| The price
of benevolence…
By Rita Perera, Kelaniya
The annual Book Exhibition and Fair
in Colombo is an event looked forward to by the literate
of all ages. From children just beginning to read to
ageing book-lovers like myself, the crowds that throng
to this fair make it evident that it has become one
of the best literary and cultural festivals of the year.
It is made possible due to the combined
efforts of most of the bookshops and book publishers
in Sri Lanka and even some from abroad. They not only
transport vast quantities of the stock and provide lavish
displays of their books but sell them at greatly discounted
prices.
The choice of venue, the BMICH would
seem the best, most central and secure available. However,
this year, disproved the myth of security, when 38 lakhs
of rupees was stolen one night from the Godage’s
bookstall at the exhibition.
Mr. Godage is a publisher, who is
and has been a boon to aspiring writers in the Sinhala,
English and Tamil languages. He never charged writers
for the cost of publishing their books and without his
assistance countless books, whether they were novels,
poetry, history, biography or every other imaginable
educational subject, would never have been printed or
published.
It obviously involved an immense outlay
of capital especially, when the authors had never been
published before, but Mr. Godage was always willing
to take the risk and up to now his efforts have been
rewarded. With the goodwill his actions generated, his
bookshop expanded and is now an emporium, employing
a large number of staff. However, the scale of the robbery
has necessarily put a brake on his efforts to promote
literary talents in this country.
When I spoke to him, his habitual
equanimity had not lessened, but one could feel the
pain he was trying to hide.
He said that he may now have to reconsider
his former policy of publishing books without levying
a charge, unless he was able to sell one of his ancestral
properties to defray such costs. When I asked him if
the stolen money was likely to be recovered and the
thieves caught, he was despondent.
In the present climate in this country,
the tragedy is that such robberies are so common the
police now seem to regard the routine of even looking
for the perpetrators, a futile exercise. The losers
are the reading public, who would now be deprived of
countless potential publications by aspiring, talented
but mostly poor writers, who may no longer be able to
depend or rely on Deshabandu Sirisumana Godage to publish
their creative efforts…
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