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
