Giving conscience a sensitive touch

A chat with tele-drama director Roshan Ahangama

  

There is a divorce lawyer who has many years of practice in helping married people separate from each other and sometimes helps them reunite. He always succeeds in getting what his clients desire. This is what he has been doing half of his life. This is what he knows best. But when it comes to his divorce, he fails. Being one of the best divorce lawyers in the country, why couldn’t he achieve what he wanted?

There is a girl who resides by the banks of the Kelani River who cleans rich people’s cloths. She cleans fancy cloths every day, dreaming of her wedding day. Yet it doesn’t seem like her dreams will come true any time soon. What halts her marriage? Is it her profession? Is it because she isn’t rich?

These are stories from our society. Yet, do all these stories get registered in the mind of an observer? “What made the lawyer fail? Why can’t this girl get married? Do we understand the real issue behind all this? Does everyone have a conscience?,” Roshan Ahangama talking about his latest tele-direction Harda Shakshiya queried. “Sometimes it’s like some people do not have a conscience or they have simply forgotten their conscience. Concept of this single episode tele-drama was put together to question this, to see whether this buried conscience can be brought back to the surface,” Roshan said.

Roshan who plays several roles in the media field is from Ahangama, Galle. As a child he attended several schools and acquired his degree in sociology from Peradeniya University. He reminisced how he has been interested in cinema and arts since he his schooldays. University education on social issues combined with the passion towards cinema encouraged him to study further about film creations. He said that he looked out for opportunities to learn about cinema whenever he could.  

Roshan is not a stranger to the Rivira family. He has been playing a prominent role in the Rivira Sports Desk for a long period. He said that his motive behind becoming a sports journalist was also linked to his passion towards tele creations. He is determined to make a movie based on his experiences in the sports field and he said that he is inspired to seek more and more knowledge in the field every day, getting closer to achieving his goal.

In 2010, his short film ‘Rescue’ was appreciated as the best short film at the Alternative Short Film Festival. Rescue was appreciated at several international film festivals.  His 2012 single episode teledrama Niramisa was also highly admired. Harda Shakshiya is his first lengthy teledrama series.

Speaking further about his tele-creation in the making, he said this series was started off as a sociological experiment to seek a way to address sensitive human issues. He said that the journey in finding heart-touching stories was quite exciting that they met people from many walks of life.

This tele series speaks of 50 different stories and each story will be telecast in two episodes. “50 episodes are already completed and ready to be telecast,” Roshan said. He added, “Finding locations for shooting was also done carefully. We always tried to get to the original locations of where the stories generated.” He also mentioned that most of these stories are real. “We tried our best to secure its originality, so that we can bring out the real emotions,” he explained.

Scripts for these stories were written by Roshan along with Thushari Abeysekara, Wimal Katapearachchi, Ayeshika Rajasooriya, Upali Bandara Weeraserkara, Gamunu Wickramasuriya and Dhammika Deeptha. “The scripts will bring out stories from our society, what we overlooked,” he said. “These stories could have easily been showcased as documentary programs. But, I believe our effort is more effective that it secures the sensitivity of the stories,” he opined.

He further said that this tele-creation will be a novel experience for the teledrama audience in Sri Lanka. “It will be an eye-opening experience after years and years of mega and foreign teledramas,” he iterated. 

The tele series is produced by the Harda Shakshiya Art Circle, Dharaka Abeywardana and Indrawansha Gunawardena. Music direction for the tele series is by Gayathri Kemadasa, daughter of maestro Premasiri Kemadasa. According to Roshan, music direction for the tele series is also an experiment in the teledrama field that the theme song of the teledrama will be presented in the form of opera. “Each episode will commence with a short opera of two and a half minutes. Gayathri put immense effort to make it an extraordinary experience,” he said.

He fondly remembered his colleague, late The Nation photojournalist Rukshan Abeywansha who was a member of the Harda Shakshiya group at the beginning.  “We wanted to use his skills in still photography to reach new dimensions in shooting the stories. Unfortunately, he could only contribute to four stories,” he expressed his grief.  Later, Chathuranga Wickramasinghe joined the group in managing camera and lights.    

“Harda Shakshiya will be a new experience going beyond the usual teledrama trends. Maybe that’s the reason for the delay in accepting the series to telecast. Maybe the themes discussed are too strong for the media institutions,” in conclusion he said that he is yet to receive a telecast schedule for the drama series. 

Directing tourists to the north

Jaffna based journalist, Thulasi Muttulingam, uses social media and guides visitors to a once war-torn area which she says hasn’t lost its beauty 

Beauty of Northern parts of Sri Lanka is something the rest of fellow Sri Lankans missed out on for a few decades. Now that the Northern Province welcomes the world to experience its beauty, most of the travellers are eager to visit the area. The Nation suggests readers visit the Facebook page ‘Humans of Northern Sri Lanka’ or the blog eyeofthecylone.wordpress.com/ before you visit the area. These will give you information about the places you can visit, the history, culture and the communities. It will be a virtual tour of Northern Sri Lanka before you actually go visit the place, giving you a heads up on what you can explore while providing you with background information. 

Thulasi Muttulingam, a Jaffna based freelance journalist, is the brainchild of this Facebook page, who takes immense pleasure in searching and publishing the sensational information about the Northern Province widely traveling the five districts of the North viz Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya. She said that this Facebook page was a result of her attempts to quench her curiosity, that she too missed the wonders of Northern Province as a child, although her parents were originally from there.  

“I grew up in the Maldives. My parents fled the ’83 riots here and were so traumatized by it that they refused to come back to Sri Lanka, or allow us to come back to Sri Lanka to resettle here,” she recalled. Thulasi didn’t feel welcomed as a child, growing up abroad and she always wanted come back to Sri Lanka and understand the culture and the heritage of the place where she actually belonged.

She has been 21 when the ceasefire agreement was signed in 2002 and this gave her the leeway to convince the parents that she should be allowed to return to Jaffna. “A few months later, they joined me.”

After coming back to Sri Lanka, she joined the Sri Lanka College of Journalism. She reminisced how she enjoyed her days at The Nation newspaper as an intern while she was a student of journalism. After her graduation in 2008, she worked at Sunday Times, Sunday Observer, Ceylon Today and now contributes to the Dail FT and the Daily News as a freelancer.

As one of the few Tamil speaking journalists working in English print media, she said, she was often called on to help file stories from the Northern Province while she was working as a full-time journalist based in Colombo. She wasn’t satisfied with how they managed to get those stories. “Very often it was over the phone, or at best a one to two day visit to the North. This is not enough to get a feel of the North or its myriad issues,” she said. “So at one point, I gave up my full time job and took on a job as a Reporting Officer with an Aid Agency working to rehabilitate war affected people,” she added. This job, which Thulasi took on two years ago, provided her ample opportunity to travel widely in the North, especially into its rural interiors, allowing her to gain firsthand insights into the people’s issues.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to write all these stories up. Thus I found myself sitting on top of a number of unique stories, which deserved wider reach – yet I was unable to disseminate them,” she explained what paved the way to create her Facebook page. “I finally figured out I could use social media and short snippet form story-telling in the manner of the much loved Facebook page Humans of New York (HONY), to get my stories out. So I started a Facebook page which I modeled on HONY.” 

She explained that Humans of New York had already inspired many similar global pages by this time. “There was already a Humans of Sri Lanka page active, so I named my page, which was concentrated on the people of the North, Humans of Northern Sri Lanka,” she said. In her blog and the Facebook page, she doesn’t leave out the essence of the Northern Province, its culture, heritage, people, places and even its food and where you can taste them. It’s a virtual tourist guide to the Northern Province.

She wanted to provide a wider understanding of the people of the North and the issues they face, to people who don’t have active access to the North, but are yet interested in them. A quick glance at her page, scrolling down would provide enough evidence that she has so far been successful in achieving her goal.

Speaking on how social media helped her to take the stories from Northern Sri Lanka to the world, she said that one can actually get the large stories out via a few words and a couple of pictures. “It doesn’t have to run into thousands of words in order to tell a proper story. With those shortened Facebook updates, far more people are able to read, follow and share. As such they get a much wider reach,” she pointed out. “With the click of a button, I can ensure that the stories I want to disseminate are read, not only by people within Sri Lanka, but all over the world.” She also said how these Facebook posts came to her as a relief while she was frustrated that she didn’t gain wide reach of readership for the long research articles she wrote as a journalist.

People from the other parts of country didn’t have access to culture, traditions and arts of Northern Province for a long period. When asked what the other fellow Sri Lankans missed she said, “Well, I am still figuring out what I missed,” adding that there is yet much more to be explored.

Speaking further she appreciated projects like Jaffna and Galle Music Festival funded by Norway for the valuable work they do in reviving dying traditional arts in the North and using it to join North with South.

“The greatest tragedy is that the Arts took a backseat for nearly 30 years as the war raged in the North. It is only now that artists are slowly taking up their arts again – especially the traditional folk artists. In some cases, this might have become irretrievably lost as younger people migrated out and older people died,” Thulasi reiterated.

When she was asked whether she believes that there are enough opportunities for the people from other areas to mingle with the people, arts and culture of the Northern Province, she said, “I am not sure about enough opportunities, but there are certainly opportunities,” she said adding that there are already artists and activists from both the North and South, working actively to connect with each other. “They have been doing so for quite some time now, from since before the war ended. There could be more of such efforts though.”

In her perspective, a better understanding of each other is needed among the common people in order to enhance the relationships between the North and the South. “For too long, the vernacular media has demonized each other to the Tamil and Sinhala people, by giving only one sided stories. We need a more responsible media seeking to bridge the divide instead of working to increase the gap,” she stressed. “As a journalist myself, this is something I am trying hard to do.”

She also said that understanding the people’s aspirations, the source of their pain and hurt, and seeking to redress that should be given utmost most priority in addressing the issues in the Northern Province. “Right now in the Northern Province, which is functioning as a post-war economy, there are several raging problems such as widespread unemployment, marginalization of women especially war affected widows, and breakdown of law and order,” she pointed out.

“Many visitors from the South travel on the glittering new highways to the North and think much development has taken place in the North. Just off those highways however, are rutted bumpy rural roads that would rattle your teeth along with your intestines. These are what the common northern people use. All that glitters is not development,” she further said.

Writing spiced with amusing observation

Gammiris Kurulla, Pepper-bird in direct translation is a regular visitor to Kanchana Amilani’s home garden. In Kanchana’s words the behavior of Gammiris Kurulla, also known as Polos Kottoruwa (Brown-headed Barbet) reminds her of a terrorist. It would come every day to her garden, to eat from the plate put out in the garden for birds and squirrels. “If there is no food on the plate, this bird would chirp nonstop till we keep food on the plate. Also, when the food is there he makes sure to chase all other birds and squirrels away before he eats,” Kanchana said while adding that it’s always amusing to observe Gammiris Kurulla’s behavior.

It’s this Gammiris Kurulla’s behavior that helped Kanchana to contrive an amusing plot for one of the short stories included in her collection Gammiris Kurulla. Gammiris Kurulla is Kanchana’s debut short stories collection, which is to be launched along with her Poetry collection Premaye Karthu, ‘Seasons of Love’ on July 23 at the Mahaweli Center, Colombo.

Kanchana Amilani Karunamuni who is a writer, a journalist, a blogger and a cyber poet is an old girl from Kaluthara Tissa Central College. She obtained her higher education in New Delhi University, India. Returning to Sri Lanka, she found employment in an international school as a teacher. Although she enjoyed her profession as a teacher, her heart always told her that she should be engaged in work which gives her opportunities to write. Following her heart, in November 2003 she joined Dinamina (A Lake House publication) as a feature writer.

She said that she has been fond of reading and writing since she was very young. She identifies her habit of avid reading and the experiences she received during her 12 year journalistic career as the inspiration behind being a published author. "My experience as a feature writer fine tuned my language skills as well as writing," she said. Even though she fulfilled her longing to become a writer by joining a newspaper, she said that something was missing in expressing herself. She said that she found the ideal way of retaining her own identity, when she introduced herself to the internet.

Her short story collection is written in an amusing language. Reading Gammiris Kurulla can be a magical experience to a person who loves animals, in that she uses animals who can talk and compete with humans in her stories. Each story in the book carries a doodle by Buddhima Harshani Perera. Her doodles add extra color to the book just as the unique book cover designed by Dinidu Siriwardana. Commenting on the cover and the doodles, Kanchana said that it’s always good to try new things in publishing a book, so as to make it more attractive to the reader. “However, the quality of a book depends on its content. If the content lacks quality, a book won’t sell,” she said.

Kanchana has successfully used her characters to criticize the current society. “I don’t know what genre my stories belong to, not that I want to belong to one particular kind,” she reflected. “What I wanted was to tell a story which would amuse people. I would be happier if the stories are interpreted in different ways investigating its hidden meanings,” she explained.

Kanchana pointed out that Sri Lanka lacks skillful people to edit books. “It could be because I am editing other writer’s work as a part of my job, I found it extremely difficult to find a good editor before sending the book to print,” she expressed her concerns. She pointed out that this is a common problem faced by Sri Lankan writers. In her opinion, books should be carefully edited by a person who has thorough language and grammar knowledge.

Kanchana’s creative writing in cyber space is quite popular among the cyber audience. Like many of the writers belonging to the younger generation she too has found blogging a fascinating tool of expressing herself literally. "Prompt feedback motivated me to write more and more. The more I received positive feedback, more I wanted to write," she iterated.

Most of her creative writing can be found in her blog www.thinkland.net (Hithanalanthaya). When Sayura Publishers accepted her short story collection to be published, they also requested that she publish a poetry collection. Therefore, she carefully selected fifty poems out of her huge collection of poems to be published.

Premaye Karthu is a poetry collection which touches the theme of ‘love’. Her perception of love is unique and beyond the common notions of love.

තහනම් ගහ

ආදම්

එන්න පොරවත් රැගෙන

අපි තහනම් ගහ කපා

ලෑලි කර විකුණමු මුදලාලිට

කෝ දෙන්න මට

තව එක ඉළ ඇටයක්

මවාගන්නට නැන්දම්මෙකු

ඉතා හොඳ

කීකරු

මටම ආදරේ

ආදම්

එන්න පොරවත් අරගෙන

අපි මුළු දෙව්ලොවම කපා

විකුණමු මුදලාලිට

Forbidden Tree

Come, Adam

let us to the forbidden tree

armed with axe

to turn into timber

for the merchant.

Give me another rib

to conjure a mother-in-law

a good one

pliant 

who loves only me.

Come, Adam

come with axe

let us to pieces cut heaven

and sell it all

to the merchant.  

(Premaye Karthu, Page 15)

Her verses are short, sometimes sweet and sometimes extremely sharp.

පිළිස්සුම්

දුම් පිඹින

ඉස්තිරික්කයක්

ඔබ

හිතත් - පපුවත්

එකට පුච්චන 

Burning

An iron

spouting steam

that's what you are

burning alike

and together

both mind and heart.  

(Premaye Karthu, Page 18)

සඳලු තලයෙන් පැනීම

ප්‍රේමය කියන්නේ

සඳලුතලයෙන් බිමට පැනීම

අල්ලාගන්නට

ඔබ නැති හොඳටම දැනගෙන 

Jumping from the balcony

Jumping from the balcony

knowing well

you aren't there to stop the fall -

that's love.

(Premaye Karthu, Page 51)

Speaking further about cyber poetry, she said that sometimes it seems fair that veterans undermine cyber poems. “Most cyber poems lack quality. The number of poems posted online during a day is very high. Not everyone who posts cares to edit their work, go through their work carefully to identify grammar or spelling mistakes,” she reiterated that online writers should also develop self discipline in writing and posting their work.  

“Cyber space produced some extraordinary poets during the last couple of years,” she said taking Ruwan Bandujeewa and Saumya Sandaruwan Liyanage who were appreciated as the best poets last year at literary award ceremonies.

She added that although internet seems captivating, it has an ugly side which every internet user should be mindful of. “An online writer should be extra careful in publishing their work online," she warned. "We don't know who we are dealing with. We don't know who is there behind the screen. It could be an angel. It could be a demon," Kanchana emphasized that it is always better to be vigilant about the dangers of internet as one can easily forget the dangers while preoccupied with its pros. “Internet is like a sharp knife. One can use it to cut vegetables to make a good soup where as another can use it to commit murder,” she added.

Pic by Ravindra Dharmathilaka

Surekha Samarasena - Choosing creativity over violence

What is the responsibility of a woman in a political arena? Is it to serve tea during the discussions? Is it to satisfy the desires of the male activists? Have we identified the potential of a woman in politics? Surekha Samarasena publishing her debut novel Me Kathawa (This story) questions the role of a woman in the political arena, and society in general.

“ගෑනු කියන්නේ දැවෙනකොට ලස්සන, දැවීම තුලම දියවෙන ඉටිපන්දම් වගේ ජාතියක් ද?” (Pg 53)

“Are women like candles; beautiful when burning while evaporating in flames?”

"I believe it’s time to start a discussion. Women no longer need to be the losers in the political arena," Surekha said in an interview with The Nation. “If it’s odd when one calls it feminism, let’s call it humanism.”

Surekha is a freelance journalist who started her journalism career with Ravaya newspaper in 2007. Studying journalism from the Sri Lanka College of journalism, she honed her journalistic skills in both news and feature writing. She bagged the ‘Young Reporter of the Year’ award at the Journalism Excellence Award Ceremony 2009  and received a scholarship to study journalism further in Goa, India. She currently works at the Verite Research Institute as a parliamentary affairs analyst.

Surekha is from Ratnapura. She studied at Ratnapura Ferguson Girls High School. Apart from the encouraging environment created by her friends and family, her main inspiration for writing comes from the veteran writer Sunethra Rajakarunanayake, who hailed from the same school and area. She said that she has admired her work since school days. “Maybe the inspiration behind my journalistic career is her, maybe I followed her trail unconsciously,” she said.

She also had a keen interest in post-leftism and received the opportunity to connect with post-leftists since the beginning of her journalistic career. Speaking about her novel, she said that her life experiences in the post-leftist cults itself nurtured her novel. “Me Kathawa is based on women’s experiences in a political setting, my experiences and those of my close friends who worked with them,” she iterated.

Surekha further said that she used her novel as a tool to convey to the society her cynicism against the system. “Its better when the negative attitudes are showcased with creativity than with violence,” she opined. Creative showcasing of such political topics is highly sensitive and is accepted by the society better. “I wanted to initiate a discussion on the topic rather than fight over it,” she explained her intention behind publishing her book.

Leftism always took literature and arts as a tool in presentation of political ideologies. Even in Sri Lanka, Russian Marxist literature played a significant role in nurturing the leftists’ political ideologies. Surekha pointed out that today’s younger generation has less exposure to such literature. “Unlike the generation above us, reading is rarely a common habit of the young generation. Of course they watch films in this cyber era, yet their bond with the book is fraying,” she said adding that the discussions are mainly built around films today compared with other forms of literature.

She further said that along with this decline of exposure the humanity discussed in leftism too has been degrading. “Today a simple dispute will turn into hatred and wrath. Where are love, compassion and humanism leftists speak of?” she raised a question. “These are not even to be found within the political groups themselves,” she lamented. She further said that women get severely oppressed compared to men. “It has been made more difficult for a woman to face the challenges over a political dispute. Even the weapons used to attack a woman in the political area are cruel. They are different from what are used to attack a man,” she said. “When a woman in attacked in the political arena, she will be attacked with personal information; maybe her femininity or her sexuality,” she pointed out.

Me Kathawa tries to explain this dilemma women face, through life stories of three generations of women dealing with socialist politics. The novel is enriched with themes of psychology, sociology and politics with a little support from magic. Her message is direct and strong and the conclusion of the story reminds of the forgotten responsibilities in ensuring the security of women of future generations. 

Surekha is also a poetess; she has a habit of writing down her thoughts in a form of a poem. She believes writing is a way of venting her emotions and aggressions. Yet, she is not inspired to become a published poet. When asked, she said that the internet and social media provides her with a platform to share her poetry and she receives the satisfaction of writing poetry from this. “Unlike a poem, a novel cannot be introduced to society through cyber space. It has to be printed, if not it will not be grasped by the readership,” she emphasized.

Some of her poems are available on boondi.lk, yet her main platform in sharing poetry is her facebook page.

අපට මොන පාස්කුද ජේසු...!

ඈත පල්ලියෙ පාස්කුව දා - දෙවියන්ට තුති කියනු ඇසුණා

මෑත දොරකඩ අයෙක් දැවටී - නෝනා නෝනා කියනු ඇසුණා

"නැද්ද නෝනා බබාලාගේ - ගවුම් පොඩි හෙම අහක දමනා

අලුත් ගවුමක් දෙකක් ඉල්ලන - දියණියන් දෙදෙනෙකුම සිටිනා"

ඇයට දෙන්නට ගවුම් කොහිදැයි - මට බබාලා නොමැති බැවිනා

මා සතුව තිබු එකම සීයක් - ඇගේ අත ගෙන මිට මෙලෙව්වා

ඒ අතින් ඈ ඇගේ පපුවේ - දිගට හරහට කුරුසෙ ඇන්දා

ජේසු පිහිටයි කියාගෙන මට - තවත් ගෙයකට පිය එසෙව්වා

පල්ලියේ යාතිකා අවසන - තියෙන මිනිසුන් පාටි දැම්මා

වයින් නැති උන් පාන් නැති උන් - ජේසු නාමෙන් හිඟා කෑවා

මම මගේ ඉරිදාව හින්දා - ගෙදර මිදුලේ වල් ගැලෙව්වා

මිදුලෙ තුත්තිරි මගේ ගවුමේ - ඇලී ගැලෙමින් මුකුලු කෙරුවා

පාලුවට ගිය පල්ලි මුදුනත - රෑට රෑ වී තරුව දිලුණා

ඒ තරුව යට දෑත් විහිදා - පිළිමයක් වී ජේසු හිටියා

නගරෙ තැන් තැන් විදුලි බුබුලින් - අලංකාරව තිබෙනු දුටුවා

එදා ඉරිදා මගේ ඉරිදා - පුරුදු විදියට ඔහේ ගෙවුණා 

What Easter for us Jesus...!

In a faraway church on Easter --  thanks offered to God I did hear

By my door someone knelt -- crying 'Ma'am! Ma'am!' I did hear

'Have throwaway clothes your kids outgrew, do you?'

For two girls who cry for a dress that's new or two.

What dresses could I give, since children I have not

Took her hand and closed it o'er the single hundred that I got

Her hand she waved left and right a cross to draw

With a Jesus-bless to me she she paced to another door

Once the mass was done, partied they did those who had

Those sans bread and wine in Jesus' name did beg

It was my Sunday, to my garden's weeds I turned

The thuththiri were coy as to my dress they brushed

To the lonely church-top came the star at night to shine

Beneath with open arms stood Jesus as a statued-shrine  

Here and there the city with pretty lights did glow

And thus my Sunday in usual manner did go

Similar to the story in her novel, most of her poems also question the common notions of the society and forces open the eye of the reader to a different perspective; a humanistic and a realistic perspective.

‘පූසන් නෝනා‘ගේ කවිය

නැතිවත් කෑම මට මං දුප්පත් වෙනදා

බළලුන් කෑම ගෙන ආ යුතු නොම වරදා

කරවල මස් මාලු රස කිරි දෙමිනි බෙදා

බළලුන් අටක් රැකබලනෙමි වඩා හදා

කවුරුත් එන්නෙ නෑ ගෙට ගේ ගඳ හින්දා 

කුස්සිය ගඳයි සාලයො තම්බන හින්දා

ඉඳහිට ගෙමුල්ලෙන් හමුවෙයි බෙටි තිබිලා

බුදියා ලගියි දැම්මම රෙද්දක් උනලා

ගෙට ගොඩ වෙන කොට ම අඬහැරයකි හවස

වට පිට මිනිසුන්ට පුරුදුය කච කච ය

නම් ගම් කියා අණවමි උදය ද හවස

වීදියෙ මගේ නම ‘පූසන් නෝනා‘ ය

ගිය විට මුන් හැත්ත පෙළ මනමාල රැළේ

බෙලි නැටි කඩාගෙන එයි පෙර පෙරා ලේ

බැළලියො වදන කොට නං ගහට බර වගේ

ඒවත් වඳ නොකර ඉවසා ගනිමි වදේ

කොච්චර බැන්න මුත් හිත වද දෙනවා ය

ඔක්කට අරන් ගෙල මුල කිතිලනවා ය

ලෙඩ දුක බලා ගෙන බෙහෙතුත් දෙනවා ය

මේ හිඟනුන් පැටව් මට හරි වටිනා ය

ඇබ්බැහි වෙච්ච බළලුන් ලීලය හින්දා

කොච්චර බැනුම් මං අහනවදෝ මන්දා

එක එක තැන් වලින් මුන් පැන්නුව හින්දා

ගත්තෙමි ළඟට වර වර කියලා කැන්දා

දෙපයේ දැවටි කෝලං හුරතල් කරතී

කොයි තැන ගියත් මට මුන් අට ම සිහි වෙතී

කන බත් පතත් සමහර විටෙක හිර වෙතී

පෙර අත් බවෙක මං අම්මා වෙන්ඩ ඇතී

Even if hungry I go poverty regardless 

the cats I must feed with meat and fish,

karavala and milk too do I giveto the eight felines under my care.

No one visits 'cos the house stinks

the kitchen stinks for there I boil salayas

from time to time their droppings I encounter 

spread out a cloth and that they make their bed.

At evening there's cacophony as I enter the house

the neighbors know and are used to the mewls

I know the names, each one of them

on the street though 'Cat Lady' is my name.

With bite, scratch-mark and bitten tail 

they return from scattering heat on city street

when they litter I feel like the weight-bearing tree

and yet I suffer their unsterilized states

I do scold and rant and then lament

I have it up to my neck but it stop right there

check on them, feed and even sickness treat

precious to me are these mendicant cats 

Addicted to feline love am I

and for this endlessly vilified am I

called them to me, one by one

each one a thrown-out from who knows where.

Around my feet they scratch and purr 

I remember them all wherever I go

At times I just cannot my food swallow

perhaps a mother in another life was I

  

Speaking further about social media, Surekha said that it also works as an alternate media where a writer can freely express ideas. She expressed her grief that none of the mainstream media allows ample freedom for journalists. “This is why I have always tried to find alternative ways of expressing my views; through alternative newspapers, magazine or even cyber space,” she reiterated adding that this lack of freedom is one of the main reasons she decided to leave full-time journalism. 

“Since childhood, I always dreamt of becoming a journalist. Becoming a journalist at a newspaper like Ravaya seemed like something incredible,” she said. “But sadly, few years into journalism, I realized that it is not as incredible as it seemed to be from the outside. This is why I decided to leave and this is why I had to find an alternative way,” Surekha further said.

Pics by Chandana Wijesinghe