Brief encounters with Ariesen Ahubudu
I go down the memory lane. The year perhaps was 1949. At that time I
was boarded in the house of my maternal aunt who stayed in Dehiwala.
That was a house on the seaside situated in a lane from the Galle road.
Located close by was Fairline road, known for popular personalities like
A S Weda Mahattaya known his eye treatments.
Then there was well known scholar Gunapala Senadhira. There were
other scholars too who collectively brought out a Sinhala children’s
periodical called Ediya. I had the chance to read this magazine through
a friend of mine in the morning train from Dehiwala to Maradana.
It happened to be one evening when we visited this house to see how
the magazine comes out. We knew that there was a small foot printing
press which was used to bring out the magazine. We slowly entered the
premises to see a person coming out with some papers in his hand. He was
clad in a white sarong and a white shirt. He spoke to us in Sinhala.
We walked in.
“Do you want to see how it works?”
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Ariesen
Ahubudu |
“Yes.” I said while my friend was looking on. The person made the
machine work with a clattering sound. He placed a sheet of paper and
pressed a part of the machine which looked like a clutch. We were
fascinated. Then we had the chance to speak to the person concerned. We
came to know this he was a teacher, Ashuboda, and no other than Ariesen
Ahubudu the scholar and teacher a close follower of the veteran
multi-faceted scholar Munidasa Cumaratunga.
Later on I was feeling quite happy to recall this event. Ariesen
Ahubudu was dedicated to the teaching profession.
For me at that time the small magazine Ediya which was compiled and
edited by Arisen Ahubudu was a foundation stone to cultivate reading
habits. The use of language was different from other sources.
The other sources were daily papers and school magazines, published
during the time. The scene shifts on to the mid-50s, when we come to
know that gradually the name Ariesen Ahubudu had come to be a household
one. He was more known as a lyricist beginning form the Gramophone
records and later to light songs and radio musicals and operas. I
remember that during the close of 1940s, the use of gramophone had the
pride of place in most ancestral houses.
In my maternal ancestral house we enjoyed listening to gramophone
records produced by HMV (His Master’s Voice) and Columbia. One of my
uncles, who was a close friend of Sunil Santha, used to buy latest
gramophone records from Colombo. During a New Year holiday my uncle
brought a gramophone record especially produced to mark the New Year
ceremony. There was a song sung by Sunil Santha bearing the lyrics of
Ariesen Ahubudu.
Sarade bak mase
Worande bak mase
(Welcome the month of bak, hail the month bak)
These lines were followed by a whole host of other beautiful lines which
went as:
Koha udanguwi
Ambagaha mudune
Gee gayana mase
Lenun palawa
Ambal gaha mudune
Takaya bandena mase
(It’s the month when the kohai rd sings his songs in a proud mood.
It’s the month when takaya or a sounder is hung on the branch of the
mango tree, to ward off the squirrels). This perhaps was the best song
written on the Sinhala New Year season. Then I had the chance to read
some of the poems of Ariesen Ahubudu, most of which have appeared in
various Sunday Sinhala newspapers and later on collected into one single
volume titled as gange giya mina (the gem that went into the river).
With the dawn of the mid-60s the name Arisen Ahubudu was associated
closely with the Hela Havula movement, which tried to purify not only
language but also the oriental thinking patterns and indigenous
livelihood.
When I was appointed as the Sinhala scriptwriter of the then Radio
Ceylon’s music division, filling vacancy of my good friend Mahagama
Sekara, I had the good chance of meeting Arisen Ahubudu more often. He
was a most wanted person next to Chandraratne Manawasinghe. We were at
times given the chance of commissioning some veterans for every special
programme. Once I was asked to do so for a New Year Sinhala feature
programme where the listener was made to know how the indigenous month
names in the calendar came to be. I just wondered how good it would be
to invite a person of the calibre of Ariesen Ahubudu for this function.
A few minutes later I found Ahubudu appearing in the programme
section chatting to someone. I came closer to him and introduced the
task before me. He agreed to participate given the soonest possible
time. Wonderfully enough that was one of the spectacular discussions
illustrating how the months such as Bak, Vesak, Poson, Asela, Nikini,
Binara came to be. Each one had a background myth, a legend or an event
linked. Ahubudu in a clear informative manner communicated for 20
minutes of the programme I felt not only happy but felt that was the
type of local broadcaster we need. How very refreshing! How stimulating!
From time to time when he was invited to write radio features and
radio songs, he took the task with the utmost pleasure cast with a smile
on his face. Ariesen Ahubudu was a simple frugal artiste who cultivated
a desire for the deep wisdom in simple terms admired by the common man.
He had left us a legacy, predominantly poems and lyrics which need
rediscovery.
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