Turning his focus on autism
Upali Mahaliyana was educated at Mahinda College, Galle, and at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya. After graduating as an Electrical Engineer he served as a Senior Consultant and as an Engineering Manager in various international consultancies in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia.
He started writing fiction on the verge of retirement and has published eight novels in English, winning the State Literary Award once. He has been shortlisted seven more times for the Gratiaen Prize, the State Literary Awards and the Godage Literary Awards.
Upali’s shortlisted novel for this year’s Gratiaen, He was God’s Child Too tells the story of a boy living on the autism spectrum, narrated by his sister.
He has also translated four award-winning Sinhala novels into English and three English novels by Lankan authors into Sinhala.
His short stories have won prizes at the English Writers Collective’s short story competition for the past three years.
| Extract from his book: | |
I do not have many memories from my childhood. The few I have are not very clear now but I remember them as unhappy ones. I remember a lot that happened when I was a little older. They are not happy either. Perhaps I remember only the times when I was unhappy. I was not a very happy child. The earliest thing I remember is the day I panicked and injured my head as a little boy. It was my stupid aunt Regina who started it. She had come to see our baby, my little sister Kala. I do not know how old I was but I remember that I had not started school and Kala was just a tiny baby. Amma never let me or any of our siblings disturb the baby when she slept but that time she brought her out to show her off to Regina and placed her on her lap. Kala was still sleeping but Regina woke her up tickling her and making various silly sounds. I was not happy when she woke the baby and made her cry. Amma did not scold Regina as she did others for the same offence. Anyway, Regina got the baby back to sleep before looking around to talk to the others. “Aiya’s nose,” she said pinching the little nose. What an idiotic thing to say! How could that little nose be the same as Thaththa’s huge one? She looked at me and asked, “Can I take your baby sister home with me?” That was when all the fears I had up to that time came to reality. I knew that she was up to something the moment she came. I started screaming hitting her with my hands with all my might. She screamed too and Thaththa rushed forward, pulling me away. He lifted me up and held me close but I kept flaying my arms hitting him. He held my hands too and spoke in a gentle voice to calm me down. “Nanda was only joking, Putha. We are not going to let anybody take the baby away,” he kept saying. He set me down when I stopped struggling. The baby was now crying but the woman was still holding her. I did not trust her at all. That was when I went to the nearest wall and started banging my forehead against it. By the time Thaththa took me away, I was bleeding. It was a near thing. Regina Nanda could not take my baby sister away that day only because Thaththa was home to stop her. But I was not taking any chances after that. I always kept my eyes on Kala, especially when visitors came. I am sure Amma too knew what could have happened. That must be why she never let any visitor hold the baby after that, whatever gifts they brought to fool her. Even when Kala grew older, Amma always got me to look after her when she was busy with other work. She knew that I would always take good care of her. I was happy to do that. Kala was a beautiful baby. She liked to be with me. Perhaps, I was too small to carry her when she started crawling and then walking but she would happily sit on my lap when I sat on the floor. She would come up to me when I was sitting on a chair and raise her hands to be lifted up to my lap. That was one of the earliest entries I found in browsing through my brother Uddaka’s ‘Book of All Things’ on my return flight to Auckland. I was returning home after bidding farewell to him in our village of Ganegama in southern Sri Lanka. I was not surprised that it was about me. I always knew that I was his favourite sibling. |
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