Human experiences as cross cultural studies

Nihal Gunasekara is a lesser known name in the field of Sinhala literature. He happened to be an occasional short story writer, whose narratives had appeared in Sunday newspapers and some broadcast over radio channels.

The main factor visible in Gunasekara's creativity is the ability to gather material from daily life and mould narrative about men and women whose lifestyles have been challenged by incidents in foreign strands.

Challenges

One of the finest examples comes from his maiden collection of Sinhala short stories titled as 'Asal Wasiyo'. There are eight short stories in the collection. The short stories touch sensitive experiences such as living in isolation, challenges of ageing parents, nature of deceitful males and females, and the undiminishing fear psychosis of terrorism. The creativity of Gunasekara lies in both the storytelling factor and the human interest factor.

Take for example the short story titled 'Upan Dinaya'. It is a sensitive study of the innerness of an elderly mother and father, whose children live in foreign countries. The starting point is marked as a morning when the aged father, disregarding that his birthday has fallen on that particular day, goes on reading the morning newspaper as a routine. The ageing mother too is shown as attending to her day to day work. But the moment comes when the reader is made to realize that the father had been lurking round the telephone, expecting some calls. Both of them go on to talk about their grown up children, who are not to be seen around. Like in a poem of Khalil Gibran, where the poetic vision captures that 'your children are not yours', the ageing parents go on trying their best to spend the passage of time.

The reader is further kept in suspense as the mother invites the father to partake of special eatables that lie on the table as sent by some close relations. As the story unfurls, then all of a sudden the father tells the mother about a telephone call he got from one of the daughters living abroad. All they agree to comment rests on a few words that go as: 'they all have work'.

"How can they find time to remember our birthdays?"

Soothing

But on the other hand, a diametrically opposed feeling too lingers on. That feeling is sensitively captured when the father says, "Anyway at least she remembered me." They try to appease themselves by their own soothing words. Then he remembers his two sons. A feeling of isolation enters his mind. The moment of illumination is recorded when instantly the telephone rings, transmitting the voice of his sons, who wish him 'May you live long taking our span of life as well.' The high point in the story is the moment when father who is moved to tears fails to respond to the call.

As a reader of the modern Sinhala short stories that appear in most present day anthologies, I felt that the particular story is one of the best to come out. As a short narrative, it has a humane depth and a sense of social consciousness that is perhaps forgotten by most creators. In some short stories, Gunasekara makes the reader feel that humans depend on their beliefs to a grand level that if a moment of disappointment reaches, they are frustrated a great extent.

This feeling is sensed in such stories as 'Vehikodaya', 'Para Vasa Etha' and 'Mara Timira Meda'. In all these narratives, an aroma of socio-religious, socio spiritual message, is seen as a thread that weaves the web of existence. In some instances I felt that readability is a problem, as the creator emerges more with his descriptions sans actual creations of human situations.

But this may not be regarded as a grave error of judgment on the sensitivity of the creator. Perhaps it may be the creative technique adopted by the writer and the way he is influenced. All in all, the collection of short stories paves the way for the understanding of some of the salient factors pertaining to the contemporary cross cultural issues. [email protected]