Vivid recollections in the form of fiction

by Ranga CHANDRARATHNE

“He was reporting for his public service job. The letter he carried in his hand with the envelope marked “On His Majesty’s Service” said that the Public Service Commission had appointed him Probationary Assistant Superintendent of Railway Stores. He had been surprised to receive the letter. But he had attended many job interviews and he had sat in front of panels of middle aged public officers, who looked at his certificates and asked him some questions. He hoped that this was a good job because he had left behind his staff job in the Bank of Colombo to take this one. He had no choice now because he had antagonized the Accountant in the Bank’s Foreign department by reporting him to the Assistant General Manager. That was an act of independence which had taken him also by surprise at the temerity of the act by a new entrant puppy in the august halls of the Bank. He had described it to his friends as an act of courage and with each telling he had begun to doubt its prudence and wisdom. Anyway he was beginning his working life in another place now.

Jayantha reached the top of the stairs and as he stepped into the first floor he saw a long and dusty hall, with a wooden floor, with many men seated at office tables in rows facing the windows.

He hesitated to step forward and glancing around noticed the picture of a black steam engine, blowing white smoke, with two white men, standing by it. It hung on a wooden pillar a few feet away from him.

It said “Sir Hercules Robinson 1895.” That was the name of the engine, which had been named after a Governor of Ceylon. A man in a white cloth draped round his waist, wearing a white shirt on his upper body approached him across the wooden floor”.

The author has captured vividly the ambience of colonial Sri Lanka and the public service modeled on British bureaucracy. It was the days that office workers wore full suit and maintained higher degree of professionalism.

Since the private sector had not come into the economy, it was the public sector which dominated the day. Although Jayantha’s character has not been developed in a novel, it has been used as the mouthpiece of the author. In fact, the author’s presence is felt throughout the novel. In a way, `Time Traveller’ cannot be considered a novel in the absence of a well-defined plot or evolution of characters. However, it is obvious that author has revisited his childhood, adolescence and his rather odd career he perused in Sri Lanka and his studies in a University in USA in the form of a loosely-knitted novel with dramatis personae replacing the real characters in life.

The quotation below amply displayed author’s ability to depict today’s complex life Jayantha’s children lead in USA. Compared with his working days in Sri Lanka in the Department of Railways and in Kachcheri (Government Agent’s office), the life in USA is complex, with modern technology dominating the office. In USA, the traditional cast-consciousness which was part and parcel of Jayantha’s life withered into surmise against the melting pot of cultures, ethnicities, races and nationalities.

“Though Bala was with them, Rama and Savithri, had to leave him behind and travel to USA where their married younger son and their daughter-in-law Lakshmi lived. Their younger son Para was a medical doctor from Colombo Medical College and his wife Lakshmi was also a doctor trained in an Indian Medical School in Mangalore.

They lived in California and worked in the same hospital, which was attached to an American University. Lakshmi had borne a male child just a couple of weeks ago. Lakshmi was daughter-in-law and also niece, the daughter of Savithri’s half brother, who was married to Rama’s sister. It was a marriage within the family circle, the result of which had been surprisingly beneficial, to both couples. The odds are usually that one couple would fail and the other would succeed. Fifty fifty, at least in arranged `exchange’ marriages, is usually a dependable law of averages but such laws do have exceptions. And such exceptions feel that they are the privileged ones in life. So Lakshmi was almost their own daughter, more than daugher-in-law and niece! Para’s and Lakshmi’s marriage too would have been fraught with biological dangers, being first cousins almost twice over, but not quite, since her father was not Saraswathi’s brother but her half brother. What would be the fate of their offspring? Would he turn out to be a misbegotten child, since the marriage was within the forbidden degrees of kindred? That had been a fear lurking in the minds of both parents and grandparents ever since they learnt that Lakshmi was pregnant.

Travelling through Dubai and London they took the London-San Francisco flight. Coming over North America in a United Airlines Boeing 747 large bodied plane, seated with Savithri, in the last two seats, at the tail, Rama had been able to sit alternately at the window seat and watch the terrain below as the plane flew from London Heathrow over the Atlantic Ocean, over Greenland, Alaska, Canada and to San Francisco, on the north western coast of USA.

Watching the waters of the Atlantic turn into a stretch of green land and then into deserts of ice and snow, he knew, thinking back on it, that they had been passing northwards over the southernmost part of Greenland and then coming down, southwards in an arc, as the trajectory was shown on the video screen, in the plane. This route had certain winds, which blew with the plane, in its direction, and created a certain turbulence... “

Wilfrid Jayasuriya should be commended for codifying an important phase of post-colonial history of Sri Lanka together with a rich repository of anecdotes, legends and fact-sheets in the form of creative writing. At times, “Time Traveller” relapses into lengthy passages, descriptions and fact-sheet-like passages from the past yet it is both absorbing and informative. Although it could hardly be classified as a novel, “Time Traveller” should be a must-read book for deserving readers as the author vividly surveys the forgotten cultural landscape of nineteenth century Sri Lanka. The book sheds light on idealistic life that middle class and upper middle class lead in Sri Lanka at the twilight of the nineteenth century.

A comprehensive study on monastic institutions

by Padma EDIRISINGHE

This book co-titled `An Archaeological Survey of Sri Lanka, Epigraphia Zeylanica Volume (VIII) has made its debut via the Govt. Printers and has been authored by Director Epigraphy and Numismatics), Dept. of Archaeological Survey as a thesis.

Another female scholar, Western and of Buddhist faith, Mrs. Rhyss Davids in her introduction to the famous “Psalms of the sisters” makes this cryptic remark about titles of books.

“Book titles are necessarily brief. In their brevity they seem to claim too much and to specify not enough”. This remark rankled as the title of the present book was mulled over. Maybe one can adduce this to the reviewer’s fussiness but she would have opted for this title for the book under review as “The growth of Buddhist monastic institutions in Sri Lanka as gleaned from Brahmi inscriptions” or as “transpired through Brahmi Inscriptions.”

The author herself asserts in the introduction that “This is by far the first comprehensive study to trace the development of the monastic institutions in Sri Lanka in the light of inscriptions.” So the title has been “necessarily brief”.

The book naturally in its preliminary section deals lengthily with the Inscriptions themselves falling into four classes, cave.rock.pillar and slab and boasting an unbridled continuity from the last quarter of the 3rd Century to end of 7th Century AD.

Altogether they constitute the contemporary evidence for the study of religious monuments gifted to the Buddhist monks in early Sri Lanka by kings, ministers, affluent lay men and women and others. Going beyond the academic facts presented the book opens before the average reader a highly religious island intent on making life comfortable for its spiritual mentors. It seemed to have been a or even THE prior function of royalty as well as of general society. The importance of spiritual guidance was realized very early by this island.

Though the focus of attention is on the monasteries of the bhikkhus, a massive segment of information on aligned sections is dished out as the actual living conditions of the Sangha, the contemporary social and religious milieu, the rise of Mahayanism and sectarian differences, and even the corruption slowly setting into the Sangha fraternity with the amassing of land and residences.

A careful reader will perceive in the text the subtle transformation of a bhikkhu’s humble dwelling in a cave to a palatial residence inlaid with expensive carpets. Not all chose the affluent path though.

These quotations by Prof. S. Bandaranayake that the author uses to buttress her facts are worth requoting.

“It is apparent both from the architectural remains as well as from literary records that the caves were not the only monastic dwellings and that in Anuradhapura and elsewhere a free - standing architecture developed alongside the cave monasteries from an early date.”

He goes, on “The picture which emerges from all this despite the miracles and metaphors of the chrocler’s poetry is one of mixed architectural perspectives - on th e one hand, simple rudimentary dwellings such as the caves as Mihintale and on the other, buildings of royal standards. These were close to urban locations.

The text reiterates the well-known fact that king Devanampiya Tissa was the pioneer of the movement of gifting caves to the monkhood. Sixty eight caves had been prepared and handed over to Mahinda Thera at his request. The Vas season was usually spent in these following the Indian tradition. Thus the caves were actually temporary abodes and even the buildings of “royal standards” could not be considered permanent abodes as monks were meant to be wandering recluses who went about instructing the lay men and begging their food. Yet a time was to evolve when some monks became permanent owners of these abodes and priorities of the lands around, a condition naturally leading to corruption of the Sangha with the eroding of the simple uncomplicated life.Pages 56-57 give the map depicting the situation of the more prominent ancient monasteries, 105 in all lists them by name. That the epithet Vihara came to be attached to the monasteries is obvious from this list eg-Rakavihara, Nakavihara, Tisavihara. Nearly a 100 carry this epithet while the exceptional names are Maha tupa (Ruvan Weli Seya) Lohapasada, Tubaraba and Patanagala. The list indicates the preponderance of monasteries in what is today known as the North Central area with a sprinking of them in the East, South and even South East and Kegalle and Kurunegala areas. The visuals that illustrate the book show the structural designs of some of these monasteries. All these entail very heavy investigative work that a female scholar could be loath to undertake as regards the tedious travelling involved for research including the accompanying discomforts. It is superfluous to state that extensive reading too has gone into background work. The bibliography runs into pages and includes works of ancient, medieval and modern periods and works in both English and Sinhala.

That the book does not confine itself to the monastic buildings alone is testified by the seven sections discussed ie. Introduction dealing with the Inscriptions, establishment of the Buddhist monastic order in Sri Lanka, their development, changes on monastic life, schisms among the Sangha, transformation of the role of the Sangha and Sangha in transition.

The lay reader away from the heavy world of academia that gets nettled in specific topics, will generally see pulsating under books as these the emergence of Buddhist Sinhala Lanka, one reinforcing the other, so orderly and patterned and always veering towards the good and the spiritual. What has happened in the subsequent periods becomes more tragic when seeing in this light.

Fine guide to hotel management

In his book `Hospitality Law’, Dr. Jayasuriya has analysed the legal burdens that can be cast upon the Manager of a hotel when in the discharge of his duties. He brings into focus the fact that there had been successive governments in the country that had been concerned with the numbers of arriving tourists and the number of rooms sold, but no government has ventured into the legal aspects of the operation and intricacies involved in the management of hotel.

Dr. Jayasuriya states that he had been fortunate to have been associated with several leading hotel companies in the country and has had the opportunity of working closely with some general managers and managers of these hotels. By these means he had been able to study the methods and ways adopted by these managers in dealing with the day-to-day problems arising in the hotels and the ways in which they have handled them.

In this book, Dr. Jayasuriya has brought in several English and American cases to illustrate as to how a manager of a hotel should act in certain situations, and has simplified these cases and made them interesting reading to those who are not familiar with legal studies.

The appointment of Dr. Jayasuriya as a visiting lecturer in law and legislation of the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management gave him the opportunity of making a comparative study of the current local system and the systems prevailing in the UK and the USA and in this work he has codified the common laws and statutory laws adopted in these countries and examined the ways in which they could be adopted to suit the needs of our country in the absence of a legal system that governs this important trade.

It is hoped that this book will prove a source of guidance to all hoteliers and also to students aspiring to be hoteliers in the future and to practitioners and students of law. Equally,the author hopes that this book will be an inspiration to the powers that be in the Government and in the statutory bodies set up by the Government to look at this important aspect of the trade closely and rectify the current gap that exists.

Dr. V. Irwin Jayasuriya graduated from the University of Ceylon (Peradeniya) and later entered the Sri Lanka Law College and was admitted and enroled as an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. He was also sworn in as a Notary Public and is a company secretary registered with the Department of the Registrar of Companies. He also holds a Diploma in International Trade Law and Practice from the University of Colombo. He was awarded a Ph.D. Degree in Labour and Industrial Law from the Trinity International University, Delaware, USA in 2003

Dr. Jayasuriya has been in Active Legal Practice for over 20 years in the Labour Tribunals. The Provincial High Courts and also appears in both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Since 2002. Dr. Jayasuriya functions as a member of the Panel of Industrial Arbitrators appointed by the President of Sri Lanka.

After graduation from Peradeniya, Dr. Jayasuriya held a number of executive appointments both in the Government and private sectors and was also in International Service as special assistant to the Director of the Colombo Plan Bureau before being appointed Chairman Ceylon Transport Board (CTB) in 1977 during the regime of the late President J.R. Jayawardene. Dr. Jayasuriya has gathered much experience having travelled abroad widely.

Dr. Jayasuriya is a visiting lecturer and examiner in industrial law in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya for the past thirteen years and is also currently a visiting lecturer and examiner in law and legislation at the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management and a visiting lecturer and examiner in Labour Relations at the Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.

Dr. Jayasuriya has authored two books on industrial law as follows:

1. “Selected Essays on Industrial and Civil Law” published in 2002 by the Stanford Lake Publishers and sold by Lake House Bookshops.

2. “The Concept of Misconduct in the Termination of Employment” published in 2005 by the Stanford Lake Publishers and sold by Lake House bookshops.

Besides the above publications he has authored several publications on law in the law journals of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and the newspapers.