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| The
road from Elephant Pass: An adventure story Set against
the background of the war in the North and East of Sri Lanka, the
story zooms in on the period just prior to the attack on Elephant
Pass in April 2000. It is, however, not a chronicle of war but an
adventure story with an unusual twist. The attack launched by the Tigers on the Elephant Pass camp at that crucial point, turns what was to be a routine assignment into a great escape. The two adversaries are compelled to flee on foot, through the LTTE-held Wanni and across the Wilpattu Sanctuary, closed to the public, encountering many dangers and adventures on the way. They have to hide from groups of rebels, then flee from a gang of army deserters turned poachers, who attempt to capture the woman. Travelling through the jungle tracks, the danger of an attack by wild animals is also ever present. The author's keen interest in wildlife, particularly birds, is reflected in the many interesting interludes of bird lore, with vivid descriptions of the birds they come across during their arduous trek through the jungle. Thrown together by circumstances, forced to depend on each other for survival, the two individuals from opposing sides, find their enmity and suspicion gradually giving way to mutual respect and trust. A shared interest in bird watching also helps reduce the tension. Nihal de Silva, who was in the last batch of students of mixed communities to study together, says that in his time there was no communal disharmony among them. He is firmly convinced that if people from different communities and ethnicities are not isolated but live and work in a common environment, they could get along well. Through his story, he attempts to promote this belief in a subtle manner. To say more would be to reveal too much but I found 'The Road from Elephant Pass' a book worth reading. -Hiranthi Fernando A conflict of
values The story revolves around Sri Lankan newlyweds Rupa and Aruna who arrive in London in the 60s. Having to cope with the problems of immigrants and the stress of making ends meet in a new environment, their marriage soon starts to crumble. Rupa finds herself a single parent in Leeds, a northern inner city. Aruna, after a series of mishaps of his own making, becomes a wreck. When Rupa meets the poet Chris Hunter it seems her problems have ended but this is far from the case. Her difficulties are compounded by tensions between conflicting customs of East and West. The author portrays Rupa as a strong woman, and describes her gradual metamorphosis - from a person with a conservative upbringing into a broadminded, capable individual who takes on the responsibility of bringing up two children by herself, in the West and with a meagre income. Aruna turns his back on the values he was brought up with. The stress of studying, earning for the family and saving to build a large business in his homeland pushes him into a selfish and immoral life. The novel alternates between scenes in rural Sri Lanka in the 60s and the very different worlds of London and Leeds. The lengthy descriptions of the paddy fields, rubber and cinnamon plantations and peacocks paint a picture of the island in all its natural splendour. Abey appreciates the rural life and describes in detail the hard work that makes up the rural lifestyle. There is mention of the elaborate preparation for rituals while simultaneously providing a hint of the problems of caste, dowry, dependence on the infamous matchmaker to find a suitable match, the role of horoscopes, etc. Perhaps the author urges individuals to break away from the social customs that often dictate terms. The author also brings to light the problems of Asian immigrants who are caught up in eastern and western cultural strings and often face the dilemma of choosing between the value systems. Being cut off from the support of families, they are faced with various difficulties and need to be strong to build a life from almost nothing. The author's
respect for eastern tradition is evident when she focuses on the
contrast in marriages and funerals in Sri Lanka and the UK. "It
is only in the East that people know how to respect the dead and
dying." At the same time the author also speaks of the positive
aspects of the West such as equal opportunities for men and women,
the social security system, extensive study opportunities and quality
medical facilities. Politics apart Sarath Amunugama's new book Maname Mathakvi (Maname Remembered) is a multi-faceted study of the play Maname, its creator Professor E.R. Sarachchandra and the milieu that inspired that path-breaking dramatic creation. Quite rightly Dr. Amunugama begins with the milieu. Those of us who were a part of the University of Peradeniya during the second half of the 50s and the 60s look back on it as a seminal period in our lives. It is more than nostalgia for a youthful past - a nostalgia that we all perhaps share when we look back on our undergraduate years. It was a very special moment in the cultural history of this country where the creative energies and nationalist concerns of a generation happened to come together in that newly established, idyllic, residential campus on the banks of the Mahaveli river. Perhaps it was just an accident of history but those years were witness to a burst of creative energy sparked by the interaction of faculty and students. E.R. Sarachchandra and Lyn Ludowyk made bold contributions to the theatre. Siri Gunasinghe pioneered experiments in free verse, Gunadasa Amerasekera in fiction and poetry. Kingsley de Silva and Leslie Gunawardena introduced new approaches to colonial and ancient history. S.J. Tambiah, Alex Gunasekera, Gananath Obeysekere, and Ralph Pieris did anthropological research into aspects of Sinhala culture. Stanley Kirinde brought a modern dimension to Buddhist art while H.H. Bandara's music was an important feature in Sarachchandra's plays. H.A.I. Goonetilleke produced his monumental bibliography on Sri Lanka. These are but a few names but in that special time and place they sparked what can be described as a cultural renaissance. That renaissance was spearheaded by the experimental work of E.R. Sarachchandra in the field of poetic drama - and Maname became the symbol of that new creativity. Amunugama, as an insider, recreates that world with sensitivity and detail. The first section is a personal account of his excitement, as a young student, on first seeing Maname. While reminiscing, Amunugama makes an attempt to understand what made it so exciting and path-breaking. In the process of that exploration he recreates the ambiance of the world of Peradeniya in those early decades. He sketches interesting vignettes of the people who were part of that world - the talented poets, critics, novelists, artists and musicians eager to experiment with new forms and borrow and fuse different and seemingly disparate traditions. The student body at the time was more than willing to participate in those experiments, whether as actors, musicians and choreographers for plays or as student participants in research projects. They were the best products of the educational policies of the C.W.W. Kannangara era, which had focused on developing Central Schools of high quality in the provinces to attract bright students and provide them with a sound, all-round education. Today, as a result of haphazard educational policies, rural schools have become no more than third rate tutories and generations of students have been short-changed. But Amunugama's book talks of another place and time. The central inspiration for the creativity associated with the university at that time was Dr. E.R. Sarachchandra. Sarachchandra's unassuming personality, his erudition, his scintillating wit and satiric humour directed at himself and those around him, his critical sensibility, and his creative genius drew a host of multi-talented people, colleagues and students. Sarachchandra's interest in folk ritual drama led him to participate with sociologists engaged in such research. His interest in music led to a long and fruitful association with Charles Gurunnanse. Sarachchandra's interest in hammering out a new poetic idiom fusing classical scholarship with the rich usage of folk poetry attracted young poets and writers. Then there was his cohort of student actors and actresses who enthusiastically and devotedly participated in an ongoing whirl of dramatic productions. Amunugama provides a lively and detailed account of this intellectual milieu. Before moving to a critical analysis of the text of Maname Dr. Amunugama briefly reviews the critical theories that have been applied to Sinhala literary texts and places them in their historical context. He discusses the early 'paraphrases' that passed for criticism or the attempts to relate incidents in a text to a hypothesized reality - satirically termed 'the path the selalihini took' school of criticism. He moves on to the New Critics of the Fifties and their Practical Criticism introduced by Lyn Ludowyk to his students in the English department and by Sarachchandra to the Sinhala department. Such a critical theory while it provided insights into a text and brought a new focus to the study of literature ignored the social and ideological context that produced that literature. To be successful it also necessitated a readership of like-minded people with highly refined poetic sensibilities. Amunugama argues that with the development of modern communication systems, literary works become the domain of many groups from varied social classes. Thus postmodern critics sought to place a text within its socio-political context, thereby deconstructing it and highlighting those once ignored features. Amunugama therefore decides to provide such a critique, approaching the text from a postmodern perspective, situating it within the context and the discourses of its time and permitting multiple readings and interpretations of the work. The last sections of the book are devoted to an analysis of the language of the play, and a discussion of its central themes. Amunugama refers to the poetic language that Sarachchandra created in Gunadasa Amarasekera's apt phrase as 'the language of the heart'. The appeal of this poetic language and its intrinsic power came from the very fusion of an incredible wealth of linguistic resources that Sarachchandra was able to draw on. Amunugama in the course of a close analysis of the text draws attention to some of those ties to the classical Sinhala works of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. He also identifies idioms and usages drawn from the folk and ritual dramas and highlights Sarachchandra's poetic genius that could fuse those diverse traditions to create a modern poetic 'Language of the heart'. Amunugama raises two interesting points. One is that while Sarachchandra's poetic dramas had a wide popular appeal, there were no serious critical studies of his dramatic texts in Sinhala apart from Gunadasa Amerasekera's discussion of his poetic language. Is this perhaps due to a lack of a Sinhala readership for critical works? Or is it because criticism in Sri Lanka is often seen as a personal 'attack' on a work or its author and so is thought best avoided? Or is it just due to the lack of a forum and a space for serious criticism? These questions are worth asking. The other point he makes is that while Sarachchandra forged an exciting new poetic language it was not adequately picked up and used by younger poets. The reason, Amunugama speculates, is perhaps because poetry depends on the multiple resonances of language and vocabulary for its effects, while Sarachchandra's poetic language takes its very life from the combination of music, drama, and poetry. In that context the primary factor is not the words. This is probably part of the answer. But I suspect that it was also because few poets today have the enormous scholarly wide-ranging erudition that Sarachchandra had on which he could draw upon readily for his poetry. Just as the stylized dramatic form he created had many imitators but few could achieve the same dramatic heights; similarly the poetic richness of the language he forged was not easy to recreate or reproduce. Maname Mathakvi (Maname Remembe-red) is a much-needed insightful and comprehensive critical study of the play. My single reservation is that the book sometimes has a slightly 'text book' quality and tends to spell out in point form ideas already familiar to the sophisticated reader. But I assume that Dr. Amunugama has a student readership in mind and the book is certainly one that students interested in drama, modern critical theory and the social history of a past era, should read. One may agree or disagree with Dr. Amunugama's politics, but that he can produce a work of this nature shows he has a fine mind, is intellectually alert, reads widely, thinks critically and certainly writes extremely well - talents unusual among our politicians today. |
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