RS's chronicles of life

Reviewed by Kalakeerthi Dr. Edwin Ariyadasa

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little soon forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling."

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

British poet

Journalists tread a multitude of paths. You have investigative journalists, social journalists, political journalists and of course photo-journalists.

To me R.S. Karunaratne,popularly known as 'RS' has to be accommodated in a totally new category. He deserves the sobriquet 'Ascetic Journalist' and pre-eminently so.

For three long decades, R.S. has been a professional journalist, assiduously pursuing the routines associated with that calling. As a member of the visiting faculty in universities and other institutions of higher education, he has enriched his personality, adding a new dimension to it.

Style

As a teacher of journalism and English he has registered an impressive impact, though he scrupulously maintains a subdued and low-profile presence.

Currently his primary style of writing has quite clearly acquired a belletrist preoccupation.

In his introduction to Vignettes of Life - his latest anthology of essays - RS rationalises his marked inclination towards the present format: "I took to essay writing because an essayist has the freedom to write on any topic. However, unlike in the past - essays have to be short. In fact vignettes are short essays."

The need for the well-crafted essay, which provides an aesthetic pleasure, is extensively felt nowadays.

A vast space of current journalistic publications - in newspapers and magazine - is taken over by matter-of-fact reportage. The yearning the masses have, for beautifully turned out, soul-soothing essays, suffers frustration.

In this context, RS's effort to offer pleasing essays to readers is a highly praiseworthy mass service.

Format

He observes two distinct advantages provided by the essay-format. It endows upon the writer an untrammelled liberty of theme-choice. To reflect the people's lack of leisure to be absorbed in prolonged pieces of writing, the contemporary writer has to say his say, as briefly as is possible.

In other words, the essays have to be short, because they are aimed at flocks of readers, who 'run and read.'

RS's present anthology Vignettes of Life is, in spirit, an extension of his earlier work titled Vignettes on Life.

These works are the appealing outcome of an intensely focussed look at the parade of human life.

He observes life with a reclusive keenness and concentration. This state of mind enables him to observe items that many people are quite likely to miss in their hurried passage through day-to-day life.

Grammar

The 50 essays gathered between the covers of the present work, form a profoundly profitable grammar of life. As I see it, RS fulfils a kind of spiritual mission through these written - sermons. It disciplines the reader, obliquely, to be mindful about what he experiences.

The essay titled "Face reading is fun," intrigued me no end, because he has indicated quite carefully certain personality characteristics that can be gleaned through a study of facial nuances. You come upon in this collection a whole range of essays that are didactic and provide practical instructions.

A mere reading of the essay titles will enable a reader to appreciate the vast sweep of life the writer touches. The book is, all at once, a pop-psych practical guide, a handbook for positive thinking and a series of spiritual sermons to keep a reader's mind unshaken by the veering vicissitudes of human existence.

Genres

The book quite vividly reflects, RS's trained frequentation of many a literary genre.

If we are to surmise through the essays he contributes to the Sunday Observer, his intimate friends are Socrates, Aristotle, Pythagoras and others of that ilk in the contemporary world. Such essays as those anthologised in the present collection and the writings he contributes to the Sunday Observer, all speak loud and clear of an exceptional journalist of our day. While leading a life of ascetic austerity, his hobby seems to be to seek the company of philosophers and seers both dead and alive. I am quite certain that any reader will be stunned to discover the massive realm of subject-matter the author conducts him to. The style-level of the essays enables easy assimilation. It is likely to inspire the younger generation of readers to emulate his art of writing.

The reader can dip into this work and select any essay at random, fully convinced that whatever may be the piece he turns to it will provide him with exclusive reading pleasure.

Reading

A surrealistic work of art adorns the cover of the book which is designed by Pubudu Ruwanthilaka.

The thoughts, perceptions, philosophies and observations will continue to echo in the deep recesses of the reader's soul even after he had put down the book. The ascetic journalist, R.S. has displayed to the readers what he has stored in his memory over a period of time.