"Mahinda" The Book

"Some citizens are so good, that nothing a leader can do, will make them better. Others are so incorrigible, that nothing can be done to improve them. But, the great bulk of the people go with the moral tide of the moment. The LEADER must help create that tide. - Author Unknown.

A momentous book-launch, set Colombo's elitist society astir. Its echoes still resonate in the media. All the ingredients essential to capture the imagination were vehemently evident.

The theme of the work was Presidential. Ministerial introductions, prefaced the presentation.

The First Lady graced the occasion as the Chief Guest.

Creme de la creme provided a keen poignance to the event, by their participation.

The audience was so distinguished, that two relevant lines of poetry kept on prodding my memory.

"All the photographed living were there.

And, the Dead were listening" (If I remember right, these lines are from W. H. Auden.)

Channa-Upuli Dance School contributed their exquisitely choreographed "Lion Reawakened," to thrill the viewers. The eloquent drum-tattoo, set the evening throbbing.

The book was launched ceremonially, in this alluring backdrop. The work unfussily and simply titled "Mahinda", is a biographical narration of the First Citizen of the Land.

The author of the President's Biography "Mahinda", is Muthu Padmakumara - a young, vivacious but lime-light shy lady writer.

In the first instance, the author deserves lofty encomia on a number of counts. In her Biography, she is dealing with a global personality. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has won the admiration of the World by eradicating a terrorist organisation, considered unbeatable by many. He ushered in an era of peace and harmony, to war-torn Sri Lanka.

In politics, he heads a Party, that has an unassailed series of back-to-back election victories. People elected him for a second tenure in office, giving him a land-slide assent. The voters returned his Party to power, on an unexpectedly high wave of popular approval. All this would have, quite easily tempted the President's Biographer, to deify her subject, elevating him beyond mere heroism.

Biographer Muthu Padmakumara, deserves kudos, because she did not resort to such a stratagem. Throughout her Biography, she has kept President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in the believable human scale.

As she makes it amply clear in her prefatory note, this work has emerged from her unswerving belief in the President's capacity to deliver his promise to the people. As a member of the sensitive younger generation, compelled to live in an excruciatingly troubling era of seemingly unending conflict, she saw hope in President Mahinda Rajapaksa's steadfastness. It is the cumulative effect of all those hopes, beliefs, expectations and

yearnings, that resulted in the production of "Mahinda" - the Biography.

Generally, Biographies of great-people are couched in profound language. On the contrary, in this instance, Biographer Muthu Padmakumara, resorts to a language style that is starkly and surprisingly lucid and simple. Her level of writing sharpens her perceptions and establishes her subject indelibly in the mass mind.

An outstanding plus about this Biography, is its eminent readability. It is as compelling as any absorbing fiction. The inclusion in her Prologue, the epiphanic occurrence, under the Sacred Bodhi Tree at Anuradhapura, is nothing short of a stroke of luck. This episode invests the whole work, with an aura of mystery and awe.

The author enhances the impact of this miracle", by quoting the words of the then Presidential candidate himself.

Author of the biography Muthu Padmakumara

The biographer rivettingly surprises the reader by so authentically recreating a past that flourished decades before she was born. Her dramatization of the ambience of Medamulana Walawwa, is an eloquent testimony to her creative dexterity. What is noteworthy about Muthu Padmakumara's Biography, is the care she takes to see that she (as author) does not interpose with her comments, observations and philosophies. The "personality" of the subject surfaces, through the events and episodes, she lines up.

The "Child" Mahinda, who comes through in this Biography, displays two marked personality streaks. On the one hand, he is stubborn and self-willed, with an emphatic proclivity towards the derring-do--as witnessed by the cashew-nut eating championship, which ends in a painful bout with red-ants.

The contrasting characteristic is his love of his home and his rural setting, at times to the point of obsession. These two traits were predominantly and historically demonstrated when he became the helmsman of the land as President. He stubbornly pursued the goal he set for himself, to eradicate the massive threat of terrorism. In the memorable act of worshipping Mother Lanka, he displayed his love of "Home".

Via the childhood episodes, Biographer Muthu Padmakumara has chosen to distil, she provides us with a mere whiff of the glee child Mahinda would have savoured, when he freely roamed the fields, glades and forests of his childhood home territory in the deep south - trekking wherever he willed.

Education in Galle, was Mahinda's entry into the wider-world outside the Medamulana 'universe' he took delight in.

Initially, it took considerable persuasion to make the youngster take to the education that the city of Galle could provide him.

As he progressed in education, he had to change his institutions of learning on several occasions. From Nalanda College in Colombo, he had to transit to Thurstan College. In her biographical narration, Author Muthu Padmakumara, highlights the holiday escapades of the Rajapaksa children. It is through these incidents and episodes, that the author M.P. elevates her work to a level much higher than those routine biographies, that, as a rule are chronologically presented.

It is here that her eye for the significant detail, asserts itself. In the course of her preparation for this work, she would have conducted a whole series of discussions and interviews with individuals who mattered. She would have waded through much printed material as well.

The author, proclaims the quality of her creativity, through the subject-matter she opted to retain. She has arranged her material, with the touch of a superb fiction - writer. Her writings, unerringly assert her preoccupation with readership appeal. While narrating the life story of her subject "Mahinda", she constantly maintains a due regard for the need to uphold the authenticity of the facts, she mobilizes for her book. She has never betrayed the truths relating to the life of her subject, to satisfy the narrow urge to make the book 'interesting'.

Her "trained frequentation" of the telling detail, made me wonder at one stage, whether she is given to the practice of "New Journalism", pioneered by Tom Wolfe. But, I am fully aware that she has never travelled that way. Her unerring capacity to select the details that really matters, is an asset that is built-in. Of her 12 chapters, the latter six, dwell largely on subject matter very much in the public domain, as the events in that period are a living and pulsating segment in current history.

But, Muthu Padmakumara, has thought it her obligation as a biographer, to convey at least part of the personal pain and travails of the public figure Mahinda Rajapaksa. Muthu Padmakumara's narration of the life of her subject, after he exposed himself to the hurly-burly of Sri Lanka's active politics, is an area that will move many a reader to tears.

The deep pain engendered in the inner recesses of his aged mother, when her beloved son suffered incarceration, turns out to be a pathetic comment on the nature of politics.

A segment of the biography, that is distinguished for its humane implications, is the romance and the marriage of the subject of this biography.

Mahinda is among the most prestigious names in our history. The name acquired a special aura, after Arahant Mahinda, illuminated the path of Sri Lanka's history, by holding aloft the beacon of the Teachings of the Supremely Enlightened Buddha. Six monarchs of our long line of Rulers had this name.

The name, literally means the "Leader of the Earth" (Mihi - Earth, Inda - Leader, Indra)

Among the little nuggets of informations in Muthu Padmakumara's biography, there is a reference about how the President came to be named Mahinda. This name was given to the new comer to the Rajapaksa family, by one of the most outstanding personalities of Sri Lanka, Sam Wijesinghe - according to this biography.

Muthu Padmakumara, I am quite certain will continue what she began and will add on to her present work. In the meantime, the President has proved a true leader by creating a moral tide for the people of our land to go with, towards the future which will transform this splendid island of Sri Lanka - into the "Wonder of the world".