02nd November 1997

Her vision is to write...

By Farah Mihlar

It is sad but true . There is an entire generation in Sri Lanka that has grown up in an environment of War. There must be millions of teenagers in other parts of the world who only read about wars in their history books or watch stories of wars on television. But here there are hundreds of children who wake up to the sounds of shelling, bombing and firing . And for the hundreds of others who live away from the war, it is still a part of their life, spoken of, heard and seen every day.

Muthu Padmakumara is one such person. She is 20 years old but has come into the limelight following the recent launch of her book of poetry. Muthu wrote 'There are no more rainbows' when she was 19 but the book was only recently published and launched at a gala ceremony . There was some irony in the event which was held at a five star hotel in an atmosphere, probably unknown to those she writes about. But the effect of the war was re created at the Oberoi Ballroom when Director Jerome de Silva dramatized selected poems from her book.

The title of the book aptly explains its content. It talks of the victims of Sri Lanka's long drawn out war, families of soldiers, refugees and even just ordinary friends torn apart by ethnic rivalry. In other words it says there is little hope.... there is no silver lining..... There are no more rainbows. Pessimistic, Melancholic more likely - that's how Muthu describes herself. Imaginative, dreamy, she adds. Difficult to understand looking at her. She sits on a high chair, her curly hair tied up. Her dark eyes tell most of her stories but there is something in her smile, a kind of charm which brings out a glimpse of maturity creeping through even as she speaks.

They say the youth are always hot blooded. Muthu explains "I am utterly unhappy with the state of affairs in this country. A larger number don't seem to have a choice."

She seems confused, disappointed that she sees little light in life. She speaks of the lack of opportunity, the underdevelopment the war, the bombs, the tension. She asks the common question lingering in the minds of many, 'What does this country have to offer us?'

But as Kennedy once said 'think not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.' Muthu thinks of the latter more than the former . She is tortured by the stories of war which prompt her to write. "I didn't want to just sit there and do nothing about it, I want to give some thing back," she says. Her poems are specific . They are based on incidents and stories related to her by those who have been victims of the war unlike others of her age who are partying and having fun. "I had an urge to write this book," she says . "The talk of publishing the book came only later. It was literally forced upon me by those who thought it was good".

Muthu says she was not a born poet. She doesn't call it a talent but her ability to write obviously must have been in her having a father who is a prominent journalist. From her childhood she was exposed to wide variety of literature. A massive collection in her father's library, books on communism which belonged to her grandfather and literature on capitalism she borrowed from her only brother formed most of her reading material. She had her basic education at Sujatha Vidyalaya where she excelled in many fields , becoming Deputy head prefect and junior prefect at thirteen . She did both her local and London O' levels and then shifted around many private tutors until she found a suitable combination of subjects. But right along ,there was one subject she had set her mind on pursuing, so it wasn't surprising that she immediately topped the batch in English literature when she started of at Colombo International School . She speaks of spending long hours at the school library and discussions on literary subjects she had with her teachers and friends, some thing she preferred to attending daily classes.

Muthu wrote her first poem in 1994. She had five minutes as a result of being late to class to write a poem on three given subjects as a term test. I just scribbled some lines in a hurry and every one liked what I wrote" she says. Later she began writing often and the devastating bomb blast at the Central Bank strongly influenced her to write more . Muthu does not take long to produce her poetry. Her first book "Innocence Unending" took her a very short time to write and her second book took her only two weeks.

Her style she says is simple. " Plenty of people speak high flown language, make high remarks. I don't want to be like them. I want to be approachable to every one," she says adding that she doesn't have an "I dare you understand my poems" attitude. Unusual for some one who names the Irish poet John Donne as one of her favourites.

Muthu is not ambitious but she has a vision of what she wants to be. A journalist/ writer. " I can never see myself doing any thing else but that," she says. She is currently working on her third book of poetry, her first novel and her first musical . She is also planning to go to the United States to pursue her education in media. But her long term plans are more elaborate. "The fact that Arundhati Roy won the Booker prize put India on the map. I just want to make a name for my country through my writing," she says. She adds her greatest ambition in life is to gain a lot of maturity, a lot of wisdom and a lot of patience.

Muthu is grateful to many people who helped her with her books, her parents being first amongst them. She loves being dependent on them and says with a child like smile that she plans to live with them forever.

Before Muthu leaves she stops to talk to a friend who openly makes her comments on her poetry . She says they are far too melodramatic. Muthu walks away expressionless. I ask her if she is not affected by others remarks. She replies with some maturity, "Their remarks say more about themselves than about my poetry".

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