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Kala Korner - by Dee Cee

A versatile columnist
Lawyer cum columnist Neil Wijeratne has his hands full. We met at the Sri Lanka Rugby Union Headquarters in the former Havelock Racecourse the other day quite by chance. He was with the rugby big-wigs discussing future plans. He had been co-opted to the SLRFU's Disciplinary Committee. Neil has been involved in rugby for many years (he was one time Recorder of the SLRFU) and has authored at least two publications on the game.

On top of his professional work, he writes three columns to the newspapers each week. Though his basic interest is sports, (he writes 'Sports Nostalgia' to the Daily Mirror Sports Weekly), he covers a broad spectrum.

As correspondent for South Asia, he also sends a regular column to the International Rugby Union bulletin. Apart from sports, he relates personal experiences through his columns and touches on literature and travel. Being equally fluent in English and Sinhala, he contributes to newspapers in both languages. He also finds time to publish books.

Neil's interest in writing goes back to his schooldays at St. Joseph's. As a schoolboy he published two novels - Meeduma Atarin' & Mal Vessak Vasina Thura. That was in the late 1960s.In the seventies, he wrote another novel and published two anthologies of short stories. It was in the nineties that he started compiling his sports columns into books.

In a way Neil is a pioneer in creating a tradition of Sinhala sports literature. As Professor Sunanda Mahendra once mentioned, he is attempting to build a "creative sports culture via his books." Starting with Pera Dina Keli Bima (1995), he went on to publish Keli Bima Muva Dora (1997) & Deveni Inima 2002) in Sinhala and 'Rugby across the Straits' (1999) & 'Sevens Saga' (2000) in English.

'Madrasie Boy'
His latest book, 'Madurasi Kolla' (Madrasie Boy) is a travelogue covering a wide and varied range of topics. It covers numerous incidents and interesting people.

The book is about Neil's experiences during several visits to India. The title refers to just one incident where he has turned a simple observation about a boy who spends his time at a private bus stand in the night canvassing for passengers, into an interesting story.

Neil describes the boy's cleverness in urging the passengers to board the bus he is canvassing for and his own experience when the boy approached him thinking he was a prospective customer. Neil names a few places and asks the boy how he could get there.

The boy does not know. When after a few days he finds the boy missing, he is told that he has quit not being able to bear up Neil's bullying. Obviously Neil felt sad about the whole episode. The 36 stories in the book are a good mix covering a wide and varied range.

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