe age of 85 years. His enthusiasm for writing was so great, he might have started writing at the age of fifteen years at least.

Although, Kalabhooshana Keerthi Kalahe has departed from our midst, yet the sweet fragrance of his dedication to the profession chosen by him and his general behaviour accepted as most endearing by his friends, colleagues, acquaintances, kith and kin and also the charming personality endowed with human qualities will linger amongst us for a very long time to come.