Many
decades ago, Piyasiri Pelenda, friend and colleague at the Agrarian
Research and Training Institute, speaking about his studies in the
former USSR, related an interesting story.
Apparently
at the first meeting with his doctoral supervisor, the professor had
given him a box. He may have also given him some cardboard sheets or
some cards, I can’t remember. I do remember what the professor told him:
‘this is the beginning and end of your PhD.’
This
was long before word processors and software that made academic life
that much easier. Piyasiri was required to write down on a card the
title of each book he read, along with author’s name, publisher and year
of publication. In this way he would compile his bibliography. And that
would literally be ‘the end’ of his doctoral work.
Bibliographies
are part of a graduate student’s life. Indeed, even an undergraduate,
whether it’s a thesis or even a term paper, is required to attach a
bibliography to the treatise. On the other hand, they are also useful
for those who aren’t working on some thesis, dissertation or academic
treatise.
Bibliographies
tell us something about the author, the kinds of scholarship that has
informed him or her, the kind of theoretical schools that frame the
thinking and the dimensions of academic exploration. Offers useful
insights but more than that tells us what else there is that we might be
interested in reading. And it doesn’t have to be an academic. Anyone
can flip to the back of an academic treatise or look up references and do even a cursory exploration on the internet. One has nothing to lose.
A
few days ago, the word popped up quite by chance. It was immediately
after a Humanitas program called ‘Members Only’ for ‘anyone who ever
loved,’ at the Medical Faculty, University of Colombo.
Now
‘Humanitas’ is a special monthly programme for students where certain
subjects are discussed using artistic expression. Humanitas is a Latin
word drawn from the Greek concepts of philanthrôpÃa (loving what makes
us human) and paideia (education). That should explain what the
programme is all about.
Back
to bibliographies. I was speaking with Dr Panduka Karunanayake,
Chairperson of the Humanities Society and Professionalism Stream of the
MBBS Programme in the Medical Faculty. Panduka, a classmate, wears many
hats, some with labels and some without. To me, he’s a doctor who is
also a sociologist but most of all a student of the human condition and a
quiet activist who in innumerable ways tries to set up systems that can
benefit society. Humanitas, I was told, was his brainchild. Heartchild.
Whatever. I wasn't surprised.
I
told him that his book, ‘Ruptures in Sri Lanka’s Education: Genesis,
{resent Status and Reflections,’ ought to be recommended reading in all
courses on education. And he spoke about the bibliography.
‘It could be useful to someone who wants to do research on these issues.’
True.
The book, which was shortlisted for a State Literary Award a few years
ago, covers much ground about how we came to where we are, the hiccups,
the debacles and the resilience as well as the things that need to be
addressed if education is to be meaningful and of benefit to society.
The bibliography is a map to the extensive areas that Panduka has
meticulously examined and reflected on.
And
then he spoke about another book which he had accidentally come across
at a ‘book sale’ that was being held, funnily enough, on a particular
floor of a clothes shop.
‘It
was Anuruddha Pradeep Karnasuriya’s undergraduate dissertation on the
politics of rural socialism. Dr Gamini Samaranayake, who supervised the
dissertation, must have encouraged him to publish it.’
Panduka
found the subject fascinating but was also impressed by the
bibliography. I told him that Anuruddha was a brilliant mind and that he
had translated Fukuyama’s essay on the ‘end of history’ and
Huntington’s one on ‘the clash of civilisations.’
And
later that evening, I remembered the young archaeologist Ishanka
Malsiri who, by diligently and exhaustively delving into sources through
footnotes and bibliography, comprehensively refuted the thesis on
Dutugemunu’s ‘conscience’ written by Gananath Obeysekera.
We
learn. We learn to unlearn. We unlearn. We re-learn. And in this way,
obtain subtext from text, detail and nuance from thesis, hone humility
and engage in our respective communities, academic or otherwise, in
more meaningful ways. It has something to do with learning to love that
which makes us human. At some level.
And
so, when we open windows, including those called bibliographies, we learn to understand that we become better teachers when we
become better students. As is the case of Dr Panduka Karunanayake.
['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a
column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day,
Monday through Saturday. This is a new series. Links to previous articles in this new series are given below]
Other articles in this series:
To be an island like the Roberts...
Debts that can never be repaid in full
An island which no flood can overwhelm
A melody faint and yet not beyond hearing
Heart dances that cannot be choreographed
Remembering to forget and forgetting to remember
Authors are assassinated, readers are immortal
It is good to be conscious of nudities
Saturday slides in after Monday and Sunday somersaults into Friday
There's a one in a million and a one in ten
Kumkum Fernando installs Sri Lanka in Coachella, California
Hemantha Gunawardena's signature
Architectures of the demolished
The exotic lunacy of parting gifts
Who the heck do you think I am?
Those fascinating 'Chitra Katha'
So how are things in Sri Lanka?
The sweetest three-letter poem
Teams, team-thinking, team-spirit and leadership
The songs we could sing in lifeboats when we are shipwrecked
Jekhan Aruliah set a ball rolling in Jaffna
Awaiting arrivals unlike any other
Teachers and students sometimes reverse roles
Colombo, Colombo, Colombo and so forth
The slowest road to Kumarigama, Ampara
Some play music, others listen
Mind and hearts, loquacious and taciturn
I am at Jaga Food, where are you?
On separating the missing from the disappeared
And intangible republics will save the day (as they always have)
The circuitous logic of Tony Muller
Rohana Kalyanaratne, an unforgettable 'Loku Aiya'
Mowgli, the Greatest Archaeologist
Figures and disfigurement, rocks and roses
Sujith Rathnayake and incarcerations imposed and embraced
Some stories are written on the covers themselves
A poetic enclave in the Republic of Literature
Landcapes of gone-time and going-time
The best insurance against the loud and repeated lie
So what if the best flutes will not go to the best flautists?
There's dust and words awaiting us at crossroads and crosswords
A song of terraced paddy fields
Of ants, bridges and possibilities
From A through Aardvark to Zyzzyva
Words, their potency, appropriation and abuse
Who did not listen, who's not listening still?
If you remember Kobe, visit GOAT Mountain
The world is made for re-colouring
No 27, Dickman's Road, Colombo 5
Visual cartographers and cartography
Ithaca from a long ago and right now
Lessons written in invisible ink
The amazing quality of 'equal-kindness'
The interchangeability of light and darkness
Sisterhood: moments, just moments
Chess is my life and perhaps your too
Reflections on ownership and belonging
The integrity of Nadeesha Rajapaksha
Signatures in the seasons of love
To Maceo Martinet as he flies over rainbows
Fragrances that will not be bottled
Colours and textures of living heritage
Countries of the past, present and future
Books launched and not-yet-launched
The sunrise as viewed from sacred mountains
Isaiah 58: 12-16 and the true meaning of grace
The age of Frederick Algernon Trotteville
Live and tell the tale as you will
Between struggle and cooperation
Neruda, Sekara and literary dimensions
Paul Christopher's heart of many chambers
Calmness gracefully cascades in the Dumbara Hills
Serendipitous amber rules the world
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