‘Rae Ira Pana – Sekera Mahima’ is not strange to those who
are interested in the Sinhala lyric. The
mahima or wonderment of Mahagama
Sekera does not require elaboration but the idea, let’s say, of ‘Sekera’ had a
lot to do with ‘Rae Ira Pana’ the radio program and ‘Rae Ira Pana’ the
event. Let’s begin with the
program.
‘Rae Ira Pana’ was a unique radio show. It ran continuously for 115 weeks. Bandula Nanayakkarawasam, eminent lyricist
and presenter, hosted the show. He wrote
the script, presented the show and had a hand in all creative efforts
associated with the program. He drew
extensively from the archive that is his memory, coloring song with anecdote
and flavoring it with history. He
re-drew well-known figures of the Sinhala music scene, accentuating already
known facets and detailing the lesser known to give depth to face and
word.
Bandula knows that for all the fixations with things
commercial, there exists a sizable population that seek a superior creative, a
song where there is complementarity between words, composition, music and
voice. It was thus an exercise that
instilled in listener the feeling that he/she is not alone. What began as a peripheral program a fair
distance from ‘prime time’ gained so much popularity that it affected a
veritable shift in ‘prime time’. The 7 pm
to 9 pm Sunday program was repeated from 8 am to 10 am the following
Saturday. Sri Lankan expatriates made a
weekly date with the program via the internet.
‘Rae Ira Pana’ was adjudged the best music program at the State Music
Awards 2013.
Bandula dabbed his narrative often with literary and musical
fact and anecdote outside the island, drawing from other cultures, other
literatures and other genres. It had,
therefore, an educational element to it.
The response, he says, was phenomenal. Appreciation flowed in from all parts of the
country and from people belonging to different generations. And that’s how we got ‘Sekera Mahima’ this
evening.
Among the listeners was Ananda Wickramarachchi, a 64 year
old ‘fan’ who was a retired Chemistry teacher at St Joseph’s College. He had seen an ad about the program and had
listened to it. This was in late
September 2011 (‘Rae Ira Pana’ was launched earlier that month). Since then he hadn’t missed even one ‘show’. The reason was ‘Sekera’. Bandula devoted several episodes to the work
of Mahagama Sekera. Wickramarachchi, who
had made it his lifework to collect everything written by Sekera and everything
written about Sekera, had found a kindred spirit. Bandula sought him out to obtain hitherto
unknown or lesser known knowledge of Sekera’s life and work. Wickramarachchi, as a mark of appreciation
for Bandula’s work, decided to gift the collection to the man behind ‘Rae Ira
Pana’. Bandula had suggested that an
event which celebrates the great literary personality would be the appropriate ‘stage’
for such a gift-giving. That’s how ‘Sekera
Mahima’ got tagged to ‘Rae Ira Pana’.
‘Rae Ira Pana’ was struck down in December 2013 much to the dismay
of the considerable fan base it had engendered.
This, then, was a moment to reflect, step back and reassess, and what
better way than to do all this in a context where the man who inspired so many,
including Bandula, is remembered and celebrated?
‘Rae Ira Pana’ had already ‘gathered’ a disparate and
eclectic crowd. They gathered around
their radios and listened to Bandula. There was togetherness, a community, a
solidarity that got built over weeks that stretched into months and more than
two years. They were left hanging by the
particular station. And so Bandula
devised a way to bring them together.
That’s the genesis of the show, with the unintended but fortuitous
outcome of ‘scrapping’: the launch of a website that gives us all the episodes
whenever we want to listen to them, www.rairapaana.com.
And they came. First
and foremost, there was Sekera’s family, his son and daughter and the
grandchildren he never saw. There was W.D. Amaradeva whose songs are remembered
as much for his incomparable voice as for the lyrics into which that voice was
mixed to give the world countless memorable songs. Bandula’s friends and
teachers, formal and otherwise, were all there.
There were young people, artists of one kind or another, known to
Bandula. There was Bandula’s family too.
There were fellow lyricists, many whom he had revered in his formative years
and who consider him not student or ‘junior’ but equal. There were ‘Rae Ira Pana’ fans. There were people who loved and revered
Mahagama Sekera.
They came from all parts of the country. They cancelled
appointments considered ‘important’. This,
many would have thought, is a must-go. ‘Must-go’
because they all love Bandula and more than that, they are acutely aware of the
massive contribution that Sekera made to Sinhala literature. No one was disappointed although things got
off the ground late. I didn’t want to
miss even a minute, so I got there right on time, dragging a reluctant friend
who had time to kill and no one to kill it with. Hafeel Farisz was glad he came
along.
There was a script but then again Bandula Nanayakkarawasam
is too creative to stick to any script, even his own. He improvised. He entertained with anecdote. He referred to
connections and built and strengthened ‘connectivities’. He
laid out his life and demonstrated what a critical part the community of
literary figures, past and present, played in shaping it in particular
ways. Again and again he returned to
Sekera.
Amaradeva was asked to speak a few words and then, gently,
persuaded to sing ‘Ese Mathuvana’ with Bandula at the maestro’s ear
prompting. Amaradeva, as always, recalled
that his creativity and that of Sekera were intertwined, using the line gee pothai mee vithai (the book of verse
and the glass of wine), even though Sekera had a life outside of Amaradeva of a
magnitude and versatility that Amaradeva’s life outside of Sekera just cannot
match. But there was indulgence of
course. Sekera would have been 85
today. Amaradeva just passed that mark.
There were speeches. Many. That’s because Bandula is by nature someone
who celebrates inclusivity. He wanted a lot of people to ‘say a few words’.
They all did. They kept it short and they spoke sense. There were two ‘special’ speeches, one by
Wickramarachchi and the other by W.S. Bandara, Bandula’s disapamok anduru thuma at Richmond.
Bandara spoke at length. He entertained. He taught. He spoke about education and educating. He drew
examples from Richmond, spoke of the use and abuse of libraries, critiqued
education policy and inter alia spoke
of values that sustain civilization and the threats engendered by the
abandonment of the same. It was not hard
to understand why and how Bandula Nanayakkarawasam does the things he
does.
If that was introduction to ‘beginning’ then Wickramarachchi’s
speech described the end (pertaining to the particular moment that was this
event). He spoke of his fascination of Sekera and his appreciation of Bandula’s
efforts through ‘Rae Ira Pana’.
Fittingly, Sekera’s children gifted him with a printed copy of one of
Sekera’s paintings.
Ravinda Mahagama Sekera later explained, ‘the original of
that copy is not with us and no one knows where it is.’ Indeed there many of
his paintings are lost. Ravinda said
that there are a few at home but there could be over a hundred others. Some had been sold at the one and only
exhibition Sekera had held. He had gifted
away many to his friends. Most did not
even carry his signature. Ravinda observed that it is possible that those who
possess the paintings might not even know they have in their possession a Sekera
painting.
He was a giver. And
giving and sharing was what Sekera stood for or represented through his
work. Bandula pointed out that Sekera
reminded everyone that nothing is taken away when we go away forever but in the
intermediate hours of living sharing is possible and wholesome.
Bandula had lined up songs for the evening and they were
slotted in nicely amidst comments and speeches.
They were well-picked. He’s good
at that; this is why ‘Rae Ira Pana’ was so popular after all. He prefaced each performance with a
relevance-note. All of it was poetic as
befitted reciter and occasion. Most
poignant was a rendering of ‘Ese mathuvana’ by M.R. Shah, former President of
the Bank Employees’ Union. Bandula, in
introducing Shah, spoke of union politics and things that cut across
ideological preferences and political affiliations. Shah is no Amaradeva of course, but his
rendition was nevertheless beautiful.
Asanka Liyanaarachchi, an undergrad and winner of ‘Kavitha’
the university version of ‘Super Star’ sang ‘Aetha Kandukara’, coincidentally
just as Pundit Amaradeva arrived. The
song and the lyric are not the preserve to the recognized and honored, Bandula
often says. This is why he had an
employee of the Galle Post Office and friend sing ‘Wasanthaye Mal’. Nelu Adhikari sang ‘Parasathu Mal’; Sujatha
Attanayake would have been proud. Kapila Poogalaarachchi sang ‘Seethala diya
piri sunila vilai’ a song that Bandula had picked from Sekera’s unpublished
lyrics, thereby foregoing an opportunity to pen a song himself, again very ‘Sekarist’
of him. There was Gayathri Ekanayake, a
teacher at Visakha, who sang ‘Ruwan wala duhul kadin’. They were all very good.
Bandula is a treasure house of anecdotes. He has a fantastic memory for seemingly
inconsequential things. He recalled how
Kularatne Ariyawansa had indulged in mild browbeating one night and how he,
Bandula, had ended up writing a song that ‘Kule Aiya’ had been asked to write, ‘Nim
Therak’ (Sunil Edirisinghe). Kule Aiya
had turned up at the studio and had been livid that Bandula had let his, Kule’s
name remain as lyricist. That’s respect,
he said. Kularatne Ariyawansa would have
none of it, not least of all because it was beautifully written. Bandula always acknowledges the influence of
the pera parapura, the greats who
came before, of whom he claims that Sekera was the foremost. This is perhaps why he asked a host of guests
to offer comments, some many years old, some his contemporaries. And so we had Buddhadasa Galappaththi,
Samantha Herath, Praneeth Abeysundera, Lal Hegoda, Rohana Weerasinghe and Sunil
Ariyaratne making brief observations of the event, Bandula, Rae Ira Pana and of
course Mahagama Sekera.
‘Listening to all this, doesn’t it give you hope for this
country?’ my friend Hafeel asked me. ‘When
was I ever pessimistic?’ I replied.
Optimism apart, the fleshing out of hope or giving it
corporeality of some kind requires hard work, tender hearts and the seeking out
and strengthening of solidarity. Bandula,
true to form, put it best. Here is a
rough translation:
‘Let all that is best
in all of us come together and create another Mahagama Sekera who would then unravel
who we are and the world we live in and thereby show us the pathways we ought
to choose so we can reach a better, more tender, more knowing world.’
What better tribute to that beautiful human being.
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