New Sinhala translation of Nandasiri Jasentuliyana’s book “Same Sky, Different Nights”
For someone as accustomed to accolades as Nandasiri Jasentuliyana, the launch of a Sinhala translation of his autobiography would not have been a major milestone. Yet this authority on space law, was there at the National Archives auditorium for the launch earlier this month, smiling and very happy.
Nandasiri Jasentuliyana (far left) and Hasitha Kekulawa (far right)
Happy, I suppose, because the translation into Sinhala will make him known to his own countrymen, so far having been known more in more exclusive circles. The book is not high-brow or intellectual- we were assured by the speakers at the launch, but largely made up of stories and anecdotes, they said.
The young translator of the book, Hasitha Kekulawala, has struck gold in the title for his translation – Eka Ahasak, Re Dahasak, even more fitting than the original title, “Same Sky, Different Nights”.
Author Daya Dissanayake, said the book read like a ‘who’s who’ of Sri Lankan society, which another speaker, Austin Fernando, confirmed. They were both awe-struck by their friend Nandi’s retentive memory, for included in the book are ‘over ten thousand names’.
With that memory Jasentuliyana burrows deep into the details and antecedents of each and every person who had crossed his path, making the book a rich lode of anecdotage and history.
The launch was an evening that oozed nostalgia. The invited speakers shared (with most of the audience- who were friends) a common, pre-60’s childhood. Daya Dissanayake and Austin Fernando recounted stories of growing up in Galle with ‘Nandi’, who was best known as a promising cricketer and football player at the time. Several well known figures fostered at the time at Richmond and St. Aloysius were mentioned by these speakers- among them Michael Roberts and Vasudeva Nanayakkara.
The book highlights Nandasiri Jasentuliyana exceptional career:
Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs; Deputy Director-General, United Nations Office, Vienna; President of the International Institute of Space Law; Executive Secretary of the UN Conference on Nuclear Energy and UN Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space… A seemingly endless list of titles and achievements explained by one thing: single-minded determination.
For his has been a rocket of a journey: a journey of pursuing, and achieving, an unwavering goal.
Daya Dissanayake read excerpts from an essay Jasentuliyana wrote as a ten-year-old for the Richmond College magazine:
“I know what I want to be: a lawyer…. I am filled with happiness when I think of my future.”
That sentence alone says it all. A rocket: with one fixed destination.