That Indifferent Mathematician*

He was only known through 'Committee Marys', 'Karate Mummies' and 'Avrils' wearing Gucci or Pucci or whatever. He came in colors. Soiled. Woven in thread and stitched between line and space .Who would know that the authorities don’t cut an unpaid telephone bill if you are white? According to him if you are white and you are in Colpetty, authorities won’t do that sort of a thing. Remember. Upali – who is expected to cook wearing Ralph Laurens, is a picture never forgotten. It fondly reminds me of an uncle, wealthy and has just got down from the USA, to whose room I broke into by mistake and came across a huge cupboard full of POLO shirts, draped, ironed and neatly hung.

At some point we have all wanted to travel through time. To meet people we’ve read, lands, animals and so on. That’s natural. We can visit people and places. If we want to. Time has a way of doing so. Time can bring you surprises. Thrill you at times. If you are lucky enough, it can bring you people and places that you have only seen in books or pictures.  And it just happened. It was a Monday morning. Quite gloomy. But a perfect Colpetty experience.  I met the Heraths, the old fashioned aristocrats, better halves and Colombo’s most eligible bachelors like Themis. All in one. In a nifty house. Old but colonial looking. With my bare feet on the cold floor. And framed pictures hung around.

 Now he lives in Colombo with his wife, his cholesterol, two kids, two six feet long garandias (found sometime back) and two dogs. Oh wait, the effing sugar levels too.

He thinks that everybody has a story. And that they should portray life in the way they see it. Not pre- conceptions or pre-recorded things or how an outsider sees it.  This is what he does all day and night.  He writes, reads and tells us stories. Perhaps he threads profound pathos, old age, ceremonies, the past, the present, the natives , the  foreigners , the absurd and those who are struggling to filter roots.

Ashok Ferrey, SriLankan born, was raised in East and West of Africa. He was packed off to boarding school at the age of eleven, in the wilds of Sussex. Ashok read Pure Math at Christ Church Oxford University. 

‘It was quite hard to find a good job over there. I went around London doing bum jobs and ended up in Brixton. I started restoring houses during the Thatcher Years.’ He said.

 He comes back to SriLanka later and continues to design and build houses. And in the meantime works as a visiting lecturer for City School of Architecture. He is a failed builder, an indifferent mathematician, barman, unpaid film extra and a personal trainer to the rich and infamous of Colombo. This is what he calls himself.

 ‘Not even in my wildest dreams I wanted to be a writer. I’m a building mathematician. A Pure Math nerd. I am shy.  I didn’t even want to do a reading of my first book when I was asked to. I was nervous’ Ashok interjected.

Everything starts for him in year 1999. When his father was diagnosed of a cancer. He remembers that it was actually distressing. ‘My mother was in pieces. I had to take Father to hospital. Stay near him. Doctors even refused to operate a defect valve he had. Some even told me to get ready to go to Raymond’s.’ There were days to think a lot. He says. There were days of sigh and quiver. Some days were discomforting. Nights were too long.  And eventually his writing was a catharsis. All the good and bad times were noted down carefully.

‘Things just poured out of me.The thing is, the more stressed I am, funnier the things I write’ laughingly he told.

He added that the twists and turns in life can be the most happening thing. He loves that kind of revolution. He believes that if he hadn’t welcomed the change he would have become a wealthy and boring Actuary by now.

Having lived and worked for 20 years in England, his writing is devised from his own life experiences. Like how it felt to live like an immigrant in a foreign surrounding, being trapped in different cultures and not being able to serve the bond with their homeland. He steals things from real life. And it’s mixed with some imagination. Real life people are disguised. Art needs a human touch. He thinks.

Ashok says we are as same as the Greeks. We have an amazing ancient culture that reached perfection 2000 years ago, and which now hangs over us.‘There is no way we can equal it today –but the sheer presence of it gives us a huge inferiority complex. Ancient things are held up for compare and comparison. We got to have great courage not to let it worry us. Instead to go ahead and do our thing’

He has been under the radar for quite a while. Literary Festivals and weeks of workshops have made him quite busy. He likes workshops because it’s enlightening to work with the young crowd. Above all being the curator of ‘Colomboscope ‘he wants to encourage youngsters to read literature and to write more and more.

‘The young are immersed in technology. Even those who read rely on online versions. They are condensed. You don’t get the real grip of a story. I believe that literary festivals and book readings can make people feel more enthusiastic about literature. There’s a lot happening around the world. But I don’t see such activities much in SriLanka.Sadly. India is even ahead of us’

Ashok does the illustrations for all his books. That’s the part he enjoys the most. He says. He noted that the Ashok Ferrey show was another initiative to encourage young SriLankans to take an interest in Arts. All too often our parents encourage us to take up a science or Maths, and the artist in us breaks through only much later. Ashok affirmed confidently. He fondly remembered the AF show days. The fun times. How strangers use to come up to him saying that the show helped them improve their English. The nitty gritty of television, how he was driven mad when he was made to look like a ‘bonikka’, plastering the stuff on , make –ups , the particular side he had to sit on and the days when director went mad when he sat on the wrong side. Everything has been new to him. They were days of new learning. He reminisced with a good laugh.

Hobbies?  Going to the gym. He does a lot of writing while gymming. Perhaps he mind writes them. He even conducts work-out classes at home. He likes to play Bridge a lot. He thinks that if all else failed, he could make a living playing Bridge for money! Ah, and it also includes pushing the car when it is out of petrol.

And then, one fine day he puts Colpetty People on manuscript, which one of his aunties wanted him to submit to the Gratien trust. He was ashamed and shy. He thought it was crap. But lucky him. Colpetty People was shortlisted for the Gratien Prize in 2002. This remains the biggest selling book even today. Maybe his thoughts and the wry humor took him a long way. He is not  just a ‘lucky one’. His work has brought prominence, blessed and made us laugh loud.  His recent book – Serendipity was short listed for the State Literary Prize. And his most (most) recent one; ‘The Professional’ is now out there.

He reminded that he was arrogant back then. Probably a wrong bend he took. He failed in many. He now discovers that being open to everything can take a long journey.  

Let his words take him far more, across seas and lands and tell us more about old kandyans , weird aunties , sarong-ed men in Beckham hairstyles  and the Colombo gossips- as per him where everything happens!