The story of a family reflecting changing times
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Kamala Wijeratne’s second novel Anithyagama – The End of An Era– is about the impermanence of life. Wijeratne has been writing poems and short stories for 40 years, but she started writing novels only in 2020 and won the Godage & Brothers award for the best novel in English that year.
She received the Sahithyaratna –Lifetime Award in September 2019, and has won State Literary Awards three times for poetry and short fiction. She has been invited to India since 2013, by the SAARC Festival of Writers and Literature to present her research and poetry.
Anithya means impermanence. Nothing is permanent in this world. So is the lifestyle of people as Wijeratne traces the story of a bygone era. The dull colours of the book cover are symbolic; a wall with triangular openings where earlier oil lamps were placed to brighten the area when the family was at the height of its power. But now, the light has dimmed with the change in their social standing and the potted plants are drooping indicating the fall of the family’s status.
A gifted writer with fluid prose and insightful observations, Wijeratne uses the dialogue for personal interactions. The Sinhala dialogue is typical of village folk. The first chapter begins with the funeral of the protoganist Suseema’s aunt. “Pansy Kudamma….the last in her line….Her foster mother…” Suseema and her twin brother Sumitta lost their mother at birth.
The story is woven around an old walawwa of a bygone era. Suseema lived here with her relatives as a child. Her teenage romance with a son of a family retainer is disrupted. One day, as she returns home, Kudamma asks her sarcastically “Where did you go young lady?” “To school and then to the library.” “Library? So late? Why did you go to the park?”
A family drama ensues and Suseema is sent back to live with her father in Bandarawela. She becomes a teacher in a rural Tamil school and finds it difficult to control the unruly children. Shreedharan comes to her rescue and she does not realize just how fateful this chance meeting is.
Selling the walawwa is a sad moment for Suseema but her brother Sumitta who lives in Australia does not care for old traditions and values that were instilled into them by their aristocratic elders. He sells the walawwa to the son of the retainer, who has come up in life to become a top government servant and a very wealthy man. Ironically, he was the cause for Suseema’s fall from grace with her family.
Many years later, Suseema moves to Colombo and encounters Shreedharan once again. She falls in love with him. But, this relationship drags her to be involved with a terrorist group and her loyalties are split.
The book is an interesting read for the older generation to reminisce on a bygone era and for younger readers to learn of the lifestyle of earlier generations.
Anithyagama will be launched next Sunday, May 21 at the Mahaweli Reach Hotel, Kandy.
| Anithyagama The End of An Era- by Kamala Wijeratne Published by S. Godage & Brothers (Pvt.) Ltd. Price: Rs. 950 Reviewed by Udumbara Udugama | |
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