A mature, sensitive rendering of experience
With the publication in mid-2023 of her well-crafted stories, my friend and one-time colleague at the University of Peradeniya, Sumangalika Dharmadasa, has joined the small but notable group of Sri Lankan creative writers in English. As Professor Ranjini Obeyesekere correctly notes in the blurb on the back cover of the book, these stories evoke ‘the intimately familiar world of her [the author’s] time’.
Through her creative writing, Sumangalika Dharmadasa (or Sumi, as she is widely known) transports those of us who belong to her generation and older, to a time when telegrams, trunk calls and letters were the primary means of social communication besides direct person-to-person conversation; a time when University Entrance examination results were published in the pages of the ‘Ceylon Daily News’; and a time when Electronic Mail, Short Message Service (SMS), WhatsApp and other forms of communication, were not even heard of.
This was the era when family and friends dropped in at the homes of one another without prior appointment, when the sounds of casual conversation wafted through our otherwise quiet living rooms. This was also before teledramas and other melodramas came to be beamed to us via television that replaced the kind of organic social interaction that had existed hitherto. In other words, Sumi writes of a Ceylon that was yet to become Sri Lanka with all of the challenges and socio-political trauma that would accompany that name change beginning in the decade of the 1970s.
The tales in Lifeline and Other Stories reflect the sensibility of a mature and sensitive observer of the passing scene of a bygone era, through the exploration of the lives and loves of ordinary human beings as they get on with the business of living. The effective use of the technique of flashbacks is noticeable in most, if not all, of the narratives in the publication. Sumi is gentle and nonjudgmental in her portrayal of her characters and a warm sympathy for fallible humanity pervades her story-telling.
Take, for instance, the story titled Grapevine where she presents to her readers, Mr. Weerakoon, the much respected head of the finance section of an income tax company based in Kandy. His colleagues think of him as a model boss to work with and when, at the end, Mr. Weerakoon reveals his feet of clay, he is neither frowned upon nor castigated by the author for his fall from grace. Rather he is treated as an individual with the strengths and weaknesses not uncommonly found in his fellowtravellers in the journey of life. The wily Shani who exploits Mr. Weerakoon’s vulnerability is not treated harshly either. This is not to suggest that the author condones the conduct of a Weerakoon or a Shani but to underscore the worldly wisdom with which she portrays her characters.
Many of her stories remind us of the fragility and complexity of human relationships as well as of the gap between appearance and reality as illustrated in The Sacred Bond, Early Blooms, Options, Autumn Shades, Lifeline, Grapevine and Final Refuge. Sumi’s tales hold a mirror up to life and show that destiny, not infrequently, deals some a bad hand whereby existence becomes burdensome to them. She demonstrates that we seldom perceive the deep-rooted troubles that ail our fellow beings, as most prefer to internalise their pain rather than put it on public display. As we know, ‘there’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face’!
In Final Refuge we encounter Dhammadinna Sil-mani of very fair complexion, blue eyes and an upturned nose, previously the German-born Elsa, who had come to Ceylon, become a Buddhist nun and thereafter lived in the ‘Aramaya’ in the rural village of Giraella, off Badulla, for over 50 years. Overcoming the initial difficulties of learning Sinhala and adjusting to the hot and spicy native food, the Sudu Silmani, as the villagers fondly refer to her, gradually becomes a much- respected member of the village community. With the passage of time, it is to her that the villagers turn for guidance and healing when confronted by life’s problems. What these despairing villagers do not know is that the Sudu Sil-mani herself had gone through a traumatic experience in her youth. Now, dying of cancer, the Sudu Sil-Mani reveals the secrets of her past to Visula, whom she had known since the latter’s childhood in Giraella.
Of the other stories in the collection, Rudy’s Wedding, Koila, Corona Cat and A Matter of Conscience come across as autobiographical tales, the latter in particular. The protagonist of the tale, Bandusena (Bandu) Mohottala, the candidate for the Nuwara Eliya seat in the State Council of the period, brings back cherished memories of the author’s late father, whose honesty and decency are reflected in the exemplary conduct of the protagonist. But not all of Sumi’s stories are about the serious side of life. Some of them have a funny or humorous vein to them as seen in Monkey Business, Child Wisdom, Rudy’s Wedding, Roses for Uncle Derek, Corona Cat and Koila. The latter two will delight especially the animal lovers among her readers.
Through vignettes such as these, Sumi Dharmadasa’s compassionate vision of life is brought to the reader. We can only hope that she will have more such stories to share with us before too long.