Poet in the making

"She is the queen who rules the lonely planet
She is the loyal lady who guides us
She is the woman who never dies
She is the one who must be worshipped."

A verse from a poem dedicated to all the sacred mothers of the world, this is an excerpt from an aspiring poet's recently published collection called, Candlelight. Consisting of a miscellaneous range of subjects, the poems touch on parental appreciation, social injustices, materialism, nature, love, and even some other abstract themes, the book is a peek into a young man's thoughts.

There's more to him than what meets the eye with Tharindu Weerasinghe (24). Apart from his many artistic talents, he is first and foremost a graduate of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, pending his final results. "Although I am an engineer by profession, I am fond of the arts and literature too. Even prior to this book, I have been writing poetry in both Sinhalese and English, with most of them being published in newspapers," says Tharindu.

In his opinion, writing poetry is no easy task. "It is the hardest way of expressing feelings in literature. As I see it, a poem can talk to the heart of the reader. A poem can grab the reader's attention, perhaps more so than other parts of literature. Though I write poems, I am not a poet, because I know only a few aspects in writing poetry." This young writer wants to follow in the footsteps of the great poet Robert Frost, and writes poetry using this theory – "a poem begins in delight and ends with wisdom," in mind.

"I want to be able to give a message to the readers while making them happy as well. But I don't know how far I've been successful at that."

Candlelight contains 50 poems written by Tharindu, which took him about five-years to write. "I had no intention of publishing my poems in the form of a book, but since a number of them were already published in newspapers, many people known to me said I should publish a book. So I felt encouraged to do so, and that's how the book finally came about."

A highlight at the launch was that a few songs composed by Tharindu himself were sung by some of his batchmates and it was also attended by many academics from the University of Peradeniya.

"I invited some of my batchmates from other faculties such as the Arts Faculty to sing my songs, and this was mainly to create a sense of harmony between the various faculties. As we all know there are various issues within the University system and I just wanted to show those that attended that you could bridge these gaps through the Arts." Tharindu has so far composed about 20 Sinhalese songs, and about five are fully completed with melodies and so on. "I even hope to put them on a CD someday, but that's just a dream yet!"

One of Tharindu's most recent achievements was winning an Editor's Choice Award for his poem A Tale of Two Ears (which is included in the book), from www.poetry.com – International Library of Poetry), where he has published poems.

His home town being Kurunegala, he received his secondary education at Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala. A seemingly active student in various activities at school, he was involved in announcing and held office in the English Literary Association.

While at University too, Tharindu was involved in activities in both Sinhalese and English, he was the editor of the Art Circle, Faculty of Engineering and was involved in public speaking events. Last year he bagged the best announcer award at the university literature festival. Tharindu is at present employed at a software company, as a junior software engineer. "Having completed my degree I was looking for some industry experience, so I thought I would try out a job."

And which path does he hope to take in the future? "I hope to go back to Peradeniya and pursue further studies like an MSc, because I feel that you should study as much as possible when your young. And maybe, eventually join the Engineering Faculty itself, as an academic. But I will definitely continue in the arts field as well. Tharindu went onto thank his parents, teachers, friends and batchmates for all their support in his endeavours. Candlelight is available at all Vijitha Yapa and Sarasavi bookshops.