From delight to wisdom

Sachitra Mahendra

Chamminda Welagedara is quite an old hand in the creative fiction. His contributions are manifold: banking, management, documentaries, short stories and novel. Managing time for banking, personal life and creative writing, he would sleep only four hours. Quality is more important than quantity, Welagedara believes firmly - he has allocated himself a considerable time for research. An Assistant General Manager at the Bank of Ceylon Head Office, Welagedara is an award-winning author. In 'Kala Agni', his latest novel, he narrates the tragedy of war-torn victims.

Chamminda Welagedara. Picture by Saman Sri Wedage.

Q: 'Kala Agni' deals with post-war social trauma. Although many writers have touched war literature, they have been looked down as they have no first hand experience. You will also have to face the same criticism.

A: When Malini Fonseka acts as a poor peasant woman, no one will question how she would do justice to her role. I am not finding fault with your question or the veteran actress, but only writers are faced with this question.Yes. It is difficult to capture the atmospheric feel. I think I am qualified to deal with war fiction precisely because I am a common man.

I witnessed this war for the last 30 years as a common man. I had been following all those reports in media. I had the chance of exchanging ideas with my fellow people too.

Q: How does your profession contribute to your creative writing?

A: As a state bank we get to meet people from all walks. Many people with low income approach and share their burdens with us. It reached a good turning point when I worked in eastern region - that experience was quite useful.

I would have written 'Kala Agni' even without that experience. But I required that to be quite honest and truthful to my readers. If I am to give something, that must come from the bottom of the heart. What I heard from those people, exchanged with those people, was quite fruitful.

Q: When a creative work includes war scenes, it is apparently labelled as war fiction. Do you call 'Kala Agni' as war fiction?

A: More than war fiction, I would call it a novel describing circumstances of war. I am not taking sides, but we did not win the war. War is not something you can win. You declare war, because you have lost.

Most people in the eastern region, both Tamils and Sinhala, suffer from lack of knowledge. They face a different war. They need to overcome the fear of ignorance. That is what I wanted to emphasize in this work.

Q: In Sri Lanka only a few authors can make a living by their books. If a book sells more than 3000, it will be a rare case. And the book reading habit is also said to have dropped fast. Even so, the market is overflowing with books.

A: As you indicated, many authors have no professional way of earning.Sri Lanka does not have a lucrative market for books, compared with European countries. That does not mean people do not read or buy. A lot of people borrow a book and read. That the people cannot afford the price of books is simply a myth.

If that is so why are they ready to pay Rs 500 for a musical show and more than that for junk food and drink? Expensive eating houses are crowded. They don't do this once a year, like they shop for books in September. They do it frequently.

I remember my university period. The clerical staff used to buy books. Even now the books sell because of such people.

Even people with low income would buy some affordable book. They liked to own a book and read.

On the other hand, there are authors who claim to have their books sold more than 30,000 or 40,000 copies. Well, I am not prejudiced to call them silly publications. I am happy if they sell more than 30,000.

But my problem is neither on the quantity of books in the market nor their saleability, but their quality.

Q: How do you gauge quality?

A: True, we cannot lay down judgement as to how a novel should be. And I believe a novel must not give any advice. A novel must give you something to think.

It must develop your wisdom. It must be like from delight to wisdom.

Q: Your novels give prominent place to descriptions and analyses, perhaps more than the storyline. Do you think that technique attracts a reader?

A: We like to read story. We were used to hear a story from someone else's mouth. We were ready to listen more than reading. Jataka book is the best example. Every Jataka story has a simple plot. We were well satisfied with the plot and forgot the rest. We did not care for other details of the story.

So we easily forgot the fact that the story has more than a mere story. If a book is on a prostitute, then it might have something more than incidents and characterization.

Why she has taken up that job, and how she deal with some traumatic experiences.That's where a hidden layer rests. We do not want to touch that area. We simply watch a picture, but do not read deep into it. If a colour is red, we just identify it is red. We are not bothered to find out why it became red.

Q: Is 'reading deep' essential?

A: Yes. Reading deep enlightens your thinking. That makes you look around differently. You will understand things better.

Q: How did analytical descriptions help your creative works?

A: I deal with the leftist movement in 'Sappurisa'. When we plant a certain plant, we have to think about climate, water and so on - whether they are in right condition. What grows well in freezing regions do not grow in a tropical region.

Same goes for the leftist movement. They tried to implant it here as it is with no ground research.I needed descriptions to elaborate this fact.

Q: You use simple, classical and sometimes regional dialect.

A: Thanks to my poor farmer parents, I was lucky enough to learn environment.

Then the teachers from pirivenas. They had an ample command of Sanskrit, Pali, Sinhala and English. I do not know how far my works have become, but my parents and teachers influenced me quite a lot.