Resourceful notes left for posterity
 In many ways my own teacher, the late professor Tilak Rathnakara
(1930 – 1990) had an open mind which seemingly enveloped quite a number
of subject areas, where politics and economics dominated. He was widely
read in classics both oriental and occidental. He was a vociferous
writer and a broadcaster on most matters, controversial at times.
His writings deliver certain ailments. They rose to the pinnacle of
success in the academia, which some of us failed to achieve. But luckily
for us today his wife Sriya Rathnakara, the founder editor of the
Sinhala women’s weekly Vanitha Vitti, had taken off time to rummage her
husband’s old articles to bring out a book.
The book is a collection of column writings contributed to the now
defunct The Weekend the English Sunday paper which came out of the
Dawasa group of newspapers a few decades ago.
 The Beginning is the End: Omega of the Plough (Godage International;
2009) is the title of the collection of columns thus contributed. They
cover a wide gamut of topics such a terrorism, separatism, arts,
religion, literature and profile. Perhaps a newspaper columnist may not
see the worth of his contribution at the time of writing. He may also
not foresee the fact that they would come in the form of a single volume
or a series of volumes later. But I note that the contribution paves the
way for a reader to observe that the collection of writings in the past
may result in a resourceful venture when clipped together into a single
volume. For this, thanks must go professor’s wife and the publisher
concerned.
Professor Rathnakara was actively interested in arts, culture,
history and literature at home and abroad. Most of us who were tutored
by him knew the calibre of scholar he was, erudite in many a subject
area. He made us rediscover via reading what we had not done so far.
There are 43 column writings in all. Perhaps he may have written many
more and left undiscovered. Paper cuttings, as we know, lay bared for
years if not lifted form the place for a particular purpose. The columns
are quite short and readable. They are packed with information,
knowledge and insights to various issues of the day. References are made
in a diverse manner illustrating the wide spectrum of awareness on the
part of the writer. The readability counts a lot when writing on
specialised and acid topics of controversial nature. A few examples
could be drawn from the following columns: How lonely little Sri Lanka
is, Aliens in their own Ealam, Why a Terrorist is a Terrorist, Ealam
Call is First Step Towards Dismemberment of India, Guns of Terrorism May
Turn Against India and A Million Solutions to Terrorism. The columnist
professor Rathnakara seemingly had foreseen some of the events that
would emerge in future. As such these columns that come in the form of a
creative thinking process could be discerned as an eye opener at the
time of writing them.
Some columns are quite poetic and prophetic. Take for example the
pieces titled as ‘No Flowers for DS’, ‘I Shed a Tear for Teldeniya’,
‘Let me be Reborn a Tree God’, ‘Orwell’s Prophecy’, ‘There the Living
Saint’, ‘It’s a Man Made World’, ‘Whisper of the Bodhi Leaves’ and ‘A
Mother’s Song’. At all moment of Professor Rathnakara’s writing process,
he looks more inclined to religious pathos and prophecies than to a mere
pedagogical economist. The sensitivity in which he handles an issue
could be an exemplary exercise in creative communication which has come
down today as a teaching and learning skill in social sciences and
humanities. He had kept his eyes wide open, for he had foreseen events
of the future.
One good example comes from the column titled as ‘Keeping Our Eyes
and Ears Open’ (91p) where he states about three decades ago the
following:
“This country, Sri Lanka, is no longer facing a mere threat of
internal subversion, but a terrorist insurgency launched by a few
hundred maniacs seeking an impossible intolerable and nonviable separate
state.” (91p)
How very futuristic a columnist could be?
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