Focus on Books:

Regaining happiness through bitterness

Professor Sunanda MAHENDRA

How many times have we read during our lifetime narratives on poor but extremely pretty charming damsels? Them falling in love with rich characters, who eventually face all the evil forces? But having diminished them all, lead a happy resourceful life in the end? The story of Mihiri and Dharshana in Malraji Wanniarachchi's Sinhala novel Nisambudola too reminds me of a modern day fairytale where the good wins over evil.

In several short chapters, and in two parts one a long part and the other a part which looks more a reciprocal to the first, envelopes the tale of the two characters. The male character is shown as a big business entrepreneur who has inherited a vast wealth over the years.

He has dealings with foreign countries like Singapore and Malaysia. He too has all the staff benefits, especially a skilled young woman Sandra who manipulates the dealings to attract more and more business. The female character who is more or less the protagonist is Mihiri is the pretty young daughter of a clerk in Dharshana's business firm. So the matchmaking between the rich and the poor take place without much ado, though there happen to be certain speculations.

On one hand Mihiri is too young, intelligent pretty and academically bent, and belongs to a rural setup where a particular social traditions illuminate. In the case of Dharshana, it looks as if it is the mere attraction that mattered, and the enticement, there on had driven him to possess her. The reader too is driven into a world of a half-baked academic structure and a falsified English speaking community individuals like Dharshana's mother and some others who come and go like rather like projections.

As a reader I found that this area of darkness is overdone and does not throw much of a significance to the central narrative. What happens as the turning point is that the feminine jealousy on the part of Sandra and Mihiri entangled in a manner which sensitively seeps into the dealings of Dharshana who gradually is shown as disillusioned.

Even at a moment of bearing a child Mihiri enters the University, achieves her goal, while Sandra in dismay leaves the firm in search of other areas of interest. Then the narrative area comes to a close, with an alternative focal point of view.

This being the narrative line of Mihiri who by now is a mother of two sons. She looks after them and in addition looks after her husband's business dealing in the best possible manner, winning the favour of employees.

The narrative does not end with a clear cut close. Instead the reader is made to know that the life of all of them flows. There are visible changes in the lives of Dharshana, and his relatives.

Dharshana evicts temples and helps those who are in need. Mihiri just goes on leading a quiet life with her two sons, and helps her relatives and well wishers. But what purpose does a narrative of this nature provide? May be a question that a general reader may ask. Were there any hardships? Not so visible.

The normal feminine reflective factors in the daily life are brought to the forefront via a series of situations in the life of Mihiri who seems torn between two worlds. These two worlds are highly individualistic and parochial devoid of a broader perspective.

This is perhaps due not to the fault of the writer concerned, but her outlook on humanistic sensibility that anticipates a broader penetrative perspectives.

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