“Learning to Fly” (Perera Hussein, 2008) is a coming-of-age novel about the complicated life of a Sri Lankan girl in contemporary Colombo. Sardonic and dreamy, the young Kala confronts love and heartbreak on her way to adulthood, all the while harbouring deep suspicions about the life society and family would have her dutifully live.
“How boring this marriage business. No essence for happiness. How bloody unromantic,” muses Kala in the book, as her parents debate marriage offers. “It strapped up independence as if it weren’t important anymore. It made emotional parasites of women who started loving their husbands too much. It made a real life movie out of every woman who decided to give up individuality in a so-called marriage bond.”
The book is author Shehani Gomes’s first, but was nevertheless short-listed for the Gratiaen Prize in 2008, a fact made all the more remarkable given that Gomes is just 24-years-old. She attended St. Bridget’s Convent before receiving a law degree and practising journalism for a stint.
Today, she is a management consultant for an environmental firm in Colombo, where in between work and writing, she nurses a passionate addiction to chocolate. “A perfect substitute for all regular meals,” she said. The Sunday Times sat down with Gomes recently to learn more about her first book.
The writing style of “Learning to Fly” is a mixture of interior monologues, diary entries, letters, third person narration, and un-attributed dialogue. Where do you think this kind of abstract writing style came from?
I love writing poetry and I think that has really influenced my prose. The style was definitely intended but it’s also just naturally how I’ve written since I was young. I had a very happy childhood, a very happy adolescence but I was a bit of a freak. I wrote a lot.
What sorts of books have influenced you?
I read a lot of Indian novels and authors; Kiran Desai and Arundhati Roy. My favourite book is "The Big Picture" by the American author Douglas Kennedy. I read all the time, whatever falls into my lap.
When did the idea for “Learning to Fly” begin to germinate?
When I started working for the radio station EFM, I got a computer and had to begin writing and typing really fast. Eventually, I just started writing this story, almost as a sort of exercise. The story isn’t related to anybody I know, it’s not based on real life. It’s more about things that I myself would never do, exploring a very “psycho” state of mind. None of the characters in the book are mentally balanced people.
Can you describe the main
character Kala?
Kala is a ‘proper’ girl who has a deeply conservative side that she’s breaking away from. She’s got this feisty spirit and is a kind of drama queen as a result. Everyone’s entitled to be a bit of a pre-Madonna when writing in a diary, and that’s why I used that format in the book a lot.
There is a sense of heightened drama in the book that seems to be a characteristic of growing up, a time period when emotions and events can feel more vivid.
I was trying to portray an almost hypersensitive kid. I don’t think every kid is bright and shiny and happy. There’s a dark and twisty side as well. Some people will have a crush on someone and then move on but Kala isn’t that type, she’s going to psychoanalyze why she has a crush on this little boy. That level of intensity is in a lot of people, but most don’t tap into it. They’re content enough with their circumstances that they don’t want to expose that part of their head, or they are afraid to even find out what’s in that part of their head.
The book has been touted as a rare look at modern, urban Sri Lankan youth. How do you think it’s different to grow up in Sri Lanka today than it was 20 or 30 years ago?
It’s very hard to generalize. Sometimes you find these girls today and you wonder if they are living in another century because they are so conventional. Then you get the super liberal types. But I do think people in general are opening up to new ideas and are far more liberal than they used to be. Nevertheless, it is still fundamentally a conservative nation with a conservative code of ethics. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s great. However, there are very few books out there that describe adolescence and youth in Sri Lanka, and the ones that do are mostly a nice, proper love story about this really innocent girl falling in love with a smashingly good-looking boy. I think this book is about the other side of things. That’s what I tried to do, take an honest look at what else goes on.
What is the “other side of things”?
It’s mainly the experience of the people who don’t fit in. What it’s like when you’re about 12-years-old and all of your girlfriends have got their period and you’re still waiting. What it's like to be a rich, empty kid. What it's like to sleep with your boss, as Kala does. I’m not particularly trying to denounce the cultural ideas about girls and boys and the proper way they should behave. But at some level, the moral code doesn’t help when you are an adolescent. Especially, if you violate those established norms and suddenly realize that you don’t fit in anymore.
Do you think there is a shift in terms of more people examining these alternative narratives in Sri Lankan culture, whether it’s in books or movies or other forms?
I’m not sure but I hope so. I had this fear before the book launch that I was going to be a laughing stock for writing these things. Then I just decided that no matter happened, it’s an honest account of things that actually happen here and how people go about it. It’s trying to speak unspoken things. Certain parts of society are going to be judgmental.
So how did the launch actually go?
It was really great. I’m a bit of a sociopath so I just went home afterwards and ate a lot of chocolate.
What are you working on now?
I’m starting a second novel. Most likely, it’s going to be about adolescence. I’m thinking that ten years from now I won’t be as obsessed with the topic but as of now, I still am.
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