Savoir faire gathered from the shattered landscape

Reviewed by Ranga Chandrarathne

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“T-he Rolling Back Beach, -stories from Tsunami”, an anthology of short stories by Simon Harris and Neluka Silva offers a range of experiences as diverse as the actors involved in them. Though the stories are not about the disaster that unfolded on that fateful Boxing Day, they are intrinsically associated with the disaster.

Once the roaring waves settled for good, dawned upon the people the realisation that how much their lives have changed following the tsunami and how they would have been if the tsunami had not walloped.

The stories though seem peripheral to the tsunami, they represent collective upshot of the disaster that devastated the human landscape not only in Sri Lanka but also in the countries where donations were gathered to help recovery effort.

The anthology is made up of fourteen diverse stories; each manifests a new dimension in a myriad of experiences and almost bona fide state of affairs where people of different walks respond according to their atypical ways and mindsets.

For instance, the story titled ‘Day of reckoning ‘by Dr. Neluka Silva depicts how tsunami marked the end of an estranged marriage between a wildlife-enthusiastic Gihan and city-fed fun-loving Krishani. Instead of tsunami being the subject of the story, here the tsunami is the catalyst of transform in the lives of Gihan and Krishani, the change is as demoralizing as the tsunami itself.

The authoress dexterously links the focal point of the inevitable severance of the couple to the tsunami. Neluka portrays not only the disparity of interests and life-styles on the part of the couple but also the diverse mentalities.

For wild-life enthusiastic Gihan, tsunami is an important incident that has done much harm to the ‘Yala’, his favourite safari site.

However, for Krishani, it is nothing more than a news item on TV which agitates her routine party circuit and her job as a Public Relations Manager. The tsunami hits the final nail on the coffin, marking the informal end of their marriage.

“The Boat Baron’s daughter” by Simon Harris, is a story that highlighs the class differences or rather hatred between a young fisherman and the boat baron’s daughter. Mano looks with scornful eyes at Sashi for her gold necklace and ‘the impossible unexplored mystery of her privileged breasts’.

When tsunami clouted, Mano ripped the gold chain from Shashi. Here Simon illustrates a gruesome facet of tsunami. As the calamity smack, human vultures subjugated the situation to achieve their parochial ends; some looted the property indiscriminately while others raped victim women, leaving not even carcasses in search of jewellery and valuables.

“Becoming a Big girl “, another story by Neluka Silva, scornfully looks down on a so called ‘our tradition’ with regard to natural biological changes that occur in a girl. So the puberty or ‘coming of age’ (a Sri Lankan English phrase) has been mystified by cultural baggage that is said to have been passed down from generation to generation over centuries.

In Sri Lankan society, especially among the Sinhalese and I, suppose, Tamil communities, puberty is a hush-hush affair. A regime of traditions including consulting astrologers and throwing elaborate parties in keeping with one’s social status, are associated with puberty. Neluka should be commended for bringing out this issue in a most effective and literary manner.

It has been aptly linked to the tsunami to strike home, the fact that puberty is quite a natural phenomenon that actually needs not such a degree of secrecy and mystification. Though one may argue that, here, Neluka’s perception is rather feminist, it, in fact, is rational and modern. Such traditions should have been relegated to history long time ago.

“Comic Relief” is a story about a comedian who came down from UK to entertain traumatised tsunami victims. However, he is being ridiculed by another ‘comedian’, the Chief Minister who is, most probably, interested in unconditional foreign aid and not the well-being of the affected communities. It is, perhaps, not a strange phenomenon that unscrupulous politicians made a fortune out of misery in the name of serving the tsunami-affected population.

Though the story is about a comedian, Simon, conveys the idea that except the comedian all others who deem to be serious are comedians in a tragic -comedy unfolded in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami.

“It is a Small World, After all” also by Dr. Neluka Silva, revolves around the tragic death of a much-loved and respected teacher of music, who died caught up in tsunami whilst on a safari in “Yala”.

Here, Neluka brings out the inhumane nature of busy lives of professionals in Sri Lanka. The rat race has robbed the children of time for lessons on music and even literature which make a concerned citizen.

Towards the end of the story, readers realize the importance of aesthetic subjects to life and the qualities brought about by them in one’s character, which are embodied by the teacher of music, Natasha.

“Beth’s Bear” and “Toys Appeal” by Simon and Neluka deal with the gigantic fund raising activities carried out in Europe to help the tsunami affected community in Asia. These stories are tribute to those who donated in their small ways for the benefit of persons whom they have not known and parted with articles of sentimental values such as dolls.

One of the striking short stories is “The Gender Officer” by Neluka Silva.

This story has also been craftily linked to the tsunami. Neluka attacks the false perception and rather erroneous connotation that the word ‘gender’ assumes in Sri Lanka. Kesh’s hope of becoming a mother has been halted by the title of her job ‘gender officer’.

Perhaps, she is influenced by her own expertise in the area. However, she meets her soul-mate as a result of post-tsunami developments.

Neluka highlights the fact that what is important for a happy marriage is the mutual understanding and respect rather than nationality, race or creed of the person. “Shaker” is about a fake fund-raiser who was sentenced to work in a charity shop.

Here Simon, through the asides of the donors who come to the charity shop to make donations and the attitudes of the volunteers, brings out how charity had helped the massive recovery effort in Tsunami hit countries. The little money collected had actually helped restore livelihoods of thousands of tsunami victims.

“Red Sari”, “Beyond the Rolled Back Beach” and “The Dancer” offer rich baggage of diverse experience for the readers. All in all, “ The Rolled Back Beach” offers hitherto unseen aspects of tsunami enriched by feminine elements added by Neluka Silva and Simon Harris’s insightful stories that are not only reflected upon the lives of the people but to a certain degree, focus on diverse social prejudices.

Simon blends his stories with the disaster in a most convincing manner, often misleading the reader that the stories are fiction not of the people of flesh and blood.

The stories are rich both in diction and metaphor that they can be categorised as a rich collection that emerged following the tsunami. The couple has made a lasting contribution to Sri Lankan writings in English with a modern perspective.

The ideology behind the stories depicts that they are a modern man and a modern woman. One of the salient characteristics of the anthology is that it is not about the tsunami but about the people who have been involved in the disaster one way or another. The book is published by Zevs Paperback.

Quest to solve the riddle of the Nile

by Carl Muller

As Lord Selbourne, President of the Royal Geographic Society, says in his introduction to this outstanding book:

“(To the) Royal Geographic Society... geographical knowledge, then as now, was seen as the key to unlocking many of the mysteries relating to this planet... When Captain Robert Fitzroy charted the coast of South America, he took with him the young Charles Darwin, who assiduously collected specimens which were ultimately to prove the inspiration for the theory of evolution by natural selection... Richard Burton amassed anthropological date of great importance... during his travels in Asia and Africa...

“Soon the attention of the RGS turned to Africa... Determining the source of the Nile River... was a subject which has engaged the history of men since ancient times...

“The Victorians’ fascination for determining the Nile origins puzzled the Africans who gave the name mzungu (meaning “he who walks around in circles”) to the white men...

“Christopher Ondaatje has challenged us to look with a new insight into the significance of the great European expeditions in search of the source of the Nile...”

Who were these Victorian explorers? This fascinating book tells of Burton, Speke, Grant, Samuel and Florence Baker, Livingstone and Stanley. Speke was the first European to see what he named Lake Victoria. Later, Stanley resolved the full story of the lakes of Central Africa that fed the Nile and the Congo. As Lord Selbourne adds:

“As Ondaatje points out, both the Nile and mankind might owe their existence to the creation of (the formation of the Great Rift Valley to become) an evolutionary spur that gave rise to... the spread of humanity around the world... If so, then European explorers did not “discover” this part of Africa; they returned to the land of their first ancestors.”

Christopher has been long fascinated by Burton. Thus it was that in 1996 he made his third trip to East Africa where, together with a support team of four Tanzanians, retracted the routes taken by Burton and Speke from Zanzibr, across Tanzania to Lake Tanganyika.

He re-travelled the route of Speke and Grant along the rim of Lake Victoria to the start of the Victoria Nile. From there, he followed Baker’s journey to Lake Albert. He reached the Ruwenzori - the legendary Mountains of the Moon and, as Stanley did, saw the Semlike River, Lake Edward and Lake George. At Masanza was the plaque that read:

On third August, 1858
from Isamilo Hill
one mile from
this point, Speke first saw
the main waters of Lake Victoria which he afterwards proved to be the source of the Nile.

In The Handbook of Tanganyika, first issue of 1930 edited by Gerard F. Sayers (Macmillan, London) it is said that Lake Tanganyika is the largest freshwater lake in the world, measuring over 400 miles in length, an average breath of 35 miles and a total area of 12,000 square miles.

There is a lot of information to glean from this Handbook and I recall Christopher’s words on the reservoirs that fed the Nile. We have Lake Nyanza, discovered, it is said, by Uganda through which the Nile flows.

There is Lake Nyasa, Lake Rukwa, the brackish lakes Eyasi, Manyara and Natzon, the last in the north of the Masai land.

These lakes are in turn fed by the rivers Mori, Mara, Kagera, Malagarasi, Songwe, Ruhunu and Sousi among others. Kagera forms the headwaters of the Nile.The railway terminus on Lake Tanganyika is Kigoma and a few miles away, the Arab town of Ujiji, where Stanley met Livingstone in 1871. A stone memorial marks the meeting:

Under the Mango tree which then stood here,

Harvey M. Stanley met David Livingstone, 10th December 1871.

Burton told of the founding of Kilwa-Kivinje (Kilwa of the Casuarina Trees) about 1830 when the inhabitants of Kilwa-Kisiwani (Kilwa on the Island) came there to avoid British gunboats and carry on their slave trade.

So what do we have? Speke sighted Lake Nyanza in 1858, made a second expedition to the lake with Grant between 1861-62, and declared his discovery of the source of the Nile. It must be said that the only physical features which recurred in the maps of that period were the Nile, whose course followed the geographers’ imagination, and the Mountains of the Moon which were located in Ptolemy’s map.

Whatever it all amounted to, Christopher was not only determined to walk the ways of the Victorian explorers but also to attempt to clear up the muddle of it all.In 1873 the Royal Geographic Society sent out Lieutenant Lovell Cameron R. N. to the relief of Livingstone, but on hearing of Livingstone’s death, pushed on the Lake Tanganyika.

A second expedition by the RGS set out under the leadership of Keith Johnstone in 1878, who died near Lake Nyasa. That was the time when the British Government could no longer remain indifferent to the attempts by religious and commercial bodies to open up the African interior; so we have Lord Soulbury who wrote:

“Her Majesty’s Government and the British Public are much interested in these settlements.”

Political and economic reasons entered the field and nations began to think that their pockets would suffer from inaction. The scramble for Africa began and in 1885, the Berlin Conference laid down the rules of the game in which Germany was to be a competitor.Speke has told of Coffea robusta - the hardy indigenous coffee variety with some trees over 100 years old around Mt. Kilimanjaro. There is also a long-tailed Central African lizard that bears the name of ‘Speke.’

I wish to say at this point, is that all I have written so far is by way of an “introduction.” This book is too vast of character and detail, too full of Christopher’s tremendous fervour and research to limit this review to a rather prosaic “ho hum, splendid pictures, great piece of work, oh boy, those young Masai boys have got what it takes, and so to bed!”

I must warn you however that as I begin to follow Christopher’s “Nile experience” I will always put in my five-cents-worth... but for now, let me leave you with Christopher’s words:

“...questions about the Nile had occupied my mind for many years... It was as though the Nile had cast a powerful spell which I could lift only by having my own ‘Nile experience’...

“...none of us can go back to the landscape exactly as it was in the time of Burton and Speke... It is wonderful and amazing to know how things used to be... The landscape and people of today are as interesting as those of yesterday and I have recorded as much about them as I could... It is important for us to record our experiences of that same place today. The past gives us a context for understanding the present and, in turn, our observations provide a context for future travellers.”

‘A well balanced mission’

by Anushka Nanayakkara

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A soldier involved in operations generally get leave only one or two days a month, during those days he totally devote his time, mind and heart to associate with people in the society. Writer says he also had to experience this common reality.

Interacting with people in the civil society, he has gained, a lot of experience and as a result it has given him a idea to write a collection of short stories by the name of ‘Dolos peye sonduru meheyuma’ which consists of eight short stories.

The writer has not included much of his experience in the Military, most of the stories show how the society struggle to live their lives to the fullest.

A fish cannot survive when he is not in the water, likewise even a soldier cannot live a lonesome life by separating from the civil society.

The reality is that we all are connected to the culture and traditions, law, happiness, sadness, calmness, pressure in the circle of life. Though a soldier takes a break from these for a short time they all do have the desire once again to get connected with the above mentioned reasons and this book gives the readers a better view on such moods and moments.

According to Professor Sunanda Mahendra the short story collection ‘Dolos peye sonduru meheyuma’ has a great connection with humanism and analysis of the human mind.

Achieving some wisdom through this book would be possible if a reader goes through carefully with this short story collection.

He also said that the writer has already captured the readers hearts with his initial collection of short stories.

‘Sundara warada’ and ‘Dolos peye sonduru meheyuma’ is about two different families facing two important moments in their lives.

It flows with sensitive and impassive feelings and depicts how a human mind learns to appreciate the beauty in life through success and failures.

The book is a well balanced mission accomplished by Major Kamal Sri Manathunga.

A guide to Bharatiya Natya

By K. A. Perera, Wadduwa Special Correspondent

D. L. Jagath Chandralal a dancing instructor of Ratnapura Sumana Balika Vidyalaya has written two books Kathak Narthanaya and Bharathiya Narthana for the benefit of the students who follow courses in higher education specially in “Bharatiya Nartanaya”.

Jagath Chandralal is a well-known dancing instructor and a graduate of Sri Palee Campus of Colombo University. He has followed a post-graduate degree at the University of Kelaniya in drama and theatre. And also obtained a degree from “Barthkanda Music Vidya Pita” of (Manipur).

The two books have been presented in Question and Answer form to enable students sitting for the G.C.E. (Ordinary) and (Advanced) Level Examinations to obtain a comprehensive knowledge in “Bharatiya Nartanaya.”