South Asian Conversations | CBC Radio

Broadcast February 19 – March 18, 2012  

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An invitation to the 2012 Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka created an opportunity for Eleanor Wachtel to speak with leading writers from one of the world’s most fascinating and diverse regions. Home to some of the most ancient cultures, South Asia is developing rapidly, experiencing the challenges–and the promise–of the twenty-first century.

In a wide-ranging panel discussion recorded in Colombo, three Sri Lankan writers of mixed background–Sinhalese, Muslim and Burgher–explore the complex realities of life in the island nation as it recovers from the trauma of civil war and a devastating tsunami. Also in Colombo, one of the country’s most important writers in the official language, Sinhala, reflects on her traditional village upbringing and the influence of Buddhist thought on her work. In the northern province of Jaffna, a noted Tamil translator recalls growing up in Ceylon during the time of British rule, and a Tamil fiction writer remembers the hardship of the decades-long ethnic conflict.

Extraordinary times are the theme of three conversations with high-profile visiting writers featured at the Galle Literary Festival. In an onstage interview at the festival, the distinguished Indian writer Nayantara Sahgal offers a personal angle on her country’s dramatic struggle for freedom, led by her uncle Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister. Novelist and journalist Shashi Tharoor, former UN official and currently a Member of Parliament from Kerala, describes India’s ongoing transformation into a global power, as reflected in the title of his latest book, The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone. From Singapore, the novelist Meira Chand, of Swiss-Indian background, recounts the tumultuous events that led to independence for the unusual multicultural city-state.

These remarkable encounters offer the listener fresh perspectives on the changing face of South Asia.

Part One, February 19, 2012: Panel Discussion

Three Sri Lankan writers of mixed background–Sinhalese, Muslim and Burgher– explore the complex realities of life in the island nation, as reflected in their work.

Ashok Ferrey, an architect by profession, is the author of prizewinning satirical fiction that reflects the lives of the middle class in Colombo, as well as the ex-patatriate Sri Lankan community in Britain and Africa. His short story collections include Colpetty People (2002), The Good Little Ceylonese Girl(2004), and Love in the Tsunami (2012); he has also published a novel,Serendipity (2009). He is currently host of a popular arts program on national television, “The Ashok Ferrey Show.”

Ameena Hussein is an important figure on the Colombo literary scene as both a fiction writer and co-founder of a publishing house dedicated to encouraging South Asian writing. She has two collections of short stories in print, as well as a novel, The Moon in the Water (2009), which draws on her Muslim heritage. A sociologist, she also has produced groundbreaking research on violence against women in rural areas, and she has just edited Sri Lanka’s first book of modern erotic stories.

Vivimarie VanderPoorten is the award-winning author of two collections of poetry, nothing prepares you (2007) and Stitch Your Eyelids Shut (2010). Her work confronts difficult issues such as racism, the civil war and the 2004 tsunami. With a doctorate in applied linguistics, she also teaches at the Open University of Sri Lanka.

Part Two, February 26, 2012: Meira Chand

​Meira Chand, born of Swiss-Indian parentage in London in 1942, mines her own issues of identity in fiction that explores the “cracks between cultures.” Most of her novels have been set in Japan, where she lived for more than 30 years, apart from five years in Bombay. Her Indian novel, House of the Sun(1989), was adapted into a successful stage production in England. She is now based in Singapore, the inspiration for her latest novel, A Different Sky(2010), a dramatic story set during colonial times in the multicultural city-state.

Part Three, March 4, 2012: Nayantara Sahgal

Born in 1927, Nayantara Sahgal is a member and chronicler of India’s political “royal family”: her uncle, Jawaharlal Nehru, was India’s first prime minister; her mother was the country’s first ambassador to the U.N.; Indira Gandhi was her first cousin. Sahgal’s whole family was involved in the struggle for Indian Independence; both her parents and her uncle were often in jail during her childhood, a period she recalled in her first memoir, Prison and Chocolate Cake (1954). She has written numerous books of fiction and nonfiction, as well as a wide range of literary and political commentary; her most recent title is Jawaharlal Nehru: Civilizing a Savage World (2010). She spoke with Eleanor onstage at the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka.

Part Four, March 11, 2012: S. Pathmanathan, Sunethra Rajakarunanayake, Ayathurai Santhan

Three writers whose work engages, in very different ways, with the complex ethnic, linguistic, and religious realities of life in Sri Lanka.

S. Pathmanathan, born in 1939, is a highly regarded Tamil translator as well as an accomplished poet. He is best known for his English translation of the plays of Shanmugalingam, the pioneering Tamil dramatist whose work reflects the turmoil of the civil war. He has also translated a poetry anthology that brings together the work of Sinhalese and Tamil writers.  

​Sunethra Rajakarunanayake, born in 1954, is one of the most respected and widely read contemporary writers in the Sinhala language. She has written for the stage, the screen and the page, with 37 books to her credit. Her provocative, award-winning novel Podu Purushaya has recently been translated into English as Metta (2011). She is also a translator, critic and media personality, as well as a teacher of meditation. She lives in Colombo.

​Ayathurai Santhan, born in 1947, is a respected writer in both Tamil and English. His story collections in English include The Sparks, In Their Own Worlds and The Northern Front. His novelThe Whirlwind describes the experience of the Northern Tamils under the Indian Peace Keeping Force during the civil war. He has published fifteen books in Tamil, in Sri Lanka and India. He has twice won the Sri Lankan State Literary Award, for writings in Tamil (1975) and in English (2000).

Part Five, March 18, 2012: Shashi Tharoor

​Shashi Tharoor, born in 1956, has earned a high profile in India from his ongoing role in politics as well as his fiction and journalism. His prize-winning books of both fiction and nonfiction include The Great Indian Novel (1989),India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), Riot (2001), and Bookless in Baghdad: Reflections on Writing and Writers (2005). For almost 30 years he was a major figure at the United Nations, most notably as Under-Secretary-General for Kofi Annan. He is now an elected member of the Indian parliament, for his home state of Kerala. His latest book is The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century (2007).

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South Asian Conversations was produced for Writers & Company by Sandra Rabinovitch