Books
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| Ondaatje’s
own journey in the spirit of Burton’s Christopher Ondaatje's last book, Sindh Revisited, concerned a journey through what is now largely Pakistan in the footsteps of Richard Francis Burton, the eminent Victorian explorer, linguist, naturalist, Orientalist, historian, pioneer ethnologist, prodigious womanizer and controversial man of letters. But, ultimately, it was really more a work of popular historical biography -a highly entertaining introduction to the life and work of Burton, for whom both Ondaatje and I evidently share something approaching an unhealthy obsession. Burtophilia is essentially a macho thing. One judges the calibre of one's manliness by setting it deed for deed against the daunting standard of Burton's own accomplishments, in all their profusion and Renaissance scope. Three men today would have trouble reproducing Burton's lifetime of accomplishments among them. I confess to a feeling of mild relief when Sindh Revisited appeared to prove beyond all doubt that Ondaatje could ride on the coattails, perhaps, but not walk in the footsteps. He admired Burton, but he did not really understand the man -and he'd never have the time to try. He was a dilettante. I
was wrong about this, however. Journey to the Source of the Nile,
may look to most readers like a lavish mélange of texts -history,
narrative, memoir, quotation- and photographs that frequently exemplify
the rarely attained goal of being both useful to the mind and hauntingly
beautiful to the eye. But to me Ondaatje's book looks more like
a double serving of humble pie. And it is done with grace and subtlety, for the book slowly builds, eventually transcending itself and becoming a work of scientific importance in its own right. Much as T. S. Eliot advised aspiring literary authors to do in his important essay, Tradition and the Individual Talent, Ondaatje creates something new by being thoroughly familiar with the old, with the works of those men and women upon whose shoulders he must stand, much as a sound building rises only from good foundations. Hence Journey opens with a concise history of European exploration in Africa, at the heart of which was the search for the mysterious source of the world's longest -and history's most important- river. Nothing today, not even NASA's voyages into local outer space compares with the collective enthusiasm generated by those intrepid souls who boldly went where no white man (or woman) had gone before. John Hanning Speke; James Augustus Grant; Henry Morton Stanley; David Livingstone; Samuel White Baker and Florence Baker; and of course Burton. The stories live on, I now realize, because at their core they are about people. Livingstone's disappearance was only eclipsed as news by the journalist Stanley's search for him. When the two finally met in 1871 -"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"- Livingstone had spent five fruitless years attempting to settle a controversy created by the conflicting claims of Burton and Speke regarding their joint expedition in 1856. After Livingstone's death and the dramatic return of his body to Westminster Abbey for a state funeral, it was Stanley who, building on information handed to Speke by Baker, was finally able to organize the expedition that circumnavigated Lake Victoria and explored the region of the Ruwenzori Mountains, settling and issue (in Speke's favour) that had occupied press and public for 20 years. Yet, as Ondaatje knows instinctively, without Burton there would have been no Speke, just as without Livingstone you have no Stanley. The bonds formed during such expeditions, though, are closer than any other kind of relationship; Burton and Speke became feuding brothers; Stanley became Livingstone's son. It is not possible to read any primary source about these men without running into the inherent bias of its author. As a consequence -because Burton was also one of the great prose stylists of his day- one tends to see Speke as a two-faced, weak and somewhat wimpy. It is generous of Ondaatje to set the record straight. Burton would have wanted it that way. Where I found the prose of the Sindh book overly effusive yet also somewhat characterless, one of the delights of the current work is its spare, urgent, ad hoc style. It is reminiscent of Burton's own tough-minded erudite yet sensitive writing. The horrors, wonders, and incomparable natural beauty of Africa require severe rationing of adjectives and judicious selection of subject matter if the reader is not to drown in felicities. Wordsworth's Prelude would be a mere haiku compared with what he might have written had he been young and resilient enough to join Burton and Speke. He would certainly have been incapable of the evocative yet concise prose Ondaatje produces when, say, writing about an area of Zanzibar: "It is the Arab houses that give Stone Town its distinct appeal. Every house has a magnificent door, often teak studded with brass. Elaborate carvings on the lintels and frames include quotations from the Koran which are believed to bestow a blessing on the home. There are hundreds of different doors, carved with symbols of lotus flowers for procreation, fish for fertility, dates and frankincense for abundance, and reinforced with chains for the safety and security of those within." Analyze this and you will see how much reading, knowledge, sheer inquisitiveness and study goes into producing such deceptively straightforward words. Yet, like Burton again -and unlike, say, Speke- Ondaatje does have the literary reach to allow emotion's blood to seep into clear mental waters at times when the heart truly does know more than the head. There are even times when he intuitively understands that his own feelings are best expressed through the words of his companions or the works of those who made the same journey in a different age. It is no secret that Ondaatje is very rich -and made every cent himself- but anyone who imagines that this, these days, means you can take the air conditioned limousine from a Livingstone Hilton to a Ritz-Burton Safari Resort has obviously never been to East Africa. Ondaatje is acutely conscious of the advantages he has over his predecessors, but these can be summed up as "speed". Ultra-light equipment and the indispensable Land Rover mean that you no longer have to hire 200 bearers and you don't have to walk, or not that much. Where Burton spent six months in Zanzibar, Ondaatje requires only a few days to get his expedition on the road -or rather on the water. Where Burton had pen and ink or pencil to painstakingly illustrate his observations, Ondaatje has his camera. Where Burton needed chronometers, sextants, bath thermometers and a virtual library of cartographic manuals to determine -and wrongly at that- such quintessentials as altitude, longitude and latitude, Ondaatje is spared the toil of justifying the expense of his expedition to its backers by returning with valuable data. However, these significant freedoms also allow him to ponder issues which the Victorians were blissfully unaware even existed. The sections dealing with geology and the relatively recent formation of the Nile are fascinating. But the multi-disciplinary conclusions Ondaatje arrives at in relation to the river's source and the dawn of Homosapiens are nothing less than startling, original and quite brilliant. They are, finally, what raises Journey far above mere travelogues, making it and the expedition it recounts every bit the modern equivalent of what those Victorian giants achieved. Ondaatje also has a humility from which Burton could have learned. His interest in and empathy with the various people and peoples he meets along the 10,000 kilometres covered by this quest are far warmer than our hero's whose analytical objectivity in recording anthropological data was only counterbalanced by the uncanny range of his knowledge and linguistic skills. Ondaatje, however, gets far closer to the shared humanity strangers often find with each other. And of course he is freed from the imperial curse that frequently taints the legacies of even the greatest figures from the colonial era, taking care to point out, whenever appropriate, that what may have been a "discovery" to Europeans had always been common knowledge to Africans. To drive home the point, but with humour, the author even cites that poignant tale about the First Nations chieftains who travel to Rome and announce to assembled media that they have "discovered" the city. But Africa's dark vastness and mystery seem to defeat even its own inhabitants. It overwhelms any human attempt to define or tame it, and overshadows all the works of man with the thunder and sunshine, the plains and mountains, the jeweled flora and fauna, the sheer grandeur and magnitude of natures ceaseless toil. Ondaatje's final triumph in this magnificent book is in the admission of such defeat in the face of such an adversary, and in then giving the last wise and poetic words to Joshua, the native who was hired as helper but ended as soul mate: "You know, Christo, we are all children of God. The rains come, the rivers start, the lakes form, and bigger rivers flow. Like the Nile. Like the lakes. Like the clouds. And the world goes on. You know the true source of the Nile, Christo? Up there. In the heavens. God knows. That is the true source."In restoring the harsh magic of Africa, in dispelling the TV generation’s notion that they've been there, done that -when in fact they've been nowhere and done nothing- Christopher Ondaatje has done a great service to the future of a continent that needs the help of all humanity now more than any land has ever done in the past. It takes a big heart and a well-stocked mind to confess one's smallness and inadequacy under the raging heavens and in the briefness of human life. In doing so, Ondaatje has produced his masterpiece, and I am forced to admit that Richard Burton's 10-league boots probably fit him like gloves after all. -(The Globe and Mail) Janaki
writes on to teach and entertain kids Not only ‘Timmy’, ‘Nelly’, ‘Kitty’ and ‘Puppy’, but any child is mesmerized by the journey to the moon and stars in ‘The Flying Train’, a children’s book by Janaki Sooriyarachchi. Janaki is the recipient of the prestigious BUNKA Award 2005 (presented by Japan-Sri Lanka Cultural Foundation) and the State Literary Award 2004 in both Sinhala and English categories for her contribution to children’s literature. “Ever since I could hold a pencil and a crayon, I used to scribble and bring life to peraheras on the walls of our home. Ever since I could utter a syllable, I used to sing. I have always enjoyed art and literature in many forms and I feel that I am appreciated today although I am a person who never seeks rewards for my work,” says the ever-smiling, soft-spoken Janaki. The ‘Professional Woman of the Year’ (2000) Bronze Award, awarded by Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka, ‘Outstanding Achiever’, awarded by the Association of Business and Professional Women Sri Lanka are some of the other accolades this multi-faceted career woman has received over the years. A professionally qualified banker working at Sampath Bank, Janaki’s list of accomplishments stretch from Bharatha Natyam, bridal dressing, Hindustani music, art and sculpture to sewing and culinary skills! Janaki
believes that the school curriculum is instrumental in forming a
base for a multi-faceted nature in a person which however should
be refined as he or she grows up. “A child switches from maths
to art, religion to science, therefore the natural instinct for
various talents lie in him or her and this ability to handle a variety
of skills should be developed by the parents.” Yet no one could dampen the spirits of this ‘born writer’, who published her maiden children’s story, Rangige Chithraya at the age of 14. Today Janaki runs her own publishing company, ‘Tikiri Publishers’, which outsources her work for printing. Her books are printed on high quality paper from Finland. Having published 125 children’s books to date, Janaki believes, ‘presentation’ is paramount, as a child is naturally keenly drawn to illustrations. “In a children’s book, simple language and colourful presentation should complement each other. Unlike an adult, a child reads the same book over and over and it’s the responsibility of a writer to handle the language in an accurate yet simple manner and to give a child that extra treat of beautiful illustrations so that they’ll strike the child each time he or she picks it up,” smiles Janaki whose own illustrations bring colour to all her work. “I believe in giving a moral message through all my stories without being a preacher and this I do through simple language, humour and everyday characters,” explains Janaki. For instance in Peni Walalu, the message of ‘sharing’ is imparted in the fascinating portrayal of Sudu Puncha who is unable to enjoy delicious peni walalu without sharing them with his friends. In Emirosy, while all new and jewel-adorned dolls of Emily remain on earth, Emirosy, the oldest who is harassed by rest of the dolls is taken to fairyland by a kind fairy in appreciation of her kindness and good nature. The animal kingdom, science and nature, all seem to blend in Janaki’s work. “The base of every child’s creativity is his or her childhood and its memories. The beautiful village of Puhulwella in Matara where I grew up, is my ideal fairyland, from which I still extract characters and scenes,” explains Janaki adding that even the movements of tiny creatures such as earth worms or butterflies can enrich a child’s imagination. Janaki’s firm belief as a child that a rabbit does exist on the moon seemed to have inspired The Flying Train (Winner of the State Literary Award, English Category 2004). “I wanted to blend so many personalities into myself at once even as a child and an astronaut was one,” laughs Janaki. Inspiring a child to be sensitive to the needs of others is the ultimate objective of all her work. “Parents too should foster social responsibility in a child and encouraging them to cultivate the habit of reading will in turn help them reach this goal. What is important is to instil good values in children, so that they will grow up to be better husbands, wives and parents of tomorrow,” she says. |
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