Lights, camera, action

My title today is borrowed from the film director's tool kit. It has to do with a most exciting short-weekend I spent in Colombo, where a bad heat-wave was on. It was a long drive-down from my cool abode in Kiula on early Friday morning for a reunion with a friend that evening.

In the seventies and eighties film maker Amaranath Jayatilaka was a household name in Sri Lanka. He began his film making in 1968 with Adarawanthayo (lovers) where he was both director and art director. Thereafter the string of films directed by him included Priyanga (1970), Tilaka ha Tilaka (1976), Nivena Ginna (Dousing fire) and Siripala Saha Ranmenika (1977), Eka Dawsak Ra (1981 One day's night), Arunata Pera (1981 Before the dawn) and Yuwathi Pathi (1984, Wife and husband). He had also made a short film Beeshanayata Atuhru Kathawak (2005, A side story of times of terror) and made several publications and documentary films on the art of Yoga, cinematic creativity and Buddhism. Of these, the two he wrote the film scripts and directed Siripala and Ranmenika and Arunata Pera both won him much acclaim and awards here and abroad.

It had now been a while since Amaranath, the film maker, Yoga practitioner, author and advisor to 'The Buddhist' TV Channel has shouted the commands of 'lights, camera, action' to actually direct a film. He clearly shows signs of aging but not in his spirit to do more, not only in the sphere of film-making, but also in establishing a Buddhist way of life as an alternative to the failing socio-economic systems of the dominant Western culture. He is full of ideas to do more and has a few film-scripts under his arm as well.

One is a script to position Sri Lanka's cultural tourism offer through a film called Awakening of a Lotus and the other a cinematic rendering of the story of Patachara. Equipped with a hearing aid, he wears a cap with 'Hollywood' printed on it. He told me that it was to protect his head from the travails of air-conditioning. He impressed me as an author/director in search of characters seeking support, to put the ideas burning in his head to work.

Denuwara Mithuro

On Sunday morning it was different type of lights, camera and action we had. The Mother Sri Lanka (MSL) Foundation had invited hundred schoolchildren from Kilinochchi in the North to the Educational Resources Centre at Meepe for a six-day residential workshop. They were interacting with hundred more children from the Homagama area on a programme titled Denuwara Mithuro. The children and their teachers belonged to all the major racial groups in Sri Lanka.

No slogans

On the programme, I was to talk to them on early Sunday morning on 'Being a proud Sri Lankan'. The cameras were there and the light was the early morning sunrays falling on an amphitheatre through the branches of trees around it.

A perfect setting for an action morning and I chose instead to involve my friends Manjula Ranasinghe of Janakaraliya and Aruna Wijetunge, a former official of the Ministry of Education, an effective speaker of the Tamil language as well. In situ, we also had a student from the group join us to complete our team.

Our objective was to make the morning as fun and as interactive as possible for the children. They needed to realize that we all needed to work hard, to make the pride we should have of our nation take firm root. We sought to make it a session where they played and we facilitated. No big concepts, no slogans and no statements. One example of the several games we played was 'Keeping the different coloured balloons afloat'.

Balloons and goats

The children formed ten groups of 20 at random. A full-blown balloon of different colour was given to each. Each group /team had to keep it afloat by only blowing at it. The rules of the game did not allow tapping it with hands or kicking it with feet. Each in the team had to only blow to keep it afloat for the team. It was tough and some groups kept it afloat for sometime while some kids were observed to be cheating.

Thereafter, the moral behind the activity was discussed with them. We compared the coloured balloons to our diverse cultures, belief systems and ways. Much like the difficulty they had in keeping them afloat, they realized that we had to work hard and together to understand and appreciate our differences while seeking unity among each other. We showed that there was no easy way out of it and warned them of cheats who might try to tap and kick their way through flouting the rules.

Another game we played was a request for them to make groups similar to the number found upon counting the English letters in each of the names of places of significance. e.g. Dalada Maligawa, Kataragama, Jaffna Library, Jumma Mosque, Sri Pada, Madhu Church. On completion of forming of the groups, we had a discussion of the significance of each place.

Another was the game 'Goat in the House' (Aadu Veedu). We imagine the kids had fun and also learnt a few basic lessons. A teacher from Kilinochchi, came to us and asked us to visit their school if we came to the region and that was touching. We thank MSL for the opportunity for interaction and sharing. We were richer from the lessons we learnt and hope it was the same for the children.

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