Tissa's latest book is for discerning readers
Sharm de Alwis
LITERATURE: The stars had fled the galaxy and were occupying
neatly furrowed seats of the Committee Room 'A' of the BMICH as Gaston
de Rozairo, a man of many parts himself who had enraptured audiences in
Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia as a superlative compere kept us
wrapped in glee as he unfolded with impeccable flair the sequence of
events of the day.
He spoke of the Kandyan drums that "do not beat a gentle tattoo" and
would soon drown his voice lest he made haste; of the young girls he had
observed, gliding to another auditorium, covered in tattoos and
earphones to help their sprightly steps and he pondered how in forty
years hence they as old ladies would look unless they covered their
person. But that was the hors d'oeuvre.
The names given for the honour of lighting the traditional lamp, I
must confess, were lost on me because of the "wood for the trees" but a
few oaks stand out - Lester James Peries, G. Wijesiri, Lionel Fernando,
Lochana Gunaratne, Sunethra Bandaranaike and Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera.
The three speakers listed to keep the even tenor of the occasion
adhered to the immense nostalgia and Tissa Jayatilaka dwell on the
memory of a friendship forged in the Kandyan hills in 1978/79 and which
has flourished and nurtured the fine arts.
To cut through Gaston's introduction of Jayantha Dhanapala that would
take reams, Jayantha spoke of the day's newspaper having an article on
Tissa as well as one by him.
He spoke of the range and depth of emotions involved in Tissa's
'Bringing Tony Home' which won the Gratiaen Prize of 1996. He spoke of
Tissa's compulsory urges and the wonderment the author would soar in
literary flights whether it be in English or Sinhala and harked back to
an article in which Tissa himself had spoken of his being conversant in
two languages but that the fourth language of the country has been
gossip.
Jayantha was forthright in that totem poles of cultural values should
be discarded and spoke of Tissa as a practitioners as well as critic who
had been nurtured by Lester James Peries and Regi Siriwardena. He traced
Tissa's Odyssey from childhood and the range and sweep of a mere
dissertation ad libitum stamped Jayantha's class in consideration of his
International achievements as one of the best that Trinity has ever
produced.
Tissa Abeysekera opened out his soul which had been conditioned by a
martinet of a Christian father and a whimsical Buddhist mother steeped
in the loves of the country. It was plainly a matter of "what has a man
profiled if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul?"
We were told that Tissa Abeysekera was re-paying his debt to his
father who inculcated in him a thirst for the knowledge of English which
culminated in him being bi-lingual and for him to profess that he has
two mother tongues.
He spoke of Pablo Neruda, another of my favourites, who had remarked
that his country was left with a language after the oppressors had fled,
a language that enriched his nation.
He spoke of Lester's impish humour when he spoke of the possibility
of his engaging in a film and was diffident due to a lack of the
requisites and Lester's advice, "In film making and in matrimony there
is no need for experience.
Tissa did not try to get out of the quagmire of emotions. He let
himself be engulfed. Because this day was the 107th birth anniversary of
his father whom he thought he had betrayed in the quest of youthful
skirmishes and now that he has come of age he wished for pardon.
It was pretty obvious that cinema had conditioned him and had made a
man of him. Even his early essays like 'Verandah' had much to do with
cinematic overtones. In music he paid supreme accolades to Sunil Santha
who awoke Sinhala music from a slumber and took it to a new dimension.
He spoke of Martin Wickramasinghe whose thoughts had fashioned his
like they had those of generations of others.
The chief guest was Gill Westaway, Country Director of the British
Council who said she was charmed by the contents of the book and drew
special attention to "The Long Verandah" and the many implications it
surfaced.
She who had journeyed in a wide range of countries, spanning so many
cultures, marvelled at the plethora of fine writers Sri Lanka has
produced and emphasized that language is a code of solidarity, that
English is no longer a status symbol after it was thrown out like the
baby and the bathwater.
In today's global condition English belongs to all with 370 million
drawing on it as the 1st mother tongue another 370 million as the 2nd
mother tongue and 750 million as the 3rd tongue.
Thus ended the launch of a book that will be avidly read by
discerning readers and we wended our way for a larger discourse over
light refreshments to give ourselves the feeling that "life is all right
for the time being." |
