With Rosemary Rogers as ‘partner in crime’ she went on her own literary path
Usula Wijesuriya was born and grew up by the Bolgoda Lake in Panadura, and it was the ‘lovely environment’ with birds and fish that made her a writer. With many an adventure novel for youth and translations of some of the most beautiful Buddhist poetry in Pali and Sinhala under her belt, this nonagenarian has had a fulfilling happy life as a scribe and English teacher.
Usula Wijesuriya
At school her best friend and ‘partner in crime’ was Rosemary Rogers, who would later become the Queen of Historical Romance. The exotic Rosemary, a restless soul ‘like all creative people’ would write bestselling books that the Time magazine once called ‘porno in purple prose’.
Both Usula and Rosemary were born in 1932 and schooled at St. John’s Panadura where Rosemary’s father was the owner and principal. Usula benefited immensely from his vision rather advanced for the time.
It was Principal Cyril Jansz who broke a longstanding tradition and got in a Buddhist monk who was a friend to recite gatha in the morning for Buddhist students so they were not left out during the prayer meetings.
He introduced Pali and Sinhala into the syllabi to break the hegemony of Latin and Greek. This knowledge would stand Usula in good stead when she later translated the Thera Gatha and Theri Gatha into English.
Usula and Rosemary were both mathophobes and during sums they took on the task of compiling a ‘dictionary of rhymes’. When the math mistress discovered the hive of literary activity in her period, she complained to the principal. His punishment was to make the senior library available to the two friends. Here they revelled in Walter Scott and other yarns.
Even then Rosemary was writing books that were set in America, recalls Usula, tales of the Wild West.
At Colombo University Usula came under the tutelage of E.F.C. Ludowyk. The early training at school ensured she did not cleave to one tradition but took both Eastern and Western cultures ‘at their own value’.
Rosemary would however drop out of university to marry Summa Navaratnam (then “the fastest man in Asia”) and later go on to forge a career in America.
Usula meanwhile served as an English teacher at St John’s College, Nugegoda and later went to Nalanda College, Colombo where she worked for 20 years.
Continuing to write, she produced youth novels and won two Arts Council awards and one State Literary award for her adventure stories Ambergris, Slowly Down the River and Fish Boys.
Her Songs of the Elders, her translation of Thera Gatha also won a State Literary Award. Her other books include Songs of the Sisters (Theri Gatha), Follow the Sun and Bola.
She wrote a novel on Dutugemunu narrated from the viewpoint of Saliya his rebel son eloping with a chandali.
Still at the printer’s is her translation of the Budugunaalankaraya, medieval Sinhala verses on the virtues of the Buddha.
There is so much more in the cupboard and her mind.
Her biggest accolade, Usula says was when her students at St John’s and Nalanda turned up on her 90th birthday to felicitate her reminiscing about how she read them her own favourite books, igniting a love for the written word.
Searching for an ideal partner? Find your soul mate on Hitad.lk, Sri Lanka's favourite marriage proposals page. With Hitad.lk matrimonial advertisements you have access to thousands of ads from potential suitors who are looking for someone just like you.