A solution to the present day chaos?

by Lakmal Welabada

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Terrorism which has ruptured the world is given different facets.

Dr. Herath M. Gunathilaka in his book `The Buddhist Attitude to Terrorism’ has tried to explore a new version as a solution to the present day chaos in the world suffering from terrorism which has spread like a cancer, and erupts like volcanoes almost everywhere.

Buddhism is a practical code of ethics and some interpret it as a philosophy. Whatever the interpretation it has, Buddhism defines how worldly desires including greed, hatred, revengefulness, distress and selfpitiness lead them towards destruction of terrorism.

Dr. Gunathilaka has made a great attempt to delineate this fact while clearing the illusionary picture of degenerating Buddhist followers for being the part of not allowing terrorism to raise its ugly head.

Giving examples and comparisons from the basics to the deep description of the Buddhist doctrine with the destructive happenings of today’s world, Dr.Gunathilaka is trying to diagnose the cause for the problem and pass off a remedy.

He summarises a vast number of subjects into his 65 page book including topics with social, economical, cultural, religious, political and historical significance.

Buddhism explains worldly desires of a layman in three categories; ‘Kaama Thanha’ - the motivation which stimulate the man to act out of greed which consists the desire to gratify his senses and sex. ‘Bhava Thanha’ - the desire for self pursuits as man is motivated to crave for the continuity of individuality and self existence or self preservation with re-births in the ‘Sansara’.

‘Vibhava Thanha’ - the desire for destruction and the craving for non-existence, which motivate man to act out of hatred which consists of the desire to devastate or eliminate what he dislikes.

Dr. Gunathilaka explains how the Buddha has shown man’s craving lead him to cause immense destruction not only to himself, but also to the whole world body either being individual or as a well organised movements like terrorist groups.

Whether it is past, present or future, until the man diminishes his cravings, there will be war. The author has taken a tremendous endeavour to present his paraphrase to world terrorism through Buddhism.

The Buddhist Attitude to Terrorism

Author - Dr. Herath M. Gunathilaka

Clues between the lines

Title: Christine
Author: Christine Spittel Wilson
Published by Perera Hussein Publishing House

A REVIEW by Jeanne Cambrai

Christine Spittel Wilson’s autobiography CHRISTINE is not just a good read but historically important. So often an autobiography disappoints on some level.

Historical and other inaccuracies can drive you crazy. Even Lynn Ludovyck’s THOSE LONG AFTERNOONS was a terrible disappointment to me because it was so safe. I got no feel of Lynn himself - a man I had known well all my life. Christine, however, is very much there in her book and juggles the dual role of spectator and participant effortlessly without padding, trivializing or pointing of fingers.

Hers is a complex story and, with the help of her diaries and letters, she reconstructs in a tangible way a world which has disappeared. She was born in 1913 into an age where very few people expected serious turnarounds in their lifetimes. However, as she grew up, the entire world went considerably berserk.

The Dutch Burghers were a very small clan even during colonial times and most of us left the country when the Bandaranaike governments made it impossible for us to carry out our professions in English.

Hers was a family that stayed but she has lived for years in England, Scotland and Kenya and shorter spells in other countries, all of which were going through political and social changes while she was there and those changes affected her.

More than once her life was in danger so she had to learn to live with and handle terror. She also learned that, wherever you are, friends are waiting to be found at all levels. Christine Spittel was the first child of Clarie van Dort and Richard L. Spittel.

Her parents are important to her story because it is the enforced separations from them when she was young that set her life on its path. Her credit list shows thirteen other books.

The best known SURGEON IN THE WILDERNESS is about her father. He was a legend in his time - a surgeon, tropical disease specialist, anthropologist, lover of the arts, and man of eclectic intellectual pursuits which he shared generously with his daughter.

His gentle wife was also a scientist - they met in medical school in Colombo and it was she who won the gold medal for surgery the year they graduated together. From the first, it was her choice to put her own career behind his - only helping him out when needed.

There are many short stories in this memoir and they cross from tragedy - to comedy - to black comedy. I want to tell of them but don’t want to spoil another reader’s fun.

These stories are never too long, but occasionally they seem too brief. For example, her first words change Daphne duMaurier’s slightly to read: Last night I dreamed I saw Kaira again. Kaira was the orphaned Vedda boy her father brought her as a companion when, at about seven, she started talking to herself.

It was not a successful experiment and she doesn’t explore the reaction of his tribe, but Kaira never quite leaves this book, nor do his jungle people. Earlier there are the tragic reasons she became so lonely as a child and here again she tells what happened but ignores the whys and wherefores.

On the other hand, she frequently leaves clues between the lines and you see it is only details that have not been not laid out on a platter - the information is really there. It is also there when she shifts into the present tense as in the paragraph which starts, I am beating with small impotent fists at a locked door ... and you feel her inability to emotionally distance herself from what happened.

The next paragraph returns to the past tense and she is an adult again - coolly reporting events. Perhaps I should just say, ‘Read this book, there is a whole lot you didn’t know about this life and it is all interesting.’

When you do, you will notice there are strong subplots such as how your childhood sets you up to handle the real world, and how any really serious illness draws people together.

And you will also notice that many of these vignettes are movie material - by the kind of experts who directed HABLE CON ELLE (Speak to Her) and THE PEREZ FAMILY in which ordinary people come up with extraordinary solutions to the disasters they find themselves in.

A constant question gnawed at me throughout CHRISTINE. Did her parents really mess up her life by sending her away to school in England? Today, psychologists would insist they did, but there is no evidence here of any permanent displacement.

She starts telling us about that time: I learned I was to go to school in England. By ship. To be left there. Never to come home for the holidays, and the dramatic mode shifts to Rodean and the holiday homes she is put in when she is twelve.

The downside to such a separation from family is obvious. When she returns to Ceylon after a six year absence, she is eighteen and has become a stranger even to her parents. She is pretty, poised, but sawn off emotionally and now has nothing in common with her old school friends.

They are interested only in parties and clothes. She speaks with an English accent, doesn’t know how to dance and has never been on a date. She doesn’t want to hang out with them, she wants to go to the jungle with her father. Not surprisingly she marries the first man who asks her, and not surprisingly he is a playboy, rat and charmer and after a few years she leaves him.

But the upside is that she returned home an open-minded world citizen comfortable in any society. She still loves Sri Lanka and lives here.

She began to make her own decisions when she was still very young, brought up her daughter Anne alone until she remarried and they remain devoted to each other.

Her inner loneliness, which hangs like a cloud on much of this book drove her to serious writing and later painting, and always she reaches for nature, animals and books to heal her bleakest times.

No, she doesn’t get locked into misery or make the same mistakes over and over. When her life suddenly changes course she is grateful and goes with it. That happens when she meets Alistair Wilson, a British military officer towards the end of World War II.

She is to later say of him, I always knew he was special. He is Scottish, solid as a rock and movie-star good-looking (there are pictures) and now she has someone to laugh with, as well as watch out for her. Alistair’s presence expanded her horizons internationally and also brought them into the corporate world.

She tells him after sixty years together, You are the most wonderful person I have ever known. He replies, We make a good team. To have written this autobiography in her nineties is a stunning achievement and she has done it with style.

A lively dialogue

Title: Yayuthu dura aa duratath vada vadi
Author: Divakara Mohotti

Going through the book first chapter of “Yayuthu dura aa duratath vadi” by Divakara Mohotti, I felt I was reading an autobiographical novel by Truman Kapote. This work is full of lively dialogue.

When I was reading the subsequent chapters, I felt as if I was going through an anthropological survey of Kudaligama, a remote village in the Kalutara District. Reading further, I got the impression that I was going through the saga of the unique educational institute in Sri Lanka, after the fashion of Shantinikethana in India, that is Sripali, Horana.

The great contribution of Sripali to the arts and crafts of Sri Lanka, in short to the cultural development of Sri Lanka in the twentieth century has been comprehensively depicted in this book. Divakara Mohotti is the hero of the story while there are other characters such as Wilmot Perera, Gunadasa Liyanage, Kalyani and Pamoda revolve around the principal character.

The moral integrity of the protagonist is quite exemplary to the students of modern society. Through this book the writer has granted immortality to the village where he was born and the educational institute where he was educated.

Various facets of the protagonist’s life; his childhood in the village, school days, experiences as a journalist, falling in love and bringing up children have been presented in an interesting manner in the book.

The character of the protagonist’s grandfather had been graphically depicted. The leadership in the village community, that prevailed in ancient times is impressive. He stood against the popular wave and no one in the village had the gumption to rise against him.

Among the other characters portrayed is that of Wilmot Perera. He was a philanthropist, humanist, art lover and politician. A politician of a different calibre, he utilized all his paternal wealth for the cause of education and the arts. An aspect of his character hitherto unknown has been laid bear in this book.

The writer has employed simple diction and style of writing is quite lucid so that even a child could understand and appreciate the book.

- G. A. Mathupema.

“Not by hate is hate conquered”

Nanavai Norkkey

A collection of short stories in Thamil titled “Nanavai Norkkey” (Towards actuality) written by T. Kailayar, a Retired registered medical officer is out now.

Fourteen short stories are included in the short story collection. Some of them have already appeared in the local Thamil dailies, namely Thinakaran and Thinakkural. Most of the short stories reflect the author’s medical experience and contemporary issues.

“Nonavai Norkkey” is the title of the book as well at the headline of the first story. It expresses the position of an internally displaced father who undergoes open-heart surgery.

“Anpin Valiyathu” (path of love) is the tenth story. It gives a true picture of the saying “Not by hate is hate conquered but by love”.

The main character in this story is a doctor who had worked in Colombo for many years and leaves for Jaffna consequent to the 1983 riots. He comes to Colombo after a few months with a decision to request for a transfer to Jaffna, failing which to resign from service to do private practice.

“Nerkanal” (interview) is an instructive story. Beauty, education and wealth are not the only factors that qualify one to enter into married life, many other factors contribute to it. This is the theme conveyed through this story.

-K. K. Arumainayagam.