More than a vivid portrait of the Excise Department 'Excise Memoirs' :

Humour and pun run through the fabric

Reviewed by Anton J Jesuthasan (Sajj)

Sivanandan's Memoirs is a fascinating book, which is verily one that's "all things to all men'': to borrow these meaningful words from the Bible. To the reader with a curious or inquiring mind, it is the inspirational tale of an enterprising young man, decked out in the Excise Inspector's uniform that he had long coveted, from his school days, and stepping onto the first rung of the ladder, from which he was to negotiate his way up many tricky traps and turns, to become the mature, wise, Commisaris Thuma, whom many that came his way loved, feared, or hated, but certainly admired and respected.

To the historian or the archivist, it's a 'First' from an Excise Top-Brass, tracing for posterity the origins, development, and structure of the Excise Department, a demanding undertaking never before so skillfully attempted, avoiding the tedium or monotony inherent in such tasks, mainly employing an anecdotal narrative to achieve the result.

To the laidback reader curled up an evening, in an armchair to relax, the book can present itself as any of many genres: a spy thriller, a comedy of errors, a tragedy, and certainly no literary fiction, something presented in his own inimitable, casual, colloquial lingo, and in an informal style, with occasional flashes of literary brilliance nevertheless.

Humour, and pun are indispensable ingredients in the armoury of the author; he makes liberal use of them throughout the book, even at his own expense, and beginning with his Preface, to lighten an inherently heavy topic.

"Longevity has given me leverage'', he says, "together with my liver to live longer, to come out with my memoirs, not forgetting the remaining brain cells left after the considerable damage of a good number, as a result of constant companionship with alcohol, always worshipping Bacchus''.

Sport, a Passport

A great sportsman himself, Sivanandan devotes a chapter 'Excise and Cricket' to extol sport and eulogize some prominent sportsmen, including his own father-in-law Sivasambo, another Exciseman, and Sivasambo's Thomian team-mates, including Dudley Senanayake, four times Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, and some distinguished Police Chiefs, among other popular names.

"Excelling in sports and extra-curricular activities was essentially a passport for entry into the Police and Excise services'', he reflects, and goes on to speak about the Excise cricket team, commonly known as Ekka size, studded with 'giant killers'.

He has included some rare photographs of S.Thomas' Cricket, Soccer and Boxing teams, which readers might appreciate with nostalgic interest.

LTTE and STF

'Between the devil and the deep blue sea', 'Between a rock and a hard place', aren't expressions that would adequately capture situations that Sivanandan describes as having been thrown into, often during those dark and turbulent days of the tragic and devastating ethnic war, for merely being faithful to his office as a responsible public servant; "Stretched on a rake between the LTTE and the STF'' may be a more appropriate expression! The chapters, 'Encounters with the LTTE', and 'Encounters with Service Personnel' are but a mere few pages, but they capture dramatically the atmosphere of fear and terror that pervaded these outfits.

Sivanandan was then a Superintendent of Excise and a Civil List officer, whose rank and position would, in normal times, have triggered 'attention and salute' from officers, not merely from the Excise, but also from other uniformed services such as the Police and the Armed Forces.

One can imagine the insult and humiliation he would have stomached, when an STF minion ordered him around, and threatened to cut him into pieces and throw him into the sea, Pethikappala muhuthata dhanawa, for trying to accomplish a government mission, the urgency and importance of which the STF personnel had been made fully aware of! The manner of Siva's confident walk and talk was not to their liking!

The 'summons' to attend the 'kangaroo court' hearings of the LTTE in their jungle hide-outs, the extortionate demands thrust on loyal and respectable civil servants, the grilling by the 'Inquiring Officer' in full military fatigues with his revolver placed on the table in front, the atmosphere of fear and tension endured while the 'statements' await to be seen by the 'Supremo', the uncertainty that any further inquiry would depend on the 'Boss's verdict', the hazardous journey into and out of the jungle, safe, from the hands of the security personnel, all these humiliations and more endured and overcome by the author without surrender or collapse, not only provide credible and first- hand revelations of the outfit's regime of terror, but also of the mettle of the undaunted author.

Mutual respect

Relationships between the Excise and Police Departments are generally very cordial and mutually respectful; the author records with disappointment and regret the atypical conduct of an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) towards him, when as an Excise Warehouse Officer then , he attended a Police Station to report an arson attack on the warehouse: a Tamil being routinely confused for a Tamil Tiger, in those uneasy times, his responsible position notwithstanding!

The book also deals extensively with 'politics' at play in the workings of Government, and with the formulation of policies and the exercise of power by the Excise Department's 'Generals' and their 'Adjutants', in the department's mighty corridors.

Touching

Typical of the man's style, the book is interspersed with humorous anecdotes and episodes, which are sometimes a little overdone, purportedly to lighten the gravity of his messages.

The closing chapter is very personal, family-centered, and touching; makes the reader feel with the author a tinge of regret, that such a colourful and distinguished career had perforce to come to an end, to contemplate an uncertain future in a far off, foreign land!

This is Sivanandan's The Agony and the Ecstasy, the biographical novel of Michelangelo Buonarroti, written by the American author Irving Stone. As any astute reader would have observed, I have had the benefit of seeing these memoirs develop and take shape.

As also recorded elsewhere in the book, I would again say, the author has written these memoirs with great insight and introspection. This is a book which should find its place in public libraries, and in the book-shelves of Government offices, for its inspirational and historic value.