Sunday Times 2
“Sailed I on Life Like a Lark in the Sky”: Namel’s autobiography takes wing
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The panel of speakers. Pix by Amila Gamage
Namel and Malini Weeramuni have always had a unique flair. Their magnified anthill of a theatre is probably the biggest monument to their individuality. But they have done so much more.
On Saturday, August 31, it was time to celebrate Namel’s odyssey of a life- on the evening when the thespian turned 85, and his autobiography was to take wing.
For the work is titled “Sailed I on Life Like a Lark in the Sky”. It captures the life of a man who was undeterred by all boundaries- geographical, social, and intellectual- taking his arc freely- truly like an English lark over meadows in blue skies.
Namel Weeramuni speaking at the launch
The evening was carefully choreographed. You could see Malini’s touch as she flitted around in her uniquely dramatic Kandyan.
As the audience- a venerable and mostly bilingual audience of academia and artistes- trooped in, drumming reverberated in the wings. The celebration was to begin with a prasasthi- where a choir welcomed all with a beautiful classical Sinhala serenade.
The panel that was to discuss the autobiography was headed by Dr. Ranjini Obeyesekere. The first speaker, Dilshan Boange, attorney-at-law and features writer, was to provide his impressions on the work.
Dilshan described the book as possessing a deep vein of creativity- a biography ‘in the style of a novel’- as it would be mentioned again and again. Dilshan praised the work for evading that eternal pothole of all those who hark back to bygone village life- the halcyon idyll which allows no darkness to cross the green grass and the shady well and paddy fields.
It is of immense archival value- said Dilshan- pointing out that the mosaic of village life entertains while graphically capturing a lost world.
It also is an incisive examination of Sri Lanka’s maverick theatre world.
“Namel’s is a voice that speaks of his experience of the past which certainly had a lot to do with the trajectory of how the arts in Sri Lanka developed. It’s a real page turner- with drama and wit and drive of narrative.”
Emeritus Professor J. B. Disanayaka leavened the evening with much humour- as he went down memory lane with tales of youthful escapades at Peradeniya down to their recent collaborative stylized drama, based on the Ramayan.
Prof. Sarath Amunugama was yet another stellar figure who sprang out of those golden days of the University of Ceylon, and he went on to evoke richly a youth- and later years- which were packed with anecdote and zest which enthralled the audience.
Namel and Malini’s two charming sons, Heshan-Brent and Tarindu, read excerpts from the book.
The final speech was saved for Namel. He rather modestly threw light on an unknown phenomenon- Namel the writer- someone who had been scribbling verse and short fiction from school days but was too critical of his work and shy to ever let them come out.
He mentioned many diaries written at Peradeniya, tens of thousands of pages thrown to the Mahaweli Ganga before he left those hallowed walks of youth- “an act which I have later silently regretted all my life.”
The evening wound up with the choir singing a heart-ending song from Rama Seethabhilashaya- the instance where Ravana’s mother plucks out her heart for the king to give Sita. It was the climactic moment from Namel’s ancient yet modern classic- that said that the biography’s not closed.
Namel with the irrepressible Malini has yet more epic sailings to make.