Uncertain times in an isolated city

In early 2020, I was in Sri Lanka with family enjoying all the comforts I can ask for. Not to say, while it was the west coast season, I also explored few shipwrecks in the coast of Colombo and Galle. One of the dive buddies I dived with in Colombo was Simon Lorenz; I only realized later that he is a renowned Underwater photographer. He was kind enough to give me some valuable advises during dives.

While I was in Sri Lanka, one of my friends back in Australia, Kin, called and asked me to bring some groceries like rice etc. on my way back. This was a complete joke for me. Who is going to bring such rations from Sri Lanka to Australia! Then I left to Perth in mid-March and realized how true the advice given. Australia was in complete jeopardy and super market aisles were just deserted. Nothing to buy! It was the time I realized the seriousness of Corona outbreak. Within a couple of days all the airports of Australia were shut, followed by Sri Lanka. Now I am stranded in Perth, most isolated city in the world!

Before leave Sri Lanka I promised my family that I would see them every other month and stop this nomadic life for good by end of the year. Fulfilling that promise was impossible with the Covid-19 restrictions around international flying throughout the globe. Especially, Australia enforced a law, restricting international travels, which was the only democratic country to impose such a law. My mind started to go a rollercoaster ride. One day I am good and next day I am so down, even the best coffee or beer couldn’t fix. 

Western Australia is not a good place for me to get stranded in many ways. I didn’t have many friends or family. It’s not a big city like Sydney (or even Melbourne), where you have many things to do, but beaches and outdoors. There is a sunny side of the story. Since it’s an isolated place, managing of virus spreading was quite successful (as this writing). This gave me enough freedom to go out. Most importantly, my client wanted my consulting service to continue. Therefore, income source was there, which is a great relief. 

I also thought of using the time wisely, even in tough circumstance. Therefore, I started learning everything I was curious about, from forex trading to Yoga and what not. Started reading all the books from the best seller list, those I could find from library. Visited museums again and again. 

I was tired of my own cooking some days and used to visit a Pasta place, ironically, ran by an Indian couple. They used to make especial one for me with many spices, a lot of them! Pasta – a south Asian style!

I became a frequent visitor in few coffee shops. In my local coffee shop I used to spend a lot of time, I met a mother and a son who became friends with me. Mothers’ name is Anna and son is Antonio. Antonio was my elder daughter’s age and he plays soccer. They usually visited the coffee shop on their way back from practices. He used to show me some pictures of his soccer moments and I showed my family photos back in Sri Lanka. Both mum and son was having an empathy on my situation. 

Beach became my other place of refuge in summer. Whether I plunge into water or just spend time onshore, salty air and easy going beach dwellers made me feel better. As I mentioned in my previous article in diving in cold waters, you cant just jump into the Indian ocean around Western Australia. Dangerous shark encounters were so frequent. Unfortunately, some were fatal. So its a matter of learning the shark sightings before heading to the beach if you wish to get wet.

Some evenings I spent hours and hours looking at the Sunset above the Indian Ocean from Hillarys Harbor. I was emotionally contemplating my home is just other side of this mass of water. Then I was thinking something crazy. Perhaps I can sail back to Sri Lanka in a boat! How much it will cost to jump into a team of adventurers who would sail towards south Asia. It shouldn’t be hard finding a gang with such a crazy plan in Western Australia. If I do that, I will be the first person to enter Sri Lanka illegally from Australia in a boat! In addition, J. P Obeysekera’s (Siva Obeysekera’s husband) adventurous flight came to my mind. When passenger flights came to halt due to outbreak of World War II, he did a solo flight from London to Sri Lanka. Then I realized I don’t have courage, grit, wealth and anything J P Obeysekera had in 1948, though we share the same surname for some stupid reason and I am nobody!

One guy I spent more time with is Murali who recently migrated to Perth and happened to work with me. Soon we became close friends. His sense of humor is remarkable. Most importantly his family, wife and son, too became close with me making it inviting to visit his place and have fun-filled time. They not only welcome me but soon considered me part of family. 

When his wife and son coming from India to join him, I asked you should be happy and excited to have them with you isn’t it.

Murali: Yep, Kind of..

Me: Isn’t it excited man. you were alone all this time

Murali: You should understand Sume… Not that exciting since its same wife and same son.. 

So, I am not telling he is full of humor without a reason.

Other one is Kuldeep, who is an Indian-Australian who is one of my flat mates. He is a good companion and got many stories to share with me. His biggest issue in the pandemic times too was the travel ban since he used to travel to Thailand a couple of times a year. That is his way of rejuvenation in life. He is passionate about perfumes! He knows a lot about it and maintain a massive collection of expensive perfumes. If he says about any interesting incident of his life, say dating a girl, he relates it with the perfume he was wearing. Quite unorthodox, isn’t it? Kuldeep’s passion actually infected to me too! Guess what, I ended up having few expensive perfumes from Giorgio Armani, Dolce and Gabbana etc. Perhaps, his passion flooded into me, but no other way around. He never join me in plunging into ocean!

I call my shared accommodation, a crazy place. People in this place belong to many different time zones. When I get up in the morning, I can see a guy just finishing his dinner after spending entire night playing computer games. There is another lady who wakes up at noon and start preparing the breakfast. I am actually thinking why I am not moving out of this mess.

Probably, part of me enjoyed the freedom came bundled with craziness. Rule of thumb in this house is, you don’t need to worry about others. No laws! Mates come at any time – go at any time – make noise even in the middle of the night – you hear others response saying f*ck off. Good thing about this place is I could wear my sarong and do whatever I want. Fry dry fish and make entire premises smelly. Thanks god – no law!

Anyway, this craziness wasn’t without any heaty situation in-between mates. One South American guy started to steal the stuff, actually beer, to be exact. First I ignored missing a beer or two occasionally. I learned this has been happening to others as well. One day, I came after something and really wanted to have a beer and found all in my shelf was gone. I was bloody angry and screamed at everybody in my best Mariyakade language (මරියකඩේ බාසාවෙන්), in English of course. Following day, as a revenge, Kuldeep had thrown some drinks from that South American bastard. Obviously, he thought its me. Then he got angry and openly threatened all. Anyway, it was evident, he was targeting me. What I learned later on was, he is highly addicted to alcohol and unpredictable once boozed. Then came the times I sleep, keeping my diving knife under my pillow. 

Now I am stranded in a faraway country; plus.. Got an in-house enemy to survive from!

Life at Harbone Street

In August 2019, I came to Perth. After spending first night in a hotel near the Airport I came to my next place where I planned to stay for next month.

That's how I ended up living with David and Kim. I already felt some character in their colonial and historical looking home. When I first came, slim old man, David, was there and he didnt talk much but gave me the keys. Kim had left a set of instructions written on paper, knowing her husband would not be of much help. Inside the home was dark and mysterious. My room was full of feminine character. Later on I came to know it was Miranda's room, kept as it was, to keep the memory of David's most loved daughter who met a tragic premature death. I liked this mysterious place and wanted to learn more of its past. It was my home anyway.

In my first week, once I was alone in a cloudy evening, having a great Ceylon tea in the kitchen while struggling with my lonely thoughts, all in a sudden a young girl appeared with a bottle of wine in her hand. She just smiled at me and said "Don't even say Hi till I get a sip of wine.. I had a crazy day. Trying to recover from it." Then she introduced herself as Emily who had been a guest in this place first and now a frequent visitor. She was friendly and open-hearted. I started to like her company and having a sip of wine when she was around.

Emily is Thermal Imaging specialist, Guitarist and Remedial therapist who works in both Sydney and Perth. She also said You know Sumedha, most people who come here as guests end-up being friends of Kim and David, just like what happened to me. Also she advised me of one thing. Please don't ask about Miranda from David. Yep, you are living in her room.. please don't move ornaments and stuff in it. Room you live in is like the living temple of David that reminds of Miranda.

David actually started to talk to me more and more by the time that realized me of his knowledge as a senior professor. He was sound in science, philosophy, arts and what not. He was born in Cap Town, South Africa and has gone to 26 schools in his life! He had been instrumental in activities of Green Party in Australia. He is ,by all means, a workaholic supervising many Phd students at that time.

Anyway, David's story had very sad chapters. Miranda has been Davids daughter from his first marriage. She was so pretty, attractive and loved his father very much. When she was 18, as many young girls of western cultures do, decided to move from parents. So she planned to move to a southern suburb. She had missed David so much, while on her way, she stopped in a coffee shop and text David telling how worried she was about Dad being a person who work long hours and etc. After receiving those emotional notes from daughter, next he received was a call from Police to inform a fatal accident!

After this fateful event, David was in isolation, suffering from depression and started living like a dead man. He didnt speak to any one; didnt answer any call.

Back in Vietnam, Kim heard the news, about the unfortunate plight of the college professor who helped her during her studies in Australia. One fateful day she called David and something forced David to answer the phone. Rest is history: Kim did a great job by talking to David and help heel the wounds. As many other stories, David married Kim.

Kim is a very pleasant lady with motherly qualities. She looked after David very well and also cared for their guests. Kim is handling the renting of rooms for travelers, to help her nephew to come to Australia for studies.

She was so kind to me. Once she realized I was alone in Perth, she took the responsibility of looking after me like a mum! Her biggest advise to me was, you are working too much, you need rest. There was a point in her advise, since it was the beginning of my official assignment in Perth, I was working late frequently. I presented Kim and David a big pack of high quality Ceylon tea, which they accepted very sincerely. David was a big time tea lover. If Kim is not around David would easily skip a meal and drink tea. When Kim do the grocery shopping, she used to bring me a small chocolate. As I realized, Kim was very comfortable talking to me since she can open up "very Asian" conversation with me when she was fed-up with western culture.

David's sad story had more darker side. Not only Miranda, but both his parents had died in motor accidents! It was a very tragic thing to hear. David has a son too, Nick, who was a nursing coordinator in a local hospital. David always called Nick in evenings, specially on Fridays and Saturdays, to find out if Nick was in a pub. If he was in a pub, David would go any far to give Nick a lift. David didnt want Nick to follow the same tragic end by driving after a drink. Luckily, Nick realized fathers' agony and gave up drinking alcohols of all sorts.

By the time goes, I was just like a family member. Kim sometimes offer me a dinner. I too sometimes cooked Sri Lankan food for them. Unfortunately, David couldnt bear hot and spicy Sri Lankan curries.

David and Kim's place was nice and cosmopolitan where a lot of intellectuals gather. I realized I shouldn't underestimate the visitors of this home by their appearances. Just like David, some one who come in a humble-looking jumper, would be one of the scholars with multiple patents under his/her belt. I always liked listening to conversations of these critical thinkers; very informative and interesting.

Just like Emily, there were a couple of young people I liked. One of them was Wahib, who was born in Afghanistan and adopted by a German family.

Anyway, even after moving from this place, I visited David and Kim again. They welcomed me and so happy to see that I was doing quite well. I promised them I would bring more Tea and Gingerly rolls once I go back to Sri Lanka.

Some pictures I captured from nearby suburbs;

Contravention of Victorianism: Magam Soliya (මාගම් සෝලිය)

(Published in The Nation on 05th May 2013)

Almost five years back I wrote a review on a book called “Bodilima” (බෝදිලිමා) which was significantly different than what I had consumed as a Sinhala literature enthusiast. Its writer was Mohan Raj Madawala. Not only did I admire the bold decision of writing such a book, but harshly criticized the writer for joining a “popular culture” radio channel, as I learned later on. Though mass-media is a serious business, nowadays FM radio channels are based on different agenda. Soap operas (in our context “insurance operas” started by Nalan Mendis and Somaweera Senanayaka?) and their other elements have nothing to do with art. Of course, we all are sold to a market price today, I was particularly afraid that this acclaimed writer would not produce another literary piece due to the influence of the commercialization that comes bundled with popular culture. That’s my candid reason for criticism.

In my previous article, I called him “Sri Lankan Márquez” (referring to Gabriel García Márquez) which I don’t regret thus with his new novel, Magam Soliya. (මාගම් සෝලිය)  However, now it’s time to come out of that frame to have a fresh look at the new book.

Magam Soliya is a novel! In fact, it’s a new experience to read a novel of Madawala’s style. I glimpsed the book and had to reassure that I am going to read a novel of a very different style. If I put it in a nutshell, it’s quite heavy to mind as soon as started reading, but being forced to dig into it with interest.

As a novel

My way of enjoying his writing is, read a section and go deep in to the avenue opened through it. This gives me so many dimensions, symbolic means and emotions to start a dialogue with my own experience. When it comes to a novel, not like a short story, so many events with so many characters give me limitless spaces to surf. Definitely, it’s not guiding from one point and takes you to the end point which should be the climax by tradition. Of course writer tells a story to enjoy, but for me climax is everywhere.

For some crazy reason, I need this book to be a painting that’s hanging in a gallery. So that I am free to revisit and see what shakes me most. I can have different dialogues in different days.

Though the story is closely related to 1818 Uva-Wellassa uprising, it doesn’t give you the expected epic story. The historic event is only the canvas used to do this creation. Of course taking such a historic event has given enough room to give birth to a beautiful imagination. This imagination is not merely a fantasy, it’s a discussion propagated from past. Static nature of history becomes live with the imagination.

Natural evolution of art

One of the famous paintings of Picasso, Guernica, was meant to express the destruction occurred during the Spanish civil war. According to “evolution of art”, it's quite obvious, war of Afghanistan or Iraq will be expressed by a modern day artist in a different manner.  Guernica can’t be presented as an expression for current warfare. Of course both are wars, but not the same. Things become complicated by the time and artists enhance their framework and style to convey the upcoming realities. They usually struggle to express the current situation, not the past. Even if you look at Graffiti, you will see how they have become complex by the time. Will see how the frameworks are being enhanced by generations;

This is original painting;

This is a modified version by an artist who experienced the Iraq war;

The strangest part of Madawala’s exercise is, he is making a well-stretched contemporary framework made of his modern days life experience and applies back to an atmosphere which is about two centuries old. This is really exciting and challenging. What could be the philosophy of Madawala in this regards? Probably, wisdom (ප්රඥාව) given to him through the aftermath of political, social and cultural changes of last two centuries might have tempted him to look in to the historical events happened around 1818 in far different angle.  

Contrasting

Style used to write this novel seems not predefined. It is justifiable to say he is using magic realism genre, yet he hasn’t become a slave of it. He is confident of what he is creating in readers mind. I have never seen a Sinhala novelist who enjoys such a freedom in expressing. Through the book, he enlightened me of the length one can go with ordinary characters. Characters themselves are pretty normal, yet the way they are being handled is simply wonderful. It reminds me of a fluent painter using different brush strokes to make different textures using same basic colours. He uses “contrast” like a modern architect. This becomes writer’s passive mechanism of controlling the degree of emphasis. Ironically, reader gets an effortless flow. This free motion of characters ultimately contributes to the context of the story which shows the underlying discipline of the writer. Please consider below section;

“ගැහැණු දරුවා සිහින් කෙසග වුවත් පිරිමි දරුවා පුෂ්ටිමත් විය. එසේම සපුමලී සිනාසෙන විට හීන් සුරඹා ඇඬුවේය. හීන් සුරඹා නිදාගන්න විට සපුමලී ඇහැරී සිටියේය. සපුමලී වම් ඇලයට හැරෙන විට හීන් සුරඹා දකුණු ඇලයට හැරුනේය. හීන් සුරඹා උඩ බලාගෙන කෑ ගහන විට සපුමලී බිම බලාගෙන නිශ්ශබ්දව සිටියාය.”

Also I realise the “contrast” in between different sexual relationships explained in the story. Sexual relationship in between Walli (වල්ලි) and Podi Nilame (පොඩි නිලමේ) is an aggressive encounter. On the other hand, relationship in between Manika (මැණිකා) and Bindu (බිංදු) is more likely an act of healing or merely a meditation.

Usage of sexuality

Also I believe, when the writer discusses about the sexuality, he flies over the boundaries of civilization and recreates it as an incomparable ultimate phenomenon of nature. It’s the lifeline of mankind. Please read the below sections that drags me to this thought;

“...තමාද තම දරුවා මෙන්ම ඇගේ කුස තුලින් ඊට පෙර දවසක ඒ තිඹිරි ගෙදරදීම උත්පත්තිය ලබන්නට ඇතැයි ඔහුට සිතුනේය. පුදුමයකට මෙන් ඒ සිතිවිල්ල ඔහුට පුදුම ආශ්වාදයක් ගෙන ආවේය.“

Writer is unifying the mankind through sex; it’s beyond our traditional view point.

“මැනිකාත් බිංදුත් අතර වූ මේ සමාගමය, ඔවුන්ගේ සිරුරු අභිබවා ඔවුන්ගේ හැඟීම් අභිබවා ඔවුන්ගේ ගැහැණු පිරිමි බවත්, වයසත් අභිබවා ඉහලට විහිදුනු ආශ්චර්යමත් නිකලෙස් සමාගමයක් වුනේය.“

Though it is controversial, see how writer is trying to link spiritual journey of a man with sexuality.

“සැබැවින්ම ඔහු මෙතෙක් භාවනානුයෝගී ධ්යානයෙන් ලඟා වූ සමාධි සුවය සහ ඒ විශ්වීය ශක්තිය, ආදරයේ දිව්යමය ප්රතික්රියාවක් හරහා සිදුවූ ලිංගික රමණය තුලින්ද ළඟා කර ගනිමින් සිටියේය.”

Ideology

Now we will look into this piece of literature by ideological mean. Entire story is mainly lying within the space of suppression made by the political atmosphere of British administration and its consequences. Story is also emphasising the acts of human nature that transforms to a major change. We know how the Kandian kingdom was affected by controversies that created as root level acts led to major events such as tragedy of Ahalepola (ඇහැලේපොල).

Some of the abstract concepts used in the book are very powerful. Power of man is centralised within his male sexual organ and that symbolise the importance of self-confidence and personality. That asset is only gained through the breast milk of a noble woman. Isn’t it a beautiful and powerful concept?

Though Abiththa Unnanse (ඇබිත්ත උන්නාන්සේ) is the main character, I see an exceptional beauty and meaning through Podina’s (පොඩිනා) character. Though she hasn’t slept with any man throughout her life, she’s blessed with magical milk in her breast. That is due to her commitment as a self-appointed village midwife who has been the livewire for countless births. Nothing beats the need of a birth in nature. It is the decision making factor of existence. Doesn’t she deserve the magical milk in her breast? Even the biggest empire (Great Britain) of the world can’t beat the power of her milk.

If not for the Wellasse people, this book could have been respectfully forwarded to the midwives of entire country who gave birth to the nation for generations, yet been unseen and unnoticed!

One of the other symbolic characters I like is Sedara (සේදරා). He becomes an ideal victim of tactical war of British administration. His assets are being tactically looted. He becomes a slave of alcohol. First he behaves like a hero, but he becomes lifeless when real war erupts. Soldiers don’t kill him; he was just left because it was obvious he is not going be a threat by any mean. Even today invaders prefer lifeless people than dead people!

“..සේදරා සිටියේ පරඩලක් ගානට කෙට්ටු වී අඳුරගන්න බැරුවය. ඉස්සර අඩුම තරමේ අරක්කු බෝතලයක්වත් බී දඩ මස් ගාත් තුන හතරකට වග කියූ කාලයේ ගෙදර උලුවස්සකින් හැරෙන්නවත් බැරි තරමට උස මහත් වී සිටි සේදරා සොල්දාදුවන් කටින් හුලං පිම්ඹ විට ඈතට විසිවී බිම ඇදගෙන වැටුණේය.”

Culture was the primary target of colonialism. These encounters are invisible yet more destructive. Today, aboriginal people in Australia could provide living proofs for typical end result of such a master plan. Once I peeped in to a public bar in Northern Queensland and saw a lot of aboriginal people, likely to have reached the fate of Sedara! Community with oldest cultural heritage of entire world has become rootless in their own land by the sake of modern civilization!!

I don’t expect to see the character of Abdul (අබ්දුල්). Though his role means a lot to the story, it is presented in a very traditional manner. Abdul’s character can be easily copied in to a book like “Sudu Sewanali” (සුදු සෙවනැලි) of Piyadasa Welikannage, without many modifications. When creating the character Abdul, writer seems to have missed his style he used to compile all other characters. It’s a raw character. As I heard, due to religious constrains, usually Muslim merchants didn’t interfere with alcohol business (රේන්ද කර්මාන්තය) that much which also should have been considered. 

Authenticity

One of the other major hurdles of writing such a book focusing a historical event is building the assurance of authenticity. Though, I keep insisting that writer is recreating his imagination, I am also urging that canvas which is being used, is the real historical event. For this, writer has definitely studied the social, cultural and political facts of that era thoroughly. Words which are being used assure it. I like the dialogues that take me back to history. Check below phrases;

“තව ඩිංගිත්තක් අපට ඕන”

“මේ තමයි පුතේ උඹේ අප්පුච්චා”

“ඒයි ඉලන්දාරියා මෙහෙ වර..”

Most of all, writer utilises his influence of folk stories and history to impress the timing of the story and the culture which is surrounded. Bindu’s character reminds me of some folk stories about the propagation of King Rajasinghe II who was one of the heroic kings of the Kandiyan kingdom.
Please read below section;

“..බිංදු හිටි පියවරින් අහසට පැන වටේට කැරකී අතින් සහ පයින් පහර දුන්නේය.”

If you are familiar with heroic Sinhala folk stories of 15th to 18th centuries, you may realise our kind of a martial art is explained here. This also reminds me of folk stories of dynasty of Galagoda Disawe (ගලගොඩ දිසාව) who were ruling Uwa as Mahadisawa (මහ දිසාව) for generations in Kandian kingdom.

Reflection

In summary, Magam Soliya is a research; result yet to be revealed by readers. Madawala is taking an immense challenge by presenting such a book to Sinhala reading community considering the fact that appreciation of literature hasn’t been taken seriously by current education system.

This book is addressing a historical event through a different style which is a new experience for the reader.  I feel that the writer uses magic realism like style to contravene Victorianism which has been fossilised in reader’s mindset. As most historians reveal Victorian tradition has made us slaves without chains; probably the biggest emotional barrier for our personality. Even the context focuses on character we need to have in us to face colonialism or today’s hegemony.

He is walking through the shrubs and dust of history to grasp unnoticed elements with utmost care which will be used to light the wisdom of future. He is experimenting and getting equipped with potent tools.

Within the reviews;

Journalism and being the second vulture

This is Kevin Cater’s most disturbing and award winning photo, which should be named as the photo of the century. More than the photo itself, Carters life and death come to my mind time to time. It is the ultimate tragic story of mankind… his death is a monument to the tragedy of replacing the human means with materialized objectives.

As a photo journalist he managed to capture the baby and vulture correctly in his camera. He did it, because that was his assignment there. He won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for his work. When thousands of people who were disturbed with the photo ask what happened to the child Carter didn’t have an answer. Then only it was realized that he just concentrated on taking the photo, but not helping the dying child. Also Carter had told his colleagues that he had been waiting to see if vulture would spread the wings; which would have given chance to a better photo! Later on Carter committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carter’s story just highlights the tragic of forgetting the primary responsibilities of a man.  Before you become a photographer, before you become a journalist you are a man and that’s never changed. You are not paid for that… you are not honored for that, but that’s the responsibility carry on your shoulder when you are born.

One critique on Carters photo redefined photographer as the second vulture in the scene. It is not unfair at all. Vulture in the photo is an opportunistic bird, and so is the photographer in that occasion. What is the difference….?

In context of Sri Lanka, we see propagating a lot of web media that reports and analyze social issues to gossips. In spite of the debut of credibility of some such media, we also find it difficult to understand the vision behind some of the reporting. When we had the war, of course we had to hear the bitter news of human deaths in day to day basis. Now war is over and we don’t need to hear those, unless as a news. When it is a brutal killing or raping happen, some media seems to be doing a good job by giving them a massive publicity… In most cases, like Kevin Carter’s photo, there seems to have had two (probably more) vultures by the name of journalism.

How many lives we actually got?

When discussing above post with someone, it raised us to the discussion of role of a photo journalist.  Some conclusions, more or less, were as below.

“What else photo journalist could do than taking the photos. He is not there to do the job of a welfare worker”

Then my mind raised the question to me. Then why Kevin got depressed by the comments. Why people around world kept on asking whether he helped the poor girl. This is a serious question to me. This puzzle drags me to think deeper about definitions of each role we play in life.

Sometimes we are pleased to say that we had to do something according to my profession. As a journalist I had to report that. As a soldier I had to kill. As a politician I had to decide that way. As a scientist I had to create an effective bomb. If you believe in God, what is the life you carry in your shoulders when you meet him? Can you exclude your professional life? Can I justify a crime by explaining it in terms of my profession? Is there any limit of this?

After 9/11 CIA hired two psychologists (i.e. Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell) to train UA servicemen on effective torturing methods, known as SERE programme, which is even against the Geneva conventions. May be Bruce or James could think, professionally they had to do that. Most of all, society accepts them not like a killer works under labelled terrorist organization.

This is a big question in my mind. I think “professional” label is another myth implemented by post capitalist system to justify something unethical. I know a chemist who work for manufacturing company of Baby oils, but never use them for her babies since they are bad for health. She was kind enough to tell all the friends not to use those kinds of oils. Anyway, “Professionally” she is making them for thousands of other babies... All other professionals too are to do these kinds of justified jobs.

In today’s context we even say you should not mixed up professional life and day-to-day life. This sounds like, what we do as “professionals” will be not be tolerated by the values of a day-to-day life that believes in mankind and humanity. Is it?

From recent years I have been thinking of unified systems as an answer for these contradictions of life. Though, I am not a historian, I am pretty sure ancient civilizations didn’t work with categorised objectives as we do today. Each ones goal is to be inter-connected. In Sri Lankan context, I believe ancient farming or manufacturing didn’t raised problems of environment. Can we claim a massive structure like Sigiriya would have destroyed the adjoining surroundings or its lives? I guess this harmony should have been same for all other early civilizations.

Today, Banker is interested in cash circulation and farmer is interested in fertile lands. Power generating companies interested only in generating power, but not the environmental pollutions. Environmentalists too are programmed to go against each and every development plan without knowing how their houses are provided with power and how their vehicles are supplied with fuel.

This funny system recalls me of my wedding! Photographer just wanted to have most successful photo sessions. Dress maker wanted to make a success by producing best bride and that’s her aspect of wedding. She was not interested in anything else than that. DJ wanted to make it a big music extravaganza and decorators wanted to bring most beautiful flower arrangements under this sun and moon. Individual goals seemed to be over ruling the main objective sometimes. Ultimately, I and my wife were the only people who wanted a successful wedding.

Even under this situations, sometimes some people work according to the call of their hearts.  I can recall two simple experiences I came across. When we head to tsunami affected areas in 2004 in Sri Lanka to help people, my friend, obsessed photographer, Roshan came without a camera which surprised me. He simply said “we are going to help people aren’t we?” Second occasion was.. my cousin, Kasun gave up aeronautical engineering after spending successful years in university, when he learnt all the leading researches are focused on advancement of fighter jets but not passenger planes.  In both occasions, they could have done the opposite since they have been justified by the civilization. Anyway, their hearts might have given a different judgement.

If we turn back to Kevin’s story, he should have had a struggle on his stance.  If he was a super product of post capitalist monetary system he shouldn’t have suffered from depression. If he was a super product of humane purity, he shouldn’t have left the toddler along with the vulture. Kevin’s tragic story can be quote close to our story also. Have to be wise when working with so called “professionalism” comes bundled with requirements of monetary system, not the requirements of mankind.

For me I have only one question. There are no many lives called professional life, family life and etc... I got only one life. Question is whether I live it truthfully to my heart or not.

1000 journals

I always wanted to do something with Graffiti. I believe it as ultimate expressionism. Today all art media have some kind of connection with monitory system. Movies, Books or Paintings are commercial entities. So I like graffiti because it is done just to express something... no rewards.. it’s very powerful, dynamic and people-centric; No rules at all. Recently I found information about a nice self-assign project done by a person to reveal such expressions done by different people in different geographic locations of the world. This project is called 1000 journals.

Andrea Kreuzhage was fascinated about the creativity kept beneath people’s lives. As he says he has been always thinking about what people scrawl on bathroom walls and story behind them. He started a project to pass 1000 journals within people/strangers to express their story in it through a writing/ painting/ abstract or any other way and pass it to next one. This exposed an exciting result. It ultimate became a story of modern mankind; an honest expression of thousands of people who live on earth today. Above clip shows some of the art work done by those unknown people.

please find the full story here.

Poplar trees of Hanthana

Dedigama V. Rodrigo is just a name, that we used to see in the second page of most Russian books (translated to Sinhala) found in Sri Lanka. I called him “just a name” due to reasons. We have at least seen photographs of other translators and have managed to collect some information about them, but not about Dedigama Rodrigo. Dedigama Vincent Rodrigo himself seems to be an untold story.

Sri Lankan readers have been influenced by Russian literature than any other stream of literature. Specially, when we were young and youthful, we were amazed and addicted to the true beauty, romance, power and progressiveness of the contexts of books by Aithmathaw, Gorky, Austhrovski and etc. They really touch our hearts and they were helping us to identify new emotions in us. Russian books translated to Sinhala by Dedigama was like a comprehensive example for the influence, books can made to a community.

One day, when we were having some tea at Colombo public library canteen, while chatting about Russian literature, we decided to find out some information and probably to meet this legendary person. Our attempt was not successful since the first clue we could collect was about his death.

Very recently (in 2010), I could read a little bit about Dedegama’s life from an article published in Divaina Paper. Though, I knew he was a communist party member who lived in Russia, just with the objective of getting Russian literature to Sinhala, I didn’t know he was initially a doctor who left the profession for his noble task.

Though it is controversial, I too agree with the idea that Sri Lankan society was well-fed with ideology of a fair society through literature that lead to a revolution in 1971. It was a society without many developed audio/visual communication and information media we enjoy today. Luckily, Sri Lankan society was maintained with high rate of literacy than most other developing countries; in fact, it was a good background for development of literature. One should do an in-depth study on the reasons that Russian literature reached each and every layer of the society than English literature, considering the fact that we were under the administration of Queen for a long. We have adapted to most Victorian traditions, but not English literiture. In other terms, I wonder why “Tale of Two cities” didn’t reach all the layers of the society, but “The Mother” of Gorky and “The first Teacher “of Aithmathaw. One reason should be the context which is friendly for our agriculture based society. Other reason could be the clever translators like Dedigama.

The First Teacher (Guru Geethaya) was one simple example for a Russian book, which captured the hearts of young readers in Sri Lanka. It is a masterpiece for me and most of my friends who like literature. Once I visited my brother at Peradeniya University. My brother was one big fan of Guru Geethaya. There was an amazing view of Hanthane Mountains from my brother’s hostel room. From there we could see two significant trees, which they used to call “Poplar” trees, which was a well explain symbol in the book. Sri Lanka hasn’t got Poplar trees, but they live in the hearts of the youth!

Below poem is one of the nice once that shows poets passion on this book and its characters, which I saw in a Blog recently.

(Duishane and Althenai are the main characters of Guru Geethaya)


It’s not an exaggeration, if I say, we lived with Russian literature than one can imagine today. Some characters became our heroes. We tried to grab some characteristics of them. We loved the way they think.. We wanted to be brave as them.. We wanted to have the commitment of Duishane in us.. We tried to find Althenai within the girls we liked.. I was wondering whether Steps plains is far different from Horton plains..
Anyway, this is becoming the history since, reading is very much lacking in the agenda’s of the generations followed afterwards. Literature was also removed from school curriculums since J.R Jayawardena though it’s nonsense. As he wanted, new generations didn’t have “fantastic” heroes we had, but “real” heroes like cricketers and Super stars!

I recently met a Russian lady and had the chance of asking some questions about their literature. Surprisingly, she hadn’t read some of the Russian books I have read in Sinhala. So I had to explain how Russian literature influenced us and the mysterious person behind it.

This faded image is the only one, I could ever find of Dedigama;

Nudes and the City

I have seen some of the photographs taken by Spencer Tunick, but I didn’t analyze or think of them much. They are simply a lot of naked people in different locations, particularly in cityscapes. Recently, I managed to go through his work very carefully with the inspiration came through a video watched about his work.

Spencer is not a nudist. His is a photographer! His work is simple and way he works too is very simple. His expressions are to blend locations with people.. people in the sense, people is a raw manner. Not decorated with clothes or anything, people as they are. It is a superb expressionism. I guess human body is one of the most powerful icons we used since visual art is born. His photos show the contrast in between human body and man-made structures of a city. In a way, it is a representation of nature and materialized and commoditized world.

Spencer started working in his art with very simple theories. What I like most was he didn’t use models or any selected beautiful men and women. He simply used volunteers who would like to take part in his art. He did his exercise in most of the big cities in the world and all the states of US. Number of people participate in the photo shoot is not predetermined; it is the number who accept his invitation. In a way, entire photo becomes a team work and work created according to the physical and social atmosphere. That creates amazing new dimension of getting photographs of human beings in modern civilization.

Before he became popular, Spencer does a self assignment to take that kind of photos in each state in US. What he simply did was, he got all the gear in to a van and traveled to different states with a couple of companions including his girlfriend. When he reaches a town, if he felt like taking a photograph, he simply walked through the roads and invited people he met to participate for his photo shoot. Of course, you can’t even think of such thing in Asia; it was not easy in USA either! He was virtually inviting everybody he meets; Young crowd, old people, pregnant women, fat people, slim people, black people, white people and everybody in this society. He simply doesn’t know how many people would like to participate anyway. Photo shoot is done with the available people. He doesn’t usually have any hard and fast rule to direct them. His simple guides along with background cityscapes make a wonderful photograph.

As I understand, Spencer is using the nudity for his work in very weightless manner. He is not talking or promoting nudism or any sexual agenda. He is an artist; strangely, see the beauty and way of expressing his ideas using naked human body. Not glamour or fashion in it. Just like Chandraguptha Thenuwara wanted to use Barrels (Barrelism) to express his arguments about military influenced society of Sri Lanka in the war time, Spencer’s trump used to express his idea is nudity along with cityscapes. He used more realistic raw materials than a fashion photographer who uses the body of trained beautiful men and women. While fashion photographer recreates the fantastic product together with fashion designer and model, Spencer “let it happen” in front of his camera lens. Theoretically, Product is influenced by the life experiences of men and women participate in it along with the view of the city. If there are a few people in the photo that means others have rejected to be in the photo, which also reveals something, since it is defined within the location. Nude body of an ordinary person who lives in the current society becomes the most powerful proof of that society than a model whose body is professionally maintained.

Don’t you think your body is the best living proof of your life… that carries all the good and bad times of your life? ...that reflects the tears and smiles of the story of your life? ..that archives everything happened since you were born? Spencer Tunick, as a photographer, carefully collects them into his photos.

Golden Rose

I am very much influenced by the books I read since my small age. Apart from my education, books play a big role in building my life. In fact, writers are my heroes!

Russian writer Konstantin Paustovsky has written, probably the best, book on the role of a writer; their responsibilities and commitments. Book is called Golden Rose. This book has been translated to Sinhala by Ariyawansha Ranaweera. It is a great book. This book is focused on preparation of a person who plans to become a writer; required generous commitment, patience and other characteristics.



Paustovsky tells a nice story to explain the commitment one should have in order to become successful in literature. A Trash collector spends two years gathering the grains of gold dust from the trash bins of a jewelry shop. When he has enough gold, he smelts it into a beautiful golden rose as a gift for the woman he loves. Writer should have such a commitment to grab the right raw materials to write a book.

Anyway, recently I started to find the faces of some of the writers I like most and created below facebook! Most of them are died by now, but they all have a very special noble place in my heart.




I guess some of them have a special place in your heart too. Can you identify them?

Dutugamunu: a taboo topic?

Jayantha Chandrasiri has started a massive cinematic task. He is going to take King Dutugemunu’s character to Cinema. It’s going to be a challenge definitely. Apart from making the film, he is also facing the challenges of critiques already. I wonder this is the first time in the history in Sri Lanka; someone has encountered this kind of criticism even before starting the shooting!

I guess, there is a hidden agenda in this suppression. I don’t know whether this film will be a success or not, but trying to stop it even before doing seems very suspicious. I received a couple of e-mails that criticize the film so aggressively.
When Handagama’s film was banned by authorities, there were a lot of activists and Independent Media movements who talked and showed their disapproval. No one seems to be rescuing Jayantha. What is the difference in between two scenarios?

Some of the critiques say Jayantha is doing this for money and this is supporting extreme nationalism. Jayantha was making dramas/movies based on historical events for a long time. Actually, at that time, no one was much interested in history or such attempts. Now everybody knows that country itself is having new awareness in national ides and rethinking of our own ways of solving the problems. Under current context, a lot more people, media and groups have changed their colors to show their brand new patriotic faces. Now Jayantha has no rights to do what he has been doing?

This case tempts me to analyze the situation this way.. Jayantha has been quite successful in his movie making carrier and significantly he is the only one who didn’t run after international awards. People of Sri Lanka always loved him for what he did. There are some "too much internationalized" entities that always did their best to drag down the true national awareness in Sri Lanka throughout the history. They are not sacred of Handagama, Prasanna Withanage or Vimukthi because they are actually passively promoting their needs. Those people should be really scared that Jayantha would do a better job, otherwise they will not try to hammer him even before starting the initial work.

I have seen some other group who has been criticizing the film because they simply don’t agree with selection of actors. They simply say actor who has been selected for role of Dutugamunu is "not majestic looking" enough to represent the king. They blame Jayantha for doing Anti-national acts through the movie!!

If we summarize the facts, Jayantha is being beaten by both nationalists and anti-nationalists! In a country that “Per person independent movements” are so high.. no one is there to protect his right to do his art!

This harsh criticism has increased my inquisitiveness about the movie.

This movie can be a success or failure... but I really can’t understand the ethical base of hammering Jayantha based on speculations, even before examining the product.

BARAKA – the tragic of civilization ?

BARAKA is an experimental film directed by Ron Fricke and released in 1992. There are no actors; it contains the real scenes captured from 152 (24 countries) locations. There is no traditional story, instead it tells the story of man-kind, its rhythm and tragic through the integration of the scenes in an artistic array. 

Music is very strongly used to stress the image given through the motion of the picture. First, it lines up some scenes from nature, tribal habits different cultures in different parts of the world showing us the equalities and beauty. While proceeding through the film it shows how our civilization became cruel and how our lives become machineries. This line-up is excellent. It makes us re-think about our common fate in this modern society. 

This is a different experience. 

I heard, the next film in the same kind is yet to be released this year, which is called Samsara. 

Song of the River.

This is a book I enjoyed since I was very small. Book consists of a collection of very nice poems. Still I am enjoying this poetry when I have free time.. These Sinhala poems should belong to the Colombo Era (“kolamba yugaya”), if we try to recognize them. Anyway, these poems illustrate very beautiful and strong images in my mind. Simple themes are so nice & background touches the typical Sinhala old villages & people. I am always with these kinds of classical fantasies! 

Please read below poem which was selected from this book. See, whether you can agree with me.. This great poem is by the poet Kudaligama.


This book has been compiled by another poet: Meemana Premathilake. Sunil Madhawa Premathilaka’s father. We will discuss about Sunil Madhawa in some other blog post. He too is a remarkable symbol in contemporary Sri Lankan literature & journalism.  

The Lovable Dictator

Sugathapala de Silva is a very strange & remarkable symbol in Sinhala Stage Drama community. No one addresses him with a prefix "Mr.", nor with Dr. or Prof.. Also he wasn't with any honorary names like "Kala Bushana" & etc. He is just Sugathapala de Silva or else the Lovable Dictator!

I happened to recollect thoughts about him recently because his 80th birthday was commemorated recently at Punchi Theater,Borella. Darmasiri Bandaranayake delivered a lecture on Sugathapala de Silva & his vision in a very sensitive manner.

Among his books, I can remember that I enjoyed the Sinhala translation of "The Gadfly" (ATA MASSA) very much. When I was reading it, I was so young & with full of revolutionary ideas.. So this book gave me much more energy to very progressive thoughts that I was with..

I wasn't so fortunate to see most of his early stage dramas, but I was fortunate enough to enjoy one of his master pieces, MARASAD (translated & produced, original script is from Peter Wise) stage drama. If I am correct, it was his last stage play & last public show.. I was also fortunate enough to see this "Giant" personality of just about 5 feet tall! When I was returning home, my palms were paining because we clapped continuously after he appeared on the stage. It was a great play, yet I didn't know why we clapped that much.. Everybody in the crowd stood up from their chairs & clapped.. So I followed.. Anyway, after that I read & learned from other people and books about the great characteristics of this person & got to know the real value of this artist.

SugathaPala was so straight forward with his ideas & didn't want to go after the governments to get awards or any titles; instead he wrote the truth & did his role as a dramatist to educate the Sri Lankan society. He was so poor in wealth, because he didn't go after money. One of my friends visited him (I wanted to join him, but I Couldn't) when he was critically ill.. My friend said, "I feel so sorry about him.. he is about to die, he lies pathetically in a very small room...his family doesn't have a home or any asset, it seems.." At that day we talked more & more about Sugathapala de Silva's fate & his role in this society. Anyhow, we came to the conclusion that Sugathapala is a happy and successful man. There is nothing to worry about him, because he wanted to do something & he did it. Money or other possessions are not with his priorities. He died on 28th October 2002.

Some of the giant personalities we see on the stage drama today are the students of Sugathapala. For example; Jackson Anthony & Darmasiri Bandaranayake

Stories are inter-connected..! If you can remember about the famous singer, late Gunadasa Kapuge, he was so hammered by media & critiques for releasing a cassette with more western type music done by famous group SUNFLOWERS. This cassette release was criticized so harshly & it was told that he has sold out his own children (his songs!) for the greed of money. Kapuge faced everything without telling any word. Only few people around him knew that Kapuge had done that cassette to get some money to help Sugathapala de Silva to spend on his medicine. People do such sacrifices! How beautiful is this world?

I always feel great, when I think about such beautiful lives, who loved mankind by means & scarified their personality for achieving much greater goals.. Definitely world has come this far because of such noble people!

I can still remember one quote told in MARASAD drama.. It’s very strange, quite funny, yet with a deep meaning..

Nandana Marasinghe : a fallen bird !

I haven’t seen Nandana Marasinghe. But I have heard & read about him. He seems to be a real man with a lot of admirable qualities. He was with dreams of a nice and equal society in Sri Lanka. Difference between all other people who see dreams & Nandana was significant. He worked hard to make those dreams realities. He was an artist, musician, poet, humanitarian , visionary, rebel, great husband and a great father.

He is a founder member of JVP. In 1971, he fought to make a better change in Sri Lankan society. He is also the creator of famous “Vimukthi Gee” concert. He was more in to love humanity & mankind while fighting for a better world..Such straightforward and broad attitudes towards the revolution was quite strange for a party like JVP, I believe now. When it comes to the second (lost) revolution in 1989, Nandana was doing his social duties independently (he left JVP!), but very firmly. So JVP killed him. He was so pathetically shot at Anuradhapura pola, in October 1987. Old JVP members knew how many times Nandana had saved Wijeweera’s life in 71! “Vimukthi Gee” is still being sung by JVP without knowing that they killed the person who wrote!

Some people believe this killing lead to another killing of a giant figure in Sri Lankan politics & Sinhala cinema; that’s Wijaya Kumaranatunga. Since Wijaya was a close friend of Nandana, he had delivered a quite aggressive speech at Nandana’s funeral pointing fingers to JVP. In fact, JVP decided to get rid of Wijaya too, without any delay.

When I entered the University in 1996, there were JVP supporters with a lot of theories about two lost revolutions. I was very much keen on these political activities. Sadly, most of them didn’t know about people like Nandana. The poem (by famous Rathna Sri) attached below was written about Nanda Marasinghe on the wallpaper called “Prabathaya” in the “Open Canteen” which I happen to do the editing. You can still see this wallpaper hanging on the “Open Canteen” of Colombo University.


It is so surprising to talk about the general knowledge of the students. At that time there was a student leader whose surname too was Marasinghe & they have thought this poem is about him..! What other things could I say.. as far as I know Rathna Sri is not a joker but a very respectable poet!!

At Nandana’s funeral Wijaya has openly questioned “What kind of revolution one can do by killing such people…”

Not Nandana, Nor Wijaya is in our society today!

I think our society is greatly suffering from lack of ideal people.. We still have leaders and artists in our society, but still there is lot of room for real people with real human touch & better sensitivity!