Book launch: The Moonemalle Inheritance
The book authored by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha MP, 'The Moonemalle
Inheritance', will be launched today at 6 pm at the Indian Cultural
Centre, 16/2, Gregory's Road, Colombo 7.
Published in honour of Ena de Silva for her 90th birthday, the book
consists of memoirs and also fiction based on characters and situations
recorded from a different perspective.
The Chief Guest will be Yasmine Gooneratne, whose 'Relative Merits'
provided inspiration for the idea of presenting social change through
the history of a family. Channa Daswatte of Geoffrey Bawa Associates
will also speak in appreciation of Ena de Silva's seminal contribution
to Sri Lankan design. Her latest mural, an imaginative excursus on the
Taj Mahal and its never completed black twin, adorns the entrance of the
Indian Cultural Centre.
The book launch will be accompanied by an exhibition of photographs
representing the writer's personal odyssey over the last few years. It
covers much travel in Sri Lanka and abroad but is organized in terms,
not of places, but of subject areas. These comprise Sun and Sky, Water,
Earth, Rocks and Trees, the Arts and People and Animals.
The first section of the book describes the progeny of John Marcellus
Lewis Moonmalle, great grandfather of Ena de Silva, and great great
grandfather of the writer.
It deals largely with those who grew up in 'The Old Place' the house
in Kurunegala of John Marcellus' daughter Ada and her husband Edward
Goonewardene.
Their grand-daughter Lakshmi lived on alone in the house for nearly
two decades before the place was finally sold.
The second section describes 'Travels with Ena', explorations of
different parts of Sri Lanka, with ventures too in India and in China.
The fiction in the last section includes chapters from 'Servants', which
won the Gratiaen Award for 1995, and from 'Acts of Faith' and 'Days of
Despair', which deal with ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka in the eighties.
Proceeds from the sale of photographs will be donated to the
Vocational Training Centres run by Aide et Action in the Mullaitivu
District and planned in Kilinochchi.
All are welcome.
For details contact the Indian Cultural Centre on 2684698 or email
[email protected]. |