Features

Some personal insights and a broad brush canvas of Ena de Silva

Published

2 years ago

2022/12/4

Thilina Walpola

Ena de Silva’s 100th birth centenary fell on

Excerpted from
Exploring with Ena by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

Towards the end of 2019 I spent a couple of days at Aluwihare, where I had had many happy times with my aunt Ena de Silva. Since her death in 2015 1 tried to get there twice or thrice a year, not just for sentiment, but also to provide company for Piyadasa and Suja who have lived and worked there for many years.

The Matale Heritage Centre Ena established, for batik and embroidery, still continues on the premises, but the girls – some who started work there over 50 years ago – go home in the evenings and Piyadasa and Suja are left alone. Family members sometimes visit and occasionally stay overnight, but this does not happen often. And Piyadasa and Suja relish company and appreciate the fact that I now go up there to stay more than anyone else. So too Ena loved my frequent visits in the last years of her life. Ena’s daughter Kusum, who lives in California, thanks me but gratitude is unnecessary, for it is always a pleasure to be there, though one still sadly misses its chatelaine.

Piyadasa started at Alu in 1976, looking after Ena’s father, Sir Richard Aluwihare, and then took care of the house himself for around five years after he died in December that year. He then served Ena who went to live there in 1981, two years after her husband Osmund de Silva died. She had not wanted to continue in the home they had lived in for over 20 years and went off to the Virgin Islands as a Consultant, to adjust, shortly after she was widowed. When she came back, she moved to Alu and lived there for 34 years.

Suja came to cook for her in 1983, not able even to boil a pot of water in those days, according to Ena. But she turned into a marvelous cook, carrying out Ena’s wonderful ideas for the most delicious concoctions, ranging from polos sandwiches to Alu chicken, with a sauce combining sugar and spice and all things nice, as indeed the sandwiches did. And, though Ena claimed she had no expertise in puddings, Suja did well with Humbug, a pudding I was served when I first went there in 1993, and had often since though it always tasted different.

In 1983 went there with Nigel Hatch, whom Ena’s driver of those days, Sena, thought he recognized as the nephew when he was sent to pick us up at the bus stand. Nigel did look a bit like my Uncle Lakshman who had visited Ena two or three times after she moved there, coming up from Kurunagala where he was Bishop on his rounds of inspection of the clergy in his diocese. I think Sena saw him just the once, for he died in 1983 but, tall and handsome as he was, he had obviously made an impression.

On my visit in 2019 Nigel joined me on the second day, coming up on the early train from Colombo and then getting a bus from Kandy. That afternoon, after the statutory snooze after Suja’s wonderful lunch, we went up to the rock for tea which Piyadasa brought up on a tray, carefully negotiating the now slippery steps after the incessant rain of the last few weeks.

The rock was a natural feature which Ena had had cemented in 1989, so that the poruwa ceremony for her daughter’s wedding could take place high above the garden in front of the house, above too the upper terrace to which steps led from the garden . Bells had been strung up on the edge of the rock, to ring when the wind blew, and the sound would come to us for the next 25 years before the last bell fell away, shortly before Ena died.

And then, before it got dark, following Ena’s advice that we always be careful about what she described as creepy-crawlies, we went along that cliffside to the graves at the other edge, a little enclosure with inscribed stones for her parents over the vault where her ashes lie with theirs. Behind are inscriptions for her husband and her sister and brother-in-law and her son, though the ashes of the first are not there for they were scattered at the confluence of river and sea at Mutwal as he wished.

In the evening we sat out on the terrace over beer, and Suja’s vegetable patties, before going in for an Alu chicken feast. It was then that my driver Kithsiri, who had grown devoted to Ena in the 22 years he knew her, suggested we drive next day to Wireless Kanda. That was what she called Riverstone, the highest peak in the hills opposite, which we had often driven to in the eighties since Ena was always keen to go loafing.

So next morning, after breakfast, we set out, climbing through Rattota to the steep slopes beyond. With Ena it had initially been an afternoon drive, leaving early though so that we could get back before the descent of the mists that swirled round the hill at tea-time. And now, though it was morning, we had a sense of what we had experienced before, as rain started dripping down when we approached the peak.

But there was a big difference, in that 30 years before we had been the only people heading that way. Now, even on this rainy morning, there were crowds. It was obviously a popular place for a Poya day excursion, and at the turn-off to the peak there were heaps of cars and loud music.

Still, the drive brought back many happy memories. And it was on the way back that I thought that perhaps I would go through my diaries and set out the various journeys Ena and I had been on, starting with the excursion Ena had suddenly proposed to Nigel and me when, as she later put it, she had assessed us over lunch, way back in 1983, and decided that we were game to go loafing.

In doing this I am making use of what I wrote for The Moonemalle Inheritance, the book I produced for her 90th birthday in 2012. The second part of that book recorded travels with her over the preceding 30 years. Some of this is reproduced here but I have added so as to make clear what great friends we were, and the enormous fun we had together, not only travelling but sitting together and talking, at Aluwihare and elsewhere.

Some of this will read like a catalogue, but I wanted to record all our times together at Aluwihare, and much more that we did together. And I will try too to make clear the impact of her work, and how much she contributed to arts and crafts in this country.

It was only in 1983 that I got to know her properly. Having heard about my adventures at S.Thomas’, she decided that there was another unorthodox person in the family and invited me to stay with her at Aluwihare. It was 18 months after she had gone there at the end of 1981 that I made, in May 1983, the first of what were to be frequent visits to her.

Ena was not an especially close relation. Her mother Lucille was a Moonemalle, whose father’s sister was the mother of my maternal grandmother, Esme Goonewardene. But the two cousins, Esme and Lucille, both born in the last year of the 19th century, remained close, perhaps because they both married Civil Servants who were senior administrators in the last years of British rule.

My grandfather Cyril Wickremesinghe however died young and could make no contribution to independent Ceylon. Sir Richard Aluwihare, who had been five years younger, survived into the late seventies. He had retired in 1955 and moved to the new house which he had built on top of a hill in Aluwihare village, looking eastward towards the Gammmaduwa Hills. But a year later he was drawn into politics, contesting the Anuradhapura seat where he had served as Government Agent after my grandfather.

One of their predecessors had been a Britisher called Freeman who had won election to the Legislative Council on the strength of his service to the area. But there was no such gratitude in 1956 and Sir Richard was roundly defeated in the sweeping victory of S W R D Bandaranaike’s MEP colaition. Also defeated, in the Matale constituency in which Aluwihare lay, was Sir Richard’s brother Bernard who had crossed back to the UNP. In 1951, when Bandaranaike left the UNP government to form the SLFP, he had been one of his few aristocratic supporters.

His departure in 1956 was unfortunate, for had he stayed he would undoubtedly have been Bandaranaike’s deputy, and succeeded him as Prime Minister when he was assassinated in 1959. As it was, the Deputy belonged to a caste which others in the party considered unsuitable. That led to vast intrigues, an interim Prime Minister who was a disaster, a hung Parliament in March 1960 so that the UNP Prime Minister (Bernard was his deputy in that Cabinet) dissolved Parliament when he was defeated on the throne speech, and the emergence of Mrs Bandaranaike as leader of the Socialist United Party and Prime Minister after the July 1960 election.

Meanwhile Bandaranaike had offered Sir Richard the position of High Commissioner to India, and he served in New Delhi from 1957 onward. Lucille however died there early in 1961 and, though he soldiered on, he was not really in control and his daughters persuaded him to give up and return home. So in 1963 he went back to live at Aluwihare. When he died, in December 1976, his daughters found he had left it to them to divide up his property as they wished. Phyllis, whose husband Pat was a Ratwatte, at the top of the Kandyan aristocratic tree, took the properties in Kandy while Ena got Aluwihare. To everyone’s surprise she decided to retire there herself after her husband Osmund de Silva died, a couple of years after her father.

Osmund had succeeded Sir Richard as Inspector General of Police though, as Ena told the Queen, who expressed some surprise when introduced to the father and son-in-law as the head and deputy head of the police, that that was his profession. Sir Richard was a Civil Servant who had been brought in when the first Prime Minister of independent Ceylon decided that the British head of police had to be replaced. Ceylonese officers were not however senior enough to take over so Ossie, as the most senior of them, had to wait until his father-in-law retired before heading the force.

Ena had run away from Ladies College to marry Ossie. He was from a different caste and her parents, who had found him excellent company as a police officer when they served in distant districts, were not comfortable at the idea of him marrying into the family. There was a court case at which, Ena said my grandparents were been summoned as witnesses. The judge hit on the healthy compromise of asking a British priest to keep Ena until she was old enough to decide on her own if she wanted to get married. At the age she was when she ran away, she required parental consent.

To her surprise she found that the priest expressed himself entirely on her side, when she was sent to his house, but told her she needed to be patient. She managed to achieve this, and duly married when she could, and a couple of years later was reconciled with her parents after her first child was born. Still, she continued to have a reputation for being unorthodox, and she lived up to this when, after her husband retired she abandoned social life altogether and instead concentrated on what became Ena de Silva fabrics.

Ossle’s retirement had been premature. When he was appointed, the then Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawala had offered him a contract, and when this expired Bandaranaike did not renew it. Ena claimed that Ossie had made it clear to him that his allegiance was to the law and not the government. He was not helped by his colleagues, all angling for the post, though Bandaranaike characteristically trumped them all by appointing his bridge partner Abeykoon, another senior public servant, as IGP. Sadly several of the senior police officials then entered into political intriguing, culminating in the 1962 coup attempt.

There had been attempts to inveigle Ossie too into joining, and Ena would frequently cite his brusque response to Aelian Kannangara, a UNP stalwart who had been part of the conspiracy. Ossie had told him, ‘We are not the Praetorian Guard’, a line Ena relished. She also noted that he had firmly rejected Bandaranaike’s apologetic offers of other positions, embassies as well as the Chairmanship of Air Ceylon. Interestingly she claimed that the only relation on her side who appreciated Ossie’s position was her mother Lucille, who had been most opposed to the marriage, but who was a Moonemalle with rigid standards of public conduct.

Osmund de Silva died a little over two years after Sir Richard. Ena was devastated, and needed to get away. Friends, notably Tilak Gooneratne she would later say, who had also married into an old Civil Service family and been a respected Civil Servant himself before going to the Commonwealth Secretariat in London and then becoming our High Commissioner there, arranged for a Commonwealth Consultancy. Ena thus worked for a year and a half in the British Virgin Islands. She handed over the business to Ossie’s nephew Keerthi Wickramasuriya, who was married to Thea Schokman whom I had known as the Librarian of the British Council in Kandy during my schooldays. But they soon afterwards went through an acrimonious divorce which also devastated the business.

Fortunately Geoffrey Bawa, the architect who had developed a remarkable collaboration with her after he designed a house for her in Colombo, had rented that house as an office for the many projects he undertook for the new government of J R Jayewardene, most memorably the new Parliament but also Ruhuna University. So that iconic house at least remained safe.

When Ena came back, she retired to Aluwihare. She had set up there a Batik workshop, one amongst many that fed the flourishing business of Ena de Silva Fabrics which she had started after her husband’s retirement from the police. Though she was unable to resurrect the whole business, she decided to do what she could for the Aluwihare Centre which had provided gainful employment over the years to the villagers, including several relations.

Over the next thirty years the Matale Heritage Centre, as I first suggested it be called, developed not only fabrics, with traditional embroidery added onto its trademark batiks, but also a carpentry workshop and a brass foundry. These were started when Ena decided that the young men of the village also needed work, else they would get into mischief. The claim was prophetic, for the young men of Aluwihare escaped the fate of many others in the country when the JVP insurrection of the late eighties took its toll.

The workshops were followed by a Restaurant, or rather two, when Ena decided she should do something the middle aged women of the village too. They were known as Alu Kitchens. She had begun by supplying meals on order in a custom built kitchen on her own premises, designed with fantastic views by Anjalendran, Bawa’s best apprentice. This was K1 (kitchen one) and then, deciding she had to expand into the village too, she set up K2 as a small guest house in a property by the road that belonged to the family of her cousin Alick. He it was who had succeeded Bernard as the UNP candidate for the area, lucky in that, when Bernard died suddenly, his son had been too young to take over. The UNP, anxious for any Aluwihare, had found Alick, the youngest son of Bernard’s step-brother Willie, the most suitable of those willing, though he had nothing like the educational or intellectual qualifications of Bernard or Sir Richard. But he proved an active constituency MP and in turn established his own dynasty.

Ena herself steered clear of politics. Though the family was strongly committed to the UNP and indeed Chari, the oldest son of her sister Phyllis, had been active in the 1977 election campaign and occupied increasingly important administrative roles in successive UNP governments, she was strongly critical of J R Jayewardene and his behavior. I suspect one reason we got on so well was my forthright opposition to Jayewardene when this was not at all popular in Colombo circles. In fact she proved even more deeply critical of his legacy, suggesting when I finally decided to vote for the UNP, in the General election of 2001, in the belief that its leadership had reformed and would do better, that she was not quite so optimistic.

Though she claimed to know nothing of politics, she was an extraordinarily sharp observer of political developments, both in Sri Lanka and abroad. She had a few strong prejudices, but these often tallied with my own. The few things we differed on included both President Premadasa and, ironically given Premadasa’s own dislike of India, the role of India in Sri Lankan politics. I was myself a late convert to Premadasa, having come to appreciate his obvious devotion to rural development, as well as his very healthy approach to the rights and the welfare of the minorities. But Ena thought he had ridden roughshod over too many and, though she granted he was a better leader than either his predecessor or his successor, that did not make him acceptable.

Ena’s attitude to D B Wijetunge I think summed up her very practical if idiosyncratic view of politics. She claimed that she was never so frightened for the country as when he was President, because he was so clearly an idiot. That very healthy and no-nonsense approach was in marked contrast to the absurd panegyrics about the man by the old elite, which had resented Premadasa’s ascendancy, and it confirmed my view that an ounce of Ena’s prejudices was worth a ton of anyone else’s analysis.

About India she was less rational. Though she was quite critical about what she saw as the extreme Sinhala Buddhist prejudices of her husband, she had certainly absorbed something of his views in her hostility to the Indian Tamil presence in the hills which she claimed had been at the cost of the Sinhala peasantry. This was certainly correct, and we agreed in noting the responsibility of the British in having so altered the demography of the country, but she thought I was too indulgent in claiming that much more had to be done for them once they had been granted citizenship, and also that depriving them of citizenship in the forties had been unjust.

She was also convinced that the efforts of Tamil politicians to obtain greater autonomy were excessive, and we had to agree to disagree about devolution. But her essential fairness never left her, and she quite understood the enormity of what the Jayewardene government had done in 1981 and 1983 in unleashing violence on Tamils, and how this made Tamil demands for greater control of the areas in which they lived more understandable. But she continued to believe that India had stirred the pot out of pure self interest, and that Indian efforts to broker peace were not to be trusted.

Such criticism trumped even her awareness that the Jayewardene government had engaged in unnecessary confrontation with India in its effort to align itself with the West in the Cold War. For, interestingly given her elite upbringing during the colonial period, Ena had an even stronger distrust of the West and its efforts to control other countries. She had no illusions whatsoever about its self-serving agenda, and this made her a strong ally in recent years when, once again, the urban elite supported Western efforts to derail our struggle against terrorism. I was glad then that I was able to convince her that India had played a positive role in this regard, though I believe she continued to wonder what benefits India expected to derive from its support.

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Features

The Case of Karu Jayasuriya – I

Published

3 hours ago

2025/03/7

Thilina Walpola

by Rohana R. Wasala

After Ranil Wickremesinghe and Anura Kumara Dissanayake became President one after the other (in 2022 and 2024 respectively) without any sign of full-hearted public approval, though, their social media admirers shared posts that claimed that they both had made a substantial contribution to ending the separatist terrorism that had plagued the country for decades. They may have their arguments to support their claims. Those who know the facts, however, would hardly agree with them. But there is one distinguished UNP politician, who was opposed to the SLFP-led UPFA, about whom such a claim can probably be safely made. He is none other than Karu Jayasuriya.

In an interview with The Island’s Shamindra Ferdinando (‘Parliament approved USAID and other foreign funded projects: Karu J’/February 25, 2025), former UNP MP and Speaker of Parliament during the Yahapalanaya government (2015-20), Karu Jayasuriya, showed the least awareness of or concern about the subversive agenda run by the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) projects launched in Sri Lanka. In response to the recent flurry of criticism against the USAID, veteran politician Jayasuriya (84) pointed out that all agreements with the USAID implemented during the 2016-20 period had full parliamentary approval and that there was nothing secret about the projects. He also mentioned that Parliament received assistance and expertise from many foreign countries other than the US, including China.

Jayasuriya refused to comment on domestic criticism in America itself about taxpayer’s money being squandered by the USAID in Sri Lanka on wasteful subversive projects as alleged by Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) newly formed by president Donald Trump. I am not surprised. Jayasuriya is wise. He has one thing in common with Trump and Musk: He’s been a successful businessman like them. Both he and Trump are professional politicians as well; but I don’t think Musk is one. Trump seems to be rewarding him for funding his election campaign as well as speaking at his rallies. Musk has found a chance to avenge himself on the LGBTQ+ lobby and the USAID that supports it for causing him to reluctantly agree as a parent to a sex change operation that turned 18 year old Griffin Musk, his eldest son by his first wife Vivian Wilson, into a woman (dead named Vivian Jenna Wilson) in 2022. Musk called the USAID “a criminal organisation” that ought to be terminated forthwith, for he said, “(It was) … time for it to die!”.

Whereas Trump’s conclusion was different. He didn’t find fault with the USAID itself, but with those who have been running it lately. So, he described it as having “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out”. Unlike the younger Musk stricken by personal tragedy, Trump hadn’t forgotten the fact that the USAID was set up in 1961 by president John F. Kennedy to unite a number of US aid agencies into one body and that it is a vital instrument of US foreign policy. A shrewd politician himself, Jayasuriya must have understood whose utterances should be taken more seriously in this context. Clearly, Trump’s utterances indicate the importance Trump attaches to the perpetuation of the USAID itself.

In my perception, during his interview with The Island, Jayasuriya tries to let it appear as if he didn’t have enough information about the controversy to express an opinion about it. However, it can’t be that he is unaware of what actually is the problem about. It involves, as he surely knows, the locally hotly disputed subject of expressly planned promotion of non-binary gender identities ideology that remains culturally unacceptable to the overwhelming majority in our deeply religious {Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim} society.

The promotion of the LGBTQ+ ideology is allegedly done in ways including teaching young YouTubers and other journalists to avoid the use of the normal, established gender binary in language. The gender binary uses the pronouns ‘he’ for male and ‘she’ for female. LGBTQ+ lobbyists want to avoid using these established masculine and feminine pronouns on themselves in the accepted way as the usual gender binary pronouns (that recognise only the two sexes that really exist) do not accommodate the multiplicity of sexual identities they want to adopt or claim, against nature.

If confronted with an explicit explanation of the controversy and pressed for a response, Jayasuriya might give an evasive answer like ‘Let Americans sort out their own unique gender identity problems, leaving us free to solve our real problems in our own way’. I won’t be surprised by such an answer. But his ignorance of the issue is fake. Jayasuriya was a key local collaborator of the regime change operation of 2015, which was a good example of political subversion by America of a vulnerable small nation that is of strategic importance for maintaining its global hegemony.

Located at a geostrategically critical point in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, Sri Lanka has great attraction for America in pursuing its central goal in the region of containing China’s influence. This harks back to how the perceived need to curb the growing power of the Soviet Union outside its own borders during the Cold War period (1947-1991) gave rise to the setting up of the USAID organisation in 1961, in the first place.

While judiciously avoiding the LGBTQ+ issue, Jayasuriya dwelt on the immense benefits that Parliament allegedly derived from foreign funded programmes. Explaining how this happened, he said that Parliament was able to maintain good relations with both the US and China. He asked the reporter: “Don’t you think having nearly 200 out of 225 lawmakers (get) an opportunity to visit China on a familiarisation tour in groups is an achievement on our part?”.

Jayasuriya stressed that even the parliamentary staff benefited from the various projects implemented with the financial backing of external parties (meaning, no doubt, USAID and others). Both parliamentarians and senior officials were secured laptops from China, justifying which, he said: “An MP may serve one term, but parliamentary staffers may continue for 20 or 25 years. Therefore, they should have received proper training and been given the opportunity to develop contacts”.

Is subjecting parliamentarians who are democratically elected for a short five years and unelected, state appointed civil functionaries like the parliament staffers who serve indefinitely long until retirement to the manipulative influence of powerful foreign governments on equal terms, good diplomacy or sound statecraft?

Strangely, Jayasuriya never once mentioned whether or how or in what form these benefits were transmitted to the general public who should be the true legitimate beneficiary of whatever material help or expertise that a friendly nation makes available to the country. Countries maintain diplomatic relations for mutual benefit. Foreign diplomats work to promote their own national interests, when necessary, even to the detriment of the host country’s interests, which is what Sri Lanka is experiencing today with the US, India and China. When countries are unequal partners, the weaker nations become subject to various forms of subversion (political, economic, cultural, etc.,) exerted by the stronger nations. Willing submission to international subversion seems to be Jayasuriya’s creed. (To be continued)

Features

Shyam Selvadurai and his exploration of Yasodhara’s story

Published

3 hours ago

2025/03/7

Thilina Walpola

Shyam Selvadurai

By Ifham Nizam

Shyam Selvadurai, an acclaimed writer known for his deep and nuanced portrayals of social justice, identity, and historical narratives, continues to push literary boundaries with his latest work, Mansions of the Moon. His storytelling has long been defined by an immersive approach, bringing to life historical and cultural contexts with an authenticity that captivates readers.

Selvadurai’s ability to weave historical accuracy with imaginative storytelling has cemented his place as a literary figure of significance. His works often explore themes of displacement, gender roles, and class struggles, but Mansions of the Moon marks a shift toward Buddhist philosophy and historical retelling, delving into the life of Yasodhara, the wife of Siddhartha Gautama. The novel challenges widely accepted narratives and presents Yasodhara as a strong, intelligent woman, shaped by the influences of the Pali canon and the Mahabharata‘s Draupadi.

In a conversation with The Island, Selvadurai shares insights into his creative process, the challenges of historical fiction, and the thematic depth of his latest work.

Excerpts of the Interview

Q: What inspired you to retell Yasodhara’s story from a feminist perspective?

A: Well, I didn’t think of it as a feminist perspective because certainly in Yasodhara’s time feminism would not have existed. So to have done it from a feminist perspective would have been an anachronism. What I was more interested in was trying to replicate the women that you find in the Pali canon who are very strong and are very smart too and have strong volition. You know, the ability to act is always there and then of course there is also Draupadi, the great heroine of the Mahabharata. So those are more my examples of what I wanted to do than approach her through a Western feminist point of view.

Q: How did you approach the balance between historical accuracy and creative license in the novel?

A: Well, always in order to create a period especially that’s so far back like 600 BCE, you are not going to get all the details. So you take what you can find and a lot of scholars have actually compiled the data from the Jataka stories and whatever, and so it’s there for you to look at. But then you make a leap of imagination too. So there’s a lot of going back and forth. I mean in the end, you have to feel like you’re there, right there present with Yasodhara. So in order to do that, there has to be some sort of creative license there. Also, we don’t really know that much about the lives of these people because the Pali canon is not really that interested in them pre-enlightenment. What they’re interested in is these people post-enlightenment. And also, as I say in my introduction, there are many fictional accounts of Yasodhara and Siddhartha’s life that are now taken to be fact.

Q: What challenges did you face in exploring the emotional and spiritual journey of Yasodhara?

A: I mean, I can’t think of any specific challenges because writing in itself is a challenge. You know this thing you have to do as a novelist which is immerse yourself in the world that you’re trying to create and in the character who’s the protagonist. That takes a lot of, frankly, emotional and spiritual exhaustion, especially for such a big novel.

Q: How does the cultural and religious context at the time influence the narrative?

A: What influences the structure of the narrative is more the Buddhist stories and the way in which they employ narrative tropes as a means to convey Buddhist concepts or as I like to think about them, Buddhist psychology. What I’m particularly interested in exploring through Mansions of the Moon and particularly through Yasodhara is the idea of moha, which is delusion—the idea that we are going to arrive at a place in our lives where everything is going to be absolutely perfect, but that’s wrong. Such a place does not exist. Such a utopia does not exist. And so we put ourselves through an enormous amount of stress, sadness, grief, and greed in order to achieve something that is illusory. That was what I was very interested in exploring through Yasodhara’s point of view.

Q: Did you discover anything surprising about Gautama Buddha or his family during your research?

A: No, I didn’t. What I found was in the Pali Canon, and perhaps I was a bit surprised to find out that the more common story of Prince Siddhartha not knowing that people got old, sick, or died until he was 29 was a comparatively recent invention. But it’s a great invention because, as I said, what really attracts me is this idea of how Buddhist narratives convey Buddhist concepts and psychology. In that sense, it’s a really elegant story.

Q: How does this novel connect to themes in your previous work?

A: It kind of doesn’t really. I mean it looks at social justice to some extent through the points of view of women and it examines injustices based on class, but really it’s just a different novel.

Q: What message do you hope readers take away from this retelling?

A: I don’t usually write with a message in mind. I write to tell a story and to invite readers into that story. I’ve already talked about moha and exploring it through Yasodhara’s journey, but other than that, I don’t like books that have a heavy message.

Q: Do you have any plans for upcoming novels or projects?

A: No, I never share what I’m working on until it’s done.

Q: Are there other historical or religious figures you are interested in exploring through fiction?

A: No, not at the moment.

Q: Which novels or pieces of literature have had the greatest influence on your writing?

A: There is no particular novel or piece of literature that has influenced me more than any other. When I conceive a novel, I look for a “mentor” writer who has tackled a similar area. For Mansions of the Moon, it was Mary Renault, who wrote extraordinary novels about ancient Greece with very little historical information available.

Q: Do you have a favourite book or author you revisit often?

A: No.

Q: What advice would you give aspiring writers, especially those exploring historical fiction?

A: Do your research to the point where you can create a credible world, then ignore it and write. Too much focus on historical details can bog down the plot and make the story pedantic. Keep the plot moving.

How do you see your work evolving over the next few years?

I have no idea. I just go from book to book. I always want to take on new writing adventures and explore different genres. Currently, I’m working on a young adult fantasy novel with strong Buddhist themes and South Asian folklore.

Are there any genres or themes you haven’t explored yet but would like to?

Not at the moment. Who knows what the future will bring?

What do you enjoy reading in your free time?

I read a lot—sometimes a novel a week. I read both for pleasure and to help with my writing. My reading choices are often guided by recommendations from other writers.

Features

Shocking White House bullying; more shocking local expenditure on foreign jaunts; advice on FP stance

Published

3 hours ago

2025/03/7

Thilina Walpola

Trump-Zelensky spat at the White House. (File photo)

President Vladimir Zelensky’s February 28 visit to the White House with media swarming all over, to sign an agreement giving the US access to Ukraine’s mineral deposits, ended in the most scandalous sending him off. Cassandra is certain the majority of the world was shocked at the behaviour of the Prez of the US, considered the foremost VVIP of the globe, descending to the level of a rank bully with VP Vance aiding him. It was cruelly disturbing to see how the two badgered the visiting Prez, and proud to see how the Ukrainian held his cool and answered to the point. Rumoured it was all pre-planned.

Trump, as usual, badgered his way by repeating himself. You’re not in a good position (many times); You’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble. You’re not winning this, (repeated). You don’t have the cards now. Right now, you don’t – yeah, you’re playing cards. This after Zelensky managed to say: I’m not here to play cards. Trump: You’re playing cards. You’re gambling, you’re gambling with World War III.

Vance accused Zelensky of not being grateful to the US and thanking the US and more so the Prez not once at the meeting.

Another lowest and unredeemable incident was when Trump commented on Zelensky’s attire as he greeted the Ukrainian President and within the Oval Office, a media person also commented that the visitor should be more formally dressed to be in the holy of holies in the presence of the Boss of the World! They forget how Elon Musk now comes into the Oval Office dressed casually with a cap on, and his young son draped on his shoulders.

Watching many news items on this incident, Cass’ strongest feeling was repugnance at the bullying and utter surprise that such a man as Trump is US Prez. She felt sympathetic to Zelensky, who later said he had travelled 11 hours by train and longer by plane to get to the Oval Office. Cass watched an American TV news half hour where the host revealed the lies Trump has been spilling of late like how much the US spent on Ukraine and how America will get rich by tariffs imposed on foreign goods, which actually have to be borne by American consumers.

Cass also imagined how such a meeting would have proceeded if Kamala Harris had been seated in the seat occupied by Trump. What a golden chance America missed through their being swayed by big money, white supremacy, gender bias and all that balderdash.

The silver lining in the pathetic, nay scandalous diplomatic disaster and the belittling of a visiting President of a country by two big American bullies occupying the White House, is the hastily arranged meeting of European leaders with the British Prime Minister hosting a gathering of solidarity and sense in Lancaster House. Of course, they have to be diplomatic and extremely cautious in what they announce but the right-thinking Americans may cheer. Cassandra’s prognosis is that the meeting and its meaning will be lost on President Trump.

Our VVIP’s globe trotting

Cartoonist Jeffrey of the Sunday Island captured the euphoric gallivanting of past presidents Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, M Sirisena and Ranil W in the newspaper of March 2. He depicted them as almost salivating as they slouched forward to enplane on luxurious global travel while their fellow citizens were starving, many of them and others struggling to exist. Cass uses the term ‘fellow citizens’ incorrectly here since when the aforementioned were safely ensconced in their presidential seat, they forgot Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans: minds were totally engaged with themselves and their cohorts; Mahinda had his family as co-benefactors of the Treasury of Sri Lanka, which they reduced to nothing with their profligacy.

A genteel man in our circle of friends opined it was not necessary to reveal amounts spent. He was shouted down with “Of course, we need to know. All should be made privy to how much of tax money that should go to development of the country was spent by these ex-presidents. Worst: while the country was tottering on the edge of the abyss of bankruptcy and people were suffering dire privation, they were globe-trotting extravagantly.”

Even for this one reason of eliminating selfish spending by presidents and prime ministers of this country, the present government must be given an uninterrupted five-year term in office and an extension at the next presidential and general elections. Maybe by the time the next time is here, the position of president may be abolished. However, Cass for one approves strongly of AKD continuing to be prez.

Rumours float there is a sinister move propelling the supposed shortage of petrol; i.e. destabilisation of the country. There definitely are politicians who will not mind a mite to send the country into catastrophe just to save their skins: one person willing to sacrifice 22 million Sri Lankans to save himself from the noose that moves closer as true justice takes over. Maybe the thought is that eliminating the Prez or PM or both is not sufficient to totally destabilise the country, so choose a more drastic method. Cass most definitely does not put this beyond many politicians alive, kicking vigorously and pontificating in public.

Sound advice

Cassandra’s final segment of title reads: advice on FP stand. What she means is that very good advice has been given on how Sri Lanka’s foreign policy should proceed with the world in somewhat of turmoil and two wars still waging. The advice appeared in The Island of Monday March 3; given by Ali Sabry, PC. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from July 2022 to September 2024 and previously Minister of Finance in the SLPP government. He was an appointed MP on SLPP national list. All would agree he was an able and just Minister and a Sri Lankan to be proud of who held his own internationally.

The article in which he advises the government of Sri Lanka to move forwards is titled: Lessons from Ukrainian Debacle with elucidation: Why Sri Lanka must continue to pursue a Non-Aligned, yet Multi-Aligned Foreign Policy. Foreign policy even to a novice like me, ignoramus in fact, seems to need to be so carefully policy-drawn and followed. Treading among the giant countries with their shifts and slants, for a small nation like ours, but with geopolitical strategic importance, is a veritable treading on eggshells. Advice from sensible persons is welcome and one thing is sure: this government hearkens unto advice.