An administrative odyssey
Dr. Leel Gunasekera :
Felicitation Volume
A Godage publication
Reviewed by Padma Edirisinghe
The felicitation volume of Dr. Leel Gunasekera was launched on April
9 at Sri Sambuddhathva Jayanthi Mandiraya, Colombo 5, in the presence of
President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Indeed it was fit for a regal presentation. With a gold, rich and
copious visage with a glossy cover, the book is profusely illustrated
with rare historical photos of a bygone era, carefully preserved by an
incurable collector. There are 600 pages and contributions by about 100
writers-many of whom have reached the peak of their careers and
associated Dr. Leel Gunasekera in his myriad “walks of Life”.
The President himself has eulogised the statesman-cum-popular writer
of Atsana (Signature) and Petsama (Petition) fame in superlative terms
in his message to the volume.
That the poor peasant's heartbeat ticked inside the pages of the
novels would no doubt have captivated his sensitive heart too. The
primeval beginnings of land-loving farmers come natural to some of our
leaders, as D.S. Senanayake and the incumbent President.
Some humans are destined to set precedents of a benign sort. Leel
Gunasekera happens to be one such person. He once set sail across a
waterway to pick up English education in a Catholic saint’s sanctuary in
Panadura. No quarrels with them, for saints in Matale and Kandy
befriended him later after the unexpected loss of the family head, a
catastrophe that tolls the death bell of an average family, usually. But
Leel picks up the threads and soars to the very top in Sri Lankan
society and sets a precedent.
Now another precedent has been set in the art of felicitations when
they have begun to plummet into a boring literary genre with plaudits
heaped on the one felicitated. Sometimes the art changes into producing
a package of academic articles that have nothing to do with the central
character.
Of course, this particular volume is copious enough to accommodate
new patterns. One hundred writers wielding their pens in two languages,
it encompasses many a piece of social study that reflects the growth and
educational patterns of a youth going through the grill in the colonial
period. Leel was born in 1932 when Ceylon was a British colony.
Western education
The sons of the affluent families were sailing overseas to enjoy the
best plums of Western education. They would return one day to fill the
highest posts in the country, their social status facilitating their
climb up.
The next best families would have to strive, to put their offsprings
on the map. Sometimes unfortunate debacles would mar the path ahead of
ambitious youngsters. James Peries suffered one such till the Governor’s
wife herself came to his rescue.
Though underplayed in the felicitation volume, it is an uncle in
distant Matale who comes to the rescue of the fatherless boy studying in
the local village school at Jambureliya.
He has already begun to shine by winning the Denham Scholarship
reserved for the brightest. Lady luck smiles on him further. His quiet
pensive demeanour and winning looks attract many a benefactor that he is
able to wade across rough waters in the two fields he chose,
administration and writing. And that without sacrificing his identity in
the turbulent cascade of life. Religions, some would give up, ways of
life some would give up to reach the top. But he did not do so.
All that is said in the felicitation volume by different writers,
That is why, it stands out.
It is not every year or every decade that a son in the calibre of
Jambureliya Podi Nona’s, enters the covetous Civil Service and goes on
to hold posts too many to mention here and leading him to rub shoulders
with kings and ministers. And all this at a time when those born with
silver spoons in their mouths considered the island’s top posts as their
God-given monopoly.
The tale told here in 100 articles would no doubt inspire many a
youngster. One lapse noticed is the tale how he gained his doctorate so
late in life.
Yet, in the midst of all these he put out two award –winning books
that shook the literary world, The articles in the volume transpire many
an untold fact as it was he who pioneered the tradition of putting out
literary works based on bureaucratic experiences, a trend begun by
Leonard Woolf. He incarnates Woolf especially in his empathy with the
poor and the downtrodden. The sense of humour runs high as in the
article pertaining to who is a Bodhisatva.
Benevolence
The audience, a Rajarata segment of the poor living in parched land
who had benefited by his benevolence compares him to a Bodhisatva. Even
Woolf had been compared to one while reigning in the South, oblivious to
the fact that non—Buddhists, especially an Anglican Jew cannot reach
this status. Our key local figure in all humility had retorted, “A
Satva, I am, but not a Bodhisatva! “ and he had gone on to intone in the
very native spirit, “Siyalu Satvayo niduk vethva, nirogi vethva” (May
all beings be happy and well.)
That intonation came natural to a typical son of the soil nurtured in
a Buddhist environment, who may have wandered off to distant countries
in his official capacity but whose migration inland was only from
Jambureliya to Matale where an uncle played the role of godfather.
Published by Godage publishers and edited by Prof.K.N. O.Dharmadasa the
richly bound large book would be a priceless asset to any library,
school, higher learning institutes and also to public libraries of
different strata. It is a felicitation volume with a difference that
mirrors not only the ups and downs of a single life but of a whole
country and even the courage and stamina of the universally spread
human. It is an odyssey indeed.
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