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| Sunday, 4 August 2002 |
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by Deepal Warnakulasuriya The word Tablet doesn't often conjure pleasant images. Round, oval, in myriad shades and shapes and insipid tastes, it is often associated with sickness, pain and other unpleasant happenings. That is of course if you discount the biblical images of Tablet courtesy the movie Ten Commandments. But in this instance, Tablet has nothing to do with pain or Moses. Rather an intriguing puzzle, the Tablet here is a poster piquing the curiosity of all those who happened upon it in the form of a poster on a hapless wall. Of course the protocol conscious among us might question the mores of defacing somebody else's property to pique public interest. But in terms of novelty value... well, that's why this article happened. One of our curious (aren't we all) reporters discovered the Tablet poster on a Colombo wall last week, and we decided to investigate. The poster didn't say much. Just that Tablet ....will be available after August 18. It also gave a name and a cellular phone number for further details. The name was Thilak Prasad Mendis. We dialed the number, spoke to Thilak and stumbled onto a story that is both short and long. The short version - the Tablet is a book, a debut effort in fact. And the longer version is the story in Tablet and Thilak's struggle to get it into print. In the author's view The Tablet is the most appropriate name for his work which, although aimed at children between the ages of 10 and 18 is also useful for adults. Loath to reveal the content of his book, Thilak however deigned to explain that it has something to with the arrival of Prince Vijaya and the current commercial culture, and that it touches almost all aspects of human lives, a la Chicken Soup for the Soul. In a novel twist, as intriguing as the poster, the book will also not be sold through any book shops. It will be sold by the writer, for reasons that are purely economic. But in a major concession to youth readers, those between the ages of 10 to 18 will be asked to pay only Rs. 200 while adults will have to fork out Rs. 1000. In case you want to know, The Tablet will be launched at Nugegoda, High Level junction 18 August. So who is Thilak Prasad Mendis? A former free Lance photographer, he is a sort of Jack of All Trades he has worked in more than 40 different kinds of jobs including a short stint in a dispensary. |
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