Past times in a different Lanka
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Like any mother, Maryann Ferdinands-Grigson shared stories of her life with her children. Having lived more than three score years and ten, she had countless stories to tell. Her tales spanned more years than she has lived, starting from the times of her grandparents in colonial Ceylon. She had gone through the mill of life with strength, courage and determination and wanted to share her experiences with her loved ones.
Her daughter said, “Mum, before you become senile, please write it all down for us.” So, she began to script the accounts swirling in her head with the help of a writing group. Five years later, in 2021, she delivered her memoir, Links in a Memorable Chain, published by Rod Grigson’s firm Grigson Publishing, in Australia where Maryann now resides.
“My idea was not just about me; it was a part of everybody I knew and everything that I loved and had held dear. I changed my idea into a real-life story, filled with broken pieces, bad choices, ugly truths, and adventurous journeys, … and a significant comeback, happier times, peace in my soul and a saving grace,” she said.
Maryann’s story presents an interesting spectrum of life through the lens of one woman, a member of the Sri Lankan Burgher community. Narrated in a direct, conversational voice, it offers glimpses of social and cultural change within society from WWII Ceylon to modern times, as well as the life of an immigrant Australian interwoven with deeply personal accounts of marriage, divorce, new love and moving on, recalled with objectivity and compassion.
Links in a Memorable Chain begins in the home of Maryann’s grandparents in Colombo, distilled from stories handed down by her mother about what life was like for her and her parents’ generations. It continues to events in Maryann’s childhood in a strict patriarchal home, to marriage and the struggle of a young couple trying to make a home, the trials of motherhood, brushes with the ethnic conflict, divorce, the departure of her children to foreign lands, and finally her own migration to Australia where she forged a new life for herself.
Included is a cross section of lifestyles, for example, living in a colonial style bungalow, and then in wattle and daub housing, a common feature of coconut plantations in Homagama at the time her father took up a supervisory post in a foreign-owned coconut plantation. She gives a first-hand account of off-the-grid, sustainable living, now so hip but then not a preferred option. It included sleeping on straw mats on the floor, making coconut oil at home, dining on vegetable produce from the home garden, and dad bringing home wild boar and rabbit from the hunt.
Her grandchildren, Janiq and Keeran Meegama, who absorbed these stories, have beautifully illustrated some elements for her book, like cadjan roofing, bullock carts, the hiramane and the pol-katu iron.
Maryann has lived through times of plenty and times of extreme scarcity in Sri Lanka when food and goods were rationed and clothes were made of fabrics smelling of kerosene from the cooperative store. She reminisces about the simple joys such as the hoola hoop that was once so much a part of childhood in Colombo, the Knickerbocker Glory sundae at the Piccadilly café opposite the Polytechnic, rickshaw and bullock cart rides, and the anxiety of a student attending schools presided over by draconian nuns and teachers.
Of particular note is how the Sinhala Only policy affected the Burgher community and how those who did not emigrate survived on assistance from the Dutch Burgher Union, and a description of how Black July shattered her peaceful multicultural neighbourhood.
Maryann’s story will rekindle memories that most mature readers have filed away or forgotten and inform younger generations of times past. Importantly, it reminds us that ordinary women have extraordinary stories to tell. From telling tales at bedtime to narrating memories of the good old times over a cup of tea, women have always played a role in storytelling. They are the bearers of history.
Primarily, what Maryann shares in her memoir has meaning for her family and descendants. For the rest of us as a community, it offers cultural insights through lived experience, and a collection of facets of another life to keep and remember.
An earlier version of the online edition of this article mistakenly referred to 'her husband' Rod Grigson. Our apologies for the error and any inconvenience caused.
- Daleena Samara
| Book Facts: | |
| Links in a Memorable Chain, by Maryann Ferdinands-Grigson Grigson Publishing, 2021 |
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