ORA’S DIARY: AN ORACLE IN THE MEAN WORLD OF TOURISM

Part biography, part travelogue, and part patriotic protest against overwhelming foreign influences, it is difficult to decide the author’s aim

With his uncanny sense of foreboding and intuition, he tells his driver that he can sense the presence of ‘two-legged tigers’ nearby as they look for a leopard to show their tourist clients. The day after, he learns that two safari jeeps along with a tracker called Razak had been abducted inside the park that morning. Razak is never seen or heard of again.

The narrative shifts to the dire straits the tourism industry has fallen since, and not just because of this year’s Islamic terrorism.

He moans the loss of standards, the mushrooming of unprofessional tourist guides without a licence, the travel agencies who don’t hesitate to sacrifice the tour guide at the slightest whim of their foreign clients, and the ‘new tourist’ who aims to exploit the island rather than offer it something of value in return.

Jayantha Perera is a man of many parts. The first part of his Ora’s Diary dealt with his early years, when he left for Italy on impulse, and from there to the United Kingdom. He has studied electronics and, though he chose to be an Italian-speaking tourist guide for a living, he has an excellent knowledge of astrology with a unique method of forecasting based on his intuition.

Though he has an excellent knowledge of astrology and horoscope chart readings, his predictions are based on this unfathomable factor which led him to ‘smell’ the presence of LTTE cadres inside the national park when no one else knew about it.

This anecdotal narrative sometimes turns bleak, as the writer looks back on life’s bitter experiences with the eyes of a sensitive person who must watch the decline of the trade and institutions that he worked for, and personal humiliations suffered, plus the cynicism of clients and colleagues during thirty years as a licensed tourist guide.

He shows clearly the negative side of tourism which may look to an inexperienced outsider as a never-never land of glitzy hotels and endless entertainment.

In his rambling style, the author comments on the country’s rather abject labour relationships with Middle Eastern countries, and the plight of housemaids. But his sense of fairness makes him mention the group of young men, siblings of the same family from a Middle Eastern country, who came to pay their last respects to the Sri Lankan maid who raised them, effectively playing the role of a surrogate mother. He offers examples of Sri Lankan maids who have had successful careers in the Middle East, though tales of abuse and neglect are heard more frequently.

He then ventures into the country’s proud past when kingdoms valiantly held out against colonial invaders until the country’s last king was captured and exiled. The narrative then rambles on, venturing into Sri Lanka’s unpalatable contemporary politics.

But, no matter where this meandering narrative takes him, the author always returns to his principal theme – his life as a tour guide, and his many-sided experiences in that exotic sphere. Now Italian tourists are thinner on the ground, and Chinese or North Indian tourists abound. While he has fond memories of the many Italian tours of his career, he does not hesitate to mention the awful ones. During one, because of his refusal to meet the unreasonable and unrealistic requests from the Italian side, he was forced to quit the tour halfway and return home. During this occasion, the Lankan tour agency meekly gave in to the Italian demand, a not unusual occurrence in the tourism trade.

It is difficult deciding the author’s final aim – it is part biography, part travelogue, and part patriotic protest against overwhelming foreign influences. One thing stands out. As far as I can gather, Jayantha Perera’s Ora’s Diary Part II is the only such account by a tourist guide, moreover, one which offers glimpses into its unsavoury side. It is very honestly written.

Though he has an excellent knowledge of astrology and horoscope chart readings, his predictions are based on this unfathomable factor which led him to ‘smell’ the presence of LTTE cadres inside the national park when no one else knew about it

He moans the loss of standards, the mushrooming of unprofessional tourist guides without a license, the travel agencies who don’t hesitate to sacrifice the tour guide at the slightest whim of their foreign clients, and the ‘new tourist’ who aims to exploit the island rather than offer it something of value in return

Jayantha Perera has followed up his Orage Dina Pothen Bindak Part 1’ (A bit from Ora’s Diary) with the second part of this saga. In his rambling style, the author picks up the narrative in 2018, when as a tourist guide he picks up a small group of tourists from the airport. But he travels immediately to the past, when he knew a happier time in the tourist industry, though the country was embroiled in a bitter civil war which infringed upon as far as the Yala National Park in the south of Sri Lanka.

With 250 pages, the book is priced at Rs. 260 and is available from Oralanka Publishers, No. 187, Delgahawatte, Angoda (Mobile 0713000057)