On going back to things you love

Pic source -Internet 

There are three things that I would love to go back to . One , it would have been some where in the 1999’s , how Aththamma and I use to sit on a door step and read stories to each other and sing .There was no particular time for that. But often we did it after lunch. Second , Chandima Uncle , a far friend, relative of sorts , who took me for sea baths when I visited Tangalle during vacation. A childhood play mate. He is remembered in every possible ways. Third, a few years away from now , in the 5th Lane , Colombo , turned to test love and the must things heart liked somewhere in mid August. I , somewhat little in age then , jumped into a heart and could not find the way back out. He is fondly remembered . Every now and then.



We wish there’s a rewind button. Often. So we could go back to those days again. But do we really need a rewind button? If we carefully look enough , everything in this world is clearly defined and named. We see them and we know what they are. And that way we gather what is around us and from all that’s perceived what is most cherished is safely locked inside. A human head is compartmentalized . All things we feel , talk , see and hear is put into small boxes , demarcated by line and stored eventually. And when something’s needed , its just matter of pulling out one of those boxes. It’s an effortless mechanism. And we keep straying in them. In the end everything that was once carefully scattered and caged is brought back. It is a machine , I like to think , a product of human error. I have found . This game of extracting matter that was once deposited is how we go back to things we love .



Going back is not just about people or landscapes or a moment we had lived in . It’s also about things we like to do. There’s many of us who frequently wish we’d do this and that. Over time , little by little , we stop doing things. We don’t stop for any particular reason, but one crazy week follows another busy month and somehow years go by without a race. Then we realize we’ve moved on and left something behind—something we still love. Things we love and like to do are a part of us. And when we decide not to do them , we are actually giving up a part of ourselves. I tend to think.



So how do some of us go back to what we want to do? Be it playing an instrument , reading , drawing, traveling or doing a sport. There’s no other trick but doing it. Just doing it. Look. Some one who is good at Football are those who keep dribbling , shielding, tackling and trapping. Those who are good at music enjoy scaling up and down and doing warm up exercise to keep their voice perfect. A Digital Marketer just don't make money , but because he enjoys writing articles and ad content for others. So its about going through the process and enjoying it . All that one needs is the patience and commitment . Its not easy. Not all those who want to go back to their passions really go back!




It’s not a surprise ( at least for me) that even song encompasses the need to go back. After all , song is a combination of feelings. Although I learned later that a song belongs to the singer , its true creator is the Lyricist. It’s a lyricist’s experiences , reactions and the emotional state that produces a song. I believe. There are songs that have pained. Love lost and hurt. And another time joy , sorrow - cut , a dream or hope. And among them there is nostalgia too.

I’m remembered of a song. One that I randomly stepped into while browsing on youtube recently .


වත හසරැල් ගවසා

ගිනියම් මා හිත ඉකිබින්දා

ඒද නොඑදැයි සිතමින්

මගෙ හිත මග බලමින් උන්නා

ලොවම කෙසේ කීවත්

ඔබ යලි එතැයි සිත කීවා

Ayanthi Fernando , lyric composer , through out the song is determined and hopeful. The text implies it. She is aware that the circumstances have taken her through a painful journey although her heart still warns that the lover will be back some day.


යලි උපදින්න සිතා

විගිසින් මියැදෙන්න සිතෙයි

And its not just that , she even thinks that she must die soon believing that in after life the lover could be with her. To love means pain. There is doubt and despair. There is lot of yearning embedded in the song. Ayanthi is careful when picking words. And what’s fascinating here is that the agony is turned into strength. It’s more like endurance I would call it.



The urge to go back to some one that was once lost is occasionally noticed in songs. T.M Jayaratne does the same . We have often heard this . And is frequently quoted by lovers too.


මේ පුංචි රටේ නොතැනක දී ‍හෝ

මතු කවදා හෝ යළි අප හමු‍වේවී

යළි අප හමු‍වේවී...



T.M. Jayaratne is not just being hopeful about meeting again that someone whom he lost . He educates and is educating the audience that one needs to believe him / her self that they can some day reconnect with each other and thus work of it. We are often desperate to grow up and learn why we loose people. Instead what if we actually learn to connect back together ?

It’s a known fact that every one is happy is when they do what they love doing. We always come across the pleasure talk people do when they restart doing something they have loved doing a long ago. Think of some one who stopped going to gym for a long time and has recently started going there. They are all of a sudden full of energy. Revitalized.



Going back to a person you love , to a place you like or a time that you have once lived is a trip gathering melancholia .And often makes us feel that we were absent and absented from all what was around and more. It is like when some things are lost and they are found again , they are treasured over and over.

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Ode to a conversation

Eight thirty.
One morning. Monday.
Sadness.
An incised heart ,
A Scrambled -brain
with crippled feet
ambled upon.
Go back.
Go away.
Flap
your wings
Go.
Do not cross.
No entry here.
Words tossed.
a wave-rib cracked
an amber  heart died
again and again.
Crawled back.


12/12/2016

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Know your Speed , Comrades

In my career as a Freelance Journalist , for nearly one and half years I wrote for the kids' and youth sections of The Nation newspaper which I enjoyed thoroughly . When I moved to Daily News I couldn't publish a few that I had already written for The Nation. This particular story is one of them too. I am delighted that the series is now resumed to http://nightowls.lk/ . You'll find more in the series as you scroll down.

The letter ‘S’ in mathematics can denote or mean two things. But to be precise it only means one thing. Letter S refers to Standard Deviation. However in basic math S may be used to denote Speed for our convenience. Standard Deviation is an important static. The Standard Deviation is a measure of how spreads out numbers are. In other words it is a number used to tell how measurements for a group are spread out from the average (mean), or expected value. For instance, think you and your friends measure the height of 5 dogs. The heights up to their shoulders are 600mm, 470mm, 170mm, 430mm and 300mm respectively. The average height or the mean height of a dog will be the sum you get when you add all these 5 heights and divide the answer by the number of dogs, which is 5 .The deviations would be each dog’s difference from the average height you have found. So you deduct each dog’s height from the average height, square it. The answers you get must be added together and divided by 5 again. Then you get the Variance. When the variance is squared what you get is called the standard deviation. Writing down steps can be confusing. But I am certain about one thing. You and I may not make use of deviation every day. They are often used by Statisticians to calculate to know how the population in a town or country is dispersed, to know the birth rate, death rate, or in Factories they might use deviation to know how   the speed   taken by its employees to manufacture a particular product varies.

Speed, however differs. Speed is the rate at which something moves or operates. Or if rephrased better, it means how quickly something moves or how fast you do work. If you want to know how fast you rode to Kandy from Colombo, divide the distance that you traveled by the time you took to reach there. You will then know the speed of your vehicle. Speed, unlike the Standard deviation, is an everyday thing to us.  Speed was taught in  School. It might not made any significance to you back then though.

Several years ago I was invited to run the 200 meter relay by the Higgins house Vice Games Captain. My instant response was a ‘No’. They kept insisting me to do it because during that year two of the good runners   from our house were out of the country. I am not and was never a sprint. My events for every sports meet in school were usually the long jump and sometimes I took triple jump too. I could say I was good at them. But that year, in addition to field events I had to take part in a track event.  During heats I came 3^rd. And that year was the only year I became a runner.

Pic Source : Internet 

The same year John, a colleague, an athlete from Higgins House, a national level champion took part in the 800m, 1500m and 3000m relay. I could never compare myself to John . John was fast. She was as fast as an eagle through the air. She was the fastest I knew in Musaeus College. I loved watching her in long distance events. She was different. Steady, upright and herculean. In fact, Sprinters are clearly differentiated from endurance athletes. Simply look at their physiques and you will note the remarkable muscle bulk of the sprinter in the key prime movers.  In contrast, the endurance athlete does not display such muscle hypertrophy. He or she tends to be lighter, less bulked and even drawn looking.

I had a question for John that day. I asked her how they would run such long distances without a single break.  John was also called Jonty or Jonny by her friends. Jonty told me this.

Long runs stimulate the marathon, which requires lots of time on your feet. It all comes with practice. It is called endurance training. Endurance training is achieved by doing lots of low intensity running. The key factor here is running slow and running farther. And eventually you develop your speed with the time you‘ve got to run.   During trials we run three quarters or sometimes two thirds of the distance slowly. Fastest runners do most of their running at slow speed. Because they run a lot, and if they ran a lot and did most of their running at high intensities they would quickly burn out. You could do some training on this. You’ll be good. ‘ She said.

That was that. I never tried becoming a sprint though. Thereafter.

Several years after Jonty did her explanation, recently someone was advising me not to rush over things. And that somethings in life comes slowly no matter how fast we want to achieve them. We got to slow down then for a moment. Jonty made sense that day.  Lots of sense, in fact. I think.

Take simple things.

You are late to school or office let’s say. And so you keep driving fast because you want to be there before you are marked red. Driving fast can possibly make us reach the destination early. True. But have you thought of the flip side of driving fast? What if you drive over a person at the crossing? What if you are unable to push the break or gear at the right time? It can cause harm. Not only to someone else’s life but even yours. It can even result in death. We’d never know.

Think of an exam you are taking. Especially   if that is a math paper.You would have lots of questions to solve within a short period of time. If you’d keep running around questions hastily all because you want to finish everything on time , you may tend to skip steps when doing calculations  and eventually land on to a wrong answer. Unless you have time to double cross them, you would not know if you have got it right or wrong.

Speeding on speed is harmful. You see.

Some of us want to become Managers, Entrepreneurs, Bankers, Doctors or whatever when we grow up. And in this process of becoming a Banker or a Doctor you and I will have to collect qualifications and experience.  That is how we are been told. Some of us want to pick on several degrees or several certificates at once thinking that it will help them to reach goals sooner. That’s possible however given that you don’t rush from one to another. And if you do so, you wouldn’t know what you have learned or acquired in the end. Sometimes doing lot of things at once can make us tired when achieving goals. And this is why we have to slow down.

Take trains for instance. When trains speed up and if you happen to look outside from a window you won’t see anything clearly. Everything will look like flash lines. Tress would appear like long green lines . Everything you see through a train would disappear in a blink when it moves fast. Same way, when you keep running quickly over things you don’t see what’s there in it. You won’t have time to experience and enjoy what you do either.

Life is like running. Really. If you carefully think.

Running at a high speed the moment you start off something can destroy your energy. And your journey will be a short one. Slowing down is good therefore. But that doesn’t mean being too slow either. Being too slow means you are very late to reach where you want to be.

Speed. Think about it.

Other articles in the series : 

Learn to pick your self up

A road is a waterfall

Water is noble

Mountains are cool to climb

You don't like Fruitcake?

Mr.Prashantha lal's favorite song

There are buildings , and then us

Elephants and the 'elephantness'

Life is all about scoring Amma points

Did you find the leader in you?

Lessons from laundering and laundry baskets

Is it ok to tell that you own my breath?

Laughter makes you lighter. Did you know?

It's a fleeting world , I realized.

Halves here and halves there

That bittersweet longing

Right choice matters

Landmarks will guide you to correct places

You can draw your own map

Kites, turtles and other things

When you have young blood in you

On bags , Fondly

No sunset for sunsets

Drum dies with drummer

'Athak dunna fun ekak'

Threads and Hearts

George , Harold and Captain Underpants

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Learn to pick yourself up

In my career as a Freelance Journalist , for nearly one and half years I wrote for the kids' and youth sections of the Nation newspaper which I enjoyed thoroughly . When I moved to Daily News I couldn't publish a few that I had already written for The Nation. This particular story was one of them. I am delighted that the series is resumed to www.nightowls.lk. You'll find more in the series as you scroll down.

Picture credits: Tony J | Yohan Siriwardena

May be you should visit the beach. Stand where you’d like to be. When it is twilight or when dusk is about to enter, look straight. Head up. And then down. Down. Slowly. You will see the sun sinking down. As if the sea  is pulling sun into water. We call it sun set .But sun does not sink. Sun sets because earth rotates. Day and night happens that way.

Think of sea tides. Sea wave rises and falls back again at several times of the day. As the moon travels around the earth and as they, together, travel around the sun, the combined gravitational forces cause the world's oceans to rise and fall. Maybe the ocean once belonged to the moon and that’s why it is falling towards the earth. May be that is why the moon is constantly pulling onto earth. Trying to touch it once more.

In Einstein’s description of the universe, gravity is a bending of 4D space time. Objects like stars bend more fabric than you and I, and objects that are nearer to each other are pulled by gravitational attraction than objects that are far away from each. Think of some one whom you love a lot. In fact faraway love is interesting. We do not need to look too far ahead to appreciate people who are away from us. They are by your side, now and then, among flowers and pictures, words and places. It is a strange mix of presence and absence. There is gravity pulling you towards people that are near to your heart. Like moon pulling the earth because earth is closer to moon. Who knows , perhaps there can be a girl thinking of a boy in a faraway place and a boy thinking of a girl living in a faraway house.

There are pebbles. Take a pebble and throw up. The pebble comes down. What of kites? Kites fly high and fall back. Crosswinds and storms can bring them down. Eventually everything falls.  Even leaves fall. And they curl up in soil. Everything gets collected to earth’s core because of gravity’s effect. But that does not mean you cannot try throwing up a pebble again or fly a kite again. All it needs is some determination.

Take simple things.  How do we get rain? The groundwater or what we call as the water those runoff mountains, the water in lakes, sea water and the water that is transpired by plants is condensed to the sun’s heat and evaporates with air, forming tiny droplets in clouds. When the clouds meet cool air over land, rain is triggered, and water returns to the land or sea. Once it rains, rain doesn’t stop there. Rain comes again and again. Because the same water that falls down is taken up by sun’s heat again. So you see that there’s a way to take things up when they fall down.

Did you think of how you get electricity? The power comes from the electricity department. Electricity Department gets it through the main unit. The main unit receives power from turbines. Turbines generate energy using water. So, electricity energy is produced by water, and we get water when it falls from a high altitude to a low altitude. Now did you see the use of water falling from top to below?

We also fall . Like rain and everything else. Like the water that fall from mountains. We fail to do things. We lose in competetions. We  may run short of marks to enter University . We may lose in a business . But we forget that there is energy to go up again. Instead we keep on worrying and getting disappointed. We do not learn to transform obstacles into opportunities and try doing it again. Next time you fall, think of electricity or think of the groundwater that evaporates, falls down and goes up again.  We all need to fall . So we can learn to pick ourselves up. 

Other articles in the series : 

A road is a waterfall

Water is noble

Mountains are cool to climb

You don't like Fruitcake?

Mr.Prashantha lal's favorite song

There are buildings , and then us

Elephants and the 'elephantness'

Life is all about scoring Amma points

Did you find the leader in you?

Lessons from laundering and laundry baskets

Is it ok to tell that you own my breath?

Laughter makes you lighter. Did you know?

It's a fleeting world , I realized.

Halves here and halves there

That bittersweet longing

Right choice matters

Landmarks will guide you to correct places

You can draw your own map

Kites, turtles and other things

When you have young blood in you

On bags , Fondly

No sunset for sunsets

Drum dies with drummer

'Athak dunna fun ekak'

Threads and Hearts

George , Harold and Captain Underpants

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Anamnesis

Source : Berlin ArtParasites

There is nothing
I would forget.

Your bright eyes that squinch,
in an air conditioned room,
the way you wear your blue shirt.

how gaze turns into blood rush,
how words fall out beneath you

but there are heart rapids of yours
I have not touched
and longing for.

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The word 'ammata siri' has another meaning too

Pic Source : Internet

I was told by a dear friend that I have not written anything new lately. And instead have been posting what I had written over the last few years. There are days when there is so much to write. Then there are days without stories too. There are days that I crave for stories but nothing comes to mind. And I wait for something exciting to happen.

I told him that I have run out of stories. And asked if he could suggest something . He didn’t have much either. ‘You should write something new now’, he reiterated. I said ‘ok’. And that was that. We moved into some other conversation.

It took a couple of days. And suddenly I landed on something. This happened somewhere in 2015, at a place called SriLanka Law College, of which I cannot recall the exact day. Half way through the lecture, Sir Prasantha talked us about the  ‘ammata siri' moment he has had some years ago.

The Sinhala language is one of the most complex languages in the world. So says many. A beautiful one too. I have realized that sometimes the beauty in Sinhala poetry and fiction is lost when they are translated into English. And some are even untranslatable. We may find it difficult to figure out the right English word that goes with the Sinhala one. And it is one of the funniest languages. I tend to think. We have our own way of speaking the language. Different pronunciations. Different words that can mean the same. For instance someone from down south may call it ‘makkeyi' meaning ‘what’ and the very same may be called ‘mokakda’ by someone that comes from Colombo and suburbs. That’s the SriLankan-ness we have embraced.

Remember what YAMU did sometime back? They compiled a list of words, rather some authentic Sinhalese words that people use in their day to day conversations. Like Machan ( that covers everything starting from bro to dude , man or mate ), Aney ( expresses a way of pleading or frustration) or Mala keliyayi , the local way of expressing dismay. And among these ammata siri has a place too.

Going back to Prasantha Sir and his ammata siri  moment, this is what he told;

"I was with my family, my wife and the sons during one of those Ananda-Nalanda cricket matches. A couple of friends and I were also a part of the cheering. One of them suddenly yelled 'ammata siri' when a kid strucked a wonderful six. He was performing brilliant that day and that particular six heightened the joy in many of us. But my wife was a little displeased with the heavy noise and dancing. She thought it was indecent. Besides  being  somewhat senior compared to the rest of the audience maybe she thought we should have behaved a little nicer than that."

We had a couple of  ammata siri  moments recently.  One was the England vs SriLanka’s T20 match. It was a tough game. But in the end some extraordinary performance took the match in to a whole different experience.

Some think it is not decent enough to use words like ammata siri, ammata udu, machan or whatever. And in the same way one may say you are not SriLankan enough if you have never used such words. It is all perspective. I have found. There is nothing right or wrong. Or good or bad. Decent or indecent. If we see carefully enough, often things are named  and names are agreed upon. People create their own lines, their own notions of morality. It is a line, I like to think, is a product of human error. We sometimes tend to narrow down things. And forget that there is something beautiful on the other side.

'I don’t find anything rude or dirty in the word'. He further explained. 

One may use it to express a moment of wonder. It may also connote a feeling of surprise. If we break down the word in to two it can be read as ‘ammata asiri’, giving or invoking blessings on  the mother who bore and gifted a child with such talent.  In the case of the Ananda – Nalanda match it was more like acknowledging or giving importance to some quality of the player and conveyed something good.

Sir Prasantha gave a new twist to the word which I had  never thought of. And wonder if any one did so.

The word isn’t bad. The next time you say ‘ammata siri’ you shouldn’t feel offended or uncomfortable.

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Sunil- Saputhanthri moment

Pic Source: Internet

A couple of years ago an article in Irida Divaina taught me that a work of art , be it a poem , song or whatever doesn’t entirely belong to the creator. Once it is given, it’s owned by the recipient. It’s the recipient’s song. Thereafter. It seems that there is no writer or musician behind most of the songs sung today. The good thing is, creator isn’t destroyed. Entirely. People wish sometimes that great people be elevated to his rightful place among literary greats. And maybe because of this very reason the writer or lyricist of any creative form is mentioned before it is sung or played. They are often remembered. Praised. In volumes of word and anecdote.

I remember the early mornings and late evenings, when we had an old Sony radio. Which use to function way better than the one we have now. I remember Amaradewa, Nanda Malini , Somathilake Jayamaha, Kapuge , Rohana Baddage  and many others over the then Radio Ceylon , Broadcasting Cooperation now. And among them was Sunil Edirisinghe. Whose songs I cherished the most. The radio played a greater part in life. This is how I got trained to the song and lyric.

Much later, I learned to appreciate the song better. I became an avid musical show goer. Out of them more than a thrice I witnessed Sandakadapahana, a solo performance by Sunil Edirisinghe. Different days. Different lyrics. Different genres. Always surprises. Between empathy and artistry. So much of lively observation. Intellectual grasp. And Cultural tensions. And the radio became a memory awakening. Eventually.

On a rain drenched day in 2012 I attended ‘Sunila Vila’. It was an exercise of celebrating 41 years of Sunil Edirisinghe’s singing which also included the launch of ‘Sunila Vila’, a comprehensive guide to his songs collected and compiled by Pushkara Wanniarachchi. Jayalath Manoratne dabbed the narrative using his musical fact and drawing experiences he has had with Sunil Edirisinghe. Among them was Rohana who had much to share. He recalled the days when he turned up to make music for Sunil’s songs.

Sunil didn’t forget Kumaradasa Saputhanthri. Sunil said like this. ‘සපුගෙනුත් රෝහනගෙනුත් මට ලැබිච්ච ආලෝකය කියා නිම කරන්න බැහැ’ (I cannot express in words how much Saputhanthri and Rohana has done for me). In return Saputhanthri interjected ‘මටත් එහෙමයි. සුනිල්මගේ ජීවිතයට ලොකු ආලෝකයක් වුනා’ ( Same with me. Sunil rekindled my life). The article that appeared in Irida Divaina was remembered. In a universe where humility and arrogance intersected. Creators aren’t often dead.  Like Saputhanthri.

Saputhanthri is well aware of the reality in life. He thinks that at some point in life for what we do, we are pained.  He is acutely conscious of pain the world is made of.  And pain   itself is consumed alone. What is most profound in him is that he realizes victory and happiness is illusion. He humbly accepts that what we call ‘sapa’ or luxury in life is temporary satisfaction. And greed serves nothing in the long run. His reflections on this subject are textually powerful.

අදින් මතුව යළි  සටන් වදින්නට

රජෙක් නොමැති සිහ අසුන් අරා

සුසුම් නළින් මිස සිතින් බැහැර නොව

හිඳීම් මගේ දුක කිරුල දරා

දිනු විසල් ලොව සිතින් හරින්නෙමි

උතුම් මිනිස්කම මවෙත රඳා

මගේ දෙපා මුල වැටී මෙසේ මම

කියම්  මගේ දුක මටම හඬා 

 He educates and is educating his audience. Especially for those who don’t know that happiness births   from vedanawa (pain or sorrow). The writer tells us. More often, those who love sob too hard. To love means sorrow. There is heart tremble and dismantled mind. There is terror, fear and longing.

සතුටේ උපත කඳුලයි සදා

හද වේදනා දෝතින් ගෙනා

The truth is , some things in life just don’t come to us.  To reach love’s preferred destinations (or in search of happiness) we got to survive the thorn –road. Saputhanthri understands it. So intimately.

පිපි මල් මතින් පියමන් කළෝ

දිනුවේ ද  කවදා ප්‍රේමයෙන්

විඳි වේදනා සතුටින් දරා

පැරදී  ගියේ කවුදෝ  එයින්

Absence, sorrow and despair. When people leave we learn the heavy words. She loves you. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah .Or he loves me. Love? We were and are desperate to grow up and find out about this thing.

පාළු  පැලේ අඳුර පිරේ

මගේ පැලට වරෙන්

හනික සෝඩී නගේ

දුරුතු හඳේ සිහිල වගේ

තනි හිතට මගේ

පාළු දැනෙයි නගේ 

She appeared in the strangest ways. And left. In most common ways. She disappeared like the mist that wipes away mountains. She’s gone like the rainbow erased by cloud wave.

 පාට දේදුනු සේදිලා ඇත කඳුයායේ 

සීත රැ  සඳ පීදිලා නීල තරු යායේ 

ඈ  ලවන් තෙරේ

සෝ ගී සුසුම් මැවේ

මීදුම් වලා  ලෙසින් පාවී

ඈතින් හැපී  බිඳේ

මා නුවන්  දියේ

පීනා  නැගෙන්  සඳේ

පායා දුරින් ඇදී  ඈ  මෙන්

පාවී  නොයන්  සඳේ

The poet deals with this kind of absence and absenting. This world is made of yugala dharmatha. Short- tall. Bitter- sweet. Happy –sad. Absence and presence. Then there are arrivals and departures. In a world where nothing is permanent, how come love be permanent? This is the law. Ancient. Inexhaustible.

සයුර ඉම රතු සිතිජ රේඛාවේ 

මියෙන හිරු සේ ගිලී බිම් අඳුරේ

තලා මා සිත පලා ගිය ඔබ දවයි මා

තනිවෙනා මොහොතින්

His expression of poverty is fascinating. Saputhanthri has captured capitalism in a few chunks. Sensitive. And empowering. He is bestowed with words that roll out effortlessly. He affirms that there is a line dissecting the impoverished and those enriched.

හිතේ ගින්න අවුලා ගෙන සුරතල් පොඩි එවුන්ගේ

කුසේ ගින්න සනහන්නයි අතුරේ පිය මනින්නේ 

මලට කලින් අපි තැලිලයි පූදින මල් තලන්නේ

අපේ දුකට හඬන මලේ කඳුලයි පැණි කෙරෙන්නේ  

This line struck me the most: මලට කලින් අපි තැලිලයි පූදින මල් තලන්නේ. Kumaradasa Saputhanthri points out that a toddy tapper extracts the sap of a cut flower in a palm tree even before it sprouts entirely. It’s a directive. Tight rope walking is a play between life and death.Ra is there bread and butter. And then they die with no comfort in life. Like the thal mala that gets crushed half way through its birthing and never gets to see the world outside. The key word ‘thalila’ hints the hardships of those undermined in society. Well he uses, අපේ දුකට හඬන මලේ කඳුලයි පැණි කෙරෙන්නේ  as a metaphor clearly, referring to that only the thal mala tears on behalf of them. Its tears that turn to white liquid (Ra) is what really survives them. No one talks about them now. It’s a matter of selectivity. For one who is meticulously observant would know. Like him.

Saputhanthri comes, in strange ways. This was my fourth time witnessing Sandakadapahana. Taking off from different lyricists to different times the show came to a halt. The commentator thus ended the show: may all beings gain wisdom. Sunil Edirisinghe switched his voice on. It was a song written by Kumaradasa Saputhanthri. The song minisa suwandayi mala se.

The song speaks of man in plenty. A world that gave birth to man, whose wisdom glared like sun and breath so fragrant like of a flower .Subsequently blemished. Ravaged. Stole lives and divided territories. Let us not forget the boxing days we have had. Those days when ordinary shopkeepers were burnt alive, leaving neighbor’s life in turmoil. When people were killed in thousands and ten thousands.We still live in an era that constitutes civilized bulletins.

Saputhanthri’s  lyrics are a timely intervention. Backed by reality and truths.  And of course Sunil Edirisinghe will give voice to his words and keep singing to us. Sunil exists where Saputhanthri is. Hearts blended. We are certainly a blessed nation to have such people anchored by thought and song.


 This was first published  in The Nation newspaper , 25th April 2015 . Pamodi Kuruppu is a freelance writer. And can be reached  at rakhithakalu@gmail.com

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