Eddie would go

It was a special wednesday evening at the East West Center, Hawai'i in September 2012, that I first heard the story of Eddie Aikau, when Stuart Coleman chose to talk about two Hawaiian heroes to demonstrate how individuals are catalysts for change.

The story about Hokule'a and how Eddie, a renowned surfer and lifeguard, dreamed of going on the voyage tracing Hawaiian's ancient route across the Polynesian islands but never made it during that fateful March 1978 voyage and how his life inspired others to continue that journey touched me so much so that I purchased Stuart Coleman's book 'Eddie would go: the story of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian hero' at the end of the talk.

I finally found the space and time to read the book this week and I am very much touched with the sensitivity and honesty that Stuart has handled the real-life characters. It is difficult to write about someone who has become a legend - a demi-god - in his death but it is even more difficult to write a portrayal of him that brings together different sides to the person and makes the person more human enough for the reader to feel a connection. Stuart goes further - he also brings to life vivid accounts of the people surrounding Eddie and how Eddie's life and death touched them. I found myself reflecting deeply on how momentous events in a person's life can change the entire direction to their purpose and life. And, how a person steers through the stormy waters is what brings them to shore.

I found it difficult to think about Dave Lyman, the captain of Hokule'a, on its 1978 voyage and how the weight of responsibility of that fateful voyage and losing Eddie would have weighed on him and how his career derailed from a capable sailor to never being asked to be a skipper again and how it affected all areas of his life. To have taken a decision under very trying circumstances and for having that decision haunt him for the rest of his life. It is tough.

I also wonder how Eddie's family themselves, particularly his parents for the remainder of their lives and his sister, came to terms with their inner demons. The fact that a family friend had asked them to speak to Eddie before the voyage and to persuade him to not go because of a dream that his wife had heard of the boat capsizing and Eddie being lost at sea. The family was torn but in the end decided not to say anything to Eddie because they knew it was his dream and passion and that he was a person who would go, when his mind was made up. It would have been hard for them in the aftermath of the accident.

At the same time, Nainoa Thompson's story is a beacon of hope and a story of true courage and how one man converted a traumatic experience into a new life purpose. Despite the guilt and responsibility that had weighed on him, Nainoa became convinced of the dream of Eddie and felt the need to complete the voyage and worked hard in the subsequent years to restore the Hokule'a and eventually, embarking on voyages around the Polynesian islands and to other parts of the world. Now, the executive director of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Nainoa Thompson is the first Hawaiian to have practiced the ancient Polynesian art of navigation since the 14th century. It was a privilege to have been able to see the Hokule'a while she was in drydock preparing for her worldwide voyage and to hear Nainoa speak about the educational voyages they have undertaking over the past two decades.

'Eddie would go' is a book that has been well-written by Stuart Coleman and which I really appreciated reading.

The Ancient Tea Horse Road

A cold evening in Shangrila, huddled in a room on the upper floor of a wooden cottage, a group of us were treated by Jeff Fuchs to a visual of his trek along the ancient tea horse road that had culminated in the writing and publishing of a book. The images were powerful and the story-teller interesting.

That evening made me want to read the book and after several months, I settled down to reading the book over days and over cups of pu'er tea.

The ancient tea horse road is a narrative that takes us along the ancient route and offers us glimpses into the vista, the conditions that the traders and employees would have faced travelling along this route, little insights into the people and their ancestors that would have been engaged in the trade and most importantly, the types of tea that is so revered by the people along this route. Jeff brings an element of the personal self into the narrative by his accounts of the people he trekked with and the friendships formed along this route, which makes it all the more of an interesting read.

While I enjoyed the book and have much of a deeper respect and appreciation of pu'er tea now, I do wish that the personal stories of the elderly muleteers, the last of their kind, could have been dwelt with more in the book.

Colomboscope and Jaffna music festival in March

This year, the organizers of the Galle literary festival decided to take a break so I did not go on my annual visit to Galle this january.

However, there is to be a 2 day festival in Colombo in March called the Colomboscope at the Park Street Mews on the 23rd and 24th March under the auspices of the Goethe Institute. While not much information is available on the programme, the Goethe institute website has the following brief information. The series of art, music, literature, dance events will be centered around the theme "identities".

The Jaffna music festival on the other hand has its own website and it is the second time that the festival is being held. The event will be held on 1st and 2nd March at the Jaffna municipal grounds and is a free event, where musical artistes from around Sri Lanka and around the world perform.

While it is a pity that GLF didn't take place this year, I am looking forward to the upcoming Colomboscope and JMF.

Chris Stewart's Driving over lemons

A lovely book I discovered by chance at the local bookstore and the title, the cover photo and the synopsis made me buy it without further ado.

While I have read the book in a well-paced out manner over the year, it increased my appreciation for the book and the writer's experience of converting a run-down, remote farm in Las Alpujarras into a home.

It's the experience that held my interest - the experience of a family throwing up their familiar existence to try out something new from scratch.

For Chris Stewart's website, please go to Driving Over Lemons.

Death in the Andes

Read Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa's Death in the Andes this weekend. Besides some chapters from Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan, this was the first Peruvian novel that I read. So, it was with great anticipation that I started the book. If I read the book through to its end without letting many days pass, it means that I am enjoying either the writing style, the story or both. I read this book in two days and yes, I find the writing style engaging. However, the story is dark.. ancient, cannibalistic rituals and belief that are carried on in the present day - in varying forms, the militia, the civil guards, the dark potion brewers and the rest of the people who played into their hands. A story of a decaying society carried forth by people sacrificing other people's blood to prolong their existence conveyed through Corporal Lituma as the main protagonist trying to make sense of what was happening around him. The only light shining through the darkness is a tender love story narrated by one of the key protagonists - Tomasito Carreno, which reaches its happy conclusion - a ray of hope amongst the enveloping darkness.

While I didn't find the book thought provoking, it is an interesting read for someone who is starting to read South American literature. I kind of find it intriguing that both books that I read from that continent and particularly Peru, by two renowned writers, were very much focused on spirits and belief in communicating with and appeasing spirits.

Shatranj Ke Khilari

I watched this 1977 Satyajit Ray movie today. Using the game of chess as a metaphor, it focuses on the ineptitude of the ruler and wealthier citizens of Awad to protect their land from the company and colonization. From the friendship treaty signed by the British with the Nawab's ancestors for providing human resources, money and land to expand the company conquests in India, the movie focuses on each move of the British until the check-mate point with the Nawab symbolically handing over his crown to avoid blood shedding of his people.

While the main theme is the game of chess played by the British and the rulers of India's various states, the story is taken along through two wealthy landowners of Awad - Mir Ali and Mirza Ali - who have become addicted literally to the game of chess to the extent that they are blind to what happens around them - they are indifferent to what is happening in their country, their state, their village and even their own home. This last point is pushed home by the glimpses of failed marriages in the lives of the two men due to their addiction to chess. While Shabana Azmi and Farida Jalal acted well their parts, it is a pity that an actress like Shabana Azmi was only provided a very small role but then again, the film did not have much room for women to act as it obsessively focused on the games of chess played by the two men as well as the larger game played by the colonizers and the rulers.

Overall, Shatranj Ke Khilari is a beautifully filmed movie by Satyajit Ray.

Tom Stoppard and Tropical Amsterdam

This has become a tradition of sorts... my mother and I visiting the Galle Fort annually on a day trip during the Galle Literary festival. I choose the day and the key session that we will be visiting and perhaps, another fringe event and we are off at 6a.m. on the Colombo-Galle bus. Until our particular session time, we enjoy walking around the Galle Fort though the amount and distance we walk and explore has been on a decline in par with my mother's health.

This time I worried whether my mother would be physically fit to go on a full day's trip which included more than six hours on a bus trip (both ways inclusive) and sitting in hour-long sessions, her resolute nature was keen to continue this mother-daughter ritual and that she could make it through. So, we headed off yesterday - my mother in her neck collar that she has been wearing over the past year due to her ear imbalance issue as well as some neck/spine issues.

We reached Galle Fort a little before 10a.m. and as we had missed the bulk of the first session - a Galle literary festival panel with Dr. Izzeldin Abulaish, Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, Dr. Stewart Motha, Ingo Shulze on 'Forgiveness, Peace and Responsibility in Literature', we skipped it and walked across the street we had been dropped at - Church Street and visited the 19th century Anglican church built by the English before visiting Pedlar's Inn for some coffee. We then visited the 18th century Dutch Reformed Church (the oldest Dutch built church in the country) but dropped the idea of walking along the ramparts as we usually did as it was very sunny and returned to the main venue area around Halle De Galle where the garden chairs and the stalls had been set up. It was nice sitting under the shade of the trees and simply resting. Cargills Magic ice-cream had set up tables with 'make a mark' activity where they had placed ice-cream sticks and paints for anyone to paint their book-mark and take it with them. As the next session we were interested in was at 12.30pm. followed by our main session at 2.30p.m., we decided to have a quick lunch of sandwiches at the Heritage cafe (formerly, the Old Bakery).

Tropical Amsterdam was screened at Halle De Galle. Shyam Selvadurai, the curator of the Litfest presented the documentary. Stephen Labrooy, one of the key people interviewed in the documentary, responded to questions at the end of the screening. Tropical Amsterdam is a well filmed documentary from the perspective of some of the well-known elderly Burghers in Sri Lanka. The director's view that the future of the Burghers in Sri Lanka is bleak and that soon they will have no separate identity is mirrored through the witty takes of the interviewees on the colonial period, the traditions and customs of the Burghers, the mass-scale emigration in the 50s - 80s period, the feeling of discrimination(as Stephen Labrooy says about his buying property within the Galle fort, "I have had to prove over and over again that I am Sri Lankan despite the fact that I speak Sinhala. I finally had to go over to the authorities and say, 'Look, my ancestors built this fort 300 years ago. I have a right to purchase land here'", and the resignation that soon there will be no "Burgher" identity left in Sri Lanka. One of the interviewees in the documentary, a tea planter sums up why he chose not to emigrate when all their relatives have emigrated to Australia "It is better to reign in hell than rot in heaven". Overall, a very interesting, well-filmed documentary. It would have been great to include the younger generations' views as well because the documentary has a very resigned view - an air of having given up and it would have been good to see whether the younger generations feel that way as well.

During the short break in between the film screening and the session that we went all the way to Galle for, we decided to have a cup of Dilmah tea. Dilmah had set up a nice tea stall and the staff were making lovely, hot cups of Dilmah tea which was great to have at that time listening to some vibrant music being played in the garden. I later found that the musician was Dr. Eugene Draw, a Canadian electric violinist here in Sri Lanka for a performance at the Park Street Mews.

At 2.30p.m, the main session 'In conversation with Tom Stoppard on his life and art' started again with a brief introduction by Shyam Selvadurai who introduced both Stoppard and the moderator, Tracy Holsinger. Two plays that I fell in love with during my contemporary drama classes at university were Michael Frayn's Copenhagen and Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. For me, when a drama script engages me, I simply have to direct the drama and bring what I visualize in the words to life. I managed to direct Copenhagen but not Arcadia as I did not have enough cast members. What I admire most about Tom Stoppard's works are his witty play of words and how easily he manages to slip into the lives of the famous real-life characters he often brings into his plays and explores their views, by making the key protagonist a fictional character like Thomasina Coverly (supposedly based on Ada Lovelace) in Arcadia or an overlooked real life character like Henry Carr in Travesties. This is his unique style. While some plays may resemble other famous plays at a distance, like 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead' and 'Waiting for Godot', 'Travesties' and 'Copenhagen', their content is so vastly different and has Stoppard's trademark wittiness and story flow.

Here, at the Galle Literary Festival, he read passages of Bellinksy from his epic play 'Coast of Utopia', which I have neither seen or read and somehow was not too encouraged to experience, from the brief reading. What I liked more about the conversation was Stoppard rambling on about some of his experiences, responding to questions etc. He mentioned that he had received an invitation to do a reading in Australia in December and to Sri Lanka in January and that 'as it is best for divorced fathers to stay away from home during Christmas', he decided to take up both the readings. He also mentioned that as he landed in Sri Lanka, he received news that Havel had died and he had thought about going back for the funeral but decided that he would stay on in Sri Lanka.

A lot of questions from both the moderator and the audience was around Havel and his birth country, rather than his art and life as a playwright. The moderator also irked me a bit as she seemed too absorbed in sharing her own views and would take a lot of the brief time of the session in framing her views and questions.

At one point, Stoppard remarked to the effect that 'I don't ever write plays thinking of the academic point of view. I don't think of the message. Art cannot operate at that level. It needs to go beyond'. He also rhetorically questioned the audience, 'And you, bless your hearts, why are you here to listen to a playwright?', 'Drama cannot be learnt from texts, it has to be experienced' and he illustrated it with an example from a play where an actor runs off across the water where lights had been installed to respond to the touch and as he ran off, it slowly illuminated the scene and ended with fireworks as he disappeared in the distance and that the script in the play simply said 'Exit Ariel'.

At the end of the hour, I went and stood at the book signing queue, with my mother, to get my old copy of 'Travesties' and 'The Real Inspector Hound' signed by him. This was the second time that I have solicited writer autographs. The first was to get my copy of Copenhagen signed by Michael Frayn, also at the Galle Literary Festival a year or two ago.