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| Sunday, 9 June 2002 |
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Two Gratiaen prize winners and a three-wheeler press by Lalith Edrisinha
One would think Jayadeva or some such, not Sam more appropriate or likely a name for a rural boy not formally educated who comes to the big city as a domestic. But Sam it is and it is Sam's Story that was adjudged a co-winner of the award for the best work of creative writing in English 2001 by a resident Sri Lankan writer. So announced Chairperson, panel of judges Dr. J. Uyangoda at Gallery 706 on Saturday June 1. Sam No wonder that. The award winning author who declares he knew no English up to what is normally school leaving age - seventeen is not a Gananath but an Elmo - Elmo Jayawardena at that. And there you are Elmo. Now that you have got your share of the prize money you know how the war could bring riches to some in devious ways, as if in accord with the seemingly naive but acute observation of your narrator Sam "I knew people died in the war, but could never figure out how people got rich." Tut, tut. That money and all monies from the sale of this 'remarkably imaginative depiction of predicament of life in Sri Lanka at present, as seen from the margin of the theatre of event' (to cull from the comments of two judges Jayadeva Uyangoda and Hemamale Ratwatte) the author assures us will go to the Association for Lighting a Candle (AFLAC). AFLAC is a charity organisation of which Jayawardena (Elmo) is Founder President. AFLAC funds education, health and basic living costs of needy Sri Lankans and also runs a 45 bed ward at the Maharagama Cancer Hospital and overseas a sponsorship program that covers medical costs for destitute cancer patients - - Vide Reader's Digest January 2002. So the proceeds from the sale of this award winning novel will go to Sri Lankans in need. Elmo Jayawardena then is a high flier. No wonder that. He flies planes for Singapore Airlines. Over to the judges on the prize-winning novel and Sumathi Sivamohan's plays. Sam's Story
Sam, the narrator, comes to the city to work as a domestic servant. Through this young boy's encounters, observations and uniquely innocent perceptions, we see the gradual unravelling of the web of fate that seems to pre-determine the life of all - the master, his servants, the dogs, Sam and his friends and the Sinhalese, the Tamils and the society at large. Sam is a young rural boy, who is not formally educated, but extremely sensitive to strange things that happen in the world around him. This strangeness of things around Sam is largely conditioned by Sri Lanka's North-East War and its consequences as felt in Sam's village in the rural Kalutara district as well as in Colombo where he is employed. As a boy without much social exposure, Sam has a certain original quality of unsophistication which borders on naivety.The accidental death of Sam's master in a suicide bomb attack in Colombo brings to an end the world of small rivalries between Sam and his co-workers in a revelation that perplexes Sam. He goes back to his village and contemplates on the inexplicable predicament that befell on all former dwellers of the river house. "My Master had nothing to do with this stupid war and nothing against anybody on either side. He had no comment to make about all this business of dividing the country and who should get what part. He only said "it was all meaningless." He just drank his Russian and watched his fish eating their green balls and went about carrying people in his aerobblane...We were all defeated by this stupid war that none of us had anything to do with." In short, Sam's Story is a novel that makes a noteworthy contribution to English fiction in Sri Lanka by pointing towards a mode of literary practice that is socially and politically meaningful as well as vibrant in its capacity for critical reflection. In the Shadow of the Gun and The Wicked Witch
Sumathi Sivamohan's two short plays in manuscript form yet are a combination of poetry and drama - poetry of the theatre. They are multi-vocal depictions of the horror of life in conditions of civil war. In a dramatic re-creation of the multi-dimensionality of that horror through the voices of women victims, these two short plays also demonstrate a faith in the human capacity to resist even under the most adverse conditions. The Wicked Witch is a contemporary parable of power and resistance. The character of the witch is not fixed, it constantly changes and appears and re-appears in a range of manifestations, yet maintains a thread of consistency in purpose. In this multiplicity of manifestations, the Witch represents many things. At the outset, she appears to be a woman in search of better times, a seeker and an adventurer who desires to enter the city - the citadel of power and consumerism. Inside the city, she is turned into a victim of suspicion and fear by those who run the city. She is deemed dangerous as she brings life and hope to a starved city where obedient and submissive citizens docilely accept stones for bread. In a twist of irony that symbolizes urban consumerism, there exists in a corner a thriving black-market in stones. Her presence in the city has subverted the oppressive status quo and a corrupt judge throws her into prison. In jail, she is now the victim of a corrupt justice system as well. In another ironic turn of events, the three-wheeler driver who brings the Witch to the city is now her jail guard. The author juxtaposes the Witch with the others, by portraying them as formless and shapeless beings who have a shadowy existence. The Witch's encounters in the city and the city jail are gripping exposures of power, oppression and deceit that characterize the city and perhaps the world at large. The Wicked Witch presents a sharp social and political critique, cleverly brought out in an almost Brechtian dramatic prose. The context for In the Shadow of the Gun is set in the war ravaged Northern Sri Lanka where 'people of all communities live under the shadow of the gun, beyond sorrow's limit' in a "threadbare existence' and where 'the beautiful sandy precincts of the temple (become) nothing but one whole shit dump." Many voices of women victims of violence and violations in times of war are heard when Savithri, a doctor, goes around collecting stories of women living under conditions of war. They are victims of multiplicity of 'evils'. One elderly woman's middle-class life is ruined by the war. Now living in poverty and subject to her husband's cruelty, she moralizes in an old-fashioned way that "we as women should be careful and cherish our inner strength," when 'soldiers or no soldiers...men with feelings' are around. In contrast, the second woman is a 'prostitute', actually a woman with children who, after she lost her husband, was forced to service the soldiers in the camp. Savithri finds her lying by the way side, having been shot and wounded by the militants. In this encounter, Savithri herself is critically scrutinized: "What do you know of war, what will your stories do? Don't turn away making faces like that...How much more horrifying would my tale be for your tacky little note book, pretty lady." The third and fourth women are victims of rape by soldiers, agonizingly recounting those dreadful moments in their life. In the middle of the play, Savithri herself is confronted by the armed militants who demand that she should give them the stories she has collected. This is a poignant moment when women's personal agony as victims of violence faces the threat of being silenced by armed militants. Savithri, who "has set out to find out why women cry when their children go to war, to know why they walk miles, alone in the dark, when even dogs have gone to sleep!" resists and it appears that she is killed because of her defiance. In the Shadow of the Gun is a parable of women in war, their traumatic experiences and memories and the politics of those memories. The play is constructed in a Brechtian narrative structure and presented in evocative dramatic prose. It certainly is unique in contemporary English creative writing in Sri Lanka. The Three-Wheeler Press 'A Lankan Mosaic' is the first in a series of translations of Sinhala and Tamil short stories in English. This volume (443 pages) is published by a subsidiary of The Gratiaen Trust founded and funded by Michael Ondaatje. His choice of logo Three-Wheeler Press is no doubt determined by the target of the project to bring out selected works in Sinhala translated into Tamil and English and Tamil works into Sinhala and English an altogether tri-lingual exercise. In the Foreword Ranjini Obeysekera tells us that Michael was moved when told of the lack of exposure of young writers confined to the vernaculars. The etymological root of 'vernacular' 'verna' meaning slave was condescendingly used by the colonial master and it appears that colonial subservience still prevails. In the introduction Ashley Halpe says that Michael Ondaatje wanted this volume launched on 1st of June when, the Gratiaen Prize for 2002 will be awarded. It appears then that this volume has seen the light of day one year in advance! A three-wheeler express!! Let us discount Gamini Haththotuwegama's imperative (see page 55) and open the door to 'A Lankan Mosaic' edited by Ashley Halpe, M. A. Nuhman, and Ranjini Obeysekera using Godfrey Goonethilleke as the medium'. "The translation program as I mentioned last year was the brainchild of Michael Ondaatje and has been made possible through a generous donation from him. The translation program is trilingual in scope. It is designed to bring Tamil writing to the Sinhala reader, the Sinhala writing to the Tamil reader and both to the English educated reader. Hopefully it will be successful in finding an English readership abroad. The inter-ethnic and multicultural exchange that the translation will produce will undoubtedly enrich the inner world which nourishes the creative sensibility and enlarge and refine the experience of the creative writer. It will enable the writer to respond more fully and with deeper sympathy to the heterogeneity and diversity amidst which he engages in his creative task. And here I need to refer back to my comments earlier on the role of the creative writer in a multi cultural multi-ethnic context. The translation program gave birth to another initiative. Michael decided to form a subsidiary under the Trust specially devoted to publications and gave it the name "The Three Wheeler Press" - three wheeler suggestive of the three facets of the translation program and a vehicle for mobility adapted to the local environment. The present volume of translations is the first publication of the Three Wheeler Press". Others Short Listed Ratnayake, Madubhashini, Tales of Shades and Shadows Saratchandra, APG, Bicycles and Bombs Wickramanayake, Marissa Dreaming in Reality In Tales of Shades and Shadows, the mundane unpredictability of everyday life in contemporary Sri Lanka is captured in carefully and skilfully constructed stories. Bicycles and Bombs is a powerful depiction of the transformation of life in Jaffna under the condictions of continuing civil war. Dreaming in Reality is a collection of poems that depict the impossibility of making sense of the seemingly senseless world that surrounds us say Dr. Jayadeva Uyangoda and Dr. Hemamala Ratwatte. |
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