{"id":98066,"date":"2020-01-21T16:55:43","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T23:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=98066"},"modified":"2020-01-21T16:55:43","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T23:55:43","slug":"jayalath-manoratne-a-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/21\/jayalath-manoratne-a-tribute\/","title":{"rendered":"JAYALATH MANORATNE: A TRIBUTE"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

\u2018The Child is father of the Man\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • William Wordsworth, \u2018My Heart\n Leaps Up\u2019<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    I will not try to label a diamond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But diamonds deserve to be on display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Trained valuers assess them in terms of-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Colour, clarity, carat weight, and cut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But those who view them whole just admire them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The recently deceased Jayalath Manoratne was a verbal artist par\nexcellence. He was a Sinhala dramatist and playwright, versatile actor and\nsinger, poet, creative writer, scholar, lecturer, cultural critic, humanist and\nphilosopher. A product of Peradeniya University under Professor Ediriweera\nSarachchandra, he believed in a single humanity and expressed that belief in his\nart, to which he was dedicated. Mano was never after money or fame. He had the\ncourage to refuse, on principle, an award under president JRJ and later to\nsimilarly give up, after a short stint, the job of liaison officer with good\npay and perks under president CBK. The fact that he had had to engage in some\nsort of livelihood other than drama which was his  lifelong passion tells\nus about Mano, and perhaps, more about the society he lived in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    An important theme that he said he wanted to convey through his\nart was that love was equal to life and vice versa. That was an artist\u2019s\nperception. His great wish was the creation of such a society. Mano used to say\nthat although we all can sometimes afford to tell lies in our day to day life,\nand in other various contexts, one cannot lie in art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a student of English literature, in my unrevealed personal\nmusings, I compare Mano to Shakespeare in the use of dramatic and literary\nartifices, to Wordsworth in his tendency to reflect on the human condition\n(\u2018…..the heavy and the weary weight – Of all this unintelligible world\u2026\u2019 –\nTintern Abbey), to Keats in invoking the power of the imagination (as in the\nfamous Odes), and to Shelley in the precision of verbal expression (\u2018Life like\na dome of many-coloured glass, Stains the white radiance of Eternity, Until\nDeath tramples it to fragments.\u2019- Adonais). Mano also talked about the\n(Keatsian) equivalence of Beauty and Truth, which, I think, gives a hint of\nwhat he really meant by his assertion that an artist cannot lie. These\ncomparisons need to be understood in a secular, nonreligious sense. (The\nShelley extract above is from his elegy on his friend Keats, who died\nprematurely, \u2018Adonais\u2019. Keats\u2019 \u2018Ode on a Grecian Urn\u2019 concludes: \u2018Beauty is\ntruth, truth beauty, – that is all – You know on earth, and all you need to\nknow\u2019.) Mano worked within the parameters of the Sinhala Buddhist culture. He\nconsidered culture to be more important to a society than everything else. The\nBuddhist culture that has got into our genetic makeup fashions the expression\nof our inborn aesthetic sense. The wonder, the awe, the reverence people feel\nat the beauty and majesty of the phenomenal world (i.e., the world as\nunderstood by our senses, whether we consider it to be eternal and unchanging,\nor transient and ever changing) is the source of fairy tales, religions,\nsciences, arts, and what not. In his short poem \u2018My Heart Leaps Up\u2019, Wordsworth\nsays that when he was a child, his heart leapt up with excitement on seeing a\nrainbow, and that he still has that ability as a man. He fervently hopes that\nhe will have it in his old age; he wishes his days to be \u2018Bound each to each by\nnatural piety\u2019, if not, he declares, \u2018let me die.\u2019 That is according to his\nChristian religious belief. While his aphoristic observation \u2018The Child is\nfather of the Man\u2019 lends itself to various complicated interpretations, it may\nbe read as saying that one\u2019s childhood experiences shape one as an adult. Keats\nand Shelley also saw beauty in nature different circumstances. They did not\nexpress any religious beliefs. Shouldn\u2019t the sort of aesthetic experience that\nShelley has in \u2018Adonais\u2019 be called \u2019pahan sanvegaya\u2019 or what Geiger, the\ntranslator of the Mahavamsa, interpreted as \u2018serene joy\u2019 (even though the term\nis not perfectly capable of expressing that Buddhist sentiment)? That is the\nrecurrent theme of the historical poem in Pali, the Mahavamsa. So, in our\nculture too, the theory holds that art leads one from pleasure to wisdom. Mano\noften emphasized his acceptance of this theory. Mano\u2019s own life may be cited in\nsupport of Wordsworth\u2019s dictum, which also implies the same theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Jayalath Manoratne and I started secondary school at Poramadulla\nMadya Maha Vidyalaya in the picturesque hamlet bearing that name, nestled among\ngreen hills in central Sri Lanka, in January 1962. We were both in our early\nteens then, but I was a year or so older than Manoratne. Mr D.S. Senanayake,\nthe first prime minister, had laid the cornerstone of the buildings for\nlocating the school in its present site about ten years before that, on June\n1st 1952. During his address as the guest of honour on that occasion, he\nreportedly described the school due to come up in the place as a \u2018Jungle\nUniversity\u2019; obviously, he was inspired to coin that fond nickname for the\ncentre of learning he had envisioned, by the serene beauty of the sylvan\nsurroundings of the scenic spot. Generations of students have lived up to the\nexpectations implicit in the promise and prophecy of that nickname. Manoratne\nis the most highly acclaimed past pupil of that institution to date. He has\nraised the flag of victory the highest in the school\u2019s history in fulfilment of\nthe eternal wish expressed in the first lines of the school song: viduhala\nvaenjambeva\/\/nang va keheli lovay viduhala vaenjambeva! My eyes are welling up\nwith scalding tears for the love of my dear departed friend Mano and our\nbeloved alma mater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    According to the district demarcation of the time, Poramadulla\nCentral College was located within the large administrative district of Nuwara\nEliya, but the school has belonged to the Kandy district since a fresh division\ndone in the later 1960\u2019s. Boys and girls from many places in the hilly Nuwara\nEliya district came to study there. Some of them whose homes were too far away\nfor daily commute, and those among them who had been awarded government\nscholarships stayed in the hostels. Manoratne was a hosteller and I a\nday-scholar. The school had classes only from Grade 6 to 12. He had been\nadmitted to Poramadulla from the primary school in his native village of\nDehipe. We came to know later that veteran stage and film actor Henry Jayasena\nhad worked as a young English teacher in the Dehipe primary school in the early\n50\u2019s when Manoratne was still a toddler and was yet to attend his kindergarten.\nI myself was from an adjoining village. I gained admission to Poramadulla at\nthe secondary level from a preparatory school in the same area, having passed a\nselection test. On admission, I was enrolled in the same class as Manoratne,\nwhich was the GCE O\/L prep (i.e., Grade 9). Though we met each other for the\nfirst time only then, we immediately became fast friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now, the school had three streams of study: Arts, Science, and\nCommerce. Manoratne was happy with Arts subjects. But my preference was to join\nthe Science section, where an additional attraction for me was the fact that\nmost of the teaching was still done in English, particularly in the GCE\nAdvanced Level classes in the Science section, though instruction at the\nOrdinary Level was in Sinhala, which I had to follow. The English medium was\nretained in the Science department because some of the teachers were Indians\nwho had been delegated to teach in Sri Lankan schools for not enough qualified\nteachers were available locally. The Indian teachers, not being competent in\nSinhala, had no option but to continue teaching in English. Some lessons at the\nO\/L too were taken by them. Even the Sinhala speaking local teachers qualified\nin science were new to teaching it in Sinhala, and often switched to English\nhalfway through a lesson, which a few of us liked, though the majority detested\nit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While sitting with Mano in the class I was first assigned to, I\nmade a special appeal to the principal to give me a transfer to the science\nstream. This appeal was written in the scanty English I knew at the time. It\ntook a day or two for my request to be granted. As I was leaving the Arts class\nfinally, having collected my things, Mano said pleasantly, Good luck! machang.\nI am sad, but it is your wish, and you are not leaving the school after all!\u201d.\n(When I was admitted to the science class, the classmaster told me that the\nprincipal had been impressed by my letter.) The following day, Mano came to me\nin my new class, and handed me a neatly folded piece of paper: It was a page\ntorn from a square-ruled exercise book with two  short verses in Sinhala\nwritten in pencil celebrating our friendship and wishing me well. Later I went\nback to him and thanked him for that gesture. And he thanked me in return, especially\nfor appreciating his poem! It seemed that clear verbal expression of emotion\ncame to Mano naturally. And drama was in his DNA, it was an essential part of\nhis life. As a born artist Mano remained unchanged until the end of his life in\nhis attitude to his art and life in general: he did what he did because he\nenjoyed doing it and he did it for the good of fellow humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At hardly 14 years of age, Manoratne used to write, rehearse, and\nthen present playlets on the stage of the school\u2019s assembly hall with his\nfriends  at the meetings of the Sinhala Literary Association. As he stayed\nin the hostel he was able to do these things with some ease. But I didn\u2019t take\npart in any drama activities as I didn\u2019t have any theatrical ability. In one\ndramatic episode that Mano staged, I remember, he entertained us playing a\nhilarious character in the form of a crafty village carpenter: Suddenly seeing\na bothersome visitor from whom he had borrowed some money coming towards him,\nhe runs in and comes out a minute later, his face garishly whitened with a\nthick layer of face powder, cuddling and rocking a big fat pillow, and\njabbering incoherently\u2026.. (He feigned madness to escape the unwelcome caller).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Needless to say, Mano had a way with words. One hot humid\nafternoon in the the annual sports-meet time, we were in the school playground.\nAll the students, boys and girls, divided into different \u2018Houses\u2019 (Vijaya,\nGemunu, and so on) were practicing for a march-past as the important day of the\nmeet was only a day or two ahead. We were all tired and hungry. The sultriness\nof the air added to our physical discomfort. With the principal rushing about\nin his sun-glasses urging the teachers to work to ensure  a flawless\nexecution on the last day, there was no sign of an immediate let-up. Mano stood\non my left. From where we were we could see dark clouds banking up over the\ndistant tea-clad mountain range; intermittent flashes of streak lightning\nbranched in all directions. I felt a sense of relief because rain would mean\nimminent respite for us. Mano probably had an inkling of my thoughts. He said\nalmost inaudibly: \u2018perahera vage thamai\u2019 \u2018It\u2019s like the perahera\u2019. I\nimmediately understood what he meant: the rain was not going to fall as quickly\nas we wished. The simile of the perahera was suggested by the usual experience\nof spectators that peraheras (those annual religious processions held at\nvarious temples in the country including the Esala Perahera in Kandy) seemed to\nstart parading the streets intolerably late. (This may be because auspicious\ntimes are observed for each day\u2019s perahera to start moving.) Years later, but\nat the very incipient stage of his artistic journey, Mano used this image in a\npoem included in an anthology titled \u2018vaehi enathuru\u2019 \u2018until rains come\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The principal at that time was the formidable Mr P. Senerat, an\nold Anandian, whose dedicated predecessor at Poramadulla Mr M.D. Gunawardane\nhad gone on transfer to Thurstan College, Colombo, had a special focus on\nsports, and other extracurricular activities including various societies (e.g.,\nscience, Buddhist, debating) and associations like Sin hala and English\nliterary associations. A dreaded disciplinarian, Mr Senerat looked after the\nstudies aspect as well with similar attention and dedication. So we had\nopportunities to give expression to our creative potential in various\nways.Decades later we were happy to see him included (by educational\nhistorians) in the group of legendary central college principals who worked to\nelevate those non-urban institutions (that Mr C.W.W. Kannangara, the principal\npioneer of free education, introduced for the benefit of rural children\npreviously denied a wholesome education that was then exclusively available to\na small urban elite) to the stature of English medium public schools of the\npre-independence era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It was decades before the dawn of the Information Age as far as\nSri Lanka was concerned. But, not unlike today, the established social norms\nwere being challenged by new developments in science and technology in the\ncivil and political spheres, as elsewhere in the world. As usual in any age the\nolder people were less prepared to accept the changing attitudes, particularly\namong the young. However, we the young were all for change, though we were not\nconscious of the fact. As schoolchildren we depended on newspapers, magazines,\nbooks and good teachers for information and knowledge. Even the radio was a\nluxury for most of us. But we were reasonably well informed about the world in\ngeneral. Russian Air Forces pilot turned cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1961), US\npresident John F. Kennedy (assassinated in 1963 at age 46), American boxer\nCassius Clay (later Mohamed Ali) who beat Sonny Liston to win the World\nHeavyweight Championship title in 1964 at age 22, the British rock band The\nBeatles\u2019 blasting into the English musical scene in 1960 boosting\ncountercultural movements in the West through their impact, universally\nrespected Burmese (Myanmar) diplomat U. Thant who became UN Secretary General\nin 1961, \u2026.and others  of similar prominence were our heros. We admired\nleft politicians of the day for their intellectuality as much as their\npolitics, but their idealism which inspired us was anathema to our parents. We\ngrew up physically and intellectually against such a background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The principal Mr Senerat and our English teacher Mr D. Victor E.\nPeiris, who was also the warden of the boys\u2019 hostel, had a great mentorial\nimpact on us youngsters as an educational administrator and a teacher\nrespectively. They were enforcers as much as educators. Of course, times have\nchanged; their strategies won\u2019t work today. They were themselves products of\ntheir time. Both Mr Senerat and Mr Peiris should be revered as early models of\nthe most commendable school heads and teachers that there are today. Going by\nthe media it can be said that the school has achieved a great deal for the\nyouth of the area in terms of studies and sports potential that is worthy of\nthose great pioneers due, no doubt, to the efforts of the school\u2019s past pupils\nin positions of influence.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mano and I parted ways in 1966 as our different circumstances\ndictated. It was a very eventful year for Mano. He entered the Arts Faculty of\nthe Peradeniya University where he met Professor Sarachchandra. I heard Mano\nsaying in an interview with a journalist about a year ago that, while at\nPoramadulla, he had three dreams: to study in the university, to study in the\nPeradeniya university, and to be mentored by Professor Sarathchchandra. So, he\nwas happy that all his three dreams came true. In the same year (1966), a\nschool play in which he played the leading role, titled \u2018Aspagudung\u2019and\nproduced by the school\u2019s music teacher Sunil Sriyananda, and which had been\nadjudged the best school play of that year in the Nuwara Eliya district, took\npart in the All Ceylon School Drama Competition 1966, and was awarded a special\nmerit certificate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     I came into contact with him only on five occasions\nseparated from each other by decades sometimes; three times, we met face to\nface on the road as it were, and twice on the phone, when I congratulated him\non some significant achievement. Each time we communicated thus, Mano made me\nfeel as if we were always together like we had been at Poramadulla. That was\nMano, a jewel of a human being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    May he attain the Supreme Bliss of Nibbana!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Rohana R. Wasala \u2018The Child is father of the Man\u2019 William Wordsworth, \u2018My Heart Leaps Up\u2019 I will not try to label a diamond. But diamonds deserve to be on display. Trained valuers assess them in terms of- Colour, clarity, carat weight, and cut.  But those who view them whole just admire them.  The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}