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| Tuesday, 13 January 2004 |
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The Brahmin as an asylum seeker Prof. Sunanda Mahendra When my friend the Buddhist monk, Nakkavita disrobed I felt somewhat sorry; thinking that he would have a bleak life as a layman. But I little realized that his retentive power of memorizing Pali gathas and Sanskrit slokas will take him up the academic ladder. The disrobed reverend Nakkavita, declared to all his friends and well-wishers that he would be henceforth known as Ananda Gunasekara. Having sat for the University entrance examination he managed to enter it, and ascend on the academic ladder satisfying all the requirements of the learned oriental scholars in the university faculty. One of the most learned professors well versed in Pali, Sinhala and Sanskrit thought that some one would be in the lineage to carry down the knowledge in language like Pali and Sanskrit and as such they appointed Gunasekara as a lecturer. The wise Professor did not realize that mere parting of language and bringing out heaps of gathas and slokas will not be the trend in the future. But Gunasekara managed to win the heart of most scholarly silent professors who minded their own academic business and entrusted him a major part of the work. The layman who is no longer that Reverend Nakkavita of the past changed gradually his mannerisms such as dress patterns and speech patterns. He was also looked down upon by another class of lecturers who called him 'a Brahmin', and banded him as a selfish scholar. They also blamed the seniors for appointing him as a lecturer. Sooner than expected he had the fine chance of going to England to further his studies. Before leaving the island he got married hurriedly to a girl known to one of his friends. The girl too dreamed of a beautiful future life. But gradually she too was disillusioned for more than one reason. Firstly, he forgot his real self of an expriest. Then he forgot the fact that he has come to do research. He gradually started drinking alcohol to the point that the money he got from home was insufficient to make ends meet. On top of all these the wife was pregnant, and she was neglected by him which caused grave mental problems within her. She was insisting that she would go home, but he pressed that conditions in England were favourable for a child birth. So she was given a helping hand by fellow scholars who had by then come to stay in England. 'We should pity that Brahmin's wife, or else she would die a miserable death' some said. But a surprising thing happened to the Brahmin. He was appointed to do a minor job in the British Museum. Perhaps at the time of his period of stay in England he was detached and was overlooking some of the happenings around him. He was not quite friendly with the Marxist friends around him. He had been admonishing them for 'not fulfilling the task they have come here for'. 'That Brahmin is a stingy fellow, he wouldn't even buy our newspaper' one of those Marxist friends told me. Things happened in such a manner that the day closer to his departure too coincided with the presentation of his research thesis. He managed to satisfy the needs of the supervisors by way of translating Sanskrit slokas and concepts and build up a thesis on those materials. Surprisingly enough, I saw for the first time in my life the Brahmin has turned to be a Marxist on his return to Sri Lanka. I was actually bewildered to see him as one of the chief advisors on Arts and Cultural matters for the said Marxist group who normally gathered in a Colombo restaurant. The next turning point was that I came to hear that he has started giving Tuition in English for beginners, and that he had a certain clash with the comrades over an ideological matter. Anyway from Brahminism he became a Maexist and from there a Nihilist who would even scold at Buddhist priests. He once openly declared that priests are a pack of idiots and that they cannot write a simple sentence grammatically. He went to the extent of detesting university professionals as stupids, who write in a putrid language. All in all, what happened in the end may not be too good to know for a friend of mine told me the other day that 'our brahmin is going to be an asylum seeker'. 'Where and why?' I asked. There he laughed and replied. 'He has made up a story to say that he has death threats from all quarters and that he wants to leave the country as soon as possible'. 'Will he get a place?' I asked the informant. 'I am not too sure about that in a foreign country, but I am pretty certain that he will get a place in a local asylum replied the informant. |
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