Facts and figures now at your fingertips

Reviewed by U.D. Dharmabandu

It is no secret that the country lacks and desperately needs a series, if not an omnibus volume, of comprehensive ready reference books detailing succinctly facts and figures on various disciplines inclusive of the island’s culture, history, people, religions and beliefs, norms and values and tracts of other relevant and allied information for the benefit of the inquisitive students, policy makers or broadly any researchers worth of his salt.

Arguably, Sri Lanka though a small developing country can boast of many books and tomes written and published on almost all areas of disciplines, knowledge or interest.

But a single ready reference book that provides access to facts and figures or any other desired information on any of the board disciplines has been a long felt need in Sri Lanka.

Caught up as we are in the vortex of a maddeningly fast moving world nobody can afford long hours poring over books and other sources to get at a particular fact or piece of information. Suppose someone wanted to know which king ruled in Sri Lanka when, or the details of ancient tanks our great kings built or parochially which two reservoirs were joined to form one single tank, or area of forests under the Forest Department or more mundanely the number of Sri Lankan households using e-mail and the internet is there a single source book for him to turn to? No, Sir. Not in Sri Lanka!.

In what appears to be a laudable and trailblazing initiative to fill lacuna Siri Ipalawatte and Laurie J Senanayake, both Sri Lankan expatriates, have just brought out Sri Lanka in a nutshell’.

This is the climax of a year-long mission they have embarked upon on a conscientious urge to give back something to the country that nurtured them.

Ipalawatte, a former lecturer at the University of Kelaniya and holder of Master of Science degree in Economics from the University of Wales UK had worked in the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra for 20 years. Before that he had worked as a statistician in the Department of Census and Statistics back home.

His co-compiler Laurie J Senanayake, holding a degree of Master of Information Technology from the University of Canberra, Australia had worked as a computer programmer at the same Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.

Drawing upon their rich professional experience as statisticians and culling information and facts from various sources such as books, reports, published and unpublished documents, the internet they have painstakingly prepared this book in a ‘no frills’, easy to grasp, simple language format.

This publication, needles to say, inadvertently serves another useful purpose. It is no secret that a sizable portion of our younger generation is out sync and rapport with the rich culture and history of the country due mainly to the wrong and inappropriate educational policies in the not too distant past.

On top of the having been handicapped in a 30-year old terrorist problem which many believed unwindable the people had lost all sense of perspective and belonging of the country and its greatness and were existing on a day to day basis being uncertain what the future will be.

So when the ugly strife was finally contained a year back the people awakening like the proverbial Rip Van Winkle are beginning to remember and identify themselves with their country and rich heritage.

Thus at a time when the country is at a crossroads our younger generation inclusive of our legislators (a vast and unprecedented number of young blood has entered Parliament this time) should be made conscious and knowledgeable of the strengths and weakness of the country.

Then only they will get motivated to make a meaningful contribution in their own individual level that will accrue to the greater good of the country.

That motivational role will definitely be played by any book that tries to present a comprehensive picture of a nation’s greatness and resilience through facts and figures. The book under review seems replete with such characteristics.

The compilers who expect no profits or any other advantages from this exercise have already made available copies to the country’s top decision makers.

And they have already started discussions with the state and provincial authorities to make some hundreds of copies of the book available for distribution to school libraries.

Interestingly, a person who happens to lay his or her hands on a copy of this book could regale himself or herself improvising quizzes out of the vast nuggets of information and facts it contains for the edification of oneself or others.

“Do you know who built Kala Wewa?” one could ask a friend for instance.

“Of course King Dhatusena, stupid,” a smart Alec could very well respond.

“Well, can you name the two tanks joined by King Dhatusena to make the mighty Kala Wewa?”

Chances are that even a supposedly Know All would be momentarily stumped or simply not be able to recall the names of the two tanks.

One needs only look under the heading ‘ancient irrigation’ to glean the quaint information Kala and Balalu, the two reservoirs built earlier that were joined to create Kala Wewa.

By the way, how many of us know or care to remember that it was the same great Dhatusena who built the amazing 87 km-long canal, the Jayaganga with a gradient of six inches to a kilometre on the first 27 kilometres of its course to facilitate the flow of water from Kala Wewa to Tisa Wewa.

All such facts and snippets are there to arouse the interest of the reader besides enriching his or her knowledge about the country.

The experience of the compilers as professional statisticians is reflected in the various forms of statistics presented by them in easy to grasp form. The statistics on distribution of population, 139 years of population growth from 1871 to 2008, population by region, ethnicity or population and density by province etc may prove immensely useful to our legislators, policy makers and researchers.

Apart from that the short monographs on the share market, transport and communication, radio, Television, films and other media among others are refreshing and informative. However, a glaring omission was observed in the column ‘Newspapers currently published in Sri Lanka’, the flagship Sinhala daily, Dinamina, has been dropped from the list.

Equally disturbing omission is the composer of our national anthem, singer and musician, the late Ananda Samarakoon who did a monumental service for the cause of the Sinhala music with a plethora of such vintage favourites as “Siri saru sara kethe goyam paseela mahime”, “Besa seethala gangule peena peena namuko nago” etc his eternal credit being left out of the list of ‘popular singers of Sri Lanka’!

Admittedly, such omissions are bound to occur when making a book like this for the first time no beacons to guide their movements on unchartered water. But now that a start has been made they can build on the structure hopefully with the expected feedback from readers and well-wishers and bring out a more comprehensive and accurate edition next time.

By the way, the index at the tail end of a book very much in vogue in days gone by seems to have gone extinct in modern day book publishing at least in Sri Lanka. The value of this book would have risen manyfold if a comprehensive index has been incorporated into it.

Needless to say, the index arranged as it is alphabetically indicating where in the book reference to a particular person or subject could help the reader to locate a fact or piece of information quicker.

Of course, preparing a comprehensive index is a very tedious, costly and time-consuming exercise but worth its value in gold.

Those accidental and unintentional omissions apart another positive aspect of the book is its usefulness to foreigners who take an interest in our country. And those foreigners who care to visit Sri Lanka as tourists would also find this publication useful to guide their liking and to educate themselves of the various aspects of the island.

That apart those who aspire to sit for public examinations for recruitment to various state services including that of Sri Lanka Administrative Service may find this book useful as it enriches their general knowledge.

The beauty of this book is that anybody who happens to be even idly turning its pages may stand to gain some knowledge about Sri Lanka.

The compilers, true to their pro bono publico (for the public good) spirit welcome a feedback from the readers.

The riddle of the cuckoo

by K. G. H. Munidasa

Ceylon Common Babbler The young English Cuckoo ejecting the egg from the nest of its foster parents

A nature lover in my neighbourhood, who has a keen eye for birds, has witnessed a sight that no other bird-watcher, for that matter any ornithologist has ever seen. He has observed a Pied Crested-Cuckoo (a true cuckoo) feeding a young of its fosterer. The Ceylon Common Babbler.

On a previous week during a ramble in the tree-studded scrub on the outskirts of the village, some movement in a tree drew his attention. When he walked up to investigate he found two birds sitting side-by-side on a branch there, ten-feet from the ground. One was a Pied-Crested Cuckoo and the other an immature Common Babbler.

The babbler with its gape wide open was demanding food from the cuckoo, which promptly stretched out its neck and placed some morsel in the young one’s mouth. This was instantaneous and short-lived, for on seeing the intruder the cuckoo fled into the jungle, followed by the babbler.

After relating the story to me, the nature lover posed the inevitable question - could such a thing ever happen? With all my personal knowledge of the breeding biology of this resident cuckoo and what I subsequently gleaned from published accounts on the subject of “Cuckoo Problem” that I could lay my hands on, I am still unable to find a satisfactory solution to the riddle.

Being fed

Once in the Gal Oya valley, years ago, I found a young of this cuckoo being fed by a party of the Ceylon Common Babbler, in a srubland beside the public road. There were five babblers in the party, whilst two of them attended on the baby cuckoo the rest foraged in the carpet of dead leaves, beneath a hedgerow. It was the young bird’s hunger note that prompted me to look around, but I never expected to find a cuckoo. Its cry was strongly reminiscent of a young babbler.

Demanding food from the foster parents it imitated a young babbler extremely well, but in all outward appearance it hardly resembled one, apart from its size and colouration. It was sooty-black above and buff-white below, except the chin and breast, which were greyish. The beak was horny-yellow as in a babbler. More than anything else the white wing-patches gave away its correct identity.

Throughout its range, mainly in the Low-Country Dry Zone, the Pied-Crested Cuckoo is known to victimise the Ceylon Common Babbler or “Seven Sisters” in whose nest it lays its eggs. The newly hatched cuckoos are cared for by the babblers until such time they are able to fend for themselves. All true cuckoos in their breeding habits never look into the needs of the young, since they are looked after all along by the selected foster parents.

Difference

Yet, in the present instance couldn’t it have been possible that the cuckoo found its fosterer’s baby while the parents were away foraging for food?

Or, on the other hand, one might like to ask, could cuckoos have been solicitous towards its own young after the foster parents had deserted it?

Whatever it may be, the second theory is not up to the facts. Because, there seems a vast difference between the two species involved and further, my informant was positive what he saw was a Common Babbler, a common garden bird in any area.

The young cuckoo’s stratagem for survival is a wonderful exhibition of ingenuity and resorucefulness in nature. When it is first hatched from an egg the young cuckoo is harmless-looking little lump of flesh. But, nonetheless it is gifted with an amazing physical prowess and matured instinct for an innocent chick.

Ejecting procedure

On the second or the third day, although blind, it begins to take stock of the situation inside the nest. If there are other eggs or nestlings there it knows by instinct there would be future rivalry for food. Therefore, it proceeds to oust the other occupants of the nest, forthwith.

A British ornithologist who once watched a young of the English cuckoo ejecting a young Sedge-Warbler, twice its own size, from the nest has recorded thus, “The cuckoo showed the most amazing powers of strength. It worked down in the nest until its companion was on its (Chckoo’s) back, then gripping the sides of the nest with its feet it slowly and surely raised its burden.

When it appeared to have reached the extent of its stretching powers it opened the small flesh arms (unfledged - wings) and began to work these up and down.

It also jerked its body upwards with violent movements with the result that the young warbler was flung ignominiously over the side of the nest.”

Usually the young cuckoo grows up fast since it monopolises the attention of the foster parents. Once it is able to fly they follow it about attending to the further needs of the young cuckoo. Here not only the foster parents, but also other birds in the neighbourhood who are with their own broods sympathise with the young cuckoo and offer the food they would be carrying for their own young.

Even otherwise, if they ever come across a baby cuckoo crying all alone in a branch they would go out of the way to bring mouthfuls of food to appease its voracious appetite. There is a record of a young cuckoo brought up by a pair of Hedge-Sparrows having been fed in turn by five different species of birds.

New on the shelf

Title: Mul

Author: Dr. B.M.C. Dassanayake

Kadulla publishers

The latest edition of ‘Mul’ is now available in leading book shops.

[Book launch]

Budu Dahamai Maha Muhudai Kelanitissa Rajjuruvoi

The latest edition of Damayanthi Jayakody’s Budu Dahamai Maha Muhudai Kelanitissa Rajjuruvoi will be launched at Dayawansa Jayakody Book Exhibition Hall, Ven S. Mahinda Mawatha, Colombo 10 on June 22 at 10. a.m.

Mrs. Jayakody is the author of several other books including Ape Budu Hamuduruwo, The Jewel of the Universe, Ape Jathika Kodiye Sinha Nadaya, Uthum Thunuruvana Ape Ekama Pihitai, Deviyo Ehi Vediyaha, Ape Bosathanan Vahanse, Ashcharyavathmai Adbhuthamai! Gauthama Buddha Charithaya I Bosathanan Vahanse, and Nalakaraya.

“Budu Dahamai Maha Muhudai Kelanitissa Rajjuruvoi is a Dayawansa Jayakody publication.