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Trial & error and serendipity:
Zemblanity, bahramdipity
 Some words could never, or are almost impossible to, be translated to
any other language. One such word is Serendipity, not as the ancient
name for Lanka, but as the term now in use for the faculty or phenomenon
of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. John Barth, the
American novelist, in his book, 'The Lost Voyage of Somebody the Sailor'
(1991), had said, "- you don't reach Serendib by plotting a course for
it. You have to set out in good faith for elsewhere and lose your
bearings ... serendipitously."
Most discoveries by man had probably been serendipitous. Most
countries could be called serendipity, if we accept John Barth's
definition. Even our own country, would have been discovered
serendipitously when man was spreading out from Africa. Fire would have
been discovered in the same way, when man saw a forest fire, or when he
noticed that sparks that flew off when he was making his stone tools,
could ignite a dry leaf.
Ananda W P Guruge, diplomat, professor and author, decided on the
title 'Serendipity of Andrew George' for his sequel to 'Free at Last in
Paradise'. In the closing chapter, when the title was discussed among
Andrew's friends, several suggestions had been made, but "the
christening of the book reached a serendipitous climax amidst much
laughter".
Richard Boyle in 2008 published 'Sindbad in Serendib: Strange Tales
and Curious Aspects of Sri Lanka'. Perhaps we could say that Boyle's
arrival in Sri Lanka in 1976 was also serendipitous. He retells the
legend 'The Three Princes of Serendip' and how the word inspired the
"greatest letter writer of his era", Horace Walpole (1717-1797), coin
the word Serendipity. In 'Serendipity: How the Vogue word became Vague',
Boyle's review of 'The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity' by Robert
K. Merton and Elinor Barber, he says 'serendipity' has suffered grievous
corruption of meaning". In the same article Boyle also wrote "The demise
of serendipity is no better illustrated than in Sri Lanka, where so many
travel-related advertisements and guidebooks use the extremely tenuous
association between the island and serendipity with varying degrees of
ineptitude."
 It is so sad that sometimes we forget that we live on an island which
is truly serendipitous, and that we need not go in search of any more
serendipitous land anywhere on earth. Reading Guruge or Boyle could
remind us about the glory and serenity of this wonderful country, which
could be a serendipitous discovery for all those who criticise our
country without knowing anything about it, or based on false propaganda.
Very often when a new word is coined, very soon antonyms appear,
sometimes playing a bigger role than the original word, like Zemblanity
which did not get into common usage, probably because it was linked with
failures, rather than with success.
William Boyd, the award winning novelist from Scotland had coined the
term 'zemblanity' to mean the "making unhappy, unlucky and expected
discoveries occurring by design". Novaya Zembla, aka Novaya Zemlya, is a
cold desolate island to the North of Russia, near the Arctic ocean, and
so different from the warm sunny Sri Lanka. It was on this island that
William Barentz, the Dutch navigator was stranded.
The term Bahramdipity however had been used more often, because it
refers to the suppression of serendipitous discoveries, which has
happened all over the world, throughout history. The name comes from the
Persian king Bahram Gur, who received the Three Princes of Serendip.
Bahramdipity has been used to suppress knowledge and information, for
political, religious and commercial reasons, which have almost always
been for the selfish gain of a few.
'Against the Tide. A Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics and
Astronomy Get Done', by Martin Lopez Corredoria and Castro Perelman
(Eds.), is a book where scientists present how scientific data are
suppressed and the "illicit, shameful censorship" by science journals.
Allegra Goodman's 'Intuition' which won the Orange Prize 2009, describes
the suppression of data in cancer research. The novel is not just simple
fiction, but is based on what is happening today.
In Stalinist Russia Trofim Lysenko, with his political success was
able to suppress all genetic and biological research, which were claimed
to be 'bourgeois pseudoscience', and many scientists executed or
imprisoned. Lysenkoism was the name given to this suppression in the
Soviet Union, and later on to Neo-Lysenkoism, which too could be
considered an antonym for serendipitous developments.
Today unfortunately even serendipitous discoveries in scientific and
technological fields are controlled by global business conglomerates. A
silver lining is beginning to appear over the dark clouds of
bahramdipity, with the arrival of the internet. Suppression is not easy
today, because there are enough opportunities to publish a new artistic
creation, a new discovery in science or medicine.
In our own Serendipity, the initial discovery by King Kasyapa, could
be considered serendipitous, "setting up camp in the village of
Abhivardhamana....saw in the southern direction a solitary mass of rock
looming high over the horizon", and then the rediscovery of Sigiri by
Major Forbes in 1831, and also the discovery by Prof Senarath
Paranavithana of the 'Paramparapusthaka' by Ananda sthavira, and the
'interlinear inscriptions'. Then could we consider the suppression or
lack of interest in further research of Prof Paranavithana's 'Story of
Sigiri' as an act of bahramdipity?
Let us hope that someday soon serendipitous discoveries would be able
to overcome all bahramdiptious acts to reveal the truth of our past to
us.
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