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| Sunday, 29 January 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Power and pain in the life of a Flower Queen Title: 'From Flower to Pawn' by Aditha Dissanayake Having finally reached the last page of Padma Edirisinghe's latest book, From Flower to Pawn, I am now staring at the computer screen, my fingers numb on the keyboard, suffering from an unusual bout of acute Writer's Block. Why has the book left me wordless? Could it be the fact that for the first time in my life I find the writer who scribbled on the cover "With the compliments of the author to an outstanding young writer", before giving the book to me, more interesting than the book itself? And, considering the fact that From Flower to Pawn is about Dona Catherina who was destined to lead one of the strangest, saddest and most chaotic lives a Lankan woman was ever to own" this is surely saying a lot. Yes, I like Padma Edirisinghe (nee Wijesinghe), whose brother, Dr. Wilfred Wijesinghe, is one of those rear physicians in our midst who genuinely cares for his patients. Padma Edirisinghe, dressed in a cotton sari with a silver chain from which hangs a pendant similar to the one Kate Winslet is gifted with, in the movie, Titanic, who was born in Veyangoda, graduated from the University of Peradeniya, and who worked her way through the posts of teacher, Teacher's College lecturer and Teacher's College Principal in various parts of the island culminating her career as Director of Colleges of Education (for teachers) is an outstanding individual who claims to have veered "away from the timidity of the average Asiatic woman". It comes as no surprise therefore, when she says that in this, her latest book she shows Dona Catherina through a feminine point of view. The apparition of Kuweni on page 170, explaining to Dona Catherina that "Laws are made by males and they flout them at the first opportunity...you know it all" vouchsafe this statement. The title From flower to Pawn aptly sums the content of the 200 pages, written in a large, easy to read font in the vibrant style unique to the writer. Alluring yet puzzling, demanding and baffling, reading Flower to Pawn you realise the words are metaphors for Dona Catherina - the flower queen who became a pawn in the hands of men eager for power. On page 50, we are given a glimpse of her thoughts as she undergoes an orgy of "suffering perpetrated on her by her protectors, the Portuguezen" "What a funny morbid game they were playing. Just butting into other people's land and acting the busybody as if God has gifted the land to them to play their games. Changing names. Making kings. Unmaking kings...promising the sky and the earth". Now and then, the writer makes digressions making one recall Henry Fielding. Digressions though which ought not to be skipped. i.e. the pages that focus on the predominance of Upama on Sinhala Literature, highlighting the similes used by Sri Rahula "Women with full swan like breasts and cart wheel hips, observing goings on down the streets, leisurely from their balconies and distinguished from celestial goddesses only by the batting of their eye lids!" How the writer returns to the main story after this digression is best left to be discovered from reading the book. Together with the two illustrations from Baldaeus and the four plates from Spilbergen's Travel Journal, the book has surely enabled Dona Catherina to hover over us"in some strange ethereal form" so much so that the words of Mary Frye becomes hers "Do not stand on my grave and cry/I am not there I did not die/I am the thousand winds that blow/I am the soft uplifting rush,/Do not stand on my grave and weep,/I am not there, I do not sleep"..... Seeing life steady, seeing it whole "The Seeing Eye" - Ransiri Menike Silva I find the title of Ransiri Menike Silva's "The Seeing Eye" most appropriate as the stories it contains are reflective of an eye that sees clearly and perceptively and sees with fine discrimination. We see here ample evidence of an individual 'seeing life steady and seeing it whole' to borrow that somewhat overused but apt Arnoldian expression. Her writing is authentic in that her observations, characters and the situations they are subjected to, ring true to life and the reader is hence able to identify readily and easily with the world of Ransiri Menike Silva. She takes everyday, ordinary events like a visit to a barber (The Barber Shop), buying a pair of shoes (New Shoes) or scenes at a funeral house, (The Face of Death) subjects them to her creative imagination and transmutes them into extra-ordinary happenings. And this process of transmutation or transcreation is utterly unpretentious and seemingly effortless. I notice a spontaneous overflow of natural feeling in each of the stories in The Seeing Eye. There is no contrivance of incident or deliberate manipulation of character here. I see these qualities....simplicity, unpretentiousness, lack of contrivance and authorial manipulation, delicate power of observation, spontaneity of thought and feeling and truth to life.... as Ransiri Menike Silva's strengths as a writer. Example, the opening paragraphs of The Barber Shop. If coping with or responding to change is at the heart of The Barber Shop , the story titled Nigel seems an interesting tale of how we deal with regret and remorse. Isn't it strange that we always tend to associate negative or marginal feelings with something or someone unfamiliar, that does not square with what each of us considers to be normal and familiar? New Shoes is another interesting story in this collection. The story is woven around Sanji whose parents had promised her a new pair of shoes as a gift on her fourth birthday. it so happens that by an unhappy coincidence, one of Sanji's paternal uncles dies suddenly and his funeral is to be held on the very evening of Sanji's birthday. Like any little child Sanji is of course oblivious of all that a funeral entails and is only concerned with the celebration of her birthday and being the recipient of the promised new shoes. Not finding her father anywhere around the house upon waking up, the little girl runs to her mother in great anticipation only to be casually hugged and cursorily wished for her birthday. No. special birthday kiss or gift is on offer. She is simply told that her mother is busy and to ask Magilin, the servant, for her breakfast. Sadly, Sanji's mother does not appear to have either patience and tact or the empathy needed to respond appropriately to the little girl. Preoccupied with and distracted by the hundred and one things that needed going round the house in connection with the funeral of her brother-in-law, she might well have been., but this ought not have kept her from putting herself in the child's shoes! Happily for Sanji, her father's reaction as soon as he returns home is as anticipated. Getting out of the car he swings Sanji high up in the air, twirls her around him and joyously sings 'Happy birthday to you'. Sanji reminds the father of the promised shoes and he promptly asks her to get dressed to go shopping for them despite her mother's strong disapproval. Sanji is thrilled when Magilin and Sanji's father treat Sanji like the child she is. Her inability to do so draws attention to Sanji's mother's acute insensitivity to a child's needs. There are variety and range in The Seeing Eye. If the stories I have mentioned touch on the serious and the sombre, there are others that bring a touch of humour or add a note of satire. I suggest you look at Uncle Harry (see Uncle Harry ) of 'pachydermous proportions' who potters around in (his) 'elephantine shorts and loose banian.' He is a character and a half. His wife Aunty Marge is affectionately referred to as 'my barge' by Uncle Harry. Luckily for him, Uncle Harry lived in those far off days before crusaders of violence against women came to be! Uncle Harry's appearances and disappearances are humorously presented and the loose ends of the story are neatly tied up at the end. I wish to conclude by making two references. In an essay titled 'Sri Lankan Authors Writing in English', Surimalee Karunaratne has said: "I believe that what gives validity and authenticity to a piece of writing is its author's insight into life." A careful and sensitive reader will notice a great deal of insight into the human condition in the stories in The Seeing Eye. Yet, as I pointed out earlier these are simple tales based on everyday occurrences. This is not to imply, however, that the stories lack depth but to suggest that they are without ostentation and artifice. And this seeming simplicity, paradoxical as it may sound, gives the stories a certain profundity and gravitas .. a profundity and gravitas arising from the author's power of observation which is sharp, acute and delicate at one and the same time. Ransiri Menike Silva does not poke the reader in the eye to make him see. Her touch is gentle and subtle and is, therefore, the more effective. Chitra Fernando, in an essay titled 'The Writers Craft: Marginal Comments on Lankan Fiction in English', has commented on the general issues facing any writer regardless of time and place, and I quote: "The main issue centres on what conditions are necessary for writing stories. The serious and committed writer must have something to say. That is the obvious starting point. For this a reservoir of experience is necessary, either one's own or that drawn from observing the lives of others. The writer must have 'a seeing eye', that third eye which enables him to penetrate into the thoughts and feelings of those observed. This is the kind of knowledge that enables you to put an illuminating comment into a character's mouth, place your characters in specific relationships to each other and present key events suggestive of social currents, the Zeitgeist of the period." Having read The Seeing Eye carefully I make remarkbold to say that Ransiri Menike Silva possesses all these attributes that, as Chitra Fernando has correctly identified, should be in the possession of any serious and committed writer. Anusha- a case study 'Anusha A Homeless Life in Sri Lanka' Reviewed by Prof. Nandasena Ratnapala This is a case study. The Author selects a family and involves himself in the activities of the family and he almost becomes a participant observer. The Author worked in a hospital in Colombo. His work as a Management Consultant enables him to establish a good rapport with the Beggar family. This is how he says that he got involved in this work. Starting out "From 2002 to 2005 I lived in Colombo, and I had to make that choice. For two and half years, I worked at a hospital and apart from this I explored the wheeling and dealing of one family which belongs to the poorest population group. I have tried to register as minutely as possible what happens in a family like this as well as the enormous opposition such a family meets with from higher levels of the population, when they try to climb the social ladder and also with how little this family can survive". The selection of the family is by coincidence. Through the family tree the author looks at the entire Beggar World. He notices how children are borrowed. This is quite common among the beggars. In my research with the Beggars I found how they utilize children to beg. I came across child auctions in which children suffering from various disabilities were auctioned, such children with abnormal physical developments could very easily evoke the sympathy of the public and thus fetch a high price at the auction. Author's observation The Author's observation of the Beggar World is authentic. He looks at the beggars with sympathy and respect, he notices how the beggar adopts various devices to evoke sympathy. The "beggar behaviour" is correctly seen by him. A large gift is accepted just as routinely as a small one. The Author observes the beggars at the traffic light crossings. This was not observed until the nineties. The beggars before that time did not frequent traffic light junctions. Today Mudalalis bring them and deposit them in these places to beg. When motor cars stop for the lights to change they come and beg. The Author met the family almost daily. He gave them money and various presents. It is good of him being an European, to befriend the beggars openly. Such behaviour could be easily misunderstood and once the young beggar woman with him was referred to as the "White man's Whore". Actually to continue such behaviour with the beggar's required immense dedication and patience and with child prostitution and sexual exploitation of women being the talk of the day, an European to undertake befriending a beggar family with a young mother and children is something unique. The author attempts to rehabilitate the family. By his close rapport he comes to understand them. What is required is a permanent source of income. He attempts to install Anusha in a number of jobs and each time it turns out a failure. He finds that it is not easy to establish them in the job. That requires persistence and understanding. Story Behind each beggar the author sees a family. This way he realises the importance of the family life to the beggars. Even in the street there is family life. This is a fact that has to be understood by all those interested in beggar rehabilitation. It requires the rehabilitation of the entire family if beggars are to be changed. Anusha's family was living on the streets for fourteen long years. It is necessary to make them live in a house, this is not easy. The street socialization has to give way to a new order. They have to get them socialized into a new neighbourhood. Going into a house is a new experience. The author learns about the Beggar King in Colombo. Actually this is a Sub-King because the real beggar king for the entire island is a Mudalali. The Author sees how the Beggar King rules over the beggars. A place to beg is allocated by him to each individual beggar. Solution Why is it difficult to rehabilitate them? In my research in the eighties I found 57000 beggars. None of them had the right to vote. The absence of a permanent place of stay was the reason they could not send their children to school. The writer finds it extremely difficult to get a bank account opened for the family. In rehabilitating beggars child socialization is very necessary. Beggar children are not sent to school. They have no permanent place of stay. Birth certificates are not available. We find Berkouwer's attempts to secure a birth certificate for a beggar child. The opposition he faces and the problems with the bureaucracy he encounters from the Grama Sevaka upwards is worth mentioning. I have not read about the problems of this type even in Sinhalese. These bureaucratic difficulties are minutely and cleverly depicted. To anyone who wishes to understand the Beggar World Anusha is a good book to read.To those (both the Government, NGOs and other individuals) intent on rehabilitation, it is a must. It shows them how to respect the beggars to understand them and to rehabilitate them with their families. When I was a beggar I was forcibly taken to Ridigama with a number of beggars. This way of forceful "Rehabilitation" would not answer the problem. Giving them land or building houses and placing them there is not sufficient. How such an attempt ended in failure is seen among the Vedda's at Dambana. The Veddas were taken from their wild habitat and deposited in a number of new houses at Kandegamvila. But at that time it did not succeed because the method of rehabilitation completely forgot Vedda culture and behaviour. One should not attempt to follow such examples in the case of the beggar. Today the beggars have increased almost up to 100000. They are a part of our culture. Their children need Education and Socialization, otherwise the criminals in society would increase. They belong to the poorest of the poor. Those fighting poverty need to look at them. The Samurdhi Program should be extended to the beggars. Without looking at and understanding their abject poverty, no poverty alleviation program of the entire country could succeed. The writer has done an immense service by bringing out this book. It is pleasant reading, almost like an adventure and it enlightens them and shows how to understand and rehabilitate the beggars. |
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