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Book Reviews:

An exemplary children's literary work

Title: Sundara


Author: R. R. Samarakoon


Publishers: Dayawansa Jayakody and Co.


Price : Rs. 150 pp 96

R. R. Samarakoon the well-known dramatist and award winning novelist ventures into children's literature with his maiden work Sundara. Unlike those writers who evolve characters around children with talents, physical flexibility and exuberance, RR crowns a disabled child as his principal character with ability to achieve great feats in his fast flowing narrative rhythm. In a way it is unique in Sri Lankan children's literature as it steps into an area which had hitherto being ignored.

The sympathy it evokes with its progressive development of the character of Sundara is exemplary to children and encouraging to the adults for them to associate themselves with its inner content that feeds the innocent mental make-up of children and the widening knowledge of the adults.

Today at a time the disabled children being loved, nursed and attended upon by the adults at home and in welfare organisations.

Sundara will certainly find itself a place in the mind of both the adults and children whose joint effort is to bring happiness to the world of children.

Sundara not only touches on fellow-children, but also on the animals which are the most lovable and amenable living assets of any child. Children whether abled or disabled are closer to animals than humans, at least in collective companionship because they are obedient, innocent and flexible to the whims and fancies of children.

Inspired by a true character which RR had known and experienced in his youth is the source from which eventful and wonderful child character Sundara who is able to perform acts which astonish even others who are physically more able than this physically disabled child, emerged.

Sundara is full of compassion to all. In his teens he was never apathetic to society in which he was considered disabled, but proved to be more able than the abled themselves.

His father is the last person to realise his son's moral and spiritual power because a parent's inner consciousness pricks a pang of pain for being the father of the disabled child as he considers him a liability and a digression. But, Sundara proved otherwise, and turned out to be the opposite of what his father thought and brought pride and credit to him and the society.

Sundara promotes some valuable moral qualities which enrich the children, specially in their teens, such as patience, devotion, animal love, perseverance, obedience etc. These are qualities which every child should learn and cultivate. RR's book is a door for them to enter into a rich source of discipline.

It is highly readable and is written in familiar colloquial language which easily drives smoothly hard into the eager reader's, both child and adult, mind. RR's approach to a child's mind in his very first attempt, is plausible and encouraging.

It makes the children part of the environment which will enable them to study it and learn to live in it that enlivens their life and moulds their character.


Rhythm of Cascades- A photographic window of selected waterfalls in Sri Lanka

Author: M.S.N.L. de Costa


A Review from a Geological Viewpoint


By Prof. Kapila Dahanayake, Senior Professor of Geology, University of Peradeniya

The writer Sunil de Costa had been enamored by the beauty and the variety of waterfalls in Sri Lanka while he climbed hill slopes as part of his professional exercise of duties as a magistrate. No doubt his adroit handling of the camera had resulted in more than 100 eye catching as well as informative photographs of a spectacular geological phenomenon that is waterfalls.

For a geologist, photographs are of course no replacement for a field visit to such sites. But, I have been able to observe many a geological feature in this book thanks to the clarity of the photographs, their accurate descriptions and above all, the adroit handling of the camera by the author.

Waterfall is a geological formation resulting from water often in the form of a stream flowing over an erosion resistant rock that develops a sudden break in elevation. Where a bed of strong rock more resistant to natural processes of weathering and erosion horizontal or gently inclined upstream- is underlain downstream by a weaker rock formation, the initial stages of waterfall development commences.

A rock formation is considered as weak due to its particular composition and/ or structures (fractures/faults). In the wide spectrum of waterfalls, three types could be recognised: rapids, cascades and waterfalls based on the (a) steepness of the gradient (b) continuity or discontinuity of the gradient.

A part of a stream where the current is moving with a greater swiftness with the water surface being broken by obstructions but without sufficient break in slope to form a waterfall refers to rapids. When the vertical descent of a waterfall is interrupted by a series of benches (like on a stairway) several relatively small waterfalls will develop.

These are the cascades sensu stricto. A stream flowing on strong rock formations underlain by weaker rocks will initially form rapids that will gradually erode the stream bed to give rise to a steep gradient along a fracture/fault plane.

The water flowing along such a river when it encounters a steep slope plunges at high speed foaming and in the process developing a spectacular sight of a column of turbulent flow which is a waterfall sensu stricto.

Fig. - Waterfall - A perpendicular or steep descent of water of a stream where it overflows a fracture plane of a resistant rock formation (charnockite ?) overlying a weaker rock formation (gneiss ?) at the plunge pool visible at its foot. "Drilling tools" -boulders and pebbles- are visible by the side of the pool.

At the foot of the waterfall, beneath the falling column of turbulent water is a plunge pool where very large pot holes cut into the rock. These vertical holes are developed as water plunges down with force through turbulent flow accompanied by its 'drilling' tools- boulders, pebbles, sand and silt.

Waterfalls occur in abundance in the hilly terrains of Sri Lanka underlain mostly by metamorphic rocks such as charnockites, gneisses, quartzite and marble. Charnockites are massive rock formations resistant to weathering and erosion processes.

They can form steep and deep vertical slopes and when a stream plunges over their crests a waterfall will form. Less resistant gneiss formations can be of different compositions and structures and as such they may give rise to a series of nearly horizontal benches/tables.

In other parts of the world, waterfalls are found in igneous and sedimentary rock terrains as well. In the Niagara Falls of North America, the resistant rock formation is dolomitic limestone whereas the less resistant one is shale.

The author starts his expose by describing Ranmudu Falls in Colombo district which flow as three small waterfalls. In his discourse on Rhythm of Cascades the author aptly introduces the readers to cascades using correct geological parlance as a stepped series of closely spaced small waterfalls descending over the crests of steeply slanting resistant rocks.

The local names of at least some waterfalls describe these facts. Hath Mala Ella 'Seven Storey Falls' is a case in point and evidence for indigenous knowledge about waterfalls. Such small waterfalls are the 'cascades' sensu stricto. In the waterfall formation, there are three stages which, however, may not necessarily appear as a sequential development of events- smallest being rapids, then cascades and finally the bigger ones - waterfalls.

In this hierarchy - the shallow angle of the face of resistant rock becomes gradually increased from near horizontal until it appears as a very steep or vertical precipice over the crest of which a waterfall sensu stricto descends in its majestic beauty.

In his treatise the writer has taken one and all on a sightseeing mission by his beautiful photographs of Sri Lankan waterfalls and their captivating captions. A large number of these waterfalls in Sri Lanka can be categorised as cascades.

As such, the author has done justice to his work by aptly describing the publication as 'Rhythms of Cascades'. It is indeed a landmark contribution which opens a window for those who would appreciate the beauty of waterfalls.. Congratulations to author Sunil de Costa for a very entertaining and valuable academic exercise!

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