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50-year expedition through our jungles This hardcover book edited by C.G. Uragoda, includes contributions from Walter R. Gooneratne, Nimal Jayawardena, Rex I. De Silva, Anslem de Silva, Somasiri Devendra, Fredrick Medis, Ravi Samarasinha, Lyn de Alwis, H.I.E. Katugaha, Dianthi S.U. Wijeratne, Lal Anthonis, Athula Dissanayake, Jayantha Jayawardene, Dishana Uragoda and C.G. Uragoda himself. Some of the writers' accounts revolve around a by-gone era, making readers yearn for those landscapes that have drastically changed over the years. One cannot actually trek through the thick jungles any more, because they are now national parks. The writers talk of the hospitality and the eager-to-please nature of the people in the villages - a factor that encouraged town-dwellers to venture into unknown jungles. Dr. Uragoda becomes nostalgic about the easier, more laidback life 50 years ago. Then the jungles were denser and venturing into them a bigger challenge. Fredrick Medis writes in a most delightfully lucid style, portraying his mastery over the language. His jungle trek of 1947 through the then thick jungle of Laggala-Pallegama (which is now a macadamised road) keeps one mesmerised. He encountered four sloth bears on the path, sloth bears being the rarest of wild animals and most dangerous even inside a national park today. Lal Anthonis decribes his close encounters with pachyderms and leopards on foot while Ravi Samarasinha relives a near attack by a sloth bear and his remarkable experiences at Yala by dusk when assisting in the production of a film for the BBC. He gives graphic details of a tussle between four leopards and an army of estuarine crocodiles over the carcass of a wild boar. In the end, the crocodiles win. The other stories are based in Yala Strict Natural Reserve, Kumana, Laggala, Knuckles Range, Lahugala, Wilpattu, Wasgomuwa, Gal Oya and the pearl banks of Mullikulam - with each writer narrating his story in his own style. There are bird-watching, trekking, camping, safari experiences and even accounts of deep sea-diving, fishing and hunting in the bygone era, giving the present-day young reader an idea of what it was then. The book contains 20 colour photographs and eight black and white photographs. With tense adventure, fun and laughter all woven together, the book is educative and informative and will be good reading for all, though nature lovers will no doubt savour it more than others. Priced at Rs. 1,600, Jungle Journeys in Sri Lanka is only available at "Eco Rhythm", No.5A, Perehera Mawatha, Colombo 2 and at Lake House Bookshop. A must
for A/L accounting students I have no doubt that students who began their studies in Accounting in May 2004 with the intention of sitting the GCE (A/L) examination in 2006 would have been eagerly awaiting the publication of a book of this nature. There was an urgent need for a school textbook specifically targeting A/L students, enabling them to grasp the contents of these accounting standards. Author T. Dharmarajah has performed this task quite successfully. This is not a traditional text book on accounting. It discusses a specific area in accounting - accounting standards. There are no accounts in this book. There is a separate chapter for each accounting standard, explaining the content and application in detail. There are typical examination-style revision questions at the end of each chapter. This text is a comprehensive presentation intended for A/L students. It effectively covers the syllabus on accounting standards. A chapter on accounting concepts explains in simple language a difficult area in accounting theory. Accounting concepts are the basic requirements of all accountants today. The author has carefully analyzed the framework for the preparation and presentation of financial statements issued by the ICASL. The meaning of the terms used in accounting statements - assets, liability, revenue, expense, equity, etc. - are clearly explained in simple language. The provision of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Act No. 15 of 1995, which is the legal framework, has been dealt with in a lucid manner. A special feature of this publication is the inclusion of a glossary of English terms. It helps students who are studying in English also to benefit from the book. Even beginners who are following professional accounting courses can read and understand the contents of this book. Furthermore, the book can be used by teachers as a guide for preparation of their students for the AL examination. The author is well known in the field of accounting education. He holds a B.Sc (Mgt) Degree from the Vidyodaya University, an HNDA from the Technical College, is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and has more than 20 years experience in teaching at technical colleges, university degree classes and Chartered Accountancy classes. He is also the author of a complete text book on accountancy standards. It would have added strength to the book, if the author had included a few flow charts at the end of each chapter to give a summarized picture of the entire chapter. The book is priced at Rs. 300. When
‘nation’ came under intellectual tinkering By
Premini Amerasinghe During the week that followed, a truly remarkable experience was in store for us. We listened to ideas of a 'nation' conceived with academic brilliance. Its spectrum refracted into its constituent components by the prism of imagination. The hall at the Taj Residency was filled to capacity with about 250 delegates from 30 countries. A 'fluid' Commonwealth extended to include several European countries, U.S and the South American nations. I was struck by the stark simplicity of the podium. As always an oil lamp was lit at the commencement of the conference. Of polished brass, it was devoid of unnecessary floral adornments. The governor of Andra Pradesh was the chief guest - an imposing blue turbaned figure, a man of many talents-educationist, writer, and parliamentarian whose last spell in gaol had been in the early 70s for organising a 'satyagraha' in response to the treatment of the Sikhs. The sound system had an early morning hiccup and remained mute when the national anthem was due to be played. This went unnoticed; as the predominantly Indian audience sang it confidently through to the last verse. The next speaker was the well-known writer C.D. Narasimiah. who had been present at the original meeting in Leeds in the 70s when the idea of a Commonwealth association of literature was first mooted. He received a citation from ACLALS and a standing ovation. His speech mainly concerned the author V.S. Naipaul, none of it complimentary. A tea break or rather a conversation-break, which maintained a high decibel level, followed. Everyone seemed to know each other. After the break came the 'Piece de resistance'- Vikram Seth had been billed as the keynote speaker. In response to chairperson Meenakshi Mukerjee's request, he had said that the idea of a speech gave him nightmares. So instead, there was an informal question and answer session conducted by Meenakshi. With Shirley Chew presiding they discussed his desire to transcend cultural frontiers and not be restricted by the 'nation' concept. Primarily a poet, Vikram Seth slipped into novel writing almost by accident. This, he revealed, was now the source of his income. Any concept, said V.S. is based on inspiration. He writes on countries personally experienced. He mentioned his 'Yorkshire obsession' encapsulated in his composite fictional town in An Equal Music. His first novel A 'Suitable Boy’ took many years to complete. Set in the '50s, it was written in the '80s and '90s. Its prominent voice was of secularism. V.S. made an interesting point. He said it augured well for secularism in India, that the leader of the ruling party was a Christian, the President, Muslim and the Premier a Sikh. He is writing a biography of two people close to him - his uncle and aunt, a German Jew, who were affected by World War Two. He disclosed that if it were not for the influence of Pushkin’s writings while he was in Oxford, he would have ended up as an economist. The plenary speakers on the days that followed continued to give a stellar performance. Homi Bhabha, a foremost Professor of English, presently at Harvard, titled his paper 'Scrambled eggs and a dish of rice'. Bhabha, a Parsee from Bombay, dedicated his paper to his father who died recently. Some of his thoughts were from his forthcoming book, 'A global measure'. A successor to his classic work written 10 years ago 'The Location of Culture', it pivoted around Du Bois Afro-American classic (1928) 'The Dark Princess'. In the novel, there is a constant interplay of colour segregation with that of India's anti-colonial and caste divide. The American situation is seen through the 'Phantasmagorical' vision of India. The chief characters are the Afro-American and his lover, the Indian Princess. The overtones of the colour-caste line keep recurring, with the 'internationalisation' of the colour-line by the forward thinking socialist princess. This led to the belief that the character was modelled on Madame Khama, a Parsee expatriate who had similar sentiments to the heroine, whom the author had met. She was the voice of Asians and anti-colonials at a landmark international conference, where she unfurled a flag with a band for the minorities. It was she who advocated the policy of non-cooperation later adopted by Gandhi. He pointed out that it was the draconian 'anti-sedition' laws of 1916 that provoked India to internationalise its problem. He observed that the international colonisation, which bound the coloniser to the colonised, still perpetuates itself in the cultural and economic spheres. He quoted liberally from Fanon. Coexistence was possible, he said with migrant workers by the imposition of complex lines of segregation on the 'Jim Crowe' concept, made tolerable only by escape into a "dream world' by the colonised. Both the content and delivery of the talk by this flamboyant personality held us spell-bound. Day three introduced us to another eminent personality, Aijaz Ahmad, who has several publications to his credit, including critiques of post-colonial studies and political commentaries. He spoke on the politics of nation and nationalism. He pointed out that post-war nationalism was anti-colonial and anti-imperialist, with the avowed purpose of building a secular nation. This was followed by a retrogressive nationalism; first manifest in Egypt with the rise of militant Islamist movements, equated in the west with fascism. There is a similar trend now, he said, with the rise of right wing parties promoting ethnic nationalism, giving rise to conflicts more like a war-zone. He discussed the dominance of Hindu culture, where the past is interwoven with the present, and its tendency to absorb other factors. The rise of Buddhism, he said was a radical reaction to the dominant Hindu-Sanskrit culture. The study of Vedas was limited to males (the "father tongue" of the upper class), while the "mother tongue" was the conversational language of the lower classes. Britain was responsible for the creation of the modern nation of India by the integration of states. The multi-lingual nature of India is taken for granted. Ethno-linguistic protests never occurred, nor was there a desire for a national language. He pointed out the advantage of English, and its negative aspect of perpetuating class privilege. Prior to the anti-colonial movement, was the reformist movement started by the Communist Party with the avowed intent of abolishing oppression of the depressed castes. Its precursor was the "swaraj" movement of 1873. He drew the distinction between patriotism and nationalism and mentioned a barely considered aspect of nationalism - that it oscillates between the rights of citizens, and the country’s 'essence' or culture. Although Gayathri Spivak's talk was at a time when one usually nods off through a delivery, her over-powering personality, and the vitality of her presentation prevented this. We heard of her childhood in Calcutta, during the traumatic partition riots, her work among the aboriginal communities, and their 'oral-formulaic sequential' narrative. She spoke of 'nation-think' that is, "comfort in one's own language and home-ground', the role of the individual's private impulse to nationalism in controlling the public sphere, the importance of the mother tongue in negotiating between the 'private' and the public, the importance of transcending narrow nationalism with comparative literary studies and literary imagination. She said the postcolonial impulse should encompass China and the new states of central Europe. Lively discussions followed all the plenary speeches. The plenary speeches were followed by sessions in five rooms simultaneously, pre and post lunch. About 200 speakers participated. Which session to follow was never an easy decision and invariably the choice was made on the accessibility of the location. A wide range of subjects each of which was comprehensively dealt with by four speakers included 'Nation and Empire', 'Nation and gender', 'Nation and history, focus Australia', 'Linguistic nationalisms: New literatures' and 'Nations and textuality'. You may imagine that at the end of a nine-hour day, we were too exhausted to listen to another word. Far from it. The evenings resounded to readings by authors. Our own internationally known Jean Arasanayagam kicked off with two of her poems read in her inimitable style. She was introduced by the editor of Penguin India. This was followed on subsequent days by readings by well-known poets and climaxed in Vikram Seth's superlative rendering of his tragi-comic fables written to strict metre. The first concerned a frog which insisted on teaching a nightingale to sing, with disastrous results and the other was about an over-possessive friendship that developed between a crocodile couple and a monkey, culminating with Mrs Crock's insistence that she eats the monkey’s heart. Of the prose readings I found Deshapandi’s extract from her new book "Moving on", sensitive and moving. The versatile actor, Girish Karnad's excerpt from a play written for BBC TV to mark the 50th anniversary of independence was absorbing. It concerned the documented dreams of Tippu Sultan, whose state was the last to fall to the British. The American Indian, Drew Hayden Taylor's reading of extracts from his plays based on the native American experience was uproarious. One was a takeoff on a "culture" tourist who views them as an exotic species to be studied. To quote from his preamble, "they took away everything from us barring our sense of humour". Of mixed parentage, his appearance was entirely Caucasian, with no hint of the Indian blood lurking in his veins. We were riveted by two famous post-colonial Caribbean writers, David Dabydeen, an Indian Carribbean residing in England and Austin Clarke, an Afro-Carribbean from Canada. The former won the Ram Rao award, and the latter the Commonwealth prize for his novel 'The Polished Hoe'. Both were inspired by the history of their people, severed from their countries and culture, forced to work as slaves in an oppressive environment. The small Sri Lankan contingent provided a chairman of a session - Professor Ashley Halpe, who chaired "When is a nation", Dr. Walter Perera, a participant in the session devoted to editing and publishing journals, and Dr. Jayadeva Uyangoda, a speaker in the final plenary panel discussing "The future of the nation". Dr. Uyangoda shared the podium with the eminent speakers, Ashis Nandy, and Susie Tharu. His message was to "decolonise' our consciousness with its concepts of state-centric nationalism and of fixed sovereignty with unalterable borders. He mentioned the continuation of coercive violence in the North East. The inability of its leadership to adopt democratic norms and its fossilised concept of a nation whose viability depends on oppressed minorities. The general consensus was that the nation has to be re-imagined in its plurality as a coalition of communities of equal political worth. In other words, a multiplicity of 'jathiyas' in a re-conception of a nation as multiple political spaces. Several speakers expressed deep concern on the situation in India. Time and again we heard that "India is seething', that national unity seems to just evade their grasp. The sentiments were genuine and not as is often seen in Sri Lanka mere political 'catch-words', used in the game of "oneupmanship'. At the end of the conference we were brought down to earth from the rarefied atmosphere of post- colonial studies by the dissenting voice of, as he termed himself, an uninvited guest - Professor Kancha Illaiah. He pointed out that 70% of the Indian population (the Dalit-bahujans) were not represented in the ACLALS membership or at the conference. If an element of elitism has unwittingly crept in, this is an issue that should be addressed urgently, perhaps at the forthcoming conference of the Indian ACLALS in Kerala. |
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