New Horizons – 13 – Consolations

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Aluwihare, Anne Ranasinghe, Arjuna Parakrama, Batik, Belihuloya, Bill McAlpine, brass foundry, carpentry, Dileeni Raheem, Diyaluma, Embroidery, Ena de Silva, Fr Stephen Abraham, Gale Bangalawa, Harin Abeysekera, Horton Plains, Ian Goonetilleke, Ismeth Raheem, Jean Arasanayagam, JVP, K1, K2, Kadurupitiya, Knuckles range, Maduru Oya, Mahaweli, Michael Ondaatje, Nihal Fernando, Nirmali Hettiarachchi, Nuwara Eliya, Peradeniya University, Peter Burleigh, Priyani Abeysekera, Punyakanthe Wijenaike, Shanthi Wilson, Shirley Perera, Suja, Uda Walawe, Wasgomuwa, Yala, Yolande Abeywira

In those years of constant change in the mid-nineties, continuity in terms of family life was provided most solidly by my aunt Ena. We had become great friends way back in 1983, when my adventures at S. Thomas’ had prompted her to seek to get to know me better. We got on superbly from the start, and as she said on her 90^th birthday, when it was clear that she was dying, there was no reason to be sad for we had had such good times together.

These were first and foremost at Aluwihare, her wonderful home in the hills, which she had transformed into a magic retreat, full of colour and exotic artefacts. In addition to the batik and the embroidery done by her girls, as she still called them a quarter of a century after they had begun working with her, she had created employment for the boys of the village too, a carpentry shed and then a brass foundry. And then she had also started a restaurant, not one but two for she had no sense of restraint, K1 as she called it down the hill from her home where meals could be booked by tour groups, K2 on the roadside, which was not only a Kitchen but also provided rooms to stay.

The first was catered to by her own cook, Suja who she claimed could not boil water when she had first come to work, but who now produced the most marvelous concoctions. The other provided work for the middle aged ladies of the village, some of them relations. Though they exuded confusion as they bustled about, they were quite charming, and those who stayed and those who ate were entranced. The American ambassador, Peter Burleigh, used it seems to stay there often, which may well have been for nefarious purposes, but he was dearly loved by the ladies.

We had gone down often to Yala in the eighties, with memorable holidays during the times of turmoil, when we had the Park practically to ourselves. But when the JVP insurrection was over, more and more people began to visit, so we found other places too, Uda Walawe and Horton Plains and more frequently Wasgomuwa, which was a relatively short journey from Alu, over the Knuckles range to the Eastern plain.

Rajiva Wijesinha’s The Past Is Another Country – Down memory lane Jean Arasanayagam

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Jaffna, Jean Arasanayagam, Penideniya Teacher Training College, Tamil, The Past is Another Country

The Past is Another Country is a series of interviews with individuals distinguished for their contributions to culture and to society. In addition to discussing their individual contributions, the programmes explore the context in which each of them functioned. The interviews, by Rajiva Wijesinha, cover a range of developments in post-independence Sri Lanka, and present a panoramic view of social change in the latter half of the 20^th century.

Jean Arasanayagam is a poet and writer who has chronicled both her heritage as a member of the Burgher community, and the traumas of racial violence which she suffered from, because of her marriage to a Tamil. A teacher, and lecturer at the Penideniya Teacher Training College, she also describes the clash of cultures experienced through her marriage into a conservative Jaffna family.

A bridge across languages

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Bridging Connections, British Council, Cheran, Jean Arasanayagam, Michael Ondaatje, Mirrored Images: An Anthology of Sri Lankan Poetry, National Book Trust, National Book Trust of India, poems, Poetry, Richard de Zoysa, The English Patient, The Graetian Prize, The Hindu

“Mirrored Images” focuses on Sri Lankan poetry written since 1948, in Sinhala, Tamil and English

In 2007, the National Book Trust brought out “Bridging Connections”, an anthology of Sri Lankan short stories edited by Rajiva Wijesinha, a member of the Sri Lankan Parliament, and a distinguished writer and academic.

Spurred by its success, they considered bringing out a companion anthology of Sri Lankan poetry. After hesitating initially, Wijesinha agreed to edit this volume as well. Launched recently in the Capital, “Mirrored Images” contains selections from English poetry as also translations from Sinhala and Tamil poetry into English. It includes works by some of the island country’s most respected poets, such as Cheran, Jean Arasanayagam, Richard Zoysa, among several others.

Mirrored Images – 3

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Dirge for Your Village and Mine, Jean Arasanayagam, LIYANAGE AMARAKEERTHI, Mr. Amirthalingam, Nallur, Once upon a Foreign Country, P. AHILAN, Poetry

Once upon a Foreign Country

LIYANAGE AMARAKEERTHI

‘Broken, beautifully broken,’
I thought
on the day Karuna broke away from the Tigers
and I read it on the Net

I wanted to call my friends
and enjoy the news with them
all the Sinhalese who gather to eat rice together
and brag about building the nation

My defeated, guilty
arrogant Sinhala heart.

Broken
My two year old son’s sleep
was broken
by the clatter of the computer
on the day Karuna broke away

Piggy-backed as usual
while I read the Net
looking over my head
at Karuna’s face on the monitor
my son said ‘Thatha’

In fact Karuna does look like me
no need of more proof
my wife thinks so too

Another day
when having risen early
I read in the BBC
about the assassination of Kaushalyan
an Eastern tiger leader
my son was in my lap
still a bit sleepy

‘Thatha,’ he said
leaning against my heart
looking at Kaushalyan
on the page I was reading

I had to agree with my son
at least to an extent
I looked like Kaushalyan too

To my son’s eyes
still not blinded by culture
still not bound by ideology
all three of us look alike
with no mark of ethnicity
carved on our foreheads

At the instant my son gifted me
with the third eye of insight
I saw Karuna, Kaushalyan and myself as one

If I was born in the North or East
if I had to run in that bitter black July
barely evading torches, knives, swords
and the clubs of Sinhala thugs
in ragged clothes, bleeding all over
carrying little brothers and sisters

screaming
but still not awakening the peacefully sleeping
Sinhala political conscience

in Colombo, Galle, Kurunegala,
and sacred Anuradhapura
if I had to grow up
under the world-destroying Ishwara gaze of the Sun God
tied in the chains of ideology
which polish fear with blood
into public opinion
I may well have been copied into Karuna
and tamed into Kaushalyan

Auden said of Yeats
‘Mad Ireland hurt him into poetry’
and this mad island
has hurt us all into the heart of madness

Which idiot says
‘There is no problem for Tamils
just because they are Tamils’
in this great lie that is Dharmadeepa?

But when I read how Kadirgamar’s heart
the heart of a man left alone between Sinhala and Tamil
was pierced by a bullet
when he was cleansing himself of the filth
that got to him hanging around with politicians all day
my heart was defeated

I was alone
without my son over my head
or in my lap by my heart

He doesn’t like it anymore
to look at the computer which shows him
other forms of his father

perhaps knowing by instinct
that it hurts the heart he leans against

I am afraid again
that my conscience might fall asleep
that I hurt reading the Internet
when living in a foreign country

Should I tell my son of the death of Uncle Kadir?
Why should I give him my Lankan sorrow?
No. I will tell him something good
about Lanka, Sinhala and Tamil

Let him sleep happily
in a foreign country

Mirrored Images – Introduction

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Amarakeerthi Liyanage, Chelva Kanaganayakam, Days in the Trenches, Eric Illayaparacchi, Human Bomb, Indian Cultural Centre, Indian High Commissioner, Jean Arasanayagam, Lakshmi Holmstrom, Ministry of National Languages and Social Integration, National Book Trust of India, P. AHILAN, Peradeniya University, Poetry, Refugees – Old Man Old Woman, Sunday Observer

‘Mirrored Images’, a collection of English and Sinhala and Tamil poetry from Sri Lanka, was launched in Colombo on September 20th, and subsequently in Kandy on the 27th and in Jaffna on the 30th. The Colombo event was chaired by the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, HE Yashwant Singh, with Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Minister of National Languages and Social Integration as Chief Guest. The even was arranged by the Indian Cultural Centre, in collaboration with the Alliance Francaise.

Both these institutions have collaborated on the launches in Kandy and in Jaffna. The former event was held at Peradeniya University and the latter at the Indian consulate. Poets featured in the book read at all the events, attendance in Colombo by readers from Jaffna, and vice versa, being sponsored by the Ministry of National Languages and Social Integration.

The volume was launched earlier in Canada by the Sri Lankan Mission in Toronto, with a keynote address by Prof Chelva Kanaganayakam, who has furnishe an introduction to the Tamil section of the book. Prof Chelvanayakam taught English previously at the University of Jaffna, while his father was Professor of Tamil at the University of Peradeniya. The introduction to the Sinhala section of the book was written by Prof Amarakeerthi Liyanage who teaches currently at the University of Peradeniya.

The book, which was edited by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha and published by the National Book Trust of India, is a sequel to ‘Bridging Connections’, a collection of English and Sinhala and Tamil short stories from Sri Lanka which was published in 2007 and has now been translated into Oriya and Marathi and Tamil.

Poems from each language on similar themes were brought together by Prof Wijesinha for a weekly column in the ‘Sunday Observer’, which was then features on this site. Over the next few months poems from each language, in alphabetical order of the names of the writers, as they appear in each section of the book, will be brought together here, to enhance understanding of the different styles and perspectives, and of the common humanity of all the writers.

Travels With Ena: 1983 and its Impact – Part 4

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Alfreda de Silva, Aluwihare, Anne Ranasinghe, Anuradhapura, Ena de Silva, Esmond Wickremesinghe, Gal Vihare, Jean Arasanayagam, Lyn Illangakoon, Polonnaruwa, Raymond Allchin, Richard de Zoysa, S. Thomas’, The New Lankan Review

Nick arrived in early July, and we had a fantastic couple of weeks, beginning with the launch on the evening he landed of The New Lankan Review. This was a journal I had decided to start that year, when Richard de Zoysa and I found ourselves out of jobs after being sacked from S. Thomas’. We taught in a little house in 8^th Lane that my father was looking after for some friends, and in between we wrote avidly. I think the journal, which went on for eight years, the last issue being in memory of Richard who was murdered in 1990, proved a vital influence in making Sri Lankan writing in English acceptable, whereas previously the social and academic elite had looked down on it.

The first Review was also noted however for an account of my adventures at S. Thomas’, which did not get me any credit at home, since most of my relations thought I had been far too critical of the many characters who I felt had behaved badly in the episode. One exception was my uncle Esmond, who was a great gossip and told me that I had been extremely skilful to steer just on the right side of libel, in drawing attention to the various unsavoury motives of the elite of Colombo. Ena, needless to say, also found the account instructive, not least because she had been overwhelmed by the criticisms of her sister and others who had heard only the Illangakoon side of the story.

Post-Colonial Perspectives 4 – A range of performances

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Alfreda de Silva, Amaradeva, Anne Ranasinghe, Colombo Symphony Orchestra, Earle de Fonseka, James Goonewardene, Jean Arasanayagam, Lakdasa Wikkramasinha, Patrick Fernando, Peace Samarasekera, Piyasara Shilpadhipathi, Prashanthi Navaratnam, Punyakante Wijenaike, Regi Siriwardena, Rex Baker, Trinity College, Yasmine Gooneratne

Colombo Symphony Orchestra

Before I got involved in education too, my work consisted of ensuring positive publicity for the work of the Council in general, while also promoting literature and art and film and music. I set myself a target of about half a dozen programmes a month in the Hall, together with something larger about once a quarter. Fortunately Rex was quite happy to let me work on Sri Lankan efforts too, so I generally managed to ensure a regular flow of activity.

This was made easier by the fact that London had a library of films, from which we could borrow one each month, for several screenings, in addition to a set for a festival each year. I had a judicious mix of culture and entertainment, old favourites

Trinity College Choir

and contemporary productions. Then there were lectures and readings, the occasional art exhibition, and a few concerts. We got down British musicians about twice a year, for performances in the Hall as well as in larger concerts outside, usually in collaboration with the Symphony Orchestra. I was also able to showcase local talent such as the Trinity College Choir, and Prashanthi Navaratnam, after her initial training in London.

Preshanthi Navaratnam

We developed an excellent collaboration with the Symphony Orchestra, chaired in those days by the redoubtable Peace Samarasekera and conducted almost always by Earle de Fonseka. He was utterly charming, and a highlight of all performances was the dinner he hosted at his house for the entire orchestra, plus anyone he thought had helped. We also did some work with local musicians, initially because a delightful man called Sivasambu ran what he called the Bloomsbury Group in London, which had an annual festival for which he asked the Council to sponsor an artist from Sri Lanka. We sent both Amaradeva and Piyasara Shilpadhipathi, on one occasion together. I knew the work of the former of course, but I was privileged to discover the latter’s excellence as a drummer.

Bridging Connections – Feelings of Alienation

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A Day In The New World, Alienation, Appaalthamil, Bridging Connections, Christopher Francis, Emigration, Frozen State, Jean Arasanayagam, Ki.Pi. Aravinthan, Memory Island, Parvathi Arasanayagam, Poetry, Sunil Govinnage

Understandably enough, given the constant emigration from this country over the last few decades, a constant theme in poetry by Sri Lankans has been the plight of the exile. Given the vast numbers of Tamils who have left, this is obviously more common in Tamil writers, and the forthcoming collection will reflect this. I will start here however with a poem by a Sinhalese writer now in Australia, Sunil Govinnage. The poem comes from a collection called ‘Memory Island’, which in itself suggests the relation to his roots of the writer, who has also worked in Thailand. He was previously at the Institute of Fundamental Studies in Kandy, and has taught at Notre Dame University in Perth, where he works now for the Western Australian Civil Service.