From Ceylon to Canada; Eurasian family’s saga
Writing the truth: Thelma Wheatley. Pic by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi
The British may have left Ceylon in 1948 but they left an indelible mark on Sri Lankan history. Their descendants, the Eurasians faced many challenges both in newly independent Sri Lanka and abroad. Too white for Sri Lanka and too brown for the West, theirs was a story of yet another race unsure of where they belonged. This is what intrigued Welsh-Canadian author Thelma Wheatley.
Her new book ‘Tamarind Sky’ tells the story of Selena Jones, a young British girl who falls in love with Aidan Gilmor – a Canadian citizen living in Toronto. Aidan is Eurasian.
Children of British and Indian parentage came to be known as Eurasians although the term later came to denote anyone with Caucasian and South Asian heritage. In Ceylon, British colonizers would often take a ‘country wife’ – a Ceylonese woman while in the country, abandoning her when they had to leave for home. The children of these liaisons received a good education and had a good social status until 1948 when Ceylon gained Independence.
Most Eurasians migrated to Canada, Australia or Britain in the 1950s and in Tamarind Sky, Aidan Gilmor’s father, is a Eurasian tea planter, who is compelled to migrate to Toronto with his wife and children following the Citizenship Act of 1948. The story of the Eurasians (particularly Aidan’s family and the issues they face both in Toronto and Sri Lanka) is the focus of ‘Tamarind Sky’.
Thelma read for her degree in English at the University of Wales and completed her Masters at York University, Toronto after which she taught English and History, later working with developmentally challenged children. After retiring from teaching, she started writing when she was about 50. Her first book ‘My Sad Is All Gone – a family’s triumph over violent autism’ deals with the challenges she faced raising her autistic son Julian. Her second book ‘And Neither Have I Wings to Fly – labelled and locked up in Canada’s oldest institution’ is about the neglect and abuse faced by differently abled individuals in the Huronia Regional Centre (previously the Orillia Asylum for Idiots and Feeble Minded), incidentally the same place she was once advised to send her son to by doctors. She didn’t and raised him at home.
‘Tamarind Sky’ is her first work of fiction.
Thelma was inspired to write this novel by her own mixed marriage to a Eurasian in Canada (her husband is half-British, half Sinhalese). “The character of Selena is based on me but she is not exactly like me,” she stresses. Similarly, there are so many differences between the characters and the people they are based on that this novel cannot be considered non-fiction,” she explains. Her own in-laws inspired her to write this book because of the close bond she shared with them. “When I got married and moved to Canada my family was back in UK so his family became mine and I really love them,” she says.
One of her admitted goals with the book is to expose the degrading treatment the British colonizers afforded their country wives. “My sister is all ra-ra-ra Union Jack but my British relatives cannot deny the truth,” she says, adding that she always writes the truth – the most important consideration for her.
The novel is in two parts –the first part set in Canada before Pierre Trudeau’s (father of Justin Trudeau) multiculturalism and the second part taking place in colonized Ceylon and newly independent Sri Lanka. Interestingly, she wrote most of the book sitting at the Burger King in Toronto from 7.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. looking over at Lake Ontario and sipping copious amounts of coffee. This book was much more fun to write than her first two, she says, because once she did her research she was then free to write what she pleased. She also came to Sri Lanka this March and visited most of the places the novel mentions apart from ‘Weywaltalawa’– a 22 hairpin bend ride on a tuk-tuk – one which she was willing to take but eventually didn’t embark on because those who were with her were hesitant, she says.
Tamarind Sky was launched at the Colombo International Book Fair on September 19 and Thelma has completed a speaking engagement at the University of Peradeniya and the British Council. A great fan of the late Nihal de Silva’s work, Thelma chose Vijitha Yapa Publishers because they had published Nihal de Silva’s books. “I am really grateful to Vijitha Yapa for giving me a chance to publish my work here in Sri Lanka,” she says, adding that the team has been very professional and supportive.
‘Tamarind Sky’ priced at Rs. 1000 is available at Vijitha Yapa bookshops. Thelma will be speaking at the Colombo University on October 4 at 4 p.m. and the Annual General Meeting of the Ceylon Planters Society on October 7.