Behold, intellectuals gone berserk!
I was dozing off over a public speech, last week. It was delivered by
one of our country's blessed poets, Parakrama Kodituwakku. Hang on... it
was not that Parakrama droned on, but because I didn't have a good
night's sleep the previous day. And if my friend didn't give that
embarrassing pinch, I would have missed the crux of the speech.
His speech was full of 'fire bubbles' - if only you can picture what
I mean - though it seemed like bombshells to the learned audience. He
quoted several newspapers with those journalists' names to show how
stupid our journalism is. To cap it all he lambasted all communication
graduates in newspapers - in fact they belong to the majority of
journalists. And mind you this was a book launch and the book was
written by a communication teacher too. A teacher to thousands of those
graduates!
Let me share a chunk of Parakrama's wording:
"I must say all those communication courses in universities produce
meti bola ('clay balls', offensive usage in Sinhala). They don't think
and they don't know how to think. They have lost roots. They have just
byhearted and got through exams."
And there's more, he said pointing his hand towards the communication
teacher.
"This one was like that too [so to say another clay ball!] in the
beginning. He was roaming back and forth with those good for nothing
western influence. But now he knows his roots. He has come back to his
roots."
If my first quote is the climax, then the second must be the
anti-climax. Because many in the gathering didn't give the second quote
a thought. There was a good number of graduates, undergraduates and
university teachers. Most of them stood up and left the place as a sign
of protest. You should have been there to see these intellectuals gone
berserk. I won't paste the tag 'so called', because none of them was a
bogus scholar. And in all honesty they had enough reasons to feel hurt.
Off the record their viewpoint was that Parakrama attacked the
author, a university teacher of communication. They didn't think it's
nice for a guest to ridicule a host. I am a very bad listener, you know,
yet here I was quite otherwise. Some said Parakrama is vicious about
university education because he didn't have it himself - sour grapes,
this and that. Call it by any term, intellectual wrath, matured anger,
whatever it is.
Let me put it this way. How many universities have produced the ones
who can transcend Sarachchandra, Wickramasinghe and Paranavithana? I am
talking about arts stream, but you can raise the same issue in other
areas like medicine and so on too. I know this is a very conservative
question.
When Parakrama brings this up, he leaves us to muse ourselves. It's
very conservative and simple, but it justifies Parakrama's claim,
however harsh it may seem. I do not condemn the university graduates.
Nor do I question their education or any other thing, but I find them
full of perspiration for material gains rather than inspiration for
creativity. Does this justify Beatrix Potter who said "Thank goodness I
was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the
originality"?
The author teaches communication at the university and is very much
into entertainment business - that is novel, drama and so on. He belongs
to the rare kind of university teachers who work beyond the hull. And of
course this author is a bilingual and has a heavy influence from the
West. His earlier creative works seemed to have been influenced by the
West. But since recent he seems to turn towards the Orient.
And the launch was his Sinhala poetry collection; its title reads
'return of the master' in English. It showcases his recent influence
from the Orient sources such as Buddhism. Or may be the influence that
rested beneath him without being used.
We have our own treasure hidden somewhere deep beneath in our
orchard, but we care a lot about zephyr outside to keep up with the
Joneses. Poor us!
Once a Zen student returned to his master claiming full
enlightenment. But he could not remember which side he placed his
umbrella and sandals. He was asked to go back and meditate properly.
When I look at the cover of the poetry collection, I see a pair of
sandals at the bottom of a stairway. For me it symbolizes the proper
comeback of a master.
I still remember that author observe his own students leave the
audience to protest. His face epitomized the giant image of a master who
could weather any downfall indifferently. That itself betokened the
'return of the master', which is exactly what Parakrama meant to say.
Those gone berserk failed to grasp that beautiful truth. Let time
mature them.
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