Themes that haunt writers.

I suppose unless you are haunted by a theme, especially one dealing with strong issues like tragedy, social injustice and basic human rights, you might well be guilty of putting it on the back boiler and forgetting all about it. Some years ago my brother urged me to visit him in Malaysia. He was a brilliant doctor and had a thriving private practice in Seremban, and my visit was long overdue.  Every year he used come back to Ireland and stay with us for a few weeks, he was godfather to my youngest son who was named after him  We had always been close and over the years we grew closer still. When I visited him his friends and colleagues showed me wonderful hospitality and one eminent medical man, in particular, invited us to his home for a sumptuous feast prepared by his wife and servants. Afterwards my brother spoke of him warmly,  remarking in passing that he was a Tamil. His tone expressed admiration and respect tinged with awe, the latter alerting me to something unusual about him. Of course, it was the fact that he was a Tamil but, unfamiliar as I was with Tamil history at that time, it was only later the significance struck me.  For sadly, not too many Tamils ever got to university  to study medicine let alone qualify with such distinction.and become a professor in his chosen field. .At any rate I have never forgotten this unusual and erudite man.

Over the years I have read a fair bit about  the Tamil situation in Sri Lanka. Since the Tamils left India in colonial times to make their home in Ceylon and work in the tea plantations, their story has been one of discrimination and injustice, denied their basic human rights, refused entry to university.and employed in only the most menial underpaid jobs. Consequently, their names are not on any plaque or Honours list.  Only when they began to fight back for their liberty and independence in the Sixties and Seventies.with the formation of the  LTTE  - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - did the world come to take notice and become acquainted with their plight. Over the years the civil war escalated and it was considered unsafe to visit that beautiful country, especially Jaffna at the northern topmost part of the island, where the Tamil Tigers had their stronghold and there was continual conflict with the military, ambushes, bombings, kidnap and interment of civilians . Thankfully, since 2009 all that is over now but not the trauma still suffered by these  unfortunate people whose lives and homes were torn apart by the cruel, senseless ethnic war.                

Inspired by the Tamil history I am working on a novel  about a young Tamil  man, Ranjan Shanti, adopted by an Irish family and educated in Ireland who goes back to his homeland to be reunited with his people. There he meets up again with Harinath Prasad, leader of the Tamil freedom fighters, whom he had looked upon as a brother in his childhood, and he joins up with him to fight for an independent Tamil State. .But Ranjan  finds their ruthless methods, the senseless bombings of innocent civilians and the use of children as human shields conflicts with his beliefs and his conscience. The situation is compounded by the fact he has fallen in love with Ginu, a young freedom fighters who has past history with Prasad. When Ranjan makes the disillusioning discovery that his one-time-friend is trying to kill him he realises his life is in danger but cannot bring  himself to leave Sri Lanka without the woman he loves.

Recently, by happy chance, I discovered the novels by Roma Tearne who is the daughter of a Tamil father and Sinhalese mother. She left Sri Lanka with her parents when she was ten years old to make a new life in England, and is now renowned as an artist and writer. She writes eloquently and movingly, her novels are about love and suffering, about the civil war in her homeland, the disintegration of family life, the sadness, turmoil and danger  faced by  those caught in the cross-fire, depicting with an artist's touch the glorious changing colours of the skies over the Indian Ocean, the fishermen out in their boats, the peaceful atmosphere and golden beaches all too soon to be spoiled by the military's barbed wire and landmines, the curfews and the danger always lurking from spies and informers and the cruel consequence to the innocent caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. .Like nothing else her novels have given me a great and valuable sense of this beautiful,  tragic country.