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| Friday, 2 May 2003 |
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Comical tales from Old Sri Lanka The Adventures of Andare, the court jester Mahadenamutta, the old man who knew everything Retold by: Vijita Fernando The two story books rekindled the nostalgic memories of my childhood when I, like many others in their younger days had the luxury of listening to many stories told by their grandparents or another elder in the family. Story telling usually took place in the evening. Children seated around, the youngest child often couched on the lap of the story teller. We, the listeners had to comply with several conditions for the story teller to go ahead with his/her task. First we had to be wide awake and well attentive. We could show our lively response by grunts of approval after each short pause of the story. For our mothers, it was a time to quicken up with preparation of the night meal or whatever other evening chore they had to finish, before their children fall asleep. When twilight turns into deep darkness in the night, and the bottle lamp chased the darkness just enough to make out the persons close to you, sleep was not far away as in the electric light filled nights of nowadays. Though we heard these stories many times over they never bored us. Those were the stories born and fashioned in our own environment. Fairy tales with the characters of beautiful princesses, ugly giants or devils with supernatural powers were not much of a part of the tradition of our stories. Instead, we had our Jataka stories, which are believed to tell the stories of the previous births of Bodisatta and a plethora of stories woven around animals, which are very much similar to Aesop's Fables, and similar stories, originated in Sanskrit literature in India and were available in translation. The stories of Mahadenamutta are a group of stories woven around antics of a man who professed himself to be a man of great wisdom, and who had a set of seven disciples as foolish as he, who accompanied him. Nevertheless, every act or a piece of advice by Mahadenamutta was an act of folly causing either a disaster or havoc. It is these foolish acts by him and his disciples that would make people laugh, children and adults alike. Mahadenamutta, in our minds was an old person airing a look of wisdom with his long flowing beard, the walking stick, which was a symbol of authority more than a walking aid, and hair tied in a knot at the back of his head, and a curved comb pinned to his crown. His disciples too were named according to their most conspicuous character in their physiques. Pol-be-muna had a round face, just like an exact half of a broken coconut. Kootukithaiya was a thin, tall person like a stick. The Adventures of Andare, the court jester is a set of stories which provides profuse amusement to a child and to an adult alike. Andare, for some was a person who actually lived during the 18th century serving King Ragadhi Rajasinghe as the court jester. Andare, as depicted in the stories was a satirist. He laughed at everybody. King was no exception. Infact, the king was often his target. With his antics, not only did he make the king and the others laugh, but he criticized certain acts of the king. In our childhood minds. Andare was more than a jester; he was a hero who dared laughing at the king but escaped his wrath. Vijita Fernando has been quite faithful to the memories of those who knew these stories as children. Sybil Wettasinghe, another children's writer who has written and illustrated at least hundred books has contributed to these two books by her lively illustrations. Books written and illustrated by her have been published in the United States, and in translation, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, China and Korea. A child reader, coming across the illustrations by Sybil Wettasinghe would not help chuckling, for her lines are so intimate with the child mind. Two good books as gifts for any child, here or abroad ######## Sherle and I Author: C.A. Fall "My philosophy is that life goes on, even if you don't have a good breakfast. Sherle's is that if you're having breakfast at all, you might as well have a good one." Despite their obvious differences, a Sri Lankan studying biology overseas befriends a young law student, Sherle. Their developing friendship and their singularly humorous personalities lead them into several hilarious situations, both overseas and on a visit to Sri Lanka, before bringing them to an inevitable - or perhaps not so inevitable - conclusion. C.A. Fall was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1984. The Ultimate War, her first novel, was published by Stamford Lake in 2001. Set in the aftermath of a futuristic war, it looks at how, at the war's end, forces personnel of various countries who were involved in the war take on the emotional undertaking of caring for war-orphaned children. This novel was followed by Sherle and I, published in 2002, a humorous romance set in the present fast-contracting global scenario where people of diverse cultures are brought into contact with increasing frequency. C.A. Fall is a pseudonym. ######## Thursday's Child Author:- Deirdre Jonklaas CADIRAMEN Thursday's Child begins with the culmination of a rags-to-riches story, enacted in an emotive plethora of dreams. Beginning with an under-privileged Indian boy's teen years, where each day is a drama, frequent switches from present to past reveal conflict areas within complex experiences. Ending on a note of poignancy, with the central character orphaned upon survival of a raging inferno, hope lies on the horizon when he battles an identity crisis. Richer by the experience, he emerges psychologically unscathed; giving away to his meteoric change in circumstance. Deirdre Jonklaas Cadiramen was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka into a "Dutch-Burgher" family - one of the 600 or so Dutch families that opted to remain after British capture in 1796. Their history remains in Sri Lanka in their architecture; the Roman-Dutch legal system; the Dutch Reformed Church; and some of their cuisine. Her genealogy dates back to 1685. Deirdre was educated at CMS Ladies' College, Colombo. She worked as an executive secretary in a bank in Dubai, where she lived for 14 years. Thereafter she spent a-year-and-a-half in Powai's lake, mountain district of Mumbai, India, returning to Colombo in 2000. She was shortlisted for the 2002 David T. K. Wong Fellowship. Thursday's Child is her second book. |
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