Harnessing the 'negatives' into 'positives'

My Life - R.I.T Alles:

Reviewed by Aditha Dissanayake

As I reached the last page of 'My Life' by R.I.T Alles my heart sank with apprehension. I knew deep down within me that here is a book that has to be read, and not written about.

Especially because the two-hundred-and-sixty seven pages, encompassing an interesting array of photographs, provide a breathless difficult-to-put-down, kind of read.

The only other autobiography I found as fascinating as "My Life' is Mark Twain's. But whereas Twain concludes his book with the disconcerting phrase that this is his life story and "some of it is true" the author of "My Life" records almost every detail of his journey from the day of his birth to his seventy-fifth birthday, with such honesty that it gives hope even to those who dare not hope any more.

When he writes on the last page "nothing has come easy to me', everybody who has already read the first page would know how true this statement is. "I was born a month premature and it was with great difficulty that I survived." he records on page one.

"One of my uncles, Dr. Reggie Alles had instructed that the baby would survive only if properly suckled.

This was beyond a premature baby all blue and weak. So my mother had taken a piece of cloth, turned it into a wick and had dipped it in milk and placed it in my mouth as if feeding a baby squirrel. She was overjoyed when the baby responded.

This is how I survived my first challenge in life." More would follow as he grew older but in spite of the hardships he recalls the days he spent in Akmeemana, were the best part of his childhood.

"It was a life full of hardship, yet there was the love of a darling mother. I remember I had to go to school sometimes without socks and shoes, and I had to walk five and a half miles! I had to leave home quite early. The bond between my mother and me was very strong.

I remember I used to scrape coconut and mother used to make "rotti". It was a very affectionate relationship. We had no beds. We used to sleep on mats. We had to be mindful of the fact that we had to look for other sources of income. So we reared poultry, and yearned for the hens to lay, as our lives depended on the income it brought."

As he continues, the authenticity of his narration becomes evident due to the disorganized narrative structure. Often a statement is repeated twice or thrice, but with such ingenuity that it never becomes tedious.

The fourth paragraph on page three begins describing the bond between the writer and his mother, in much the same way it does in paragraph two. "When I look back, the life that I led was very challenging yet enjoyable.

I always had the comfort of my mother's bosom..." Then, the abrupt description of the custom of celebrating the "aluth batha", which comes without the connecting props as it often does in day to day speech, transcends the words on the page into a voice.

The description becomes real so real that it brings tears to the eye. "In our villages there is a custom of the "first meal" after the harvest. We did not own a paddy-field but there was one that belonged to Banda Ralahamy.

When paddy was harvested, sheaves of paddy sometime fell by, which were forgotten by the harvesters, and little children were allowed to collect those sheaves that fell by the fields. I remember collecting these sheaves which were used to make our "Aluth Batha" and we had our first meal..." Yet, there is also the occasional phrase, found in typical rags to riches stories

" Sometimes our troubles were so great I used to study under a street lamp because we were short of kerosene oil".

Balancing the tragic with occasional episodes of hilarity he writes of how he overcame the difficulties of his courtship with Rohini, waylaying her brother, ASP (CID) Harold whose surveillance bogey by bogey before dispatching his sister to Galle on the Ruhunu Kumari proves to be futile.

He is also proud to be a member of the GPS while he was at the Teacher Training College at Maharagama. GPS stood for Gas Palukarana Samithiya.

The role the author has played as an educator takes up the better half of the book. Yet, here too, the narrative is such that even those who have nothing to do in the arena of education will hardly ever find the reading exhaustive. Consider the chapter titled State Secretary of Education where the secret behind the incomprehensible delays in the government service is revealed.

When a file comes to the department it is given one of the following labels. 'Ah ka sa' which stands for "awashya katayuthu sandaha, and which is send to a senior officer, wa ka (wartha karanna), send to a subordinator and "ni ke" (nirdesha karanna) send to the secretary. Thus thanks to these delaying tactics, the things that can be done in a few minutes go from hand to hand.

His contributions as a principal is best summed in the article reproduced on the back cover from the Sunday Observer of November 30, 1980. Comparing him with great principals like Blaze, Frazer, Hartley, the editor writes "Schools are made or broken by principals and teachers and the support they can muster.

We hope this example of an active and devoted Principal will inspire discouraged principals...who have to cope with seemingly intractable problems." From the story behind the scar on his forehead to being a "terror' at Royal College, a terror who nevertheless invited his entire class to his wedding, the book paints an unforgettable portrait of an extraordinarily complete and rounded figure.

This is it. I am rapidly running out of space. Now that you have had a glimpse of how interesting the book is (believe me I picked up only the most 'boring' bits lest I spoil your appetite) it is high time I stopped writing and leave you to start reading.

Bet you a month's salary you will not put the book down once you begin. But is it not wrong to bet? No, you will be all right if you bet on a horse and get a "winning treble in ten" and use it properly (p 14). Who knows you might end up writing a similar autobiography.

High drama

Kisses and tears at the launch of "The Play is the Thing":

Kisses and tears flew freely at the launch of Henry Jayasena's latest (and which he insists against everybody's protests is his last) book "The Play is the Thing" on Monday.

He lavishly bestowed kisses on everyone, (me included) much to the amused chagrin of Irangani Serasinghe, his one time co-star in Doo Daruwo. When she teased him for not having given up kissing at his age, he laughed and assured her he will be kissing her too, in a minute.

Yet, amidst the laughter, the warmth and the sense of overwhelming comraderie that prevailed on the evening of the 4th, at the Auditorium of the National Library, there were also moments of unbearable grief.

Everyone missed Manel Jayasena. There was hardly a dry eye in the audience when Henry Jayasena broke down while making his speech, saying the moment would have been perfect had Manel too been there with him.

His tribute to Sudharaka was equally moving. Sylvia, the lady seated directly in front of me who made my day by saying she reads all the articles I write, openly wept into her handkerchief.

Tears glistened in Anoma Jayasena's eyes too, as she walked up to the stage to receive the book from her father in law, together with Sudharaka and her two sons.

In an era when children leave their nests to roost in lands where the pastures are greener, Henry Jayasena felt Sudharaka deserves his deep gratitude for deciding to remain in his motherland to be close to his father. If Sudharaka too had left like the others, prophesied his father, "I would have been living in a Home for the Elders today".

As if to prove Manel Jayasena was there in spirit, smiling benignly on everybody present, the tears failed to dampen the day, which Henry Jayasena called is a historical one. Historical? Why? Was this the day Hunuwateye Kathawa was first staged? Was this his birthday? While I cracked my brains trying to figure why the day was historical he came out with a totally unexpected answer.

Praising Vijitha Yapa for choosing a day like this to launch his book, he solved the mystery by saying this was a historical day because Muttiah Muralitharan broke the record held by Shane Warne for holding the highest number of wickets in test matches.

Vijitha Yapa too with his characteristic wit, introduced Henry Jayasena by saying there are two kinds of icons. The I-cons, meaning politicians, and the (real) icons. Henry Jayasena, needless to say, belongs to the latter.

The same motif was evident in Tissa Jayatilaka's key note address where he stated Henry Jayasena is his hero and he found his task an extremely difficult one for he feared he might say too much and blow his hero up, or say too little and present him as a pseudo hero.

He got round this obstacle, however, by quoting from the book, and kept the audience enthraled with the lucid prose describing various events of the life of the icon who Tissa Devendra, in his article last week on Writer's Den described as a National Treasure.

Behind every writer in English, in Sri Lanka there is one person. Dr. Lakshmi de Silva. "If not for Lakshmi this would not have been possible. She was the one who pushed me into this" said Henry Jayasena, to which she replied that she felt these series of articles aptly showcase how the theatre evolved in our country, capturing the spirit of the early sixties for posterity.

It was apt that the event came to an end with a quote from the final few pages of the book in which the author asks "Will there not be someone someday/on these paths/some future day/Enlightened by your efforts,/my courageous Ones?"

Yes, there will be many. (Me included)

Aditha

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An English reader with a difference

by Upali Pannila

The shocking levels to which the teaching of English has fallen in our country were clearly shown when 63% of students failed in English Language at the G.C.E. O/L examination held last December.

This is a serious state of affairs and a matter of concern not only for parents and teachers but also for the country in general. The tragedy is that most of them had studied English at school for about 8 years.

In an era when the countries of the world are seeking closer ties regionally and globally for economic activity and educational and cultural exchanges, no country can remain in isolation.

In this scenario, for the sake of their personal development and the development of the country, it is imperative that our children be given a good command of English which has become the Lingua Franca of the emerging world order. When the advantages that a good knowledge of English offers are so immense, it is tragic that we have neglected the teaching of this vital langauge.

It is well-known that the vast majority of our students who complete O/L and A/L examinations cannot compose correctly a few sentences in English. This is especially true of rural students who form 90% of our student population.

The failure is not due to any lack of intelligence of our rural students. It is because teaching methods used and the textbooks prescribed do not address the specific problems Sinhala and Tamil students encounter in learning English. It is also well-known that the teachers of English with their mediocre English have aggravated the situation further.

It is in the light of this background that I see Dr. Antony Fernando's "Good English for a Good Future" as an English Reader and Grammar with a difference.

In the Foreword to the book Dr. Fernando states that the book is an outcome of long-term research conducted with the aim of making English an actually used second language of vernacular educated Sri Lankans.

He adopts a novel method called the Mother-Tongue Comparative Method to present the structural elements of English in comparison with Sinhala and Tamil. This Comparative Method, according to Dr. Fernando, helps students assimilate easily and fast the basics of the language and start conversing correctly and confidently in English.

He further states that once students achieve basic conversational ability, the Comparative Method should give away to the English through English method.

"Good English for a Good Future" has been methodically planned for effective use as a Supplementary Reader and Grammar of GCE O/L students. Each of the 15 chapters in it consists of two vital parts, a reading text and a grammar lesson. The reading passages in the book, woven around an English Speaking Club of a rural school, are structurally controlled and are easy to comprehend.

One other salient feature of the book is the importance given to good handwriting, which unfortunately is generally neglected in our schools. There are exercises that train students in cursive writing and the use of block letters and capital letters.

In "Good English for a Good Future", Dr. Fernando clearly shows his in-depth understanding of the problems Sinhala and Tamil students face in learning English and the remedial measures he has found through years of research to help students clear the initial hurdles they face when coming to grips with a foreign language.

The author has amply justified the age-old adage. "To teach Latin to Peter one must know not only Latin, but also Peter", which means, to teach English to Sri Lankans, one must know not only English but also the Sri Lankan mind. This is a book that should be in the hands of not only practising teachers of English, but also of trainers of English teachers.