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An administrative odyssey

Dr. Leel Gunasekera :
Felicitation Volume
A Godage publication

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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