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Simply expressing profound truths
The Marvel of Being Human by Fr.Egerton Perera
Amidst the vast baron wastelands of institutional religion and ritual orthodoxy, the desert is indeed fertile and voices from the wilderness are like whispers of hope. One such voice though unsung on the pulpit and the pedestal of privilege is that of Fr. Egerton Perera who for the past few decades has helped pull hundreds if not thousands of people back from the brink and put them on their feet to cope with the struggles and conflicts of life.

The Marvel of Being Human is a testimony to the life and work of a humble priest who rises beyond religious or other labels in reaching out to those in need or distress. The reflections are short; most of them are of one page. That is because they are meant for busy people, such as academics, professionals, executives and parents, and to be taken perhaps one every day or week. There are no explicit references to the teachings or scriptures of any religion. That is because they are meant for all human persons, irrespective of any religious affiliation. They are about our lives as human persons, the situations we often find ourselves in, the feelings we experience, the challenges we cope with, the agonies and ecstasies of our daily lives. They move in just one direction: the awareness and acceptance of ourselves and the world we live in and the need to discover for ourselves how we can become, and help others too to become, more fully human, and in that way make our little contribution towards healing our planet and making it a healthier place for all to live with dignity.

Fr. Egerton must surely know what he is talking about. As an undergraduate he was the life and soul of any party on the campus. He obtained a degree in Economics and then went on to become a Chartered Accountant, winning medals for ballroom dancing in the meanwhile. He then joined the Jesuit order, ministering to simple souls in the poorest of parishes, and living like them. He now ministers to the students on the same campus on which he enjoyed his student days to the full, complete with his ukulele and many friends, but without losing sight of the many dimensions to all those good things.

These reflections of Fr. Egerton are profound in their simplicity. That is as it should be for the most profound truths of life express themselves in the simplest of' ways. In July 1977, Frs. Baylon, Chryso, Derrick and Fr. Egerton set out together in pursuit of an impossible dream: four Jesuits wishing to live a life of poverty. "We called ourselves, 'the four just men' because, as many thought, we wished to stick our necks out in the cause of justice, rather, it was because we saw ourselves as just men', plain and simple human persons and no more, Fr. Egerton says in a preview to the 90-page booklet which could be vitally important reading for all in this aftermath of the tsunami catastrophe with tens of thousands of people plunged into psychological devastation.

"Well that simply is what this book of reflections is all about: the marvel and the mystery of being human. It is also a mystery -- so there is much that we can reflect upon and discover," Fr. Egerton adds.

To reflect upon the mysteries of life and celebrate its marvels we need time, we need a certain 'atmosphere'. But, alas, our daily lives do not afford us such a luxury, because they are so crammed with activity. And yet, if we are to make the most of our lives, if we are to live our lives to the full, we need to steal some time for it. Every now and then, we need to fly away, not from life but to its depth. Every now and then, we need to empty our mind of the many images that crowd it, so that we can see reality more clearly and at greater depth.

"If this short publication of mine seduces you, in some slight measure to look a little more deeply into your life and the world you live in and gives you a taste of the marvel of being human, I will be more than amply rewarded,” Fr. Egerton says. This book is available at the Jesuit House, Bambalapitiya, the Jesuit House at Gregory's Road and at the Lewella Retreat House in Kandy.

Stories, sketches and a lot of laughter
Ink On My Fingers by Yogarani Thevathasan. Godage International Publishers (Pvt) Ltd., Colombo 10. Reviewed by Vijita Fernando
Two decades and a little more of journalism on the Observer and Daily News and a spell at Thomas Regional Newspapers in Wales, England have left quite some ink on Yogarani Thevathasan's fingers. The last 30 years away from her native Sri Lanka and a completely different atmosphere of journalism in England have sharpened her memories of her journalistic life here in her native country.

But it is not the seesaw of political upheavals that she recalls in her book Ink On My Fingers which she has just published in Colombo. It is rather, the foibles of men and women, mainly women, who enlivened her life in Colombo 7 all those years ago. Recalling those whom she portrayed in a column in the Observer signed "Cleo" one can still hear her hearty (at times, vicious) laughter and her unfailing ability to see the humour in the most trying situation - domestic, journalistic or international!

And Yogarani can tell a story! One can almost see the glee in her eye as she recounts episodes at the expense of life- long friends, her gentle husband and her domestics. Everything and everyone in her circle was grist to her mill when she penned those weekly episodes, which she has revived in her present book. These sketches come alive not only to those who were around to share them at the time, but also even to younger readers who see an unreal, almost surreal, life that they find hard to believe ever existed! The writer's keen ability to laugh at herself stands out in every page of the book, rendering it readable and enjoyable. Whimsical black and white sketches by Mark Gerreyn and Aubrey Collette certainly add to the fun.

However, the nostalgia of the family's decision to leave it all behind and settle down in England reveals another kind of woman, gentle and uncertain. In the flurry and excitement following this critical decision it did not surface. But when on that first cold night in Cardiff, huddled together in one room, cramps crawling up her legs, she felt an emptiness within her and a longing for "the sunshine and laughter back home"... the splendid house with strangers in it which she had left behind, and her little son sobbing his heart out with homesickness...

"I felt that I was between two worlds..." she says. In that nostalgic moment she recalled the words of Marco Polo, the Venetian explorer, who described Ceylon after one of his visits as "the most beautiful island of its size I have seen in any part of the world," this paradise isle now ripped to its bowels by racial violence. Here is a different Yogarani, agonized by the parting, but having burnt her boats, determined to make a success of it.

And she does. In Cold Climes is the gist of her experience with journalism in another milieu. In these episodes published over the years in the "Aberdare Leadere" the wit and humour is often subverted by hard facts and knowledgeable references to people and places of her new environment but also harking back to people and places in Sri Lanka. Her Welsh connection is certainly well established.

What comes through loud and clear, through the laughter and humour, the sparkling and, at times, devastating wit and her uncanny ability to see the silver lining in every dark cloud, is the picture of a strong-minded woman. What she also makes in this book is a sharp contrast of her "seeing eye" nearly 50 years ago at the folly of beauty contests, cookery classes where the menu was unheard of 'English' dishes (Yorkshire Pudding ) and attended by the affluent, the coffee parties and the "saree safaris" to India and life in the raw as it was then and life as it is now.

But she does not make a mission of it. The contrasts come through in her inimitable style and her flowing prose, the flow unfortunately stemmed in quite a few places with misplaced commas, yet making no great difference and giving her readers at least a momentary respite from the stark realities of our times.

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