Our neighbours and other stories :

Visual rendering of Asian psyche

Reviewed by Ranga Chandrarathne

With her keen insights into the milieu and precision of an academic, Prof. Neluka Silva vividly portrays the changing vistas of our time. The stories in "Our Neighbours and Other Stories" sound authentic and are drawn from the lives of people of diverse socio-economic backdrops. They are people full of flesh and blood with unique mentalities and prejudices which are part and parcel of multi-ethnic Sri Lankan society. Once it was a multi-ethnic neighbourhood with children of diverse ethnicities play together and suddenly the communal tension rose ripping apart the amicable community, compelling a section of the population to take refuge in neighbours' hospitality.

The anthology is made up of ten short stories including its title story "Our Neighbours". The title story, though very brief, sums up the violence outbreak in the aftermath of the communal riots. Children in the neighbourhood play cricket. Cricket ball was thrown into the next door neighbour's house. Gradually, it blows into a full scale war; cricket balls, parking cars and dumping garbage in front of each other's gates.

However, while this petty war was going on, the communal riots broke up compelling a Sinhalese family to provide shelter to their rather estranged Tamil family. In a couple of sentences, the author sums up the unfortunate circumstances leading to the riots.

"Within a couple of years, it had turned into a full scale war between us. Cricket balls, parking cars, accusing each other of dumping garbage in front of each other's gates.

I did not understand the conversation about "those Tamils" that my parents had in relation to our neighbours much later They stayed in my room for nine days during the July riots. We listened to the news and played cricket during the curfew, while part of the city were burnt down and people went to refugee camps. There was no school for about three weeks.

The mobs didn't come down our road, but our neighbours never went back to their house. It was empty for long time. They kept in touch with my parents for a while after they went to live with their son in Canada... I used to go to get the ball and look at the desolate house and think about our neighbours."

One of the significant aspects of the title story is that the author's ability to paraphrase decades of enmities between two communities into a couple of paragraphs and to articulate the fact that some of the prejudices of the adults could not be found in children.

For instance, the narrator of the story, a boy, could not understand parent's conversation "about those Tamils". For the children, children of the neighbourhood are children and they don't bother the fact that the children belonged to Sinhalese, Muslims or Tamils.

Here, the author has been successful in articulating and integrating some of the fundamentals, building blocks of the conflict into the story through the untainted voice of the child. It is obvious from the very first sentence that the prejudices are being planted by the parents in the mind of the child, the narrator of the story. As his parents told, narrator considers his neighbourhood "had never been good".

Albeit not illustrated in the story, it can be predicted from the reaction of the old man, that they also shared an apparent antipathy towards ethnically Sinhalese neighbours. "Every time our ball went into their garden the old man came out and shouted at us for disturbing him. We tried to ask him for the ball nicely but he still shouted." Although the ambers of the distrust and deep-seated dislike against each community are there, hopefully the uneasy process of reconciliation has begun in the aftermath of thirty years of conflict.

One of the interesting stories in the anthology is "A life Without Choices" which touches on the hard-life in plantation sector of Sri Lanka. It is indeed, rare that Sri Lankan writers in English ventures into this segment of people which virtually spend their entire lives among the tender leaves of tea.

Although the tea plantations are evergreen, lives of the people in the plantation sector are still not bright. Here in the story, plight of the girl child in the plantation sector is depicted. Nirosha is a young housemaid from up country.

The story goes on to reveal the plight of the girls in up country. For they simply have no choices in life. Their life is a kind of a vicious cycle from which women rarely escaped. Characters such as Nirosha, Sonali and Romesh have been convincingly developed. Neluka uses a matter-of-fact language interspersed with dialogues which give flesh and blood to the characters throughout the anthology. The technique of flashback has been triumphant in "A life Without Choices". Other stories such as "Google - the Three Legged Wonder", "Kiss Goodbye to the Good life", "Playing with Fire", "Living a Lie", "Cousins", "The deserter", "The meeting" and "My Father's Face" deal with diverse subjects.

For instance, in "Kiss Goodbye to the Good Life", newly married couple's dilemma is described. An ambitious wife is trying hard to earn a little money to put up a house by taking a plunge to go abroad and work there. However, the husband enjoys or rather addicted to social life in Colombo and his buddies who use to gather with their spouses every Friday evening in the Rowing Club for partying.

Husband describes this partying as "Good Life" in Sri Lanka which he could not have in USA. However, the intransigent attitude to life on the part of the husband which cost the wife a lucrative position in a commercial establishment in Singapore, changes with terrorists' air raids in Colombo. The story ends when the husband wanting to abandon "Good Life" in Sri Lanka for a temporary stay abroad.

"As they approached the car, Aravinda turned around and said softly, "I was thinking while we were in there. While all that was going on, perhaps, we should think of moving overseas". Just for a few years, till things settled down here, at least".

In "Playing with Fire", among other things, Neluka depicts the horrendous consequences of extra-marital affairs. Here also the technique of flashback has been efficiently used.

In "The Deserter", human element even in criminals is illustrated through the story of an army deserter who virtually traded one hell for another.

"Cousins" is a story where two young girls were compared with one another by their parents who made the life for the girls an unhealthy competition. "Living with a Lie" depicts folly of uncompromising fidelity of a wife in her husband. "My Father's Face", the last story of the anthology, highlights the issues of inter-racial marriages and parents attitudes towards their children.

Here the relationship between a father and daughter has been badly affected due to the daughter marrying a Muslim boy. The reaction is the same from the boy's parents and the kith and kin who banished him from the extended family.

The author has used a matter-of-fact diction throughout the anthology. There are some instances where the author is attempting to transfer native Sinhalese idiom into English in its raw form, wittingly or unwittingly, subscribing to Sri Lankan English. For instance, in "Kiss Goodbye to the Good Life" (Pg 37), "Then and again" has been used together for reasons best known to the author. "Then again, she had to admit that most of the time her marriage was not fun either".

Though the language is highly impressive it seems that the author has not demonstrated her skills completely as a creative writer in this particular anthology. For instance, some of the descriptions sound plain reporting rather than pieces of creative writing. "From the time she met Aravinda, Friday nights were Rowing club nights. Aravinda and his friends called it their "favourite watering hall".

They had been meeting there since they were at school on the Rowing Team and had continued that tradition after they started working. "(Pg 37-Kiss Goodbye to the Good Life).

"As usual the seminar was a success "while workload increased, her popularity among her colleagues decreased. "(Pg 55-Playing with Fire). However, the author has been successful in the use of technique flashback and in the evolution of characters.

Lord Krishna, the preserver of the universe

Reviewed by Chelvatamby Maniccavasagar

Lord Krishna is the ninth of the Ten Avatars (incarnations) and he is called the complete incarnation (Purnavajara of Vishnu), that is the full manifestation of the Lord Supreme.

The other incarnations were only partial revelations of the Godhead. In Krishna avatar His Godliness was clearly manifested through the revelation of His cosmic form, Viswarupam which occurred on three occasions.

The co-relation of human and devine qualities endeared Him to the Gopic of Vrindavan in His early childhood. Reflecting His human attributes, He is shown stealing butter of which he was very fond, but when pressed by His angry mother to open His mouth what she saw was the indescribable cosmic form.

In between His amorous dalliance with the Gopic He lifted the Govardhana mountain, suppressed Kaliya, the terrible serpent who fouled the waters of Yamuna and devoured the forest conflagration.

In fact, Lord Krishna performed many miraculous deeds that testified to the higher purpose of God incarnate on earth, because as the Lord says in "Bhagavad Gita: "Wherever there is decay of Righteousness O, Bharaja and there is Exaltation of Unrighteousness, at that time and I descend myself, for the protection of the good, for the destruction of Evil doers, for the sake of firmly establishing righteousness, I am born from age to age".

In this look "Tasavathara Purusothama" B. S. Barsine has mentioned about Lord Vishnu's incarnations. In fact, He descended to Earth as a great hero to save the mankind.

Vishnu's first incarnation was in the form by a gold fish, the second, a Tortoise, third a boar, fourth in the form a Narasingha, in the fifth incarnations Lord Vishnu was born Vamana, in the sixth he was born Parasurama, in the seventh he was born Rama, in the eighth Avatar He was born Palarama, in the ninth avatar He was born Krishna and when there is decline in morality and spirituality and cosmic order gets disturbed He will take the "Kalki" Avatar.

Sri Krishna was the towering genius of His age. He embodied in himself all the great qualities of the head, heart and hand! Every word of His teachings and every act of His life is full of sublime lessons to humanity. He was an excellent statesman and also a teacher.

He was a charioteer to Arjuna in Mahabharatha battle. He taught the truth of Yoga, Bhakthi and vedanta to Arjuna. As a master musician He gave lessons to Narada in the art of playing the Veena.

Lord Krishna is considered to be the preserver of the Universe, the embodiment of the quality of mercy and goodness.

He is represented sleeping as a coiled serpent Shesha and floating on the water.

Indeed, Miss Barsine who is a devout devotee of Lord Vishnu has touched on many aspects pertaining to Vishnu's incarnations and the purpose to his avatars to save mankind from utter misery and unrighteousness and enable humanity to lead a dharmic way of life.

Miss Barsine as a student participated in several essay competitions and won many prizes. She has even acted in several dramas which brought name and fame for her.

Undoubtedly she has authored this book in simple and clear language which, even a student can easily understand.

As such may God bless her abundantly and give good health, strength and peace of mind to enable her to write some more religious looks to help lead the younger generation on the path of righteousness.

Useful book on our ancient cousins

Reviewed by S. U. Deraniyagala

"The Veddas" (1911) by C. G. and B. Z. Seligmann continues to be the classic ethnography of this relict, but fast disappearing, hunter-gatherer society in Sri Lanka which is now referred to as the 'Vanniyala-aththo'. Its range of coverage is as wide as modern ethnographic methodology requires: historical, geographical, their pre-modern condition, social organization, genealogies, family life, property and inheritance, religion and beliefs, ceremonial dances, invocations, arts and crafts, music and songs. This study can be considered first among a handful of superlative ethnographies on South Asian hunter-gatherers, such as on the Andaman Islanders by A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and on the Chenchus of India by C. von Furer-Haimendorf. No subsequent work on the Veddas has come anywhere near the depth and perspicacity of the Seligmanns' great opus.

The relevance of this study in the context of modern Sri Lanka needs to be explicated. There is the very apt aphorism that there one cannot plan for a sustainable future without understanding the present; one cannot understand the present without an in-depth knowledge of the past: and ipso facto one cannot plan for the future without understanding the past. The Veddas are scientifically known to be the phylogenetic and societal descendants of Sri Lanka's prehistoric (pre-1000BC) Societies. As such they constitute what may be termed a living past, which may justifiably be considered more representative of the past than the non-living information inherent in both archaeology and history. The Seligmanns' work provides a unique account of this fast disappearing relict of the past.

For the above-mentioned reasons, every Sri Lankan seeking an in-depth knowledge of his country should necessarily be acquainted with the Veddas. This applies particularly to the country's law makers and planners, as well as its youth. However, the lack of English language proficiency has kept this work out of bounds to the great majority of Sri Lankans. Hence, C. Ranasinghe's publication of a Sinhala translation should be considered an event of national importance; and the nation owes him a debt of gratitude. His prose is lucid and flows elegantly - unlike in several scholarly works in Sinhala translation. Ranasinghe's work should be in every important library in Sri Lanka; and not least, should be compulsory reading in all secondary schools. Our ancient cousins, the Vanniyala-aththo, truly deserve this tribute from us who have in many ways usurped their country.

The writer is former Director-General of Archaeology Fellow National Academy of Sciences

Book launch

"Bharatha Yogi Swami Rama"

Thilaka Kudahetti's latest book "Bharatha Yogi Swami Rama" will be launched at Dayawansa Jayakody Book Exhibition Hall, Ven. S. Mahinda Mawatha, Colombo 10 on February 9 at 10 a.m.

Kudahetti is the author of "Nethata Andunak Se, Vathsunu Pavana, Durga Tharanaya, Nila Desa Pura, Sansara Bandhana, Vathura, Bharatha Yogin saha Isivarayin Samaga, Piramida Bhuthayin Egipthu Sannasin Ha Manthrakaruvan Samaga and Kulagei Vilanguva."

"Bharatha Yogi Swami Rama" is the Sinhala translation of "Living with the Himalayan Masters-Swami Rama". The Book is published by Dayawansa Jayakody Publishers.

"Ranaviruvakuge Birinda"

Mahinda Wimalasena's latest Sinhala novel "Ranaviruvakuge Birinda" will be launched at Dayawansa Jayakody Book Exhibition Hall, Ven. S. Mahinda Mawatha, Colombo 10 on February 16 at 10 a.m.

The book is published by Dayawansa Jayakody Publishers, Colombo 10.