His heart has been in two places throughout his life – in the skies and with the people of Sri Lanka. Captain Elmo Jayawardena has come a long way in both his aviation and writing, being an acclaimed pilot and aviation trainer and winning the Gratiaen Prize for his novel ‘Sam’s Story’, in 2001 as well as the State Literary Prize for ‘The Last Kingdom of Sinhalay’ in 2005. His book ‘Rainbows in Braille’ was also shortlisted for the Singapore literary prize.
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| The front and back cover of the book |
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| Horton Plains in all its splendour |
This time around, he will be launching ‘Yana Maga’, a coffee table book tomorrow, January 9. Depicting various places and aspects of the island, Captain Elmo has carefully selected places less visited. “We all have our path, and the journey is what matters, such is the name ‘Yana Maga’,” he says, adding “ ‘Yana Maga’ will take us to our destination but we should be aware of the journey.” True to its name, the book captures many sights you would encounter on a tour around the island.
A gift of the gods – is how he refers to Sri Lanka and he starts off the book with a brief introduction to the geography of the island and an insight into our splendid wildlife. He then moves from a vivid description of the many tanks and lakes of Sri Lanka to the hospitality and ‘smiles’ of our people. “The one that originates from the heart and lights up the face and reaches the eyes. The smile of the Sri Lankan is instant and spontaneous. Be it the Vendor, the Cabby, the Waiter... they all know how to smile,” he writes.
“I want to show people something more than what they would encounter in usual history books,” he says. “When I started writing my first book composing the history of Sri Lanka I learnt very many facts that I had not known before. The art is to present them to the people without boring them – history is boring isn’t it?” he chuckles.
Exploring the many ethnic multitudes of this beautiful land, he mentions their origins and history as well. Brief snippets of the era of Independence, and the struggles that followed the country’s new found freedom are also captured but he does not dwell on the cruelty of the 30-year- war rather on the hopes that lie in future.
There is much to absorb the reader. “Have you heard of the ‘Double Sunrise Flight’?” he asks. “This was the longest commercial flight in the history of aviation, which took place from Perth in Western Australia to our very own Koggala.” It covered 6,630 km, and the pilots experienced two sunrises on their path. This event in the Second World War has been unearthed by Captain Elmo in ‘Yana Maga’.
Likewise another little-known story is that of ‘Kalu Appu’ and ‘Kalu Hamy’, the two pet bears, belonging to Henderic Engelbrecht, The first Game Warden of Yala who was a Boer War prisoner of the English. The touching tale of these two bears is found in Captain Elmo’s description of Yala. The wildlife and its serenity is detailed as expected, but the unknown facets give the book further interest.
An entire section is also dedicated to a part of our identity, a musical beat that is set in our hearts by default at birth – Baila music. “Although Baila is of Portuguese origin, we have modified it and made it our very own,” says Captain Elmo. “Kussi amma Seera had a fight with one Perera, home people dono what to do, Aney mage Nona mata gamata yanna ona, masa deke padiya denna ko”. “Try and match that?”, he asks.
The pictures are vibrant and full of colour, capturing the true Sri Lankan flavour.
Captain Elmo founded ‘CandleAid Lanka’, formerly known as ‘AFLAC’, in 1995 supported by his wife Dil. It is an organization that aims at attacking poverty through five main areas of work: education, health, shelter, food and community development. Modelled on the belief that everyone can do something to help each other, it reflects his passion to help people in need fused with his love for this country.
“Yana Maga”, indeed has taken all flavours of Sri Lanka and has made the perfect ambul thiyal and sambol, to show the true face of Sri Lanka. |
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