Capturing life in its diversity in a changing milieu

By Ranga CHANDRARATHNE

Masterly depicting the myriad forms of life, Mahinda Rathnayake's anthology of short stories entitled Gopalu Vata codifies a seminal chapter in the village life. The Defining feature of Mahinda's narration is that it not only captures the individual sags of men and women caught up in a vicious cycle of poverty but also the milieu in a manner that is unforgettable. His forte is the application of some of the literary techniques such as stream of consciousness with a remarkable facility in a way that are they well integrated into the plot. He derives his subjects from the grass root of society particularly from impoverished village reflecting the milieu, the pangs and agonies of the population subjecting to tremors of socio-economic changes. This is in a way akin to codifying emerging socio-economic realities in fictional form.

Author: Mahinda Rathnayake

"Cowherd, looking at the sun awakening East, turned his gaze on the cattle moved slowly while grazing the fresh grass. He allowed an involuntary smile to be passed freely through his face. His heart was jubilant at the sight of tender grass propping up and covering the abandoned paddy fields in the previous season which were uncultivated due to no rain. It was after the torrential rain that the grass sprouts came up on the eve of the new season.

He felt as if a queer happiness passing through his entire body with new vigour as the cattle eating the fresh grass with the sound 'Karuk...Karuk'. His nostrils were stimulated by the odour of grass, which were bent down heavy with the dew drops gathered throughout the previous night and made the cattle's meal tasty. "

With this memorable passage, Mahinda Rathnayake has commenced the title story of the anthology "Gopalu Vata". The story is centred on the character of a young boy who is tasked to look after a herd of cattle belonging to a village businessman. Although not described in details, it is obvious that the boy's father looked after the same herd of cattle. The abject poverty has completed the boy who studies for Advanced Level examination to look after the herd and to study while cattle grazing in the meadow.

The author has used stream of consciousness in bringing out the tender mind of the cowherd. The young cowherd's inner struggle between age old morality and mounting desires is depicted through a monologue in which the boy argues against artificial man-made barriers.

"The world is a vast field. Rivers and waterways in it should flow freely without subjecting to anyone's decree. The silent powers of nature control them. That rhythm is not the free world fortified by ties of culture and morality. In that world, even birds have no right or permit to fly freely. Though the birds have no precincts, unjustifiably they have to abide by the limitations imposed by the man. He could not imagine a world without morality, conventions, laws, traditions and norms.

He thought that such a free world could never be existed anywhere at any time. He thought of spending a day free of all the ties that surrounded the life. He heard like a falling down waterway, his stream of thoughts. His heat filled with jubilation and he began to love the ground he stood on..."

Like in James Joyce's famous short story 'Araby', the theme of the short story 'Gopalu Vata' is a young man's first heartbreak and the passage to adulthood. The boy achieves maturity towards the end of the story. Apart from the universal theme, Gopalu Vata is noted for its realistic depiction of the contemporary village life, poverty and exploitation. Most of Ratnayake's short stories remind us Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov's classic "And Quiet Flows the Don" which immortalised the life of Cossacks.

Mirroring contemporary milieu

Mahinda Rathnayake's forte is his innate ability to portray contemporary poverty stricken village and the impoverished population. Poverty is a recurrent theme in the anthology. For instance, the story 'Thith Polanga' (spotted snake) portrays the abject poverty and tragedy essentially caused by it. The story is woven around an impoverished woman that spotted snake stung while she was pregnant. She bears a mentally retarded child. The themes that Ratnayake explores through the story are poverty, ignorance and personal tragedy of a mother.

"Chandralatha knows well that this spotted snake would appear at any moment when her mind settled down. Until she forced herself to think that she is in the present and that there is no spotted snake near her, it would always hanging around her. ....she could not control her anger as this spotted snake which haunted throughout the day would creep into her bend in the night..."

Once again, Rathnayake uses stream of consciousness to describe the hallucinations that the traumatised woman experiences. Thith Polanga is one of the best short stories in the anthology. Although the story basically explores the theme of poverty, Ratnayake also explores the psychological disorders often associated with abject poverty. The principal character of the story Chandralatha is suffering from hallucination and imagines a stopped snake hangs around her. Poverty and psychological disorders a vicious cycle has been masterly depicted through true to life experiences. By reading the short stories, it is obvious that the experiences depicted are unpretentious and it seems from the material that have gone into the stories, the author has done his home work in addition to his wealth of first hand experiences.

Capturing socio- economic realities

Navatana (A place of stay) is an interesting story where a university lecturer's sociological experiments turns out to be a tragedy. Rangana Premanath is a lecturer in Sinhala of the University of Peradeniya while his wife and children live in Colombo. Premanath befriends with a three-wheeler driver Bandula and gradually expresses his philosophy of life to him. Premarathne leads a play-boy life and reveals it to Bandula. He gives Bandula books written by him as well as obscene literature that would eventually led to Bandula's premature death. However, the crust of the story is that one's philosophy of life would not apply on another. Premaratne's ideas have made a negative impact on Bandula's life leading to his suicide.

Heraligahagedara, Paraiyya and Visin mese kiyanaladi deal with different aspects of life. For instance, Heraligahagedara describes how even family members fight over property. Videshayaka Sita (From a foreign soil) is a thought-provoking story which brings out the vital issue of conflict.

"Four years ago, his father died in a foreign soil. Four years' from that death, his mother died in a foreign soil". Pradeepan is a Tamil youth caught up in the conflict. Irony is that his father died in Colombo while his mother died in Jaffna. Pradeepan could not attend his parents' funerals because of the two main parties to the conflict. He curses both Sinhalese and Tamils and blames them for ruining his life. Rathnayake presents the conflict from a perspective of a youth who is caught up in the conflict. Somawathi is a story about moral decadence in the society in general and in the institution of religion in particular. The quintessence of the story is that even Bhikku has become selfish in the milieu and financial motive takes precedence over other concerns.

Application of literary theory

Mahinda Rathnayake uses impressive diction enriched with metaphors. However, in some instances the author has failed to maintain contextual clarity. The author should be commended for his attempts at portraying contemporary Sinhalese village and dealing with universal issues. Rathnayake has devised a unique diction which is somewhat similar to that of Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov. Literary theories such as magical realism and Kafka's influence has been present throughout the anthology and particularly in the short stories such as Gopalu Vata, Thith Polanga, Paraiyya , Herali Gedara and Somawathi. It should be stated here that in most of the instances the author has succeeded in applying literary theories in a given context. The anthology Gopalu Vata may expand the vistas of Sinhalese literature in general and Sri Lankan literature in particular.