Reading allows one to grasp the cogs in the wheel

-Madhubhashini Disnayaka Rathnayaka 

Her earliest memories of her love for books is of her special reading spot in the Ladies College Library. She spent every break in the paradise-like hideaway facing a huge tree. Madhubhashini counts herself lucky to have had academic parents who were responsible for inculcating in her the habit of reading at an early age. Kala Keerthi Madhubhashini Disanayaka Ratnayake is quite the academic herself. The former Head and a senior lecturer in the Department of English Language Teaching, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, has a Masters degree from New York University, in English, and American literature with a special focus on Creative Writing. Currently she is reading for her doctorate at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo.

“Our house was always full of books,” said the Gratiaen and State Literary Prize winner Madhubhashini. She won the Gratiaen Prize in 2011 for her novel ‘There is Something I Have to Tell You’, having been shortlisted for it twice for her short story collections. She won the State Literary Prize for her short story collection ‘Driftwood’ in 1991. Her anthology of translations of post-war Sinhala fiction is to be published in India. In 2017, she was awarded the title of Kala Keerthi by the President of Sri Lanka.

Madhubhashini explained that parents can create an environment conducive to reading even if they are not academics, by making books freely available at home. “Make it so that kids see books all the time. Make books almost like playthings.” Madhubhashini recounted how her parents took her and her brother to a book store each time they came first or second in class. “Consequently, books always came out in a positive light. This, of course, doesn’t guarantee that the children will become readers, it just means that the parents have tried.” Madhubhashini explained that money is no obstacle. Children can be easily encouraged to borrow. “Specially since Sri Lanka has a commendable library system.”

When asked how reading enriched her, Madhubhashini said that experience can only get a writer so far. “The handicap of the limited experience can easily be overcome by reading. Every book is like a portal to a different dimension.” And for Madhubhashini, being bilingual was an added advantage. “I learned different things reading Sinhala and English books. Reading allows you to put yourself in other’s shoes and reading takes away that cocksureness that is the root cause of violence.” She emphasised that no literature condones violence and popularizing all literature, irrespective of language, is therefore, a sure fire way of reducing violence and putting a stop to wars.

Madhubhashini readily admits that reading has enriched her more specifically as a writer. With a Masters Degree, from NYU, on Creative Writing, Madhubhashini said that 75 percent of writing is in the craft. “The real writing starts not when you pour your heart out, but when editing and crafting, which is a more clinical process. NYU taught me to master writing quickly.” But she pointed out that reading achieves the same objective.

She remembered carrying Michael Ondaatje’s ‘The English Patient’ around, like a bible, while in New York. “How Ondaatje describes Almásy’s devastation at separation from Katharine, sweeping his arm across plates and glasses on a restaurant table, without so much as a mention of his sense of desolation, is real craft. When you read and reread these texts, you tend to get the cogs, a sense of how they move. That’s what reading does to a writer.” Madhubhashini explained that reading hones the power of imagination. “Innovation requires imagination. In fact every academic subject requires imagination. Therefore reading ignites innovation.”

Unfortunately, popularity of reading has declined over the past few years due to other forms of entertainment. “J. K. Rowling revived the love for reading in the new generation, but the new Harry Potter movies again undermined it.” She explained that before the movies there were millions of Harrys, conjured up by the imagination of the millions of those who read Harry Potter novels. “But with the advent of the movies, overnight, all those millions of Harrys turned into Daniel Radcliffe.”

On the bright side, in other parts of the world, the younger generation maybe attracted to other reading platforms such as ebooks. The same cannot be said for Sinhala Literature, pointed out Madhubhashini. With so many other diversions that demand the attention of the young generation, such as Netflix, Facebook and Instagram, Madhubhashini feels that, if the only Sinhala books available are classics, reading will lose its appeal for the young generation. “The vital question is whether we are producing Sinhala literature relevant to the young generation.” She reiterated that, when there is no competition in the form of books, reading will invariably decline.