An autobiography of shared memories

Same Sky, Different Nights
Author: Nandasiri Jasentuliyana
Vijitha Yapa publication

Reviewed by Namel Weeramuni

Writing of an autobiography is the pinnacle of exposition of one’s life experiences and achievements. It may or may not cover the entire gamut of events of the autobiographer’s life. He may select only the essentials of his life. Through this process one may reveal only one aspect of his experiences or a combination of many. Whatever it may be it’s the essence of one’s life that comes into light. It can be philosophising of the thoughts of the expected meaning of life, recordings and meanings of events in the course of professional dealings, living and evaluations, feelings about and relationships with one’s kith and kin, meetings of men and women, and so forth.

Eventually all of them become opinions which have credence at some point of time. Some of them are factual and truthful. Others are philosophical, social and political that may be eccentric and socially unacceptable. It's one’s opinion truthfully related. Bertrand Russell once said, “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” But the way how such opinions have been opinioned in writing make them interesting and absorbable.

Dr. Nandasiri Jasenthuliyane’s Same Sky, Different Nights is one such an autobiography of such opinion. His is very interesting and absorbable. I was so immersed in it. I read with ease and speed. It is beautifully written. It drives a reader not to drop it, but to read to the very end. The language is racy and dynamic. No screws to loosen. It’s rhythmic and flows easily.

Journey

Jaenthuliyana calls it a journey of his life, in the author’s note, “interwoven with the journeys of an uncountable number of others; family, teachers, colleagues, role models. Each place I travelled through, each person I met, perhaps by being at the right place at the right time, perhaps through chance, molded me into the person I am today.” This is what he is today; he records in a book of six hundred and forty pages.

A village boy who “stood knee deep in the gracefully flowing waters of the Madhu Ganga more than 70 years ago in the Southern coastal town of Ambalangoda”, becomes the foremost authority in space law in the universe, a feat that no other Sri Lankan had achieved to date. This he attained whilst being at the helm of the United Nations Office at Vienna functioning as the Deputy Director General; and Director, United Nations Office, New York for Outer Space Affairs.

After retirement he remains the President Emeritus of International Institute of Space Law and Policy situate in Paris. This is the story he recites, how he reached to the top in his field, in his memoire, Same Sky, Different Nights. It’s fantastically divulged, how his life started from the time he was a toddler in his environment, family, amongst his relatives, friends and then at school in Ambalangoda, and later at Richmond College in Galle.

He takes so much of pride of the schools he studied and gained discipline, notwithstanding his father was the role model of that discipline from whom he inherited. In the midst of studies he participated in sports, particularly cricket, becoming the Captain of the College Team and playing well. This was and is, his relentless pride, but with exceptional humility. Still he is an extraordinarily a fan of all the sports, the prime being cricket wherever it’s played.

Ambition

At the primary stages of his life Nandi Jasenthuliyana was with full of ambition. “At the age of twelve as a student of Grade Five I had already mapped out my future”. This is what he wrote in 1950 for a class assignment. “When I am a man I wish to be a proctor, I like to wear long white trousers, black coats, and black ties. I will earn as much as I can and build a grand house for me to live in, and buy a car. But I will not be proud. I will go to the Courts every morning and do my best. Till I am too old to work I shall serve there.”

What a fantastic ambition at that age with determination, courage, imagination and maturity of thought for a happy, contented peaceful life, and from there to what an extent he has travelled in life beyond. What a great man he is now, he is not proud at all, but disciplined, organised, and intuitive as he imagined then.

After his schooling in Galle he joins the Law College and it’s here, his professional life takes shape and ambitions wrestle to work his way upwards methodically with determination. As a contemporary of his at the Law College, two years junior, I remember how he in his final year gained two LLB qualifications, one from the University of London and the other from the University of Ceylon.

What amazed us was that he gained four qualifications within a period of three months. He was a proctor, and an Advocate holding two LLB degrees. These triumphs made his pathway to the University of Montreal for his LLM and the doctorate in Space Law which ultimately, almost immediately opened doors for him to join the UNO and subsequently to excel as the prime authority in Space Law.

Interests

It’s not only at his profession he excelled, but at numerous interests too besides his love for cricket. All these are exhibitive in his autobiography in detail. Literature, theatre, architecture, decoration, politics, societal communion, love for travel and seeing places, and close continuing associations with such interest personages were remarkable. His knowledge on such areas is extremely rich. All these demonstrate him to be a rounded personality.

What is pleasant in Nandasiri Jasenthuliyana’s autobiography is the style he plays with his memory. In the course of such revelations of his memory he talks of his family, relatives, friends, and lasting relationships with each of these assemblages, and nation’s dilemmas in politics and history, the places he visited and impressions he chronicled in his mind, and above all his blissful social events he had had throughout his life.

Following is a superb account of his memory and the notes of the guide he had kept about Taj Mahal. This exposition is historical, architectural, cultural, dedicational, and an impression of the tremendous love of Emperor Shah Jahan had towards his most favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. This he experienced on a visit as a scout chosen in the contingent from Richmond, to attend a Jamboree in India at the age of 18.

Monument

“Finished in marble, it is perhaps India’s most fascinating and beautiful monument. It took 22 years (1630-1652) of hard labour and 20,000 workers, masons and jewellers to build and set it amidst landscaped gardens. Built by the Persian architect, Ustad ‘Isa, is on the bank of Yamuna River. It can be observed from Agra Fort from where Emperor Shah Jahan gazed at it for the last eight years of his life, a prisoner of his son Aurangzeb. This perfectly symmetrical monument is an acknowledged masterpiece of symmetry. Verses of the Koran are inscribed on it and at the top of the gate are twenty two small domes, signifying the number of years the monument took to build.

Built on a marble platform that stands above sandstone, the most elegant dome of the Taj Mahal has a diameter of 60 feet (18 m), and rises. Directly under this dome is the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan’s tomb was erected next to hers by his son Aurangzeb. The interiors are decorated fine inlay work, incorporating semi-precious stones.”

It’s an awesome picture that’s created in the minds of those who have not seen this monument. Its beauty, location, the immensity, length and breadth, the formation, the time spent in its creation, the huge manpower that worked on it, are all images that create in the psyches of those who read this little bit of memory. Similarly throughout the autobiography whatever the arena of experience he touches on a number of recurring themes glow.

The autobiography of Dr. Nandasiri Jasenthuliyana is concerned with memory. The whole idea of writing his life story is sharing that memory with readers, his family, friends and associates. His autobiography is a presentation of memory, a recollection. “He shows us how his past made him into the author writing in his present. He reminds us of the importance of holding on to what's happened in the past.

He is also transparent about the process of memory in his writing, telling readers he'll come back to something later, or interrupting himself to include a digression before getting back to his main idea,” which is yet to come as the second volume of his autobiography. His present “autobiography is an act of shared memory: through writing, he transfers his thoughts about the past into a permanent document, or a space where his memories can live forever, outside of his body.”