Nature of insanity and regaining sanity
 A
creative narrative may rest on several expressive layers. A narrative
may also mean a series of events woven in order to express perhaps a
particular state of mind or a particular state of behaviour of an
individual and/or a group of people with whom he or she interacts a
narrative may also be presented as a cluster of events which depict a
particular type of human state of mind which either normal or abnormal.
When I finished reading the latest Sinhala novel written by the
journalist Tilak Senasinghe titled as Sasala Vila (the disturbed pond),
I was drawn to perceive some of those thoughts that crept into my mind.
The protagonist of the work, Sirisena, is born to the world, with a
certain disability of an arm. But this does not hinder his way of
thinking or the nature of social activities he is forced to do.
Sirisena grows up in a poor surrounding which makes him disown it in
search of a better pasture by way of making a livelihood with the help
and support of some people, he comes to the more urbanized area in the
vicinity of Mount Lavinia. He is in the first instance given some minor
manual work as a gardener and watcher in a well to do family.
In this particular social context he initially discovers the nature
of human beings around him with their peculiar behaviour patterns
inclusive of class structures, poverty lines and welfare measures.
Day by day he matures and leaves the work of a domestic hand in
search of another better position. This time he becomes a casual
labourer in a public library which comes under the purview of a
municipality council. At this library Sirisena not only gets the
opportunity to read books and periodicals but also gets the chance of
associating the scholarly type of humans.
A special encounter with a young girl named Damitha paves the way to
change his life style. Damitha and Sirisena gradually become life
partners, though with some degree of constraints and challenges. All of
a sudden a strange tinge of destiny befalls on Sirisena, to the point
that he is transferred to a public cemetery or a burial ground where he
had to perform some arduous work never imagined. This strange and
unfortunate trend of events does not disturb Sirisena, as he tunes his
mindset to accept whatever befalls on him. He continues to discover
certain mystic subject areas pertaining to an esoteric world linked to
life and death, and perhaps beyond that plane. He starts writing
articles to a Sinhala newspaper, which are received by the editor as
controversial and topical.
In this manner he enters a new phase. But a strange finding hitherto
undiscovered happens to be uncovered. Who is the culprit who transferred
Sirisena from the library work to the cemetery work? Then there emerges
another fascinating episode in the life of Damitha. The wife of Sirisena,
Damitha, had rejected a certain political good for nothing culprit who
wanted to take revenge from her by this misdeed. Then comes another
inconceivable cluster of events in the life of Siriena and Damitha.
Sirisena, who by now is known by another name as a mystic who has
super powers of foretelling and curing and healing others, live in a
faraway place, earning a mint of money via his super natural powers’.
But as pages of this fascinating novel move the reader to find that
Sirisena the healer has to heal himself to rescue himself of certain
invisible disasters impending like a sword above his head.
Gradually the story of Sirisena continues as a series of fantastic
events recapitulating the present day sense of social evils in the name
of esoteric and mysterious ritualistic pseudo sciences. The writer does
not or promote any particular dogma, but suggests the viable disaster
that could cause the humanity, and the degree or irrationality connected
with the pseudo charms, yantra, mantra and gurukam.
Sirisena in a sense rediscovers his lost insanity by himself. He had,
for sometime, lived separated from his wife, friends and well wishers.
Now he regains the sensibility to live. In many ways the novel has a
story line or a plot outline which resembles the drama or real life. On
the other hand work as a creative piece has psychological and
philosophical insights relevant to the present day living conditions.
The author Senasinha is a sensitive to social events. He captures them
so sensitively that the entire work looks more like a lively
investigative creation.
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