Holding a mirror up to nature

Reviewed by Prof. Yasmine Gooneratne

A yellow Volkswagen 'beetle', a 17th century Dutch cannon, a cigarette butt and a bottle of 'Mendis Special', two lovers on a park bench, a young woman at a piano, and a 'mod' young man in the get-up of a 'Bambalapitiya boy' of the 1950s: these colourful images decorate the cover of Asgar Hussein's second published book, a volume of short stories that is described on its back-cover as 'a satire on human nature'. Each of these images is a part of the post-war Sri Lanka that has become our 21st century reality, each signifies a tale, and it is part of the pleasure afforded by Hussein's entertaining and insightful book that each tale is well worth the telling. The Mirror of Paradise reflects customs, manners and ways of thinking that are immediately recognizable as our own, in a language that rings the changes on expressions which could have been developed in no other society.

The Mirror of Paradise Author: Asgar Hussein Publisher: Vijitha Yapa Publications

First, a word about that term "Paradise'. The beauty of Sri Lanka's outward aspect has been celebrated times without number, by writers from Samuel Purchas to the present-day rhapsodists of the Tourist Board, as a paradise of plenty and peace. Asgar Hussein's new volume, however, reveals much about the island's inner life that is far from paradisal. Rapidly shifting focus from board-room to beach hut, from wedding hall to village, from a university campus to a quiet suburban street, Hussein's 'mirror' gives back images of Sri Lanka that are at once authentic and ironic, its thirteen stories reflecting facets of local life which constantly seem to bemuse the narrator while being perfectly recognizable to the reader.. "A Tale of Two Artists", a story that explores the pretensions of the local art world, is related by just such a bewildered innocent. "Grease Yaka", similarly framed, bestows a new superstition on a fishing village. "The Wedding" brings together members of two minority communities in a celebration that ends in a free-for-all, "A Good Medical Boy" (one of the funniest tales in the book) shows snobbery and selfishness interacting in the marriage-market, while in "Wadakaha Sudiya" female vanity, linked to superstition and ignorance, leads to disaster. His stories show that Hussein is well aware of the wealth of comic potential offered by his homeland. The situations in which his characters find themselves embroiled seem occasionally over the top, but it does not really matter because their creator's principal aim is to entertain, and in this he succeeds very well. Sri Lankans love to laugh, and most of us would agree that the life around us provides no lack of entertaining subjects. Entertainment, however, is not satire, and although The Mirror of Paradise is a very amusing book, in which Hussein brilliantly caricatures human eccentricities, holding up 'as 'twere, a mirror up to nature', his mirror is more like a distorting mirror at a fun-fair than the 'satire on human nature' that the back-cover claims it to be. Satire requires a great deal more than humorous entertainment, however lively that entertainment might be; and in assessing writing of this high quality, it's worth taking the time and trouble to distinguish one from the other.

Adapting itself to Sri Lankan usage, satire has afforded our journalists and playwrights a dazzling range in the past, going all the way from, let us say, the mild satiric comedy of "Take it Easy" and Well, Mudaliyar! to the escoriating political censure of E.M.W. Joseph's The Financial Expert and Tarzie Vittachi's "Snowballs in the Sun". In certain circumstances - in the face of flagrant misdemeanour, for instance - 'it is difficult not to write satire,' as the poet Juvenal observed, surveying the Rome of his times. In our own country today, as in the ancient world, personalities and events attract the satirist's eye on every side. Why, then, does Hussein, with his undoubted talent for comedy, fail to go the extra mile?

Why, indeed! In one of the stories here ("The Gold Enterprise"), comedy edges very close to satire ... but doesn't quite reach it. Some wealthy business executives become the willing victims of swindlers who claim to have invented a mechanism which will extract gold from the sea. Unbelievable? Over the top? Not really, when one considers the astonishing gullibility with which depositors so recently fell for the wiles of Bernie Madoff in the USA and Golden Key in our own island paradise. Avarice, as one of the Seven Deadly Sins (the other six being pride, sloth, wrath, envy, lust and gluttony), is a very suitable target for satire: comedy that exposes avarice in society with the hope of reform certainly deserves to be called 'satire'.

But "The Gold Enterprise" does not go all the way. It is only of their own superfluous funds that Hussein's greedy executives are stripped. Like the hapless depositors of Golden Key, they are cheated by crooks but, unlike them, they are not impoverished.

Is it possible that true satire does not - indeed, cannot - function any longer in our particular province of Paradise? This view has been advanced, and has not been denied. If satire has indeed left us for good, it may be some consolation to learn that we are not alone in our loss.

In modern America, according to Calvin Trillin, anyone who writes satire finds himself confounded by the fact that events keep occurring around him which are more fantastic than anything he could possibly concoct. Substitute 'postwar Sri Lanka' for 'modern America', and Trillin's remark would bring assent from every thoughtful Sri Lankan reader.

Until satire returns to our shores, we can console ourselves with laughter. And it is one of Hussein's strengths as a writer of comedy that he exploits our linguistic foibles to the full. 'Har' Par' Six Fellow'. 'How did that ha-ho happen, darling?' 'Problem is not putting ganja'. 'A good medical boy.'

Where can we read such delightful expressions on the printed page? Nowhere but in Sri Lanka, a land where, enriched by vocabulary and syntax borrowed 'Take-to-take' from Sinhala, Tamil and other sources (possibly, these days, even from Bollywood), our very own brand of demotic English is spreading, with the blessing of academic and educational authorities, from everyday speech into the class room ... to make its way thence, perhaps, into the language of international communication?

Anything is possible in a land of miracles. George Bernard Shaw wrote (I believe it was in his comedy John Bull's Other Island), "Ceylon is the cradle of the human race because everybody there looks an original." Shaw's statement is particularly relevant to The Mirror of Paradise, because Asgar Hussein has taken the 'original' characters around him as his targets.

In choosing to focus on their absurdities (and not on any desire he might have to denounce or reform them) he has fallen short of writing satire, but he has created a most lively and amusing book that cannot fail, with its vitality and comic ingenuity, to appeal to the Sri Lankan love of laughter.

Charming fiction-essay

Reviewed by Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa

Have I discovered a new fiction-genre?

Immediately after I read this book, that was the question that crept into my mind.

Firstly, please allow me to tell you what the book is. It is titled 'Apeksha' (Expectations). And, again, it is the first ever book published by the author (Ms) Jayani C. Pinnawala.

The description 'Novel' would not fit it. You would not want to call it a novella or a novelette either. In style, it is not one of those new fangled recite's. You could call it a work of fiction or a piece of long fiction and say that's that. But, if you dismissed it that way your conscience would begin to nag. Such a general definition will not accommodate its special 'feel' - its specific 'flavour.'

Though the work is primarily a fictional narration, it possesses the quality of an elegant essay.

Taking all those diverse factors into consideration, I decided to call it a 'Fiction-Essay.' I am sure you will have your own thoughts.

The central character of the work is a little girl named Piyumi Liyanaarachchi. When the story opens, she is a child of just three-and-a-half years.

Apeksha Author: Jayani C. Pinnawala Publisher: A Sarasavi Publication

The reader is impressed by the stark authenticity that the writer has been able to communicate. The seemingly realistic details, put down by the author, hint at a semi-autobiographical spirit. The essential elements of the story line, could vary well derive from the author's own life-experience.

In most instances, novelists tend to create their own fictional 'Villages' on 'Settlements'. Globally reputed American novelist William Faulkner, created the imaginary settlement Yoknapatawpha, as the backdrop for his works of fiction.

Indian novelist R.K. Narayana, set his works in the fictional village of Malgudi.

In the present instance author Jayani C. Pinnawela, sets her story in Kanda Liyadda Paluwa, an actual semi-rural area, close to Colombo. Incidentally, this specific area is known to me too as the home territory of a former Lake House Editor Piyasena Nissanka.

What intrigues a reader, is the crowded milieu of her story. Each segment of the narration is filled with incidents and an impressive variety of persons. The author traces the ramifications of Piyumi's father's family tree, dwelling intimately upon specifics.

Her work compels absorbed reading. The secret is the 'chatty' simplicity of her diction. She does not pursue an artificially elaborated style of writing. Her sentence structures are remarkably free of syntactical complexities.

In effect, her prose gives the impression of a little girl's uncomplicated reminiscences. A general atmosphere of calmness and happiness pervades the total narration. The few incidents that mar the joy of Piyumi's childhood are not so devastatingly tragic comparatively speaking.

In early childhood, Piyumi has to leave her ancestral home, as the whole family takes up residence in a smaller house.

Their ancestral home is given on rent to the officers of a company, working a quarry in the neighbourhood.

Once while playing with her elder brother Nimal, she nearly drowns in a barrel of water. On yet another occasion while playfully wielding a pestle to pound paddy with elders, she accidentally 'pounds' her own foot.

These are among the minor 'tragedies', that Piyumi faces early in her life.

But, a tragedy that leaves a deep trauma in her growing soul, is the separation of her parents from each other.

Eventually this, too is resolved, enabling the events to move towards a happy ending. The narration, though devoid of 'tension' is keenly concentrated. The essential details are focused upon with a telling effect.

I cannot help but state that the book creates a new 'taste', for this kind of Fiction - Essay.

Views about the book are expressed by two lady writers. In her foreword Prof. Kusuma Karunaratne, emphasises the didactic aspect of the work. She upholds Piyumi's courage as exemplary. To her Piyumi is "Girl Courage". In her blurb, on the back - cover of this book, writer Jayantha Rukmani Siriwardene observes: "This literary debut, by Jayani C. Pinnavela enables young readers to imbibe an extremely fresh experience."

The reader initially comes upon Piyumi as a little girl of three-and-a-half years. The author enables the reader to trace her progress, through various ups and downs until she is qualified to enter the university.

To me, this total Fiction - Essay, is redolent of a fresh garden of flowers. It exudes a compelling newness.

Even the extensively experienced readers of novels, will be startlingly impressed by this work's surprising appeal.

In a section of the book the author recounts the story of a pilgrimage. I am keen to draw an image from that prose area. Then partake of kiribath and sambol.

A globe-trotter, as a matter of course, savours elaborate breakfasts. Fruit juice, flakes, scrambled eggs on toast, marmalade, croissant, pan-cakes with syrup - the whole range. This globe-trotter of yours, comes home to his village. His doting mother, calls him for breakfast. She presents a plateful of milk-rice, with a side-dish of tantalizing sambal (reinforced with chilies and moldive fish).

The globe-trotter, is overwhelmed by this simple breakfast, presented with mother's limitless love.

This work "Apesha" is "Kiribath and umbalakada sambol" (Milk-rice with Maldive fish) to all seasoned readers of novels.

Glimpse into the mythical world of Rama-Ravana

Reviewed by Padma Edirisinghe

Tumbling into the fascinating world of writers from the world of healers (Psychiatry) the author perhaps is the latest entrant to the raging controversy on the identity of Ravana... But he gets down to the task in the broader canvas of exploring logically the contents of the epic poem Ramayana. His wide reading has enabled him to compare and contrast the Greek epic poems Iliad and Odyssey with this Indian hymnal work of Valmiki composed in Sanskrit around 350 BC. He states that all these epic poems could lend themselves to purely mythical interpretations as they encase much that is fantastic and supernatural "with gods and demons actively participating in the affairs of men". Yet in 1871 a German archaeologist had unearthed the main city of Homer's Iliad story. Troy in NW Turkey. From here the professor gets on to his next query, "If the Iliad of Homer possesses a solid historical basis, is it possible to maintain that the Ramayana is purely mythical with no foundation in history?". One almost gets on to the verge of concluding that the controversial figure of Ravana is real, but the author now drifts back, "Main theme of this text is that the Ramayana contains in essence, not a natural myth but shadows and glimpses of the ancient history of the subcontinent".

Ramayana Author: Wijaya Dissanayake Publisher: Sooriya Publishers

That probably casts the Ramayana story plus the figure of Ravana into Shadowland; into more or less a mythical world where things could have had really happened or not and the characters presented could be real or carved out of human imagination.

It is rather thrilling to trace the author's trail of thought in this matter that he impregnates with a professional dimension pregnant with a high research approach.

The technique gets away to high ground from the mundane quarrels on the issue, "Whether the Ramayana is a history text or a fake literature and whether Ravana himself is real or not?". Tempers have hotted up and insulting banshee cries have been even raised on the issue. Hence it is nice to relax with a rather academically treated and balanced work on the subject. Dissanayaka's "Ramayana" written in elegant English and rich in beautiful phraseology can be broadly described as a study and analysis of Valmiki 's Ramayana mainly from the approaches of its historicity, "exploring the probability of it containing features of South Asia's proto-history.

Chapter 1 goes on to discuss the basic factors pertaining to this issue including as to what is meant by proto-history.

The author goes on to elaborate on the causes leading to Lankan interest in the Ramayana, the chief of which is that the Ramayan story has led to the belief among circles who bother about such things (not the circles who keep seeking their bread and pol-sambol) that long before Vijaya's advent that a mighty emperor named Ravana ruled here whose domain extended to Central India. Perhaps with the tide of patriotic feelings getting frenzied due to recent political events, the Ravana story gathered in momentum. It needed little bolstering since the epic of Ramayana had not only enthraled the Indians but had blazed right across South Asia even including Muslim Java.

Writes the professor, "Seeing the Rama - Ravana puppet shows in Java and listening to legends in Thailand that refer to him as a past ruler of the island stimulated my interest in the Indian epic which led to a quest lasting many years". It was also a quest in search of the historic figure of Ravana.

One may get tensed while going on reading the narrative, especially when sensing that the author has finally hit upon the specific identity of Ravana hopefully as a mighty emperor of our island, when things begin to flop. Poor Ravana, he ends up a tribal chief of Central India, haunting the jungles and has no connection to Sri Lanka! Is the play over? No. Dissanayake's discovery, fortunately is not the final scene in the play. It is left for others interested to open up the curtains and participate in the play of discovery and identification.

But Dissanayake has engineered a very forceful motivational set up throbbing with relevant facts and we have to thank him for it. The book comes out very timely when a Muslim mosque in Ayodhya is said to have been identified as that which encases Rama's Janmabhoomi memorial entombed after the spread of Mogul power (that fact is not in the reviewed book but info got from newspapers by reviewer). Who knows one fine day somebody may come upon some similar valuable archaeological evidence regarding the Great Empire of Ravana, which nexus of power was our own little Island! "Dream, Oh! innocent folk! Mired in the bliss or curse of doubt But let not dreams be your master!"

Book launch

Bharatha Maha Rushi Ramana

Thilaka Kudahetti's latest book "Bharatha Maha Rushi Ramana" will be launched at Dayawansa Jayakody Bookshop, Ven. S. Mahinda Mawatha, Colombo 10 on November 9 at 10 a.m.

"Bharatha Maha Rushi Ramana" is the authentic Sinhala translation of Arthur Osborne's popular work "The mind of Ramana Maharshi".

Kudahetti is the author of several other books such as "Nethata andunak se", "Vathsunu pavatha", "Durga Tharanaya", "Neela desa nisa", "Sansara Bandana", "Chathura", "Bharatha yogin saha isivarayin samaga", "Pyramid bhuthayin Egyptu Sannasin ha mathrakaruvan samaga", and "Kulagei vilanguva".

"Bharatha Maha Rushi Ramana" is a Dayawansa Jayakody publication.

Mechanics of International Trade

"Mechanics of International Trade" by Ananda Liyanage and its Sinhalese translation Jatiyantara Velada Yantranaya will be launched on November 12 at 4.30 p.m. at the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL), College of Banking and Finance Auditorium at 1081, Maradana Road, Borella.

Sahithya special volume

Sahithya, special volume published by the State Literary Panel in collaboration with the Department of Cultural Affairs will be launched on November 11, at 3.00 p.m. at Sri Lanka Library and Documentation Services Board's auditorium.

Prof. Jinadasa Dhanansuriya, Head of the Department of Sinhala of the University of Kelaniya will deliver a lecture on the volume. Sahithya special volume is made up of 46 academic articles and some of the contributors include Prof. Wimal Dissanayake, Prof. Vinnie Vitharana, Prof. Balagalle, Prof. W.S Karunatileke, and Prof. K.N.O Dharmadasa.