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By Umangi de Mel

Capturing the heart of Sri Lanka through its people and their life styles, Christopher Ondaatjie depicts the compelling story of Leonard Woolf's sojourn in Ceylon, creating at the same time a unique evocation of a vanished imperial epoch.

The author compares the architectural splendour, landscape and cultures of the old Ceylon which belongs to a bygone age that we are all nostalgic for. . In the 'Journey to Jaffna', Christopher talks about 'elephant pass' looking back at the era when it was merely a narrow place through which the captured elephants were sent into stalls in Jaffna, to be exported by boat. They were also trained for war, but ironically, today the elephants are gone and war remains.... Journeying from one significant place to another, Woolf seems to have travelled experiencing the best of the troubled island, as he's painted a vivid picture of the much complicated history of Ceylon and its vital mileposts.

Witnessed through the eyes of a foreigner, the tales about prostitutes in imperial Colombo speaks a lot about the tragic mixture of sex and romance in the city's newly laid out ashphalt.

Coming down to south, he notices yet another hub of activity by the coast. The focus being fishing villages, a whole new world of sunshine, sea and food come to life. It's the life of the rustic coastal yokel in tableau. In 'Woolf in Ceylon', Christopher Ondaatjie who was born and brought up in the island, treads the path of his subject Woolf. Leonard Woolf was born in London in 1880, spent five years at Trinity College, Cambridge.

In 1904, he was sent to Ceylon as a cadet in its civil service, to join the small group of white administrators who ruled the colony where he remained for almost seven years; the book carries with it, the most cherished memories of a person who fell in love with the enchanted island that hid many a wonders in its original form.

Pictures from Christopher Ondaatje's book "Woolf in Ceylon"

(See separate profile of Ondaatje )

Courtesy Dedunu publishers

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