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| Sunday, 19 January 2003 |
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'Miringuwa Alleema' (Capturing the Mirage) : A socio-sexual study of a civil servant This uncharasteric fiction, in its conventional sense, isn't a narrative nor a tale, but a fictional account. In style, not so familiar to the Sinhala novel-reader, it is more a challenge inviting him to get to the core to find its pith and substance within the composition which is highly personalised and deeply dug and carved to bring out the psychological run and rumbling of a man who was stranded in between two worlds - whether to live or not when failed to bring material bliss to life. The issues are so complicated and interact so profusely and minutely, if one says he is yet to understand the character of Sunil, one will not be surprised. Siri Gunasinghe who once rocked the Sinhala poetry reader with his unconventional compendium of poems Mas Le Nethi Eta (bones without blood and flesh), has come out with his latest novel 'Miringuwa Alleema'. It is replete with emotions and feelings of frustration and is a store-house of psychological complexities that could engage the reader in total absorption. Siri has evolved an anecdotal presentation in conversational idiom of his own that suits the fortuitous descriptive content of the novel. He has shown exceptional skill in fashioning an unusual style in which the content dissolves in the form. It finally produces a fine fiction that drives itself into the sympathetic imagination of the reader to take root in effective integration. Complexity of one's mental constitution interacting with his emotional stance weaving itself with ease to constitute the texture of the novel. It is a subscription of the predicament of a young civil servant, captured from different perspectives perceived by his close associates who had come in personal contact with him. His continuous struggle to embrace the essence of life which he thought would hold out to him in marriage and office became elusive and beyond him, with each day passing. On the other hand, in fact he had no notion of what the substance of life is. His environment social, official and domestic was in constant turmoil which only aggravated his receding self confidence and pride rendering himself a victim of his own intellectual and social background. It only helped his soul to drift away from reality unable to foot himself on a ground of pragmatic approach to life. His failed sexual life whether in marriage before marriage or outside the marriage, was central to his disconcerted life and conduct. His splintered character scattered in various directions, was an outcome of both attachment and detachment determined by an intense feeling of emotional insecurity. inflicted by a continuing mental state of being unsure of himself and to take grip of life not knowing what he really wanted and did not want, he was hauled and mauled between sensibility and imagination. I find three miens featured in his character each failing to get the better of the other, hence, he was torn and drawn in different irreconcilable directions depriving him of any peace or harmony in any area which could have provided him with strength and stability to life. Strained under an inborn inferiority complex his high office, learning and wealth proved of no effect to resolve ambiguities and obscruties in life. In Amitha (wife) his greed for wealth was reflected, while Shrimathi with whom he had pre-marital relations symbolised his desire for learning. Lastly Anula the stenographer provided the avenue of relief for his life already burdened with thirst for wealth and position which itself turned his tormentor. He was so preoccupied with these sensitivities that he lost touch on sex which is vital for healthy marital relations. He was reeling between extremes and his death by suicide is the furthest extreme to which he swung thus ending the life he loved so much. In his mind, the riches Amitha tagged to his life outfoxed the learning of Srimathi while plainness of Anula acted as a soothing balm to soften the pressure of these two extremes that put him under stress. The clue that leads one to realise the nature of his spirituality and emotionally tangled character lies in his initial option to enter the elite civil service in preference to the less glamorous career as a University lecturer whose position is lacklustre and without power, riches, authority and glory the very mundane things he relished and his demented ego cherished. Taking refuge in liquor exhibited his weakest point. He lost his balance and threw himself into the wilderness of indecision. Amitha deprived of the warmth of love and affection distanced herself away from him both physically and emotionally. Neither the children became a unifying factor, at least to keep the conjugal relations between husband wife alive. He was sometimes proud of possession and achievement, but was never sought contentment which forms the very basis of satisfaction in life of a man. He never enjoyed nothing in position, wealth or anything else. He only enjoyed the desire for possession and once in possession, the love for it was lost throwing himself into perpetual frustration. In fact, his whole existence was only one of shoe of the unsatisfactory state of all transient things. Reduced to a man with no purpose or objective in life, he drowned himself in liquor hoping to find solace or to be in continuous mental state of being insensitive to emotional complexities from which he had no escape. The whole work involving Sunil and interaction with others who entered into his life was designed to move from all ends to all roots and from all roots to disclose his total collapse. Compound nature of Sunil's life betrays the concealed straight line delineation leading the reader to conclusion that like samsara there is no beginning or end in the tangled web of his life. Seemingly accomplished life of a person is no mirror to assess what lies beneath the facade. Sunil's life which is a kinky ball of thread is what really the novel itself weaves. It moves forth and back, interlaces and interlocks, all sketched to figure out who Sunil is viewed in introspection and propulsion of his self. It is highly readable, quite stimulating lending to fresh experience of a neo-psycho-analysis. The writer has discovered the ideal style, rhythm and idiom to portray the distraught character of a man who is truly a wandering in samsara. Sunil's failure to discover himself is the greatest tragedy that transcends the end of his life by suicide. by E. M. G. Edirisinghe |
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