KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Sinhalese, the Buddhists and the Sri Lanka Army are presented in an unflattering, negative manner in the book ‘Archive of memory.’ The episode ‘Beef lamprais’ is on Buddhism.” The    narrator who lived in Kalutara, says we ate beef every day though we were Buddhist, so did the rest.  The majority in Kalutara were   Buddhist but you should see the long queue to buy beef every evening. 

In  the episode ‘Silver bangle the narrator, who had taken part in the Pageant of Lanka in 1948, said she had a small role in the Sri Wickrama Rajasinha episode where Ehelepola Kumarihamy was drowned in the lake. That is all there is in this book on the Pageant of Lanka which had many other, far more pleasing scenes.

The MEP election victory of 1956 is without a doubt a major event in the history of Sri Lanka. In the episode ‘Dutugemunu statue’ the narrator recalls that when the 1956 election was due to take place,   over 100 buses transported singing, shouting VLSSP members to Anuradhapura. At Anuradhapura this mass of boisterous, enthusiastic men, took an oath at Dutugemunu statue which was in front of Ruvanveli seya to protect Sinhala language, Buddhism, local values and local culture. The narrator further recalled that his father was the VLSSP organizer for Moratuwa. He had been invited to breakfast at Horagolla.”When I saw Banda eating kiribath and beef curry with fork and knifeI realized then and there the way things would go” said father.

The Sinhala Only Act is presented in a negative light.  In Killota”   Rita from Melbourne said we left Sri Lanka after the infamous Sinhala Only Act. In Report card” the narrator stated that at S Thomas Prep he was the first in the family to study in Sinhala, after the Sinhala Only Act. This created a major language divide in the family. Five older siblings studied in English and spoke it   flawlessly while my four younger sisters had studied in Sinhala and were fluent in Sinhala. However, not surprisingly, when he joined university he found that his English was better than most.’ There is a howler here. Sinhala only” was not responsible for any of this. Teaching in the mother tongue in school started long before the Sinhala Only Act. The legislation was passed in the 1940s.

Sinhala Buddhist patriotism is given a quick mention in the episode ‘Pavana cassette’ .The narrator had attended a Nanda Malini concert and bought the Pavana cassette. When bheeshanaya started in 1987, mother burned all the leftist magazines in the house and the Pavana cassette as well.

‘Tea Bags’ is an interesting item.  It is on women tea pluckers and is narrated by an adult whose mother was a tea plucker. The narrator had done an art work on the subject. It is   of a Sigiriya fresco surrounded by used and unused tea bags.   

The main focus of the book however, is the Ceylon Tamil. 39 of the 70 episodes is about Tamils, mostly the Tamil riots and the Eelam war. The intention in this book is to bring public attention back to the ‘Tamil cause’

 In the episode Pottu” the Tamil narrator recalls that they had experienced three anti Tamil riots in 1958,   1977 and 1983. They had lost homes, loved ones. They decided that it was best not to show that they were Tamil. So we stopped wearing the Pottu. It was heart breaking to see Amma without her pottu.  She didn’t look like Amma, she looked different.”

The episode ‘Sinhala board’ is on the 1958 riots. The narrator recalled I grew up in a wonderful multiethnic and multi religious neighborhood in Ratmalana. My playmates were Moors, Malays, Tamil Hindu, Tamil Christian, Sinhala Buddhist and Sinhala Christian. Our favorite hangout was the Sufi shrine, where we were treated to mutton buriyani on feast days.  During the anti- Tamil riots of 1958   a lady down our lane who had  sheltered many Tamils had put up a board Api Sinhala” .The house was known thereafter as ‘Api Sinhala gedera’.

In the episode Asmi”   the narrator said he had an idyllic childhood at Torrington flats in Colombo. He had Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher friends. They shared Thai pongal murukku and Sinhala avurudu sweets. He departed to Jaffna after 1977 to escape anti Tamil violence in Colombo.

 In the episode Slate pencil” Parakrama Niriella recalled that he had a friend called Prabhakaran when he studied at Hunumulla Kanishta Vidyalaya.  When we were in the 4^th grade we were taught the Dutugemunu -Elara war. The story was told from the Dutugemunu point of view and we assumed that Elara was an evil guy. Then at play time, a boy stabbed Prabhakaran in the cheek with a slate pencil. Prabhakaran left the village after the 1977   Tamil riots. (p 30)

 In the episode Biling tree’  the narrator   says that on a hot afternoon in July 1983 my son saw a gang armed with iron rods and poles smashing a Tamil home and setting it on fire. Mrs. Bertha Nash a Burgher neighbor took them in for safety. The children were sent through the back gardens of houses. Four Tamil school teachers were hounded out of a bus and clubbed to death in front of our gate.

In the episode ‘Spectacles’ the narrator said that   the house of Mr. Thurairaja, an outstanding mathematics teacher, was looted and burnt in 1983. Our family rescued him and his family.  In the episode Icy Chocs” the narrator recalls that they used to go to the Rio cinema in Colombo. The Manager Mr. Dharmalingam was a close family friend, he had been a boarder in our home. We  got the best seats in the cinema. Rio cinema was set on fire in 1983 and Dharmalingam went  back to Jaffna.

In the episode Jujubes narrator Upali recalled that father owned a jewelry shop in Kegalle town It was sandwiched between other shops owned by Muslim, Tamil and Sinhala traders. Father leant Tamil to converse  with  Tamil and Muslim traders.  As a toddler  I  recall   freely eating jujubes at the  Tamil  sweet shop.In 1983, shops of Tamil traders were burnt, while Sinhala  and Muslim shops were left untouched. The Tamil sweet shop owner was never seen again. The comment on language  sounds artificial because Muslim and Tamil traders spoke Sinhala to their customers. There was no need to learn Tamil.

In the episode Notebook” Jean Arasanayagam  recalled becoming a refugee in 1983.. We were first housed at Pushpadana School, Kandy .  The  ground floor held estate Tamils, upper floor  by middle class Tamils. Everyone however slept on the floor.

In the episode Suitcase” Bandara Menike had worked  happily as a domestic servant, in Badulla and  Colombo  She recalled going to the Dehiwela  zoo where she saw elephants dancing ,but in her narration  she also remembered  July 1983  and the civil war. She clings to the suitcase her mistress bought for her at Badulla market  I like to pack and  repack it when the rest of the house is asleep.”  

  In the episode Mushroom’  the narrator recalled  my father, mother and two sisters all worked on a rubber plantation  in Kegalle.  In 1983 Tamil riots we went to Kilinochchi. The journey was difficult. We were resettled in the middle of a forest and we had to clear the land,  on an empty stomach. Then we found that after each   rain storm there  was a mass of mushrooms. My mother prepared them in different ways.  The mushrooms sustained us till we could grow our own food.

In the episode School bag” narrator said that in 2005 she was a Tamil teenager growing up in a  tense and suspicious Colombo with checkpoints at every corner. She  was discriminated  in school because of her ethnicity,. She had also felt public hostility outside. She stopped speaking in Tamil outside the home for many  years. Her father worked for Tommy Hilfiger as quality assurance manager and he had got her a beautiful Hilfiger bag for  school. I was speaking in Tamil to a friend in the bus and the conductor asked whether there was a bomb in the bag.”

Language and religions are not forgotten.The episode ‘Sneakers’ is about the Pada Yatra from Murugan shrine in Nallur, Jaffna to Murugan shrine in Maharagama.

‘Rattan chair’ is on the strong opposition to the Tamil language. Narrator says that in 1966 when they was in school, they    saw a huge mass of people came marching down the road, chanting slogans against  the reasonable use of Tamil, They included Buddhist  monks. In ‘License plate’ Dennis McGilvray shows the license plate for his Toyota car in the 1970s, which had the contentious Shri” symbol.

 Sinhala-Tamil amity is shown.  In the episode Asmi” the narrator said, my relatives in Jaffna who had only encountered Sinhala soldiers would often tell me, Sinhala people  are cruel and I would reply ‘ Not all’. In the episode ‘Glass teacup”  two women, one Sinhala and other Tamil, who worked next door to each other in Dubai as maids, became friends and communicated in Arabic, as neither knew the others language.  In Pottu” the Tamil narrator said we spoke fluent Sinhala. (Continued)