New children’s books highlight the importance of women in society
The children’s books “Mahadena miththeniyai Yeheliyo pasdenai Muththa Madeng Godata Gaththa” (The rescue of the wise old man by his wife and her five lady friends) and “Hapanaa Haava” (The smart rabbit) written by longstanding children’s novelist Samanmalee Padmakumara were launched at the BMICH on Friday, August 2.
Author Samanmalee Padmakumara. Pix by Athula Devapriya
Her own experience with her children’s pet rabbits had influenced her to write the series of “Hapanaa Haava,” wherein the protagonist is an inquisitive little rabbit called Hapana. “Mahadena miththeniyai Yeheliyo pasdenai Muththa Madeng Godata Gaththa” is related to a character most famous in Sri Lankan fables- “Mahadanamuththa,” but the story in fact revolves around a character often forgotten, according to Mrs. Padmakumara, who is his wife-“mahadenamiththaniya”.
Mrs. Padmakumara explained that she intended to bring to light the importance of women and their roles, even at a young age. “I always believed that whether we like it or not, our society is secretly a matriarchal society. A woman is always the backbone of a family and by extension that of the society. The role played by women especially in our country is truly very strong. The woman is the epitome of love, kindness, understanding and patience but she’s also humble enough to stand behind her husband in front of society. In this male dominant era the role of the wife of this great advisor seemed to have slipped away from history books. My objective was to bring her out into the plot and thereby for the first time make ‘muththa’ a secondary character and not the main role which I gave to his wife and her five friends.”
A feature of the launch was the enthusiastic performances by children of various ages and backgrounds. These little performers were from nursery schools in Wattala, the Minobusang pre-school in Maharagama and Salmal Cutie Kids Nursery in Galle as well as students from schools such as St. Bridget’s Convent, Colombo and Samudra Devi Balika Vidyalaya, Nugegoda. The youngest performers of the day were children less than three years of age. The music direction for the songs was done by Upali Kannangara.
Vihangi Mendis, a budding star from UK who according to the author cannot speak a word of Sinhala, had to study her cues and dialogue after getting them written in English. She had also been the recording artist featured in one of Mrs. Padmakumara’s earlier CDs. The author’s sister-in-law, Kumudini Hettiarachchi- a teacher at Prince of Wales, Moratuwa, had the audience in fits of laughter with her performance.
Mrs. Padmakumara is the wife of the Chairman of Lake House, Bandula Padmakumara.
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