Sri Lankan writers' evening
Jayanthi LIYANAGE
A literary evening with three authors and their latest works was held
at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, on June 18. The
three authors were Punyakante Wijenaike, Jolly Somasundram and Vihanga
Perera, writing in three different approaches.
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Vihanga Perera reading from ‘Stable
Horses’. Seated (from left to right): are Jolly Somasundram,
Kamini de Soysa and Punyakanthi Wijenaike |
Kamini de Soysa, Honorary Secretary of the Gratiaen Trust moderated
the book launch. She told the Daily News that Punyakante's book had just
been released. Somasundram's novel was short-listed in manuscripts for
the Gratiaen Prize a few years ago while Perera 's writing was
short-listed for the 2008 prize.
That Deep Silence, the book by the well-known, award winning writer
Punyakante, is a collection of short stories and poems as explained by
her were based on real life and real events. "Silence is compelled
because there is no other choice," she remarks. "To evade issues too, we
remain silent."
Suffering
The back cover summary reads "The stories and verses in this book
differ from my earlier writing, being short and to the point, as very
often life today compels us to retreat into silence." Totally opposite
of her first book of short stories in 1963 which had only 15 stories yet
running to 205 pages, this book of "reality as she saw it" has only 134
pages with stories as many as 40 in number. "Life was different in 1963.
We have undergone so much suffering since then." The book is published
by Vijitha Yapa Publishers.
A foreword is taken for this anthology from late Tissa Abeysekera's
book 'Roots, Reflections and Reminiscences'.
Courage
Now Punyakante had gathered enough courage and experience as a writer
to look beyond the "small dark room with just a narrow window
overlooking rooftops.... (from The Amulet which won her the Gratiaen
Prize in 1994) "What she sees is far from beautiful...It is a landscape
of unmitigated brutality, violence and moral decay... A frightening
scene but she surveys it with the courage of a true artist, and has
accepted responsibility of recording it and commenting on it so that we
can still replace our squandered treasure of humanity, toleration and
good sense."
The short story, 'That Deep Silence', narrates of a widowed woman who
had expected her only daughter to look after her in old age, in the
house that she and her husband had built. She had foolishly gifted the
house to her daughter without keeping life-interest for herself. The
daughter demolishes the house to build a condominium to be rented out
and takes her mother to a home for the aged. "When she failed to invite
me to her home as a mother and grandmother that deep silence held me in
its grip. It must continue to hold and sustain me through my new lonely
life.. ahead."
Silence
The story 'The Unopened Door' speaks of the lack of communication
between a mother and her eighteen year old daughter. The daughter's room
is locked from morning yet the mother thinks she is studying and does
not want to disturb. That very act of not wanting to disturb is symbolic
of the chasm between them. When the evening falls, the daughter's
silence becomes frightening and the family tries to open the door.
"Eventually we broke down the door. She was lying face downward on her
bed, my empty bottle of sleeping pills beside her. On her study table
was a note left exclusively to me. 'Sorry Amma, I couldn't do it your
way.. There is so much I want to tell you but there is this barrier,
this deep silence between us. I know you mean to protect me.. but
protection is not always understanding that times have changed.' ...She
was dead. She had been dead from morning."
Punyakante's short story Anoma won the Commonwealth's prize in 1996
and her novel The Unbinding, the State Literary Award in 2001. The
government of Sri Lanka conferred on her the title Kalasuri in 1988 and
the State Literary Festival of 2003 awarded her a special title
Sahityaratna.
Reflection
The second book of the evening, 'Macbeth Daggers', is the first novel
of author Jolly Somasundram. Published by Nakeeran Publishers (Pvt)
Ltd., the story revolves around the relationship between ministers and
public managers. "It is a reflection in novel form of some personal
experiences," says Somasundram, "The rest is imaginary." He is a Hindu
but the story is written about Buddhist principles. "I am a past pupil
of Ananda College and a student of the then Principal L.H. Mettananda."
The story is poetically illustrated with liberal borrowings from
Shakepeare's Macbeth and Omar Khayyam's The Rubaiyat.
The back cover summary denotes Macbeth Daggers is "an atmospheric
novel of ideas and tarnished ideals, dealing with the reality show of
the political dis-economy of a post-colonial State which had gained
independence but yet groping for its liberation. It hang-glides above
the doings of government, non government institutions, religious
personalities and public governors - politicians and public managers -
who have post-modern deconstructed moralities. Their strategies for
upward mobility shape and deform the very character of the State,
debauching principles of public trust and virtuous public management
offered by the Buddhist texts, Nandiyamruga and Sigalovadaya."
Temptations
In Chapter two: Vision: Nandiyamruga, the monk brought into bless the
newly elected Minister of Public Management, Wysick, disperses his words
of wisdom, "The job of a public manager is not an easy one. Compared to
a public manager's vocation, the task of a monk, like myself, is almost
a hack. Though a monk is living in a society he is not of it. Public
managers are both of a society and live in it, subject to all its
corroding temptations. Public governance is an art, not an exact
science. It demands that a person be honourable while living in a
dishonourable society, the predicament of Bertolt Brecht's The Good
Woman of Setzuan.
"The confusions arising out of this contradiction are emblematic of
modern man too. Unable to understand this truth, modern man has
succumbed to intellectualised toxic existential fears, of angst,
anguish, helplessness, whose high priests are Kierkegaard, Heidegger and
Sartre. This is a false route...."
Backbiting
In Chapter three : Vision : Sigalovada, Minister Wysick addresses his
brood of public managers, "As a politician, I am part of this space. I
formulate policy and market it in a grubby melodrama, unlined in civics
textbooks. It is staged in a rough-and-tumble backroom hall of mirrors,
to backbiting, clashing stake holders. I have, with stubborn resolve, to
use coded statements, nods, winks, bluster, arm-twisting, back-channels,
purchase and nuance filled equivocation, hint at blackmail, and cash
IOU's, to cultivate unlikely allies and rebuild coalitions.......I am
the minister; I am the authorised one. I take the final decision. I
speak for the nation. I also pay the final price for failure, at the
blazing inferno of an election, fronting to the raw charge of a let-down
electorate, glad-handing and wooing sceptical voters. But, in the
ministry, I will be softly political, without being a hardy politicker."
Somasundram's other works are 'The Third Wave: Public Administration
and Governance', 'Reimagining Sri Lanka: Northern Ireland Peace
Agreement' and 'Parliamentary Debates: 2002 Constitutional Proposals'.
The third book was 'Table horses' by Vihanga Perera, published by the
author and trustees. The main character, C.S. Kaushalyan aspires to win
'The Golden Foot' award of LKR 1.5 million and an Audi with a full
stereo kit and A/C for his cantos, "Stable Horses." According to Perera,
the novel is not narrated in the usual linear tradition, with a
seemingly horizontal dispersion of ideas. The book had been done as
experimental writing.
Cock-a-spaniel
Chapter Nine - Melodrama as a Digression: A Bumkisser's
Retrospection/True Radicals: reads "Class Monitor was a curious position
in our class- Monitor: loyal animal who kept an eye on all and sundry.
Had to report misbehaviour, misdemeanour and the Class Order depended on
this patriarch. Why my neighbouring class had no Order as such was
because their Monitor was the worst rogue of them all: cos it was he
lead the misdemeanour. He would be the first to let the pig sty open.
Unlike a Class Monitor. Our Class Monitor. Our Class Master was an
Impossible Guy. Someone with and only with right angles and rectangles,
if you see what I mean. Cultural maniac....We had a Monitor: the
obedient cock-a-spaniel of Mr. Cultural Icon...."
You must read the book to find out whether Kaushalyan wins the Golden
Foot or not. Perera's other books are The(ir) (Au)topsy and Because the
Night. |
