by K.S. Sivakumaran 

This column wishes its Sri Lankan readers a Happy New Year. Suba Avurudu to the Buddhists and Puthaandu Vaalthuhal to Hindus of this country in particular. Although it's customary to call it a Sinhala and Thamil New Year, it is strictly the Buddhists and Hindus belonging to the Sinhala and Thamil communities who celebrate their new year in April. The Christians in these two communities and the Burghers and the Islamites too join in all celebrations. And they have their own religious celebrations. 

A religious celebration or a cultural celebration is a joy for everyone. The New Year on January 1, Thaipongal, Easter, the New Year in April, the Vesak, Ramazan, Haj Festival, Deepavali and a few other celebrations are some of the major joyous moments for us Sri Lankans. T.S.Eliot might have said April is a cruel month, but  it is during this time that Spring brings pleasant memories of love. 

It's springtime now in the West and in the East too. Spring is associated with Love. Let's love us first and love each other more intensely. Love could conquer all. We can love each other despite our ethnic, religious, regional, caste, affluent and all other sorts of differences we have manufactured. 

Despite this human made differences, we have to live, shedding our prejudices and, to tolerate, accommodate and appreciate each one of us for us to survive in this world soon to become ONE whole globe. 

Petty prejudices have to give way to the wave of Oneness. This stage may not occur immediately and it is not easy to reach this utopian idealistic goal. However miracles can happen Destiny could usher in new relationships. It can happen like a miracle rushed in by technological developments. Spread of new knowledge, discoveries and greater understanding and above all Love by all people towards all people. 

I may sound too optimistic. But optimism is the first step towards achievement. One reason why the West advances is that it doesn't remain itself tied to pessimistic ideas. However, I may not live to see this phenomenon happening but it is likely that the negatives would be overridden by the positives. 

Like most predictions, Oliver Wendel Holmes' anticipation of One World may come true. Who knows? So, it's foolish and stupid to accentuate on visible differences when deep within all of us is the fountain of love. Love is God. Love conquers them all, may I repeat. 

Gradgrind 
Switching on to another string of thought, let me ask you this : Who is an impersonal person interested solely in facts and figures with little sympathy for human needs? There are many people like this who are plain and pure materialists. For them feeling is secondary. 

There is a word in English for this: GRADGRIND. I think that we should move away from this position. 

There is too much politics in us and yet politics can be productive. Unselfish, well meaning and understanding politicians and statesmen and stateswomen, who possess social consciousness should be our leaders. 

We need educated, learned, intelligent, rational, humankind loving politicians. Politicians are the ones who rule us for our benefit - people at large. Among such politicians, the women are and would be a significant species. 

The women understand what love is better than the men, primarily because they are also mothers or have an inherent motherly feelings. They undergo pain in many endeavours. 

Women politiicians 
The women politicians among us Sri Lankans can help the men in many ways. Anjana Gamage reporting in the Daily News of April 06, unwittingly or through carelessness forgot to mention the women representation from the Thamil community in the present parliament. 

Thinking about women parliamentarians, the first woman M.P. (in 1947) was Florence Senanayake of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party. In the present parliament, for the first time Thamil women are represented. 

For the first time a woman from the Islamic community entered the last parliament, and this time too she had succeeded. Doreen Wickramasinghe was another Anglo - Lankan woman parliamentarian. The younger readers might not know that she was the wife of the late S.A. Wickramasinghe of the Communist Party. Later many women from the majority community gained representation in the Parliament. 

It is heartening to note that the new Thamil women MPs are educated, active and intellectually oriented. One is from the north and the other is from the east.  

The northern representative is Pathmini Sithamparanathan, wife of a reputed playwright and producer of plays in Thamil in the northern part of Sri Lanka. She is also in her own right  an important personage in the field of arts and of academic interests. 

The other woman  K. Thangeswari is an author and a researcher in archaeology and history, particularly the eastern part of Sri Lanka. She was a student of scholar Senaka Bandaranaike. 

Both Pathmini Sithamparanathan and Thangeswari, I am sure, would bring in a kind of restraint and decency in political diatribe in debates in Parliament touching the core issues the Thamilians, particularly those in the northeast, encounter in a rational manner. 

Unfortunately, their literary and cultural contributions have not been fully appreciated or promoted by the learned 'critics' among the Lankan academic Thamilians. 

Intellectuals 
There are some outstanding contemporary women writers, poets and intellectuals from the Thamil and Isalmic communities that use the Thamil language for their expression. 

Due to lack of information on them, the outer world does not know anything about them. Internationally known Radhika Coomaraswamy uses only the English language and I am not sure whether she knows Thamil, though born to Thamil parents. 

Selvi Thiruchandran of feminist persuasions on the other hand is bilingual. There are a number of women writers, poets and academics in the Thamil and Islamic communities and some of them write in English too. Women who write in Sinhala and English are well respected and received in both Sinhala and English media, it is true. 

Poets 
Take for instance, the poets like Yasmine Goonaratne, Anne Ranasinghe of international fame, Alfreda de Silva, Kamala Wijeratne, Jean Arasanayagam, Jegatheeswari Nagendran and Eva Ranaweera are some of the poets (in the West,they no longer use the archaic 'poetess' or 'actress') have shown their brilliant talents of varied perceptions. Some fine poems in Thamil by younger women have been compiled by Chitraleka Maunaguru, a feminist and academic from the east. 

In this background, to hasten the emergence of a new nation from the shattered quagmire, the assistance from top to bottom from the womankind should be sought after. 

Songs and Singers 
Music is the food of love. 

I love music both oriental and occidental - all sorts of rhythms and lyrics, but a little selective. 

Some of the old and simple popular songs of Sunil Shantha, Dharmadasa Walpola, Kanthi Wakwella, Mohideen Baig (his mother tongue was Urdhu), Susil Premaratne, Rukmani Devi (Daisy Daniel - A Thamilian ), Sujatha Attanayake who also sang in Thamil ), Latha Fernando (Walpola) still haunt me. 

In Thamil, the songs I like are innumerable. I shall write about the Carnatic and popular singers separately. 

Western Rhythms 
Flying slowly down memory lane, I become nostalgic and listen to unforgettable hits of yesteryears in the English language. When the war is over and leave the war years behind us,we will be more leisurely in terms of time and let's listen to good music again.  

One reason why the  English broadcasts over the All Asia Service of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation are popular even today is that the disc jockeys play primarily old favourites on a regular basis. 

I know by first hand knowledge, having been a relief announcer on the beam, thousands and thousands of listeners, particularly from all parts of India, request some evergreen members. 

For the benefit of young listeners, who might have not heard of the singers and songs some sixty years, let me list a few names: 

Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, Nat 'King' Cole, Glen Miller and his Orchestra, Art Mooney and his orchestra, Jo Stafford, Eddy Howard and his Orchestra (To Each His Own - the theme song for Sunday Choice of the Coomercial service then), Guy Lombardo and his Royal canadians, Kate Smith with Four Chicks and Chuck, Artie Shae and His orchestra (Smoke Gets In Your Eyes), Mr Sandman, The Ames Brothers with Les Brown and his Band of Renown, Harry James and his Orchestra (It's been a Long, Long Time), Perry Como (Don't Let the Stars get in your Eyes), Judy Garland, Artie Shaw and his Orchestra, The Mills Brothers, The Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley (Love Me Tender), Sammy Kaye and his orchestra, Andy Williams, Kate Smith, Diana Shore, Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra, Eddy Arnold, Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra, Paul Weston and his Orchestra, The Ink Spots, Doris Day, The Four Aces, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Jackie Gleason & his Orchestra, Johnny Mathis, Dean Martin, Patti Page, Frankie Lane, Tex Ritter, Mel Torme, Mario Lanza, Rosemary Clooney, The Dining Sisters, Harry James and his Orchestra, Bing Crosby, The McGuire Sisters, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and some more American artistes had given lovable music. Enjoy. 

Contact :kssivan1@juno.com 
courtesy: Daily News, Colombo