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| Sunday, 7 August 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Book reviews English through a new Sinhala alphabet Modern way to English Modern Way to English, Volume 1, by S.W. Mahanamahewa is a self study book for those who know Sinhala, and will assist teachers, parents, and elders to teach English to their children. Mahanamahewa introduces four new letters to the Sinhala alphabet which he believes will help students to pronounce English properly. The four letters have been accepted under the Intellectual Property Act. The exercises in Modern Way to English, Volume 1, begin from the alphabet and are used to teach the formation of simple and capital letters. The gradual formation of these letters with lines and curves are given with necessary instructions to learn how to write them. To get voice training a syllable elocution lesson is included. Word drill, recitation, pronunciation, simple mathematics and grammar is taught gradually. The book is further enhanced by the attractive illustrations of Manjula Karunatilake. ########### Enriching children's literature The Invisible Host Reading R. S. Karunaratne's The Invisible Host was indeed an enthralling experience, which I digested at a stretch, with much enthusiasm and animation, though this collection of short stories, is primarily meant for children and young adults. Each story in this collection can be considered as a fable, intrinsically woven with a moral lesson. The author had shown his prowess in ample measure in handling this form of short stories in his previous contributions such as Once upon a Time and In The Land of Nowhere both of which can be cited as an eloquent testimony to prove his success in this form of art and craft. This genre of literature has a rich tradition which had its heyday in Aesop's fables and R. S. Karunaratne had adopted the art of narrating this form of short stories with enviable dexterity. There are altogether 32 short stories in this collection. Though they are short in length, keeping in mind that they are meant for easy assimilation by children and young adults, these short stories are quite rich with layers of deep meanings. Thus they open up a virtual treasure-trove, stimulating young readers' taste-buds with tales of mystery and suspense, ensuring that they will experience a joyful flight of excitement and a lot of fun in the process. Besides, the moral lesson, highlighted at the end of each story, these stories activate the young readers' minds with incisive perception which will go a long way in moulding them as discerning readers when they reach adulthood. Among these fascinating short stories in this collection, I find Cobra Wisdom as one of my favourites. It is about a wise king who had strange habits and his Queen who became suspicious about his activities. The king used to eat some food, all by himself, prepared by one of his trusted servants. The queen probing into this strange habit of the king, bribes a servant to bring her a portion of this food. To her amazement, she finds a small cobra in her dish which was brought by the servant. Feeling numb with fear, she encounters the small cobra, who reveals that the king had the habit of consulting it, to get advice in worldly matters. The queen, in vain, tries to persuade the cobra to stay with her, thinking that she can use the serpent for her own benefit. However, the cobra does not accede to her request, but condemns her for trying to corrupt the servant by bribing him and also emphatically tells her that it advises only wise and righteous kings. There are an array of such short stories in this book, enticing the children and young readers to become voracious readers in their quest for adventure, interspersed with a sprinkling of noble sentiments. As we are living in a concrete jungle, in which conundrum, corrupting young minds in numerous ways, dictated by pecuniary considerations is rampant, and in this set-up the author's contribution to the children's and young adults' literature is like a dew drop in the parched desert, which deserves our whole-hearted appreciation and also emulation. Let us hope fervently, as hope springs eternal in the human heart, that he will be purposeful in striving hard to enhance the parameters of children's literature through his short stories. It will result in a renaissance in the field of children's and young adults' literature in which many new writers spinning the web of children's stories would emerge to the limelight. To that end, let us pray, with religious zeal, that he would have a smooth ride, striding along the cobbled highway, striving hard to reach the pinnacle of literary stardom. ########### Saddest stories ever told Punchi Kete Vathure Gihin Can you stand one more story about a mother and a daughter who die in the tsunami? About a foreign family on holiday who loses their baby daughter to the deathly waves at Yala? About a young man who grabs a gold chain off the neck of a rotting corpse? Yes, you can. Because the stories in Punchi Kete Vathure Gihin are semi fictitious. They are as Professor Karunaratne states in her preface, imaginary tales based on real life incidents. This is surely one of the redeeming features of the book, especially for those who are ultra sensitive to sorrow and, for those who feel there are times when its good to have time rushing past you, when its good to forget things, especially those aspects of the past that hurt you deeply. Why give more strength to sorrow? But the craftsmanship of the author is such that even for those who feel the pain of others as deeply as though its their own pain, Punchi Kete is readable. This is so if they begin to read the stories keeping in mind not only that, as Chekhov said and as Professor Karunaratne quotes in her preface,a short story might be a "slice of life" and life could be hard as Lieutenant Colonel Vershinin says in the Three Sisters (once again by Chekhov) "but we do have to admit it is getting clearer, brighter and in all probability the time is not far off when it will be absolutely radiant". From the first story to the last the focus is the tsunami. From the word go the reader knows one or the other of the characters is going to die or lose their loved ones or their property to the tsunami. But, in spite of this lack of subtlety one is made to read on feeling exactly the way Martin Wickramasinghe felt when he read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, as if someone is sawing one's brain apart. Thus each story has a poignant, unforgettable moment from the death of a monk on his way to an arms-giving who has come to terms with the inevitability of death ("we must depart from this world when the oil runs out of the lamp") in the opening story, to baby number 21 who learns from her aunt how she escapes being a tsunami orphan, to the grandmother who admonishes her granddaughter when she bids her farewell by saying "Yannam" (I'm going), when she ought to have said "gihin ennam" (I'll come back) each story mists the eyes, brings a lump into your throat and makes you doubt if Colonel Vershinin's prophesy of a clearer, brighter life ahead will ever come true. Yet, with a brave-heart you turn to the next page, only to realize the story told therein is even more painful than the one before. So, what do you do? Continue? I confess. I have managed to read only upto the story titled "Ekai, dekai, thunai (One, two, three). I give up. Bravo to anybody who has the courage to continue. But whether you do or not, one thing is guaranteed. After reading at least one, of Professor Karunaratne's maiden collection of stories you will never be the same again. Here's a book which has the power to penetrate anybody's consciousness, however immune they may feel they are towards pain and sorrow, in a way no other book on the subject would manage. (AD) ########### An intriguing true story Disclosure Author:- Michael Crichton Power is neither male nor female. Michael Crichton's Disclosure, is yet another of his many thrilling works of fiction. It is based on a true story, a throat-gripping, compelling and wonderfully entertaining episode of a very apt theme; in present day context; sexual harassment in the workplace which revolves around conflicting legal rights for the individual as well as the establishment. The book does not intend to deny the fact that majority of harassment claims are brought by women against men but on the contrary: the advantage of the role reversal story is that it may enable the reader to examine aspects concealed by traditional responses and conventional rhetoric. It is also important to recognise the behaviour of the two antagonists in the story and what it tells us about ourselves. The story revolves around Thomas Sanders who is a divisional General Manager at Digital Communication Technology in Seattle. Digicom was being acquired by Conley-White, a publishing company in New York. The merger would allow Conley to acquire technology important for publishing in the next century. Phil Blackburn, the chief-legal counsel for Digilom and Sanders had been close-friends, not only had they grown up with the company, but their lives were intertwined personally as well. But then Meridith Johnson, a long lost acquaintance of Sanders was appointed Head of Technical Division which made things take a turn. Back then, Meridith was no doubt good looking, sexy and smart and Sanders had in fact admired her back in those days, but he never admired her those days, and he never could imagine that she had the ability to hold a major corporate position. But it soon all began to start again. The passion for a woman of his past. The fragrance of her perfume immediately brought back old memories, although he had a wife and child. But when Sanders pushed Meridith away she complained of sexual harassment. Sanders was furious, because it was the other way about and conflicting claims. Thomas Sanders world collapses in just 24 hours. Meridith demands his transfer and threatens to cut him off from the million be would have floated on the stock market. So far society's tend to focus on the problems of the victim not on the problems of the accused, but the novel expresses the view that the accused in instance too has problems. The book portrays that harassment claims are weapons and there are no good defenses against it. Anybody could use this weapon and lots of people do it and have done it. This is an intriguing experience of a victim of such circumstances. The author's other well-known writings and bestsellers are Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Congo and has also directed a number of films, to name a few 'The Great Train Robbery, Coma and Westworld'. (RK) |
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