Monsoons and Potholes - Manuka Wijesinghe

The Book cover, which resembles a newspaper article carries a sub-heading and an introduction. The sub-heading states "A mad, bad, irreverent account of growing up in Sri Lanka", while the  Introduction says "The trials & tribulations of the heroine in tandem with the country's slippery progressive on the road to nowhere". These two statements are  quite accurate as an insight into the book. It is a mad, at times hilarious - hilarious since it presents accurately at most times, just how trying growing up in Sri Lanka can be. This is not to say that the heroine didn't have an enjoyable time of it. She did - largely; except when she didn't. That, when the country suffered as a whole. Largely due to the lack of statesmanship. Some of the parts, are quite illuminating as a commentary on the country's woes.

"'It is easy to put all the blame on the language, but it is wrong to put the blame only on language. Do you know children, that when the British left, after one hundred and fifty years of colonization, only six percent of the population spoke English?' Sharon and I nodded out heads in disbelief. We had been taught to believe that we lived in the most literate country in south-east Asia." (  pages 344-5)

" I will read to you what the great Mahatma Gandhi once said at the Indian Parliament, ' No Cabinet worthy of being representative of a large mass of mankind can afford to take any step merely because it is likely to win the hasty applause of an unthinking public. In the midst of insanity, should not our best representatives retain sanity and bravely prevent a wreck of the ship of state under their care? She re-read it, and emphasised the words worthy, hasty, unthinking, insecurity and care." ( page 345 )

Yet, the book shouldn't be taken in total as a political commentary. The author has pushed the much to be desired political situation to the back ground across most of the book. The politics surface only when the author has to stress a point. There are pages and pages of satire, on how Mrs. Bandaranayake governed the country. Just one small passage should suffice as a demonstration:

"She came like a seven-year itch. Mrs. Bandaranayake, the widow. A phoenix from her husband's funeral pyre. She held a nation and its people hostage for the termination of her husband's life. SWRD, her husband, was killed because karma had turned off the switch,  not because of anything else.. But, in death he did more harm than he had in life. He had cloned his political myopia and distributed it among his political progeny." ( Page 76)

But more than this criticism, the humour of day to day affairs is more appealing, more so since we can relate to the everyday climate in which this daily chaos unfolds to. Again, one example should suffice, when our heroine's mother attempted to rid the "genetic malfunction of English language due to karmic connection to my father and his sisters."

"Miss Manel White Ratnayake could extend the English alphabet beyond its twenty six letters. Her words never ended and her sentences flowed like streams, never encountering drought. Occasionally, like an amphibian requiring a shot of oxygen, she would pout her lips and emerge from the stream of words to articulate a word beginning with an 'O', then dive inside and swim further. I suffered facial muscle exhaustion learning elocution under Miss White Ratnayake." ( Page 55)

The book concludes, in the aftermath of  5-6 years from the 1983 riots, with certain incidents in that time of collective insanity, causing the climax of the novel.The last 30-40 pages are deeply moving, and questions the collective sanity of us as a people. Gone are the joyous rambling story of growing up in Sri Lanka, as ugly episodes take the center stage.

 I have been told that "Theravada Man" is the sequel of this book. Given that I enjoyed this book considerably, I will probably make time for that book too ( possibly next year - yet, the good read reviews don't rate Theravada Man as highly as this). The book running to a hefty 370+ pages, isn't at all times a page turner despite it's near relation to our lives.  The book covers a period, roughly from the mid sixties to the late eighties. It is very "Sri Lankan" in its  style of narration, and the use of language ( e.g. Tissa Abeysekara, Shehan Karunatilaka ).

In conclusion, there were two references that I was surprised to find.
1- A reference to a Mukunuwanna sandwich. Repulsive to read, and probably infernal to eat.
"I bit into my transparent Mukunuwenna sandwich. Two tissue paper thin slices of bread held together with a mukunuwenna and green chilli mass, no butter, no margarine.It was repulsive!" ( page 72 ). No doubt about that.
2- A reference to Dengue in the early eighties and how the then Prime Minister fought it.
"Aunty Lydia had sent my grandmother a new book on disease. 'Siri siri' bags did not breed dengue. 'Siri siri' bags breed the mosquito that spread dengue. A new sickness had come since our left to the centre republic started its walk to the right.... Mosquitoes were the winners in JR's road to the right, even though we humans thought that we were the winners by consuming everything plastic."
(pages 275-6)
  "The dengue lessened like magic.
 The same prime minister who dredged the canal and built the orange overhead bridge eradicated dengue. It had been easier than building bridges or dredging canals. He only had to smile at the municipal workers and they cleaned the garbage. Without garbage, there was no dengue"
(page 279)
Maybe those of who, who were at an age more likely to be  aware or knowledgeable about the times, could add a comment on this, for we have been struggling with dengue for years now, with no remedy. It is also good to recall Premadasa's all implying smile, which got things done in double quick time. Boy, have we been going down hill since then ? I must concede that in that context the MR years were  relatively better, when compared to what we saw since Premadasa, and after MR's exit - the less said about the last two and a half years of embarrassment that we Sri Lankans live in, the better.

So, in conclusion, if you do get the chance, do read this book. It is an enjoyable read, and very closer to "home" in more than one sense, and  Manuka's overall tone of sarcasm and mockery, keeps the reader entertained.