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Dealing with that deadly bite
Handbook on the Management of Snake Bite in Sri Lanka by S.A.M. Kularatne MBBS, MD, FRCP. Reviewed by Mahes Salgado
Snakebites are a serious health hazard in our country. Without proper and prompt treatment, advisedly in a hospital equipped to deal with them, snakebite casualties can be life- threatening, even lethal. Among the other problems are myths and mythologies surrounding the subject of snakes- a slithery subject one would avoid rather than dabble in.

Dr. S.A.M. Kularatne's Handbook on the Management of Snake Bite in Sri Lanka is an important and valuable book, in fact a medical treatise on the subject. This is a slim volume, but a carefully structured and essential basic handbook with guidelines and details in the multiple aspects of managing a hospital admission with snakebite.

Dr. Kularatne- 'Sam' to his friends and colleagues in Peradeniya- had valuable clinical experience in snake bite management as a Consultant Physician at Anuradhapura. Hospital, where such admissions were frequent.

This stimulated his research and clinical interest in the subject. He has to date published a number of research papers and other articles in the field. Now in his new book, he combines medical expertise and clinical experience, to provide the medical professional and at the same time the general reader a useful guide on how to manage and treat a snake bite patient in hospital.

As Prof. Nimal Senanayake, Senior Professor of Medicine comments in his foreword to Dr. Kularatne's book: 'Snakebite is a subject which, even in a voluminous textbook of medicine is limited to a few pages in a part of a chapter. Much of what is written in a western textbook may anyway not be directly applicable to our local settings.

This slim but comprehensive monograph, on the other hand, deals with the subject as seen in this country, taking into account epidemiological aspects as well as healthcare facilities available to us.'

Ninety-six species of snakes have been identified in Sri Lanka. Among them four snakes- Russell's Viper, Common Krait, Hump Nosed Viper and Cobra are highly venomous snakes. Taking a statistical count of hospital admissions for snake bite in Sri Lanka, Dr. Kularatne notes that a significant number of patients with snakebite who come to hospital are found to be stung by non-venomous snakes or mildly venomous snakes.

This is reassuring, but there may be a gap in the figures because of the officially unrecorded snake bite casualties, even deaths outside hospital admissions. The problem could be of larger dimension in snake-infested areas.

With a snakebite admission in hospital, the first task of the physician is to identify the offending snake. Advanced diagnostic tools which can guide the physician like venom detection kits-ELISA- are not yet a part of the hospital inventory. In most cases, the doctor has therefore to go by circumstantial evidence, the information the patient or those who come with the patient can provide.

Dr. Kularatne in his book has a very clear colour chart of venomous and dangerous snakes in Sri Lanka. This chart can be very useful to both the patient and doctor.

Additionally Dr. Kularatne also gives details of identification and morphological characteristics of these snakes in a different chapter, listed according to species. This information is hard to come by outside specialist literature and enhances the value of this book.

The management and treatment of a snakebite patient in hospital is a complex and multi-faceted clinical exercise, which has to be handled very carefully. The physician has to deal with serious conditions like respiratory paralysis, cardiac dysfunction, multiple organ failure, cardiogenic shock, management of late sequels and post rehabilitation.

Dr. Kularatne gives very clear clinical guidelines and instructions on all these. What is specially striking in his writing is the clarity of his presentation and the way he summarizes and tabulates core points.

First aid in a snakebite is a contingency, and practical matters like bringing a patient to hospital or transferring the patient from one hospital to another are important matters in snakebite care. All these are briefly but very clearly covered in Dr. Kularatne’s book.

This book, priced at Rs.150 is available at the Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya.

Learning to ‘write’
By Punyakante Wijenaike
When I began writing in the early sixties, it was fairly simple and straightforward. There I was, a lonely housewife with a fertile imagination which could have got me into mischief. So I diverted my energy between housework and babies to pen and paper.

I next 'borrowed' my husband's portable Olivetti typewriter. At first it was one finger typing. But then I mastered the touch system and it was smooth going. Luckily for me my stories found their place in local newspapers, journals and magazines. Since husband too needed his machine I bought a bigger model but again manually operated.

Then came the electric typewriter. I was in my glory! No more tired, aching fingers but many more typing errors appeared as the machine flew over the pages. I had to erase with a special typing eraser which made formidable patches, if not holes in the paper.

The next step up the ladder came when I sold the electric typewriter for an electronic one with a little window open for me to see my errors before passing them onto the paper. The electronic was even easier on the fingers.

But then began the questions: 'Are you on e-mail? on the internet?' The answer is still 'no' because I am yet trying to come to terms with my newly acquired computer.

This time, however, I had wisely kept my electronic machine with me, just in case. Today I realize I will never get rid of it. I have been compelled to return to it when it comes to the creative part of my work.

My experiences with my computer are varied. During my first lesson, with my tutor, my grandson, standing by my side, as I faced the blank face of the computer, I lost my ability to create. I just sat learning what to press and what not to press and at what time and place. Once I pressed the wrong button and erased completely a page I had created with great thought and effort. If I make spelling errors, the computer underlines them with a heavy red line like a teacher.

But as I progress, my computer and I are becoming better friends. Now that I am getting the upper hand, getting control of the machine, I am able to create. What I did not know was the computer too had the power to create its own words.

A few days ago as I sat down to touch the keys, the telephone rang. Up to that moment the computer had been ready to take down my writing. When I returned after answering the telephone I found the computer with a blank face. Dark and angry, it would not come back to light despite the efforts of myself, my grandson and my daughter. Finally I was compelled to call the computer service. He promised to come next day.

That afternoon, however, on impulse I just pressed the computer button although I knew it was not working. To my amazement, its smiling face returned! But there was a line of words written across its face by the computer itself!

'I HAVE JUST RECOVERED FROM A MOST DISTRESSING CONDITION.'
So now I know my computer can speak to me!
Maybe, someday, it might change my story line. Who knows?

Thinking afresh
The Creative Touches of the Chisel by Sivanandini Duraiswamy. Reviewed by Susantha Goonatilake
I am not an art critic or art historian although I have used art criticism and art history in my own narrow field of global cross-cultural transactions. So it is as a commentator on the global traffic of ideas that I speak of Sivanandini's work.

Sivanandini's is clearly a work of joy. Her rapture at things seen, at attempts to compare and contrast with fresh eyes clearly shines through in her writing. Hers is in the same spirit of western explorers who came to our shores compared, contrasted, took a large canvas and made broad generalisations. They made the furniture of our mental world, moulded how even now we look at ourselves. We today think second hand their thoughts.

Full of imperfections and prejudices, yet they tried to make sense from their perspective of what they saw. From government agent to collector, from Jesuit priest to William Jones in the 18th century to Turner and Princep in the early 19th century, they came, collated, classified and conquered. They had an all-encompassing gaze unafraid to generalise. They came as intellectual adjuncts to conquer the world. They generalised on the world and so conquered the world.

There were few among us in South Asia who brought an alternative global vision. Ram Mohan Roy, Anagarika Dharmapala, and Swami Vivekananda were among our religious and philosophical leaders who attempted a global vision. Nehru's Discovery of India was one summation of such attempts. In art, only Ananda Coomaraswamy stands out among us in Sri Lanka.

After Independence our scholars sought a synoptic view. Comparative literature not available in Sri Lanka; we got our scholars trained in centres like the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. There, they could access vast collections brought from all over the world. And compare and contrast. They could attempt global visions. Till the late 1970s, a set of fine scholars were trained there and exposed to the best in the East and the West.

A truly foolish government downgraded in the 1970s our oldest social science, history, going back to over 2,300 years. Our historians had to quickly retool. History in the process got fragmented, downgraded, no attempts at larger views emerged.

A contrast lies in India. Let me mention just one synoptic attempt in which I have had the privilege to be associated with. Beginning two decades ago in centres such as Chennai, Bangalore, Kanpur, Ahamedabad, Bombay and Delhi, a systematic search has occurred on the history of Indian science and what we can resurrect from it. Our meetings have sometimes drawn 3,000 delegates. This movement and its parallels are today drawing the intellectual outlines of, when in the next generation, Asia emerges once again as a major intellectual powerhouse.

These efforts reverberate in the recent debates on the teaching of South Asian religion in the West as for example in the raging debates on the Indian expatriate website Sulekha.

Fitting into this new dominant Asia, requires from us in Sri Lanka synoptic visions. An ability to think afresh and compare and contrast. A move away from the boring scholasticism that grips our imagination. It should be the free play of ideas and connections that we experience combined with the works of others.

Sivanandini's work comes in this tradition that we have lost. As a wife of a diplomat she has wandered the world.

To wander, think afresh and make new patterns; that is what she has attempted. In such journeys, there are no finalities, no perfect solutions. It is the adventure that thrills. And she has taken us on her personal adventure as she ventured into new lands and saw things afresh and made patterns.

An exploration of Sinhala theatre and cinema
Bibliography on the urban Sinhala theatre (1867-1986) and the Sinhala cinema (1948-1986) by Kamalika Pieris.Published by S. Godage. Price Rs. 475. Reviewed by Tilak Bandara

This work covering Sinhala theatre and Sinhala cinema can be recommended as a satisfactory compilation on the subject, though it is by no means complete. The sources include monographs, postgraduate theses, serials, newspaper reports and reviews.

In addition to the items in Sinhala and English, there are also a few references in other languages. The compiler has stated that the work is intended primarily for the specialist. However, it is compiled in such a manner that the amateur can also use it.

In the section on theatre, the material is presented within the periods of 1867 to 1920, 1920 to 1949, the 50's, 60's, 70's decades and the period from 1980-86. The compiler has included references on the translations and adaptations, youth theatre, street theatre, passion plays, and Vesak plays.

Other categories includes speech and language, music training, criticism, publications, theatre halls, lighting, dramatists, theatre groups, actors and actresses.

There is a section on individual plays as well. Similarly, the section on Sinhala cinema provides information on the period 1940-1950, the 50s, 60s and 70s decades, and the period from 1980-86. There is information on the cinema industry, short films, documentaries, National Film Corporation, film archives, film societies, cinema directors, cinema technology, audience surveys, literature and criticism. The work concludes with an extensive section of reviews on individual films.

This work is valuable for two reasons. Firstly, it is a useful tool for researching into these two subjects. The task of compiling lists of references is made very easy now. Secondly, it enables the compilation of definitive histories on Sinhala theatre and Sinhala cinema. We do not have a systematic history of our Sinhala cinema and Sinhala theatre. Academics such as D. V. Hapuarachchi, H.D.A. Ratnayake, Wilmot P. Wijetunge, Tissa Kariyawasam wrote their histories of Sinhala theatre, using notes, and newspaper reports. Tissa Kariyawasam obtained information for his history of Sinhala theatre from Sinhala Samaya, Dinapatha Pravurthi, Sarasavi Sandaresa, Lakmini Pahana, Lakrivi Kirana, Gnanartha Pradeepaya, Ceylon Morning Leader, Examiner, Ceylon Observer and other such newspapers, or through discussion with his contemporaries.

The cinema annuals published by the OCIC edited by Fr. Ernest Poruthota used contemporary newspaper accounts, critical reviews, and any available books and documents published in Sinhala. It should be pointed out, in passing that these early newspapers need careful conservation, if they are to be used for research.

Two sources of information have not been included in this work. The information held in the literary souvenirs issued periodically in this country and the records of theatre companies, such as Ceylon Theatres, Cinemas and Ceylon Entertainment's have not been scrutinised.

A task that should have been carried out as a co-operative effort through institutional funds has been carried out by Pieris as a solo effort. When we consider that there is no authoritative national newspaper index and much of the material published in Sinhala is not documented according to contemporary bibliographic standards, this work by Kamalika Pieris is very commendable.

Pieris has also indirectly indicated the need to carry on the work pioneered by Ian Goonetileke, Sri Lanka's outstanding librarian and bibliographer.

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