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(This article is written in response to a number of inquiries, especially from G.C.E. Advanced Level students and students who follow the National Diploma in English about the work and life of Ms. Sita Kulatunga).

by Ranga Chandrarathne

A teacher, writer, academic and a lecturer, Sita Kulatunga portrays an ideal Sri Lankan literati rooted in her soil and endowed with a rare ability of writing in her mother tongue Sinhala as well as in English. Her works are crowded with characters, especially of women, who are engaged in a perpetual struggle against all kinds of oppression often taken for granted in the Asian and African social context.

Through short stories such as "High Chair" which depict the prevalent caste system in Sri Lanka that is recognized as non-existent in the upper echelons of society but exists underneath the social fabric, found expression and shows the shady facet of society which is often hailed as a paragon of virtue that should be protected in its present state for posterity.

"My first village school was Medagama, close to Bandaragama. Then I attended Piliyandala Central College. It was in the 50's, the hey days of the Central Colleges. It was because of a teacher, one Mrs. Perera, who made English an interesting subject at Piliyandala Central College. This was my first experience with English. Even before that, at my place, there were a lot of Sinhala books and among them I found a book called "Abhinava Engreesi Guruvaraya".

Then, I was very small and used to wonder, I do not know whether I had some linguistic sense at that time. I remember the word "You" and in front there was "Numba, Uumba, thamuse, thamunnasela" and I was fascinated by this language, which began with one word which had many words of our language.

I think I have said this in one of my short stories also, one day when I was going to my village school, there was a woman school inspector and those days they were extremely fluent in English. There were these two ladies, when we were walking they were speaking in English. I thought that I must someday learn to speak in English.

"In this village school there was no English teacher on the staff. So later when I went to Piliyandala, I was glad. So as I told you by the time I came to Visakha Vidyalaya, I was able to write and speak in English.

I did my S.S.C.(O/L) in 1954 and I won the memorial prize for best student in the SSC in Sinhala. But at the same time I got a Distinction in English. I did my A/Ls in the Arts stream and did Sinhala, English, Pali and Government (there were no subjects like political science at that time).

At Visakha Vidyalaya, Mrs. Dacy Karavita was my Sinhala teacher and Mrs. Marian Abeyasuriya and Mrs. Dias Abeysinghe, who later became Principal of Vishaka Vidyalaya and Mrs. Alfreda de Silva was my Pali teacher. They never gave notes all they asked was to read books.

They made us read and we somehow read. Those days if you did very well at A/Ls you were taken to the university without an interview. "She said in a nostalgic voice remembering her education and how she was fascinated by listening to a conversation between a lady school inspector and another lady in fluent English.

"And at the university I studied Sinhalese, English and Economics. At that time I did not appreciate it when Prof. Sarachchandra told me "You don't do a Sinhala Special Degree". At that time I did not realize that he was not a person who said things easily. I thought that it would be very difficult to do it because you had to study Sanskrit.

Nobody in the English Department, at that time, thought that we might one day write anything creative. We were real followers of the Queen's English. The general impression was that this (creative writing in English) was not something that you could achieve and you were scared to touch it. "She said referring to the attitude and general impression with regard to the use of English as a creative medium of expression.

While being a Student in the English Department, she used to write in Sinhala and Prof. Sarachchandra not only went through it, but also encouraged her to read her stories out in the evening after lectures. It was Prof. Sarachchandra who taught her, "If one wants to become a good writer, he/she has to interact with society".

My first collection of short stories was "Upandina" which was written in Sinhala and was read out to Prof. Sarachchandra. The 'Anthology of Short Stories' was published by Gunasena soon after I passed out from the University.

There was a story called "Makulu dela". It was not about a cobweb but about the life of a spinster in a household dominated by her brothers. So many proposals were brought to her and however they were all rejected citing some reason or other, such as the caste, the other party being more rural than the urban. In the process, even the person that she really liked was rejected by her brother and the father.

In 1961 I got married and this kind of creative work was not possible as I had my husband, son and then twins. My first appointment as a teacher was at Sri Sumangala Boy's College in Panadura. Then to Ferguson College in Ratnapura. During that period, I have written some short stories here and there which were later published. Other than these, I did very little literary work. These short stories were published even after "Dari the third wife".

"The High Chair" and "Cancer days" were published later. "High Chair" was among the recommended texts in the English Teacher Training College's Study Kit. "High Chair" brought me a lot of good. It also brought me some Yen as it was translated into Japanese by Sadashi Nugushi who studied Sinhala at Peradeniya campus. It was also translated into German. "The High Chair" is about the caste system, though it is believed that it does not exist in Sri Lanka.

It should be mentioned here that missionary education has inculcated certain values and skills such as organizing. Ferguson school was of a manageable size. At the time I went there the student population of the school was about a thousand.

There were very few buildings and they were on hill. If anyone asked about the ideal size of a school, I would say this figure was ideal. It was at Ferguson that I met Sunethra Rajakarunanayaka. "She says that it was I who made her write. I consider it quite an achievement" she says with a voice filled with emotion.

Then I went to Embilipitiya Central College. I was assigned to teach English for A/L students. There had been long gaps without teachers. It was a big school. Thereafter I went to Isipathana. From Isipathana, I was transferred to Visakha. I was teaching English for A/L students and also for the Higher National Certificate in English.

Then I went to Royal College Colombo. By then I had the Australian Diploma and the local one as well. I worked hard and when the teacher in charge of writing certificates had to go on transfer, I took up her position and certificate writing was a fulltime job as certificates had to be sent to different countries and it had to be done by an English graduate.

From Royal College, I went to Nigeria. In Nigeria, I taught at a high school and I was also the Head of the Department of English. Acwaraci was the high school. Their language was Hausa and the students were taught up to grade 5 in Hausa and thereafter the language of instruction was English.

Their series of English textbooks was excellent. Particularly the Nigerians depend on English for Mathematics, and Science on Indian teachers. They think that Indians and Sri Lankans are ideal mathematicians.

I spent less than two years in Nigeria and during this time I wrote "Dari the third wife" and "Sinhala Apita Engreesi". The house where I stayed gave me the idea that is found in the book. The polygamous marriage; what I wanted to show is that it was not so bad as some people thought nor was it so good as other people tried to make it. It had its own problems but they adjusted to it. That house was special because new Government houses were built according to modern architecture.

As I went later than the others, I got this old village house. It was an ordinary house. It was previously occupied by the Principal of the school. It had provisions for four wives. There was a centre courtyard and in front was the master's room and his office room and on the left was also another room.

In the centre courtyard, was a water tank and behind that in a row were four rooms for wives. In those rooms, significantly windows were set high.

Later, for a short period of time, I worked with Lake House Investments. Where I met several authors and I left because it was really uninteresting. I was in the Book Publishing Department and I left Lake House Investments.

I must say here that my father was a great storyteller and narrator. He read all the available fictions (P. Sirisena, W. A. Silva etc.). I think it was his influence, which made me look for stories in life. He used this skill to solve village disputes. Even my brother and sisters three of them were greatly interested (and are still) in literature.

In their conversations, they used similes from Ummagga Jathakaya, Gutilakaavya. The sisters just above me, rewrite most stories from Buddhist, Indian and Sri Lankan literature. My travels to Australia, Nigeria, New Zealand, Canada, UK, Singapore and Thailand have, of course, helped my creative work.

In the new novel that I am writing I wish to touch upon the Sri Lankan Diaspora among other things. Hope it will integrate with the rest. I do not like post-modern writing.

(To be continued next week)

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