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A soldier's inner battle

Set to the backdrop of the separatist war in Sri Lanka, Delon Weerasinghe's original play "Thicker than Blood" will go on the boards on March 28, 29 and 30 at the Lionel Theatre. The story is that of Suresh, a young captain in the Sri Lanka army.

Wounded in battle and now retired, Suresh finds it difficult adjusting to civilian life. He is depressed and has no clear plans for the future when he is invited to join politics.

Although initially reluctant, Suresh agrees. After all, a man who believes in nothing can be passionate about anything. But he will soon discover that he isn't a man who believes in nothing. Does serving one's country mean doing what you're told or what you think is right? Can a patriot never see another point of view? He has spent his whole life fighting the enemy. But who does he fight when he's no longer sure who the enemy is?

Sometimes the hardest battles to fight are the ones inside us. If so, Suresh has the toughest fight of his life ahead of him.

This is playwright Delon Weerasinghe's first play. "Thicker than Blood" was developed in conjunction with the Royal Court theatre in England. Delon attended the Royal Court international residency in 2001 and subsequently became the first South Asian playwright to have a play commissioned by the famous London theatre.

The cast comprises Mohammed Adamaly, Romany Parakrama, Shanaka Amarasinghe, Arun Perera, Suranjith Tillakewardene, Arjuna Koralagama, Arrvinda Salwatura and Delon himself.

Our very own what is what and who’s who

Encyclopedia of Sri Lanka - an A to Z guide to Sri Lanka, edited by senior journalist Charles A. Gunawardena has just been released. It is the first work of its kind in English and covers almost every aspect of the country. It has information on the country's geography and history, places and people, races and religions, artists, academics, scientists and writers and a host of other subjects.

The Sunday Times will serialise extracts from the book beginning today.

Adam's Bridge- The chain of sand banks and islets that stretches from Talaimannar on Sri Lanka's north-east coast to Rameswaram on the coast of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Hanuman, the monkey god of the Indian epic, Ramayana, is said to have used this bridge to cross the sea when he came to Lanka to rescue Princess Sita, who had been kidnapped by Ravana, the demon king of Sri Lanka.

Adigar- Title of the principal state officials, equivalent to ministers, appointed by the kings who ruled in Kandy. The early kings kept one adigar.

The number went up to two under Rajasinghe II (1635-87) and the last king, Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe (1798-1815) raised it to three. Among those who held the post of maha or chief adigar were Pilimatalawa and Ehelepola Dissawas.

Adult franchise- The first elections on the basis of universal adult franchise for those aged 21 and over were held in 1931, just two years after similar elections in Britain, and 17 years before independence.

Full adult franchise was introduced on the recommendation of the Donoughmore Commission, a body appointed by the British Government to report on constitutional advances for Ceylon.

Most nationalist leaders of the time were not in favour of the change and had not campaigned for an extension of the franchise, which was up to then limited to those with an income of Rs 50 a month. Among the few leaders who were for adult suffrage were the labour leader, A. E. Goonesinghe, and the Buddhist activist, Anagarika Dharmapala.

Ceylon was the first of the British colonies outside the white settler Dominions (Australia, Canada and New Zealand) to have universal adult suffrage. India had to wait until 1952 to hold an election on the basis of universal suffrage.

Sri Lanka lowered the voting age to 18 in 1959, with those between 18 and 21 first exercising the franchise in the 1965 elections.

Ahangama- Coastal village east of Galle. The coast near Ahangama is known for so-called stilt fishing. Local fishermen cast lines, perched on horizontal sticks fixed to poles erected on the seabed. Nearby is the Kataluwa temple with extensive wall-paintings.

ahikuntikayo -Gypsies

alexandrite- A precious stone of the chrysoberyl family, found only in Lanka and the Urals of Russia, alexandrite is green in daylight and red under artificial light.

A(hangamage) T(udor) Ariyaratne (b.1931)- The founder leader of the Sarvodaya movement, which mobilises the efforts of mainly young volunteers to improve economic and social conditions in rural areas. He was a teacher at Nalanda College, a boys’ school in Colombo, when he started the movement in 1961.

It began with his taking groups of students on weekend trips to villages to help improve roads, houses and sanitation. It is now the largest voluntary organisation in the island, is reckoned to have benefited 13,000 villages, and has extended its services to a number of sectors. These include developement banking in rural areas. He has won wide international recognition, and received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1969 and the Mahatma Gandhi Prize in 1996.

Kala Korner by Dee Cee

From parliamentary affairs to cricket
Listening to former Secretary-General of Parliament Sam Wijesinha is always a treat. He is so through, so knowledgeable and so well prepared. He normally speaks on constitutional and parliamentary affairs or recent Sri Lankan history. It was different the other day. He spoke on cricket.

Many who had turned up at the BMICH cinema hall for the launch of veteran radio commentator Premasara Epasinghe's 'Bradman Yugaya' wondered what he would say. He started off by laying down his credentials. He was the wicket-keeper in the College XI and could not shine later on because there were better wicket keepers. And from the facts and figures he came out with, he is obviously a keen follower of the game and knew much more than an ordinary commentator or writer would know.

When he started rattling off the achievements of Sir Donald Bradman, the greatest cricketer of all time, many wondered from where he had picked up all those facts. We had heard of Larwood's bodyline tactics but he brought out much more. And he illustrated how the English captain of the day, Jardine used 'killer tactics' on Bradman. He talked about the 'gentlemen' and the 'players' in the early days.

He hardly referred to his notes except to check a few statistics. Talking of Bradman's urge to do his best against the opponents, he put it in pithy Sinhala terminology. "He had the 'vise' . We have a lad with the same 'vise' - Upul Chandana who, whatever the selectors may think, should be in our team," he said.

He remembered meeting Bradman in Sydney when he was there with a parliamentary delegation. Sir Don had asked him whether Harold de Andrado (renowned Sri Lankan writer who was his close friend) was in good health.

The way cricket is being played everywhere in the country today be it the roads or the paddy fields, Sam Wijesinha was confident that cricket would unite the country much more than politics. He paid a tribute to Epasinghe for introducing Bradman to the new generation by presenting the great doings of the world's most talked about cricketer in Sinhala for the benefit of a mass readership.

The book
Premasara Epasinghe's book is not just about Bradman. As he has quite appropriately titled it, the book deals with the Bradman era. He gives many statistics and has pen portraits of Bradman's contemporaries as well as several interesting anecdotes. Just an example: Talking about Jardine, he quotes Richardson, the Australian cricketer who responded to a query made by Jardine during the tea interval as to who had called him (Jardine) ' a bastard' while fielding at slip when he was batting, by turning round to his team mates and saying "Who is the bastard who called this bastard a bastard."

When Bradman was once asked who he thinks the greatest cricketer he has seen, Bradman replied "Sobers" (Sir Garfield). "He offers balance and variety with bat and ball. He is in my opinion, the greatest cricketer of all time."

Just as he gives a vivid picture of what’s going on around him when he commentates, Epa's narration in the book is most interesting, simple and readable.

Problem of names

One of the main problems faced by Charlie Gunawardena, author of 'Encyclopaedia of Sri Lanka' was to get the spelling of names right. "This was an arduous task when I realized that even fathers and sons sometimes spelt their names differently. Martin Wickremasinghe and son S.K were a good example," he said at the launch ceremony. (Bradman Weerakoon, who was in the chair then let us into a secret when he said that while the Prime Minister spells his name with 'e's, wife Maithree used all 'a's. "So not only fathers and sons differ in spelling their names but even husbands and wives," he remarked).

The author used his own judgement about the space allotted to the subjects. He had no bias or prejudice about personalities, in particular. "Martin Wickremasinghe was my hero always. So his account is much longer than others - much more than space given to some politicians."

Making an assessment of the Encyclopaedia, former diplomat Manel Abeysekera said that Charlie was always a draw and introduced him as one who lived up to his profession. "He is a walking encyclopaedia, knowledgeable about Sri Lanka and the world. He has his roots in Sri Lanka and although he has been away for a long time, he is most competent to undertake the task of compiling an encyclopedia. He is well versed in every aspect - whether it be historical, political or cultural. He has achieved a fine balance in the book," she said.

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