The child in her still lives

Renowned storyteller and artist Sybil Wettasinghe believes that art is the best method of communication

“Next month I will be eighty seven years old. I prefer to be alone. My children are worried that I live upstairs alone. But quietness is something amazing. I admire it and it helps me live in my own world. I’m not worried to be alone at all,” said Sybil Nenda, most beloved aunt of Sri Lankan children.

It won’t be an exaggeration to say that many generations grew up with her stories and wonderful illustrations. Although she is in her late 80s and a beloved grandmother, the child in her still allows her to believe in tree nymphs and fairies. “When my grandson was about three years old he owned a red car and he had a habit of leaving it outside after playing. One day, I told him not to leave the car outside, that someone will steel it. He said, ‘No, no Achchi Amma that won’t happen’ and he related a story to me about how the little red car is protected by a nearby mango tree.”

Later she drew this story with illustrations and published a book. She asked her grandson to take the book to his preschool teacher and show her that this is a story which he related. “He returned home with a sad face and I asked why,” she recalled. This is what the child had said.  ‘No Achchi Amma, teacher told me that you are a foolish person. She said that mango trees cannot help little cars’,” Sybil Nenda enacted the dialogue. “What’s the point of learning child psychology if a teacher cannot understand how a kid thinks? For a child every inanimate object is alive. I was able to explain and satisfy my grandson, but this is how a child’s creativity is destroyed when they are young. They should have their time in the fantasy world. Why be in a hurry to introduce him or her to the real world?” Wettasinghe said. “A child must be told stories and he should be given opportunities to create on their own.”

Kalakeerthi Sybil Wettasinghe was born in 1928 and spent the first seven years of her childhood in the village of Ginthota, situated in the suburbs of Galle. Sybil was the second in a family of five. Her family moved to Colombo where she enrolled in Holy Family Convent. Her father was a building contractor. Her mother had been very emphatic that her children get a good education. While her family was in Ginthota she attended Ginthota Buddhist School.

At the age of 17 Wettasinghe joined Lankadeepa newspaper. In 1952, Sybil joined the much-coveted Lake House publications where she became the main illustrator of the Janatha newspaper. Her entry to Lake House gave access to an entire network of newspapers and she wrote and illustrated for the Sunday Observer, Silumina, Daily News and Sarasaviya. In 1955, she married Don Dharmapala Wettasinghe, a former Chief Editor of Lake House Newspapers.

Her living room was mostly decorated with bookshelves, old photographs of her and her family and her paintings. In a corner she sat in a rocking chair, her head on the headrest. Roald Dhal’s books had a special place in her bookshelves that each bookshelf had at least one Roald Dhal book. “Oh, I love Roald Dhal. I read his books like a child and I think I like all his books,” she said. “I recently read one of his books on a day I had fallen sick and I got over my sickness just by reading it. His work is fantastic,” she said adding, “But my favorite books are of Khalil Gibran.” However, her book collection includes many books by many authors from all over the world.

“We were sent to school at the age of three. There weren’t any preschools during this period. I wrote of all my experiences in the book, Child in Me. The original cover for my book was me sitting on my grandmother’s lap,” she said. “A Japanese lady read my book and immediately wanted to translate the story for their children.” Sybil Nenda got up from her rocker to search for the Japanese translation. The cover of the book showed a little girl seated near a bamboo tree. She had redrawn the pictures to suit Japanese culture. “My books are apparently very popular there. This year too, we are working on two books. Usually they don’t work on two books by the same author. But they like my work very much,” she said with obvious satisfaction in her work.

She is currently illustrating Labu Gediye Thovilaya for the Japanese. “They like our rural, folk environment. I was surprised to see their enthusiasm for our environment and literature.” She moved on to her other books. “Hoity the Fox was published over 30 years ago. But still, it’s the number one when it comes to sales. This was translated into Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Norwegian, and Chinese apart from English. It’s a different twist, where three Gama Hamines fool a fox.” Kuda Hora (The Umbrella Thief) which was originally published in 1956 has been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, English, Korean and Tamil.

During her career, she has won much international acclaim and her children's stories secured awards both in Europe and Asia. In 1965, her story Vesak Lantern won an Isabel Hutton Prize for Asian Women writers for Children. Her first book Kuda Hora was chosen for the Best Foreign Book Award in Japan in 1986. In 1987 it won the Japanese Library Association Award as the most popular children's book.

Wettasinghe, returning to her chair spoke further about Japanese children’s literature. “They promote fantasies in children’s literature. When I was working at Lake House, when I was about 24 years old, I wrote Duwana Rawula (Run Away Beard). When I took it to a publisher, he started scolding me that I write foolish stories,” she laughed. “But then when my book Kuda Hora won the best book award in 1992 in Japan, the Japanese seemed to be thrilled about the way I write. They admired the descriptions of unseen things, where as our people promote realistic stories for children. A child’s imagination will develop only through fantasies, not realities. That is why Hans Christian Anderson’s thousand odd stories are still much loved by children. Sri Lankan people still do not understand this.” She sighed.

She recalled her childhood. “My childhood was storybook perfect. I have written most of the incidents in Weniyan Kalu Weniyan. I simply can’t forget the environment of my village. I was there until I was eight years old. I walked along a footpath in the forest on my way to school. There was a bamboo tree near the school with a white sandy plain. A tributary of Gin Ganga flowed by closely. It was a magical place,” she still remembers every small detail about the place. “I wanted to be there on my own, but that was impossible since no one would let me be there alone. I was just three or four years old. We get to come to this place during the school break, but then the other students were also there. It was not as quiet as I wanted the place to be.” Little Sybil badly wanted to be there alone and fretted herself mapping out a plan.

“Do you know what I did as a child?” she asked. “If a child wants to do something, he or she will definitely find a way. Back then I wore gold gypsy earrings, most of the girls did. I removed one of my earrings and hung it on the bamboo tree and returned to class. My beautiful class teacher noticed that my earring was missing and she came close to me and whispered, ‘one of your earrings are missing. Isn’t it? Would you be a good child and go look for it before others go out for break?’ Like a tortoise put into water, I ran to the sandy plain, put my earring on and sat near the bamboo trees. I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of fish swimming in the lake and the birds chirping.” She described the incident as if it happened yesterday, as if the memories are imprinted in her mind. “I believe that this is how I started loving and admiring nature. I still appreciate the environment around me.”

The room which she uses to do her drawing and write her stories has a picturesque view at sunset with tall bushy tress. “I put bananas out of the window next to the table I work.  Squirrels and birds come to eat the bananas and I get to observe them ever so closely. When the Demalichchas (Babblers) come squirrels and other birds go away. They are all scared of Demalichchas. When Demalichchas leave, others slowly come back. I love to be a part of their world.”

“Today, children don’t get to experience nature or whatever natural luxuries I used to have. They leave early for schools, school vans come to their doorstep, then they come back, have lunch and go for tuition. They don’t have time to associate with nature. This is why I wrote about my childhood to let them experience what I experienced back then and to let their mothers know how important it is to let their children associate with nature.” Sybil dedicated the book The Child in Me saying, ‘The love and peace cultivated in my heart as a child, has remained throughout my whole life. With this love I warm-heartedly present, ‘The Child in Me’, to everyone, young and old.’ Yet she said that her old village has also transformed now that there are no women who wear clothes like the women in her books, or men with long hair.

Sybil said that she wasn’t motivated to draw during her school time since the art classes were boring. “In our art class, the teacher puts a king coconut and a glass of water and asked us to sketch it. What child wants to draw a king coconut on a table?” she asked. “I was not interested in it and they thought I was bad at art. I wanted to draw from imagination.”

Sybil believes that art is the best method of communication. She describes it as a universal language which anyone can understand. She gave two of her personal experiences to prove what she said. “When I was very small we went to visit one of our relatives during Avurudu season (New Year). I was so hungry, but no one seemed to be interested in eating. They were busy talking. There was a slate and a piece of chalk on a table. I took this and sketched a very thin girl whose tummy was shrunk from starvation. Luckily my uncle saw my drawing and exclaimed, ‘This child is hungry. Someone give something for her to eat.’ Then, I understood how important art is at conveying messages to others.”

She also spoke of a recent incident. “Once I went to Berlin on a scholarship. The family I lived with couldn’t speak English. On the first day, my guide left me there promising to come and pick me up the next morning. They didn’t know how to communicate with me so I tried something else. I drew a cow, a glass and a saucer and they understood that I wanted milk. Then I drew a picture of the Buddha and put a question mark. When I showed it to the mother of the family she said no and came with a picture of Jesus. Like this we started communicating. When the guide came back we were talking through pictures and laughing. She was surprised since we couldn’t speak to each other. When she asked my accommodators they’ve told her ‘She is fantastic, she talks through pictures.’

At Holy Family Convent she learnt hymns. Eager to sing little Sybil made sure that she sang these songs at home so that her mother could hear. “I am a Buddhist and my mother who didn’t know a word of English didn’t know that I was singing hymns. She appreciated my vocal skills. However, there weren’t any restrictions on learning about other religions. We had all the freedom we wanted and I believe this is why we respect other religions today. Unfortunately there are restrictions for children today in learning other religions where they are limited to learn only their religion of birth. Then they become insensitive and disrespectful towards other religions.”

She also believes that this respectful attitude towards other religions helped her to illustrate the children’s bible. Her illustrations for bible stories have a Sri Lankan uniqueness where Jesus has dark hair, angels have no wings and even the fishermen look like our fishermen from Negombo. “If children get their rightful freedom to create things and learn things without strict restrictions, they would not become insensitive. They should be understood at their level, to give solutions to their problems,” she said.

Pics by Chandana Wijesinghe