A reflection of liberal ideals

Reviewed by W.D. Ailapperuma

The book “My Heart Beat” contains one hundred and eight (108) speeches made in the Parliament by Imthiaz, who is a former Minister of Mass Communication and a Minister of Housing. His Parliamentary career spanned a little over fifteen (15) years.

All these speeches in his book reflect his rational thinking and communicative ability. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity of listening and watching Imthiaz delivering some of these speeches with his rare oratory and clarity in presentation.

Imthiaz as we all know, is a Muslim, a member of a “Minority” community, but his forte was his oratorical skills in the Sinhala language. All the speeches published in this book were delivered in the Sinhala language, and remain unmatched for their smooth flow of words, their logic and their lucidity. He is a master in Sinhala idiom that I have rarely come across and I must say that he never felt or acted as he belongs to a “minority” community.

As several of the speeches printed in his book illustrates, he always took a principled and a consistent stand on the national issue. His speech made on 08th October 2003, at the adjournment Motion on Peace Talks, clearly demonstrates his convictions. He started the debate on behalf of the Government and commenced his speech with an apt quote from a UNESCO publication on peace.

“Since war begins in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defense of peace must be ushered”

This compendium of speeches, well reflect Imthiaz’s liberal democratic ideals as well as his love and sympathy for the ordinary men and women in this country.

In the speech made on 24th November 2003, perhaps one of his last speeches in the Parliament , he quotes from the Holy Quran and sums up with a plea not to desert justice because of anger or hatred of others. As a Muslim, he always thought and acted in the light of the values and principles laid down by the Holy Quran.

These speeches of Imthiaz’s demonstrates his clarity of thought and his analytical mind. No speech has been delivered without proper study or research or without an analysis of the information and background nor in haste or anger.

With the lucidity of his delivery, these speeches were always effective. Because of my personal interest in the subject, I recount his speech made on 19th February 1990, on a supplementary estimate of the Ministry of Housing, where he critically exposed the pettiness of ridiculing programmes of the previous Government for public consumption, while accepting and boasting their success and achievements in international meetings.

He became so emotional in expounding his apprehensions that the Hon. Speaker, the late K.B. Ratnayake was prompted to state “the usually meek and mild and very soft spoken MP was hitting all over the wicket” This speech like many others, aptly illustrates his search for the truth, his painstaking search for details as well as his yearning for honesty and truthfulness in politics.

I came to know Imthiaz in February, 1989 when he was appointed Minister of State for Housing. There was a committed team then, responsible for Human Settlements Development in this country; a team led by B. Sirisena Cooray as the Cabinet Minister and Chandra Ranathunga and Imthiaz as non-Cabinet Ministers.

I was the Secretary to the Ministry, with Micheal Joachim and Conrad de Tissera as the Additional Secretaries. This team during a stint of 5 1/2 years was able to direct and coordinate the performance of near miracles - some of them, like the raising of the Maligawila Buddha Statue, construction of the Sugathadasa Indoor stadium and the flood lighting of the R. Premadasa Cricket Stadium - were not even housing related.

This team directed and implemented the World’s first enabling housing strategy, and Imthiaz, with his oratorical skills, his capability in convincing the unconvinced and extending awareness as well as with his close rapport with the ordinary people was a source of utmost strength and he carried the message of an enabling strategy to all corners of the land.

As his speeches published in the book illustrate he was always sensitive to the dreams and aspirations of all the people of our country and his sensitivity and his efforts had no ethnic, religious, language or other boundaries.

In this riveting and insightful “My Heart Beat”, Imthiaz’s speeches explore the recent history of ethics and traditions of politics in this country. He expresses his apprehension at the country’s future, convinced that our country is at cross-roads between past and the future, between education and ignorance and between peace and terrorism.

The writer Ailapperuma is a former Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Construction and directed the world’s first enabling Housing Programme, first as the Chairman of the National Housing Development Authority and then as the Secretary to the Ministry during the period 1984 to 1994.

Down by the River K

Reviewed by Aditha Dissanayake

[email protected]

I have confessed before this and I confess again writing poetry reviews is not my forte. Even though Namel Weeramuni sent an inspirational email saying my article last week about the Great Western range (In Search of Solitude) was so beautiful it was not prose but poetry, having never written a poem in my life, my mind goes blank when I see several lines of short sentences left aligned on a page dominated by white space.

Why be stingy with words when they are yours for the taking? Why write in riddles which even the Sphinx would not be able to unravel? Filled with such grave doubts this is probably why several of the poems, when I first read them in Elmo Fernando’s “The Heart of Silence” confounded me completely (when they may not do so, for other readers). Then came enlightenment. A little bit of concentration, and the realization I should not be reading them for ‘poetry’s sake’ made even the most oblique poem translucent.

I would, however, have preferred the opening poem about the Buddha to have been the last in this slim volume of twenty poems, because it would have been comforting to have walked away with the calm, soothing sense of peace the words create when you close the book.

The lines “Seated leisurely in the amber grove...evoke the image of the Samadhi statue in Anuradhapura and reflect hope even in a “fallen world”. This sense of tranquillity contrasts sharply with several of the other poems, when the poet talks of the ethnic conflict in “The Upstart’, “A Farewell to Arms” and “Angel Face”.

Thankfully the majority of the poems are easily accessible, like “The Wait”, “Wheeling the Cancer Patient and “Death” - “Disabled for two years, he spoke nothing...” a poem ‘that touches the heart with a finger tip’. I knew the kind of joy Archimedes would have known when he walked the streets of Greece saying “eureka’, when I discovered the protagonist in “A dam...” is not a fish after all, but King Datusena. “Electra” is different from the others. ‘Crop haired - in a tattered black dress” I simply enjoyed reading about her as she goes through a book on nudism in the library, without, for once, bringing out my scalpel to dissect, to probe, to analyse - alas, thus is the task of the reviewer.

My favourites in the collection, though, are centred round water - the waters of the Kalu Ganga “The black river that winds her way by the Sacred Bo tree to meet the waters of the sea”.

Like Robert Frost with his New England, Wordsworth with his Lake District, here is Elmo Fernando giving us an inclination of what it is like to live in Kalutara - ‘by the new bridge...the sprawling bo tree and the magnificiant dagaba, ‘soaring the sublime mist”.

The verdict - you will find very little to be bored by, if you listen carefully to the “Heart of Silence”.

‘Can you know the pain in my heart?’

Putting the record straight - We regret that this review was published last week with several sentences missing. We publish it again with many apologies. Only Homer can nod and get away.

Reviewed by Eva Ranaweera

Buddhi’s new book struck a chord of pain in my heart as I read his last poem in the collection which I will translate here for reference and communication with the reader since I mean to select other poems in the book of a similar nature, for appraisal.

The difference between the last poem and the selected others being poetic moods and a faced tragedy also involved with poetic moods. The difference is poignant.

The Last Poem
With fragrance of flower you came to me
Like the moon
Why did you think of leaving when in
The Sansara
I am bound to you in mind and body
With no separation?
You taught me the truth according to the laws of nature
No meeting can take place without a farewell
Though you cannot see the tears in my eyes
Running tears are in my heart endlessly running.
Remembrance of twenty years in memory left behind
A farewell causing pain in heart
Leaving an eraseless fragrance with me.
Can you know the pain hurting in my heart?

Mixed in the poetic jargon of, the moon, the fragrance, the flowers, the pain etc. is the realistic tragedy that emerges surfacing ‘Can you know the pain hurting in my heart?’

I need not go into harrowing details of the tragedy of his life. The book called Nim Neti Thunyama or Endless Nights as referred to in the book or the Endless Thunyamas contained 34 poems and some of which are similar to the last poem in thought and poetics.

I like to group them as Viraha Gee/Songs of Separation which, in the Sinhala poetry has a place of its own. The most famous is the verses of pain poured out by the queen waiting for Parakrama Bahu the king in the Parakumba Sirita.

It contain the poetic ingredients, the moon, the night, the still waiting, the lamentation but topping it all is the rhythm and the meter the sorrowful music of the Viraha Gee.

In Nim Neti Thunyama which the title has a beautiful yet sorrowful rhythmic quality about it, the Last Poem contains as said earlier the personnel pathos running realistically and the earlier Viraha poems seems to be preparatory yet with a type of suffering of years gone by.

The under stated and never brought to the surface, is the pain of the poet the last being not an imaginative poetic pain but arising out of reality. The other poems are staccato, short lined rhythmless and in the spoken direct language.

The poems I would list as Viraha Gee will Raya Pahan Nowe, Siyalla Newathila, Mamama Wemi, Ege Kaviya, Namal Suwanda, Lumbiniyedi, Mage Wam Urahisa and more, and they echo sorrowful out-pouring from an incident.

For instance in Namal Suwada plucking Namal for her and in juxtaposition another journey under the same Namal tree reminding of the past event but suppressing the joy he got earlier to question Namal fragrance, “Do you not know that I cannot come again to pluck Namal because (the poet) is alone?

The sorrow is not dwelt upon long but suppressed hastily. These verses of short sentences run from line to line hinting at suppressed meaning and an unexplained event which is more meaningful.

The poems are full of Srungara Rasa and the poetic utterances in the spoken language brings them closer to the reader and is easy of reach of many.

Launch of The Land of Serendipity

Asoka Weerasinghe, an old Nalandian and an award winning poet will read from his 16th book of poetry - The Land of Serendipity, on Saturday, June 7th, at the Punchi Theatre, Borella, from 4:00 to 6:00 in the evening.

A Geologist, Paleontologist and Museologist who studied at the University of London, University of Swansea, Wales, and Memorial University in Newfoundland, he attributes his interest in English poetry to his 4th Grade teacher, at Nalanda, Mrs. Y. C. Perera.

“It was Mrs. Y. C. Perera who injected into my blood stream the germ of poetry during the English Class and it has been a blood-jet ever since I was eight years old. I thank her immensely for making me understand rhymes, couplets and syllabics in poetry which were important for the appreciation of this creative art form of the spoken word”, says Weerasinghe.

His poetry has been published in over 100 literary magazines Poetry supplements and anthologies He has read his poetry at several venues in London, Wales, US and Canada.

He was the invited guest poet to celebrate St. David’s Day for Manifold in London, Poetry in the Arts, Austin (Texas), and the Austin (Texas) International Poetry Festival in 2001.

Best big cat tales

Title: The Glenthorne cat and other amazing Leopard stories
Compiled and Edited By Christopher Ondaatje

The only anthology of leopard stories ever produced, ‘The Glenthorne Cat and Other Amazing Leopard Stories’ has just been launched at the ‘Kiyawana Nuwana Book Shop’, Nugegoda. In this compendium of twelve true and fictional stories Ondaatje has selected the best big cat tales from around the world.

There is the electrifying sensuality of a woman and a leopard in Anna Kavan’s “A Visit”; the shocking body count in Jim Corbett’s famous “The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag”; and a gripping tale from Honore de Balzac that instantly reminds us of the heights that classic adventure writing can attain.

Ondaatje includes a few of his own accomplished tales, including the title story, “The Glenthorne Cat”, a personal and ghostly account that takes place at the author’s isolated gothic manor clinging to the edge of the Devon cliffs. From an unlikely British wood to the silent forests and teeming cities of India, Ceylon, Burma and other exotic locales, these stories cross different cultures and imaginations, all united in their skill at portraying one of the most dangerously unpredictable predators on earth.

Graced with magnificent full colour illustrations, The Glenthorne Cat will appeal to all those captivated by wonderful storytelling on one of our most fascinating creatures.

Together with the launch of ‘The Glenthorne Cat’, Sir Christopher Ondaatje’s ‘Man Eater of Punanai’ (which has been re-printed as one of the series of Classic Travel Books) is now available in Sri Lanka.