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| Wednesday, 2 June 2004 |
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Book reviews Sundara rides his hobby - horse Manige Theeruwa 2 Column-writing is a popular form of journalistic writing. Although very much a by-product of the Western model of journalism, Sri Lankan journalists have for long used column-writing as a means of expressing a variety of their thoughts, concerns and strong beliefs, convictions and their views on anything from mundane to sublime issues.
He has been contributing his column, Manige Theeruwa since 3rd December 1989. He started the column when he was on the editorial staff of the irida Divaina and went on till October 1994. He started the same column on 9th October 1994 in the Irida Lakbima. I know as a regular reader of his column that thousands of Sundara's fans eagerly await Manige Theeruwa on every Sunday. Sundara never runs out of events and happenings for his raw materials. He picks on a much-talked about and penetrating event of the week. He often makes an incisive and acidic commentary on the convoluted politics and politicians. At times he makes us laugh at the foibles, idiosynscracies and oddities of individual politicians of all political hues and colours. He spares no one from the highest echelons of power to the bottom of the totem poll. Sundara never spares. As a matter of fact, the preset collection includes a bulk of pieces lampooning Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe. One can hardly find fault with his choice since the politicians provide enough fodder for a perceptive columnist of Sundara's calibre. Sundara's serendipitous entry into the world of column-writing unfolded when he was asked by his editor at the Divaina, Edmund Ranasinghe. Mr. Ranasinghe had asked Sundara to translate and localize the columns of Art Buchwald and an Indian columnist who contributed at that time to India Today. True enough, the early escapades may have given him the chance of cutting his teeth at column-writing. Sundara may have picked up the threads of satire from the works of Buchwald. He may also have had some influence from the Indian columnist too. He has since then carved out his own niche as a recognized and gifted columnist, with his own inimitable style. Random collection Sundara brought out in book form a random collection of his columns in July 1994. This second volume titled Manige Theeruwa 2 covers the period from 1994 through 2001. The second volume contains altogether 89 pieces. The first six had appeared in the Irida Divaina from 27.02.1994 through 21.08.1994. The rest have all appeared in the Irida Lakbima. Continuing a regular column and sustaining the interest of readers for 15 years is no mean achievement for a Sinhala journalist. Judging by that feat, one can assume the popularity of Sundara's column in the Irida Lakbima. Personal columns click when the voice speaks in strikingly original tones. A personal column can be witty, controversial, no-nonsense, hard-hitting, culturally diverse, conversational, quirky, whimsical, ironic, confessional, authoritative and subversive. But the writer's personality should always illuminate through the copy. As any sensible reader can imagine, he enters into a kind of rapport with the columnist if the theme and the style of writing appeal. A head-and-shoulders picture or drawing of the writer often accompanies a column to help 'personalise' this rapport further. Readers can come to savour it and look forward to the next 'bite'. There are many varieties of personal columns. They may be straight opinion or may involve a small amount of journalistic research. They might be a selection of short features or news stories reflecting the interests of the writer. As Richard Keeble rightly points out most personal columns respond to the dominant news agenda but this is not always so. From the point of a newspaper, personal columns provide an invaluable ingredient to the overall mix. Hard news, soft news, features, profiles, analysis, humour, reviews, investigative pieces, vox pops, specialist pages, sports, editorials, cartoons should all feature in a well-balanced newspaper. A regular column adds to this overall mix of a newspaper. Dialogue Two familiar characters appear in Sundara's column, that is, his wife (Pushpa) and his only son (Thilina). Sundara often discusses a myriad of social and political issues with his wife and son. His views on certain issues are challenged, critiqued or elucidated by the duo. At times the column takes the form of a witty dialogue. There are times when Sundara resort to a letter addressed to a politician or such other person. Sundara uses sarcasm profitably in bringing out the foibles and idiosyncrasies of politicians. One of the columns in this collection is addressed to Ven. Baddegama Samitha Thera, wishing him victory at the Southern Provincial Council election in 1994. Using his characteristic animated and simple language, Sundara offers a host of advice to Samitha Hamuduruwo. He often picks on newfangled consumer items with equal flavour. Sticking to the highest norms of column-writing as practised in the Western world, Sundara does justice to readers while treating his pet subjects, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Ministers, MPs, police officers, fish mudalalis, the UNP, the SLFP, Tobacco Company, the Literary Panel of the Department of Cultural Affairs, LTTE, medical specialist who engage in channelled practice and many more. Observer Sundara, while resorting to political icon-breaking, never forgets the middle-class manners and mores. He makes extensive references to the foibles and oddities of the imitative middle-class life and ridicules self-aggrandizement. Sundara is a perceptive observer of the imitative manners of the middle-class, public servants and the educated men and women. Sundara shows how we have become our own prisoners in this consumer world, monopolized by the commercial radio and TV and their staple diet of cheap 'entertainment'. At the same time, Sundara never loses touch of the common man's problems. For instance, the column titled 'light bilen gelaweemak nehe (no escape from the monthly electricity bill) talks about the spiralling cost of electricity and the financial burden placed on the common man. Another column titled "Buy one packet and get two packets free of charge refers to the spawning of different brands of milk powder available in the open market and the stiff competition and the promotional drives being launched by the companies. In a yet another column, Sundara talks about the high price of milk powder despite the presence of a myriad of brands in the market. To bring home the fact that the price of milk powder is no longer within the reach of the common man, he graphically presents the imaginary case of a person who is forced to raise a bank loan to buy his usual packet of milk. Sundara once again talks about the common man's economic woes by focusing attention on the high price of fish and vegetables. Politicians and politics remain the pet hate of the members of the enlightened middle class. Sundara too indulges in the joy of lampooning politicians and politics. More than one quarter of the pieces produced in the book can be classified as involving politicians and politics. Often he castigates politicians and their myopic political decisions. The Literary Panel of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the ludicrousness of the proportional representation; the man who loses his electorate at the election becomes an MP nevertheless. Sundara records a vivid moment of a procession led by a group sporting green shirts who go on worship God Junius Richard. They pay homage to J. R. Jayewardene for introducing the system of proportional representation. The column titled 'is there a species called Police Constables in the Police Service' jeers at the proliferation of DIGs in the Police Department. Sundara pokes fun at the abuse of cellular phones for trivial purposes in the column titled 'Cellular Phones in Your Village Too.' He takes the tobacco industry to task in his piece, 'Cancer Hospital under the aegis of the Ceylon Tobacco Company.' Every piece printed in this collection is a bundle of wit and fund. Sundara Nihathamani de Mel's Manige Theeruwa 2 is essential reading for any reader who can enjoy the choicest pieces put together in this collection. I hope Sundara will give us the pleasure of reading Manige Theeruwa 3 before long. - Dr. Nandana Karunanayake. ###### It's one hell of a family! Descent of man The fact that Man did not "ascend", but "descend" is something we need to take serious note of. After all, it is believed that Man was made by God. On the making, there was neither ascending nor descending. In one moment he was transformed from a blob of mud and spittle into a creature. Many ages later, anthropologists studied the apes, gibbons and chimpanzees and said: "My, they are our long-lost cousins!" and the religious cranks rose up in holy wrath. "We are made in the image and likeness of God!" was their hell-fire-breathing declaration. Yet, when people came upon the world scene, inspired people who came to show us the error of our ways, we bumped them off - burned them at stakes, crucified them, roasted them on gridirons, even encased them in stone. God's family? It's one hell of a family! L.N.T. Mendis has taken the current realities of the human condition and human predicament in which, as he says, "our bodies exist in a tightly-knit global environment while our minds grope in a world long dead." In his introduction he brings us down to the grim basics. Man in Sri Lanka has "descended" - deteriorated - to unheard-of levels of bestiality and inhumanity. Too true. Only yesterday it was priest-bashing and church wrecking. Today it's monk-bashing.....and seemingly nothing ever abashes us! In truth, our cousins, the apes and gibbons and chimpanzees, are more civilized than we can now ever claim to be even if they don't have cellphones attached to their ears and microphones glued to their mouths. This books is a potent distillation of all the wrong-doing and suffering that man has caused in the world and which is now being duplicated here without let or hindrance. Are we now on the brink, preparing ourselves for yet another horrendous descent? This book holds, like Pandora's Box, all the ills of the world, and gnash our teeth as we must and spill hypocritical tears as we do, we know that WE are the cause of it all. As Mendis says, we are facing, whether we like it or not, "irretrievable disaster". Every holistic answer to the hosts of crises has been derided, for the best curative treatments are bound to impinge on wealth, power, etc. The author takes, for example, environment. We all know that we are walking-talking disgraces and that the environment is going to pot. Modern industry is a saga of over-exploitation of resources, devastation of Nature and that mad-cap pursuit of profit. A 'Warning to Humanity' was once drawn up, signed by 1,500 scientists from around the world. It spelled out a dire verdict. Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course! Traditions Let's consider our beginnings. Even if we are to resort to the mythic imaginative traditions about the nature, history and destiny of this planet, many today dismiss the idea that the human race descended from Adam and Eve; but be the story mythic or not, it does say something profound about the human condition. In the Rig Veda we have the coming of the cosmic Man, Purusha, who was dismembered and from the parts of his body arose the four classes of the human social order. Zoroaster tried to tackle the age-old problem of good and evil. How can one reconcile an all-loving, all-powerful God with the reality of all the undeserved suffering in the world? If God is good, he simply couldn't be all-powerful; and if he were all-powerful, could he be wholly good? In Greece, Hesiod presented the story of Man as one of continuous decline. Biblical history gave us the world's first rebels, cheats and liars (Adam and Eve) and the first murderer (Cain). Even Cardinal Newman, in his Apologia Pro Vita Sua of 1864 wrote: "If there is a God, SINCE there is a God, the human race is implicated in some terrible aboriginal calamity. It is out of joint with the purposes of its Creator." What then? Did God create a flawed Man? This is the calamity Mendis says we face. Early tool-making Man graduated to the making of more sophisticated weapons. As the author reminds, even H. G. Wells added a postscript to his History of the World when he realized the blind alley into which Man was moving. He titled it "The Human Mind at the End of its Tether." What has gone so dreadfully wrong is what the author tells of and in so doing, he examines a multitude of sciences, as well as scientific, social and political theories to give us most woeful answers. For one, the controls of religion, culture, morals and traditions have weakened considerably. Again, mankind in pursuit of material gain by the exploitation of Nature, is racing towards self-destruction and the death of his planet-home. Also, man is in pursuit of a sort of scientific arrogance and self-confidence. Albert Szent Gyorgyi, who took the Nobel prize for his discovery of Vitamin C, called us "crazy apes" and added that we are helpless in the face of the terrible strain of idiots who govern the world! This books is a must - very essential reading - for every person who looks around, shudders, blanches and thinks: "What the hell is all this coming to?" The author deals with ecological havoc, pollution, melting ice-caps, the use of non-biodegradable chemicals, the disposal of toxic substances, brown clouds and radiation, the extinction of plant, marine, land water and land species, chlorofluorocarbons, nuclear winters.....What are we doing? Playing God? Too true. After all, why not? If we are his children, then we surely are one hell of a divine family! Resources Mendis does not miss a single trick. He tells us of the lop-sided distribution of resources, wealth and consumption, the growing gulf between rich and poor. There is rootless growth that tramples on cultural identities; ruthless growth that only benefits the rich. Economic disparities are fast moving from inequitable to inhuman. He tells of poverty and unemployment - 30 million street children in Brazil; those fatuously-named "Cities of Joy". When he comes to debt, unequal exchange and aid, I am reminded of economist Doughlas Casey's opinion: "Overseas aid consists of transferring money from the poor in rich countries to the rich in poor countries!" Talk of sick economies run by money-grabbing politicians! The author's arguments on commodity prices, capital flows, investment flows, are superb. He shows us how well all the so-called aid can be made to flow back. Nuclear folly is also given an acid bath. Mendis has also given us, and in good time too, the comments, strictures and warnings of many concerned people: from the wise old Solon of ancient Greece to Immanuel Kant, Dr. Albert Schweitzer and Rachael Carson. How is it that all our so-called progress, the wretched of the Earth keep increasing, there is genocide, starvation, ethnic strife and, worse still, "cleaning", wars, insurrections, crime that is now beyond all control, epidemics, pandemics, white slave and drug trafficking? Mendis looks at globalization and the insecurities it has caused, including the invasive and intrusive properties of the information superhighway. Everywhere, governments seem to, or do work for a few special interests, skimming for itself the cream from the milk; he tells of how awesome surpluses bounce, then come down as deficits; tells us of how the ideological divide remains deep and seemingly bottomless. We even face an erosion of genetic diversity while hunger remains endemic in Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, the Sahel, Laos, Cambodia, North Korea and parts of India. Plague The new world plague is international and home-grown terrorism. As the author points out, many persons in authority also appear to be a law unto themselves. As he says in Chapter 12: "The world's economy, variantly called the casino economy or the plastic economy, like the military-industrial complex, consists of elements tightly bound together which cannot be prised apart. Like love birds, financial transactions, bribery, corruption, and unseemly politics including arming of terrorists are inseparable." The US sold arms to Iran in exchange for American "hostages". The US supported the Contras in Nicaragua. The US provided arms and economic assistance to Khalistan rebels through Pakistan. President Premadasa provided arms to the Tamil Tigers. The US gave arms and military expertise to Osama bin Laden to fight the Russian in Afghanistan. Mendis says that corruption, too, is variegated and comes in many garbs - the worst being political corruption that is now soaring high, wide and crooked-faced. He tells us of handouts, gratifications, loan fiddling, banking scandals, bribery, money laundering, the traffic in narcotics, prostitution, internet robbery and monstrous frauds. He leaves nothing out, even examining the odious new technology whose science may soon create its own human mutants. He asks: "Are we playing with fire, or are we playing God?" Oh, God, certainly! We won't fulfil our destiny until we can say, with twisted faces, "I am God!" and add: "Let there be Blight!" Read Descent of Man. Then ask yourself: "What the hell is this human species for?" Your guess is as good as mine! - Carl Muller ###### Credible representation of contemporary society Malavunge Pemwaththu Malawunge Pemwaththu is the latest work of Lal Perera, an Attorney-at-Law practising in Negombo who has written several novels, short stories, translations and literature for children. This collection of six short stories unravels the complexities of the various facets in our society that is fast degenerating. The first story "Getaluva" (the problem) is based on a common theme where the wife is induced by her husband to undergo an abortion because of financial constraints. Tennakone a teacher is in great straits when he realises that his wife has conceived again after seven months of the first delivery. He had obtained all his loans and spent everything he had when his first child was born. He cannot have a second child so soon. Tennakone gets his wife to take some pills on the advice of his friend to wash off the foetus but that did not work. Ultimately he had to sell his wife's gold chain and get an illegal abortion done by a doctor. Here embarrassment of Tennakone when his wife conceived again, tension about repercussions when wife took the pill and the conflict between Tennakone and the wife who reluctantly agreed for the abortion are well portrayed. The author has succeeded to present a hackneyed theme with some novelty. Corpses In the next story "Malavunge Pemwaththu" the author treads on a part hardly found in fiction. This story deals with the relationship between a veteran and his assistant engaged in embalming corpses. Lukas Aiya is hardened at the job and he has no mercy for extracting money for a work done. His assistant Karunadasa watches Lukas Aiya forcing even a poor helpless old widow to pay the amount he demanded. Karunadasa is disturbed by the pathetic scene and he accepts his share only after much persuasion by Lukas Aiya. Likewise Lukas Aiya demands and gets a princely sum from a Police Inspector to remove vital parts of the corpse of a victim of a police assault before they get the court order for a second post-mortem. Lukas Aiya boasts about his demeaning act saying "We give bribes to police. Can you think of police giving us bribes?" Karunadasa on the other hand is moved by the plight of the widow and the child of the deceased who is innocent of the alleged cattle theft. This time he bluntly refuses to accept the share. In this story you get a vivid picture of the horrendous nature of embalming, the stinking and unpleasant surroundings, treatment to corpses to make them look better and their deeds with corpses of young women. The short-stories "Viduru Biththi" (Glass Walls), "Rajakariya" (Official duty) and "Jeevithayak Varjanaya Vu Vagay" (Life is made to stagnate) deal with day-to-day working of state institutions, the deterioration of the standards of the officials, their undercutting to get promotions, the political interference and bribery and corruption so rampant in them. Vacancy In "Viduru Geval" Rajini the main character vie with another to get a promotion for a vacancy that is to be filled. They even send anonymous petitions against each other. Then the story shifts to describe her amorous relationship with a person younger to her who is a rugger player as well. Later it is revealed that her earlier affair was shattered because the fiance decides to work in a distant place as a service to the country. Although this narration is interesting it lacks cohesion in the theme. In "Rajakariya" Buddhadasa the custom officer is horrified at the assassination of Amarapala a brother officer. He fears whether the same fate would fall on him too because Buddhadasa too was performing the same nature of work - investigating of offences committed by the officers. But Amarapala was an honest officer. Buddhadasa on the other hand has rapport with those whose misdeeds he is investigating. He also helps a press owner to get a printing machine seized by the customs released. The reader feels the tension in Buddhadas for the assassination of Amarapala is uncalled for. Nevertheless the corruption in the system, petty jealousies among the officers and the inner conflicts of the main characters are well depicted. The story "Jeevithaya Varjanaya Vu Vagay" has a better theme. Amarasena an officer in the state sector is dismissed from service for taking part in the July strike. Unable to get any other employment he is compelled to brew illicit liquor to make both ends meet. Amarasena and another ordinary man are arrested in the act and they languish in the police cell. The police officer who is sympathetic to them too fails to get the consent of the officer-in-charge to release them. Amarasena loses all hopes. Confident But his companion is different. He is confident that the Mudalali who has the influence on the Minister would get them released. Ultimately Mudalali comes to the police station and gets the OIC to release both Amarasena and his companion. In this story the feelings of Amarasena in the police cell visualising how he would be demeaned in society, how his wife and child would come weeping to the police and his reflection how his wife had to leave the job she found after his dismissal because of advances of a person in authority is heart rending.. I would consider "Thaththage Maranaya" (Father's Death) as the best short-story in the book. In this absorbing story, the artificial life of the elite, their hypocrisy, exploitation of the poor and their immorality are magnificently portrayed. Sumanadasa the watcher in the estate comes to Borella for the funeral of the father of the landowner. He has inherited the property from the dead person and Sumanadasa's father has been the watcher under the deceased. Sumanadasa finds that there is hardly a crowd in the funeral house. The people from the higher strata come in their limousines, just stay for a few minutes and leave the place. There is a small crowd just before the body is taken to the cemetery but by the time the hearse reaches the cemetery only a handful is left for the cremation. Sumanadasa remembers his father's funeral when the house was full of villagers till the body was interred at the cemetery. Even the person who was sent to jail for stealing coconuts on the evidence of Sumanadasa's father helped him to dig the grave. Sumanadasa observes that the landowner kisses the corpse twice so that the photo taken would come well. Sumanadasa could see the attachment shown by the landowner to an ill-clad woman being resented by his wife. He recalls how the landlord tried to molest is sister when she was young. He remembers the remark made by a woman in the village that Sumanadasa exactly looks like the deceased. The reader finds that the title "Thaththage Maranaya" is relevant to both the landowner and Sumanadasa. At a time when elaboration of sex is common in our literature Lal Perera presents his stories with restraint. Some other modern writer would have made use of intimacy between Janaki and the rugger player in "Viduru biththi" to describe bedroom scenes in detail. Even the misdeeds of embalm workers with corpses of young women are presented without exceeding the bounds of decency. The short stories as a whole are a credible representation of contemporary society. It is true some stories could have been presented better with some artistic sensibility. Nevertheless "Malavunge Pemvaththu" and "Thaththage Maranaya" rank high as outstanding short stories. Young Lal Perera in this work has shown much promise as a short-story writer. - W. T. A. Leslie Fernando, Former High Court Judge **** Back **** |
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Although there have been a good number of Sinhala columnists like the
late Martin Wickremasinghe, Hemapala Munidasa, Piyadasa Sirisena,
Kumaratunga Munidasa, Edmund Ranasinghe, Piyadasa Nissanka, Meemana
Prematilake, Chandrarathna Manawasinghe, Sisira Kumara Manikkaarachchi,
David Karunarathne, Dayasena Gunasinghe, Sunil Madhawa Prematilake,
Chinthana Jayasena, Sunanda Deshapriya, Karunadasa Suriyarachchi, among
many others, Sundara Nihathamani de Mel stands out for several reasons.
