The perfect bilingual
It's rarely that some one who has made a name for himself as a Sinhala
writer wins a prize for English writing. So, launching Tissa Abeysekera's
Bringing Tony Home, winner of the prestigious Gratiaen Prize for 1996 was
a significant event.
The book was in manuscript form when it won the Prize. Now it's available
in bookstores for everyone to read and enjoy it. A simple, readable 'story
in three movements'.
As Regi Siriwardena put it, Tissa is a perfect bilingual. Best known
for his script writing, film and tele direction, the script he wrote for
his award-winning creations, Viragaya (1992) and Pitagamkarayo (1997) are
available in book form. They are ample proof of his excellent skill in
Sinhala writing. He is a much sought after writer and speaker on many a
subject, particularly the arts.
 On
Bringing Tony Home, Regi Siriwardena says: "No other first novel in
English by a Sri Lankan writer that I know has given evidence of so much
maturity - maturity in understanding of experience, maturity in the deployment
of language and fictional form".
The launch itself was different to what we usually experience. It was
a simple affair. Tissa's friends and well-wishers gathered at the SLFI
auditorium for the occasion. There was no lighting of the 'pol thel pahana'.
The stage was bare. The usual sponsorship banner was missing. Speeches
were short and sweet. It wasn't a tiring evening. A good example for others
to follow.
Ours to Protect
The next evening, Tissa Abeysekera took us on a nostalgic tour down
Gangodawila to impress on us how much the environment had been affected
in what was once a beautiful and peaceful habitat full of deer, rabbits,
birds and fish. Tissa was introducing to Protect Sri Lanka's Biodiversity
Heritage written by environmentalist Rohan Pethiyagoda, a timely publication
sponsored by Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) to mark Sri Lanka's 50th Independence
Anniversary.
"One of the most beautifully written books," summed up Tissa
having taken the audience through the book which tries to "draw attention
to how much has been lost, how fascinating the tiny fraction that remains
is, and the enormous amount of scientific exploration and research that
remains to be done before we can truly assess what there is to conserve
on this Island."
In the book, Rohan Pethiyagoda, the live-wire behind the Wildlife Heritage
Trust of Sri Lanka, has attempted to provide the reader with an insight
in to the biological wealth Sri Lanka contains repeatedly drawing attention
to the fact that not enough is known about most of it. In his short address
to the audience at the BMICH (it was rather sad that more invitees did
not turn up for the launch), he impressed on the need for more information
and the need to gather knowledge about this wealth. "Although conservationists
continue to raise cries of alarm over Sri Lanka's biodiversity crisis,
the sad fact is that the island's biodiversity is still largely unassessed.
Even in the small patches of forest that do remain, dozens of hitherto
unknown species keep being discovered and new interrelationships found,"
he said.
He confessed that this is possibly the "first readable book I have
written" quoting how wild life enthusiast Lyn de Alwis often reminds
him to write something that "we also can understand". This is
because of the number of 'technical papers' Pethiyagoda has been writing
over the years. He is the author of a large number of papers on freshwater
fish, reptile taxonomy natural history in Sri Lanka.
Celebrating womanhood in colours and shapes
Celebrating Women's Day 1998 with an exhibition of women's creativity,
the Sri Lanka Women's NGO forum brought together women from all over the
island, women artists in the formal sense as well as women experimenting
with shapes and colours on paper and canvas, all of them expending their
creative energies not only to draw attention to the problems faced by women
but also to celebrate the wonders of life, and of womanhood.
Through the exhibition they hoped to win recognition of the fact that
women express themselves creatively in many different ways and that every
one of these ways should be valued for the contribution that they make
to our understanding of the world we live in.
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