ANGU RAJENDRAN

What Professor J B Disanayaka treasures most are his four little grand-daughters: Suvinia (12 years), Mithu (11 years), Savera (10 years) and Sajani (8 years) for whom he started writing Sinhala folktales in English. His little booklets that number over fifty and still counting, present the creative genius of the Sinhala folk and their life in the traditional village. At 79, Professor J B writes to young children, and that keeps his brains ticking.

Tell us your educational background in brief.

 I went to Ananda College in Colombo. It is one of the three schools that came up during the Buddhism revival in the late 19th century that was sparked and supported by General Olcott, an American. He was a huge proponent of Buddhism revival even at that time, under the British rule. The other two Buddhist schools that came up to combat the many missionary British schools were Dharmarajah College in Kandy and Mahinda College in Galle.

I joined the University of Ceylon as it was then called. However since I was keen to do an arts degree and Colombo campus had no faculty of Arts, I had to go to the Peradeniya campus. During my first year, I read for a degree in Sinhala, Economics and British History. After that I completed a special degree in Sinhala and Archeology.

You furthered postgraduate studies abroad. How did it benefit you?

Arica after the completion of my a degree I got a job in the Peradeniya campus as a lecturer, immediately. After a year of work I applied for a Fulbright scholarship to the USA, which took me to the University of California, Berkeley which is well known for their Oriental and African studies.

I completed my Masters there and went over to the UK to study Linguistics in their country to get an idea of their point of view too.

 What did you do on your return to Sri Lanka?

Colombo campus had just got it’s a very own faculty of arts and that suited me fine. I got a job in the campus where I founded the Department of Linguistics. This was during the first famous riots in Colombo around the early 1970s.

The authorities decided to move the Department of Linguistics to the Kelaniya campus and retain only the department of Social Studies in the Colombo University, I decided not to go to Kelaniya and joined the Sinhala department in Colombo. 

What is the name of your first a book?

‘Patterns of a language’ which was a written in 1969. I was very happy that I could inspire lots of young people on enjoying the Sinhala language

When did you start writing for children?

When I realised that I had to tell stories to my little granddaughters, I thought why not make these folk tales available for other young children as well. I also wrote in a way that a young child finds it easy to read and understand. Telling these stories to my grandchildren really helped me to think on that level.

In the year 2002, when I retired, I was ‘honoured by the University with a Professor Emeritus which means that I can be called a professor even after retirement. I started writing after that.

What was your source of inspiration?

I had been writing for a very long a time. Even when I was in school I would write to the children’s page in the newspaper very regularly. I had three older brothers who were voracious readers. The house was always full of books and I thought that reading was something that everyone did. Naturally reading led to writing and there I was writing away to the papers when I was still a schoolboy.

That love for reading and writing has never left me.

Have you written any fiction books?

Not at all. I don’t even like to read a fiction as much as I like the non- fiction books. Even my children’s books are only folk tales retold. I have not made up my own stories.

What is your latest book for adults?

Encyclopedia of the Sinhala Language and Culture. It contains over 1000 pages. The contents of the book are not in alphabetical order though it contains all and any information that anyone could want on the Sinhala language.

TRIVIA

FAVORITE AUTHOR:

Rabindranath Tagore

FAVORITE SRILANKAN AUTHOR:

Ediriweera Sarachchandra and Martin Wickramasinghe

FAVORITE MUSIC:

Indian classical, especially Ravi Shankar.

FAVORITE HOLIDAY DESTINATION: –

Pinnawella, because my home is just three miles from there.

NON-FICTIONOR BEST SELLERS:

I don’t read bestsellers. My wife does. My daughter does.