Inspired by a child’s sense of wonder

The world of a child is an amazing place to visit. That world has a kind of magic. It is this kind of magic that they have in such quantities that some adults have nothing of. Maybe we forget that magical world we once lived in. Maybe we have given up the child like trust we had in that world. Reminiscences of Gold met with Sybil Wettasinghe, who has found her way back to that place; a lady who has painted the faded signboards to that magical world.

She is one with them. She is well known as an author and illustrator of a large number of children’s stories in Sri Lanka.

Calling her village background a great inspiration, Sybil recalled it as the happiest time in her life. “I was born in the village of Gintota. It was a mysteriously beautiful place with very charming people and it is different to any other place. The atmosphere and greenery was so nice. With my grandmother who was always with me, I toured the forests, bathed in the stream, enjoyed watching birds, flowers, wind and rain. It was so lovely and provided the backdrop to all my children’s books.”

She was so sad when she had to leave her familiar surroundings at the age of six, because her mother brought the whole family to Colombo to give them an English education. “We lived in Dehiwala and I had my schooling at the Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya. It was quite a different environment. People were different and their attitudes were also different. For one thing I didn’t know how to speak English. But that was not a problem for me because I was a very silent child. I learnt slowly and the European nuns in school were very kind-hearted so I got on very well with them.”

Creative work

“I have the ability to write and illustrate and it was a talent in me from the beginning. I used to write poems and draw pictures. That was the beginning of my creativity. When my mother brought me to Colombo, she had the idea of sending me to university. She wanted me to be an architect, a career which I didn’t want to pursue. Being an architect means dabbling in mathematics which I still don’t like. So I was involved in my creative work. Of course I did not have any opportunity to display anything. I used to draw pictures in black and white for my own pleasure as a teenager.

“My father was supportive of my artistic ambitions and he submitted my work for an exhibition in the Colombo Art Gallery. This was noticed by a person called H. D. Sugathapala, who was the Headmaster of the Royal Primary School in Colombo and a very well known art lover. So he came in search of our house and requested my mother to allow me to illustrate a book that he was compiling for a standard-five school reader. My mother vehemently disagreed saying that she didn’t want me to be an artist. Anyway Mr. Sugathapala had his way by getting his wife to talk to my mother.

Village background

“In the end she agreed to allow me to illustrate one book. This book - Nava Maga Reader - became very popular. It was the very first book published in this country in colour. At that time Martin Wickremesinghe was the editor of the Silumina. He had noticed this book and wrote a review saying: ‘this child is very promising and has a great future in book illustrating.’ This caught my mother’s fancy because Martin Wickremesinghe was her favourite author and thereafter she allowed me to do what I liked.”

Sybil wanted to join a newspaper and Mr. Sugathapala introduced her to Mr. D.B. Dhanapala, who was the editor of the Lankadeepa. Mr. Dhanapala immediately offered her a job because of her village background. He wanted her to do something associated with the village. Sybil remembered all the beautiful folk tales that her grandmother used to tell her. She had absolutely no problem in making very catchy illustrations for those beautiful folk tales and songs. “They were published once a week. They became very popular and everybody liked them. I used to sign my name as ‘Sybil’ which created a wrong impression and some refereed to me as a ‘very talented young man!’. Later they were really surprised to see a young girl in plaits and I was only 18 at the time. I was the first woman to join the Lankadeepa in 1948.”

Sybil was a very bold lady. She was determined to make use of every opportunity to improve her artistic talents. “I barged into the Times building which was upstairs on the fourth floor. I used to see a very grand looking lady everyday smoking a cigarette. When I made inquiries I found out that her name was Sita Jayawardena and she was the lady who did the woman’s pages in the Times. I was a bold person. The women in my clan in the village were very bold. I must have had that character in me. I boldly walked behind her one day right up to the fourth floor and walked behind her to her office. I introduced myself as ‘Sybil de Silva,’ and explained to her my desire to do some additional work while continuing my work at Lankadeepa’.

Foreign languages

She contacted the editor Mr. Victor Lewis, an Englishman, and decided to employ me in the Times to do illustrations for articles. I had a great time there and I enjoyed my work. Later I got another opportunity to join the Lake House publications which had just started a newspaper tabloid called Janatha. When I told Mr. Dhanapala that I was leaving, he was so heart broken, but he said: ‘for your improvement and betterment I will allow you to go’.”

Sybil’s association with Lake House gave her access to several other newspapers such as Observer, Daily News, Silumina and Sarasaviya. Her future husband Dharmapala Wettasinghe was the chief sub-editor of the Janatha newspaper. With his persuasion she wrote a story called ‘Kuda Hora’ (The Umbrella Thief) for the children’s page of the newspaper. The story was later developed into a book and was published in 1956. Sybil is a prolific artist and has written over 200 children’s stories which have been cherished by many generations of kids. Some of these books have been translated into many foreign languages such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Dutch and Swedish.

She has also written a very popular book titled The Child in Me which has won the prestigious Gratiaen Award. It appears that even though she was physically separated from the village at the age of six, that enchanting childhood is still alive in her heart and soul.

This is a unique book in the sense that it conveys a strong message to the adults by way of recounting the fascinating world of a child. The present day life is too harsh for a child. “The children go to school in school vans; they are dragged to school very early in the morning and taken to tuition classes during their free time.

They have no time and space to live the life of a child. They have no time to look at the sky and feel they are children. When we were children we searched for the rainbows, look at the clouds and see the shapes of the clouds and you get so inspired by the moonlight. I wanted people to understand what childhood meant. As a grown up you don’t get those fantasies and dreams a child has. I really wrote that book aiming at mothers to tell them what childhood is. It was then I got letters pouring in from old men and women thanking me for writing that because it makes them go back to their own childhood. It is a timeless and ageless book.”

There are some in this world who look at bookworms with cynicism. A value of a good book is what transforms a worm into a beautiful butterfly. Books form a cocoon around the child and the child emerges an extraordinary creature ready to fly out into the world. And Sybil Wettasinghe is a woman who has formed many cocoons.