Saints and demons in the red tape realm

Yuganduru Gettama
Author: Jayantha Rukmani Siriwardane
A Sarasavi publication

Reviewed by Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa

Fiction can be characterised as ‘feminist’, for several reasons. If a work of fiction, deals with issues relating to problems affecting women, that would come within the category of feminist fiction. The author of such a work, need not necessarily be a female. Even a male could concentrate on the fate and fortune of the feminine folk.

There is yet another classification. Any work of fiction created by a woman author, can also be regarded as ‘feminist’, as the author is a female. Such a work need not exclusively dwell on the lot of women. But, it qualifies to be ‘feminist fiction’, since a woman-writer has produced it.

While on this theme of feminist fiction, it is quite interesting to note, that the literary work reputed to be the world's first novel, has been written by a female author.

The work is Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji), a Japanese saga woven by the court lady Murasaki Shikibu (Lady Murasaki). She lived in the Imperial Japanese Court and her period is considered to be 978 to 1025 AD.

The work of fiction, I currently focus on, is doubly qualified to be recognised as feminist fiction. Firstly, it is written by a female author. Secondly, it is a terse and sustained work of fiction, that chronicles relentlessly, the tale of a borrowing helpless female individually who falls a pathetic victim to forces of despicable inhumanity, that take shelter behind a public facade of altruistic mass service.

The title of the work Yuganduru Gettama could be rendered into English as “The beguilingly beautiful surface, that covers up the gloom of the era”.

The writer implies that the ornate façade of the social surface, masks the repulsive ugliness of the age we live in.

The author of the work Jayantha Rukmani Siriwardane has earned a name as a versatile administrative officer and a person of noteworthy and profound ardour for culture and literature.

Female rookie

If a reader were to overlook the obligation told delve deep into this work, he is quite likely to miss the structural adventuress of this compellingly absorbing work of fiction.

The primary backdrop of the story is the imposing world of high bureaucracy.

An innocent and largely inexperienced young female rookie arrives in Colombo to take up her first post in the government service. She has been raised in a crazy and comfortable upper middle-class home in the provinces, and has acquired a distinguished education.

She is of an alluring physical form and is exceptionally comely. The author details out her beauty in lyrical, singing prose. Everything about the new office she is attached to fills her with almost a religious fervour. The awe and the gee-whiz surprise of it all benumbs her total begin with an inexplicable thrill.

Drama

The author dramatises this preliminary section, with a specific creative purpose in mind. Her intention becomes starkly clear as the narration progresses.

This innocent young woman – Anjali Mahendra Nugaliyadda – the protagonist of the work, proves ironically to be both victim and heroine, simultaneously.

At first, Anjali observes that spirit of a sacred ritual is implicit in certain aspects of the daily routine of the office.

The dedication and devotion with which a minor worker places the superior officers lunch-basket on the allotted place, evokes within her the memories of the sense of the holy associated with the sacred rituals at the offering of alms to Bhikkhus.

As this young person continues her foray into the in tricacies of the red tape snarled bureaucratic jungle, her disillusionment is soul searing.

The author draws extensively upon her not inconsiderable experience of intrigues, conspiracies, betrayals and sordid goings-on, behind the external, décor and glamour of the bureaucratic under world.

Facade

Anjali notes with excruciating pangs how the facade peels off, layer after layer exposing the loathsome edifies it has kept masked.

The work is not a hate-story. The narration extols those men and women of requisite personal qualities and unsullied virtues that continue to survive this ugly world, fighting furiously to remain untarnished.

The NDG of this novel, is a virtuous stalwart who has to a great extent mastered the technique of dominating the pervading evil, through his sheer capacity for pre-emptive strategy.

In the dark days of Anjali's career, the NGD remains solidly her saviour.

The highly impactful denouement of the novel, illuminatingly reveals why the author had to be so conspicuously detailed in the initial stages of her narration.

The incarnation of peaceful, gentle Anjali, in the guise of unrelenting nemesis of her ‘soul’ destroyer, is an impressive fictional stroke.

Anjali's conscious and deliberate transformation may have been planned by the author as a vicarious catharsis for hordes of victimised females. She did not want to remain in an apathetic silence, nursing her self-pity. She needed, as the author quite kindly indicates, to break through and escape the helpless cocoon of complacence, in the face of heart-rending injustice.

The author (it is starkly clear) does not need reader – approval or disapproval.

She is, to my mind, interested in her own creative cathartic release, pushing the reader into a state of awed helplessness.

Whatever may be the attitude one may assume about her moral and ethical directions, the work is, without even the trace of a doubt, a substantial contribution to well-crafted feminist fiction in Sri Lanka.

A world is needed I feel about the literal renderings in Sinhala, of English dialogues and expressions. When the English is written in Sinhala characters, it at times seems a little awkward.

That is, by the way only.

All told, this work by novelist Jayantha Rukmani Siriwardene, will stimulate a multitude of wholesome responses. I, may even rename her work to read “Saints and demons in the red-tape realm”.