12 Thursday 27th January, 2011 The Island Features Apart from this incisive glimpse of the pluralistic reality of the beneficiaries of independence, several other images make clear Rushdie’s analytical skill. One of the most memorable was the account of the departing Britisher allowing Saleem’s parents to buy his house for a song, provided they agreed to change nothing in it. step and Jump (Junior) Long Jump and senior Hop-step and jump events. robably the most influential British writer of He was a member of the team the latter part of the 20th century was Salman when Ananda College won the PRushdie. Midnight’s Children, which won the Ceylon Public Schools Athletics Booker Prize in 1981, was later twice awarded the Championship and claimed the Booker of Bookers as being the best work in the 25 prestigious Tarbet Challenge Cup. and then 40 year history of the prize. There was He was awarded the College and really no questioning of this decision. public schools colours in four The work also firmly established in the main- events, namely, Hop step and Jump, stream of English writing the technique known as long jump, 4x110 yards relay and magic realism, which in essence turned the notion 4x400 yards relay. Further, he was of fiction on its head. Whereas normally writers also a pioneer of CT&FC and won make up stories that follow the normal rules of life, his events Hop step and jump and so as to represent reality, magic realism breaks those long jump at Inter-Club rules, and in effect uses magic to increase our Championships. understanding of life. For this purpose it ignores the He was an excellent wicket-keep- rules of real life, while sometimes introducing actu- er and a hard hitting middle order al people and happenings into the text. bat in the Ananda First XI in 1960. The most extreme example of this latter tech- In 1957, to 1960, he captained the nique in Midnight’s Children occurs with the intro- Ananda College Badminton Team duction of Indira Gandhi as virtually a character in and emerged senior doubles cham- the novel, identified as the Black Widow, with her pion and runners-up in the senior real-life hairstyle, sharply distinguished black and singles. He had been a member of white components, being held to represent the con- the College Tennis Team in 1959 trast between what she presented to the world and and 1960. its underside. However I found this aspect of the He was also an outstanding book the least convincing, and indeed Indira Gandhi cadet at Ananda, where he learned made the limitations of this sort of approach clear the basics in Army training. when she sued Rushdie, not about the general criti- He enrolled in the Junior cisms, but the insinuation that she had been respon- Cadet Platoon No. 1 in 1956 and sible for the death of her husband. She won the attended the annual training case, and in fact the book is remembered now not so camp that year as a Lance much for Rushdie’s criticism of her period of Corporal. In 1957, he, again Emergency Rule, but rather for its incisive account attended the training camp, of the first few years of Indian independence, culmi- as sergeant. In both years, nating in the wars that finally put paid to the idea of the Ananda College platoon Indian and Pakistani parity. emerged first in order of The protagonist of the book is merit among Sri Lanka Saleem Sinai, born at the moment schools and won the CLI India achieved independence, and challenge cup. In 1959, he thus endowed with supernatural attended the senior cadet gifts, along with the other children camp as Lance Corporal. of midnight. However he is not He was a member of the really the son of his putative par- College Rifle Club and rep- ents, since his ayah, in a fit of resented the club in shoot- egalitarian ideal- ing championships. Rohan has ism, switched been a prefect both of the hostel him at birth with and the school. He joined the Sri the son of a poor Lanka Army in 1961 as a cadet offi- woman, who cer. had been Daluwatte was born on 9th May impregnated by 1941. He hails from a highly an Englishman respectable family from about to leave Ambalangoda. His father D. H. the country. The Paulis De Silva was a fine outstand- real Saleem ing Athlete of S’Thomas’ College, Sinai is brought up in the slums and becomes a Mount Lavinia and a reputed criminal, who ends up as a Congress Party thug BY PREMASARA planter. His mother was D. W. Leela at the time of the Emergency. EPASINGHE Somawathie from Weligama. He Apart from this incisive glimpse of the plural- has four brothers and a sister, istic reality of the beneficiaries of independence, namely Susantha, Pinsiri, several other images make clear Rushdie’s ana- here are many sportsmen and aluwatte held the Rupasiri, Dhanasiri and sister lytical skill. One of the most memorable was the sports women in the island. Ananda College Malini. account of the departing Britisher allowing TThey are mostly specialists in He joined the Sri Lanka Army in Saleem’s parents to buy his house for a song, their own selective sport. Versatile records for 220 1961 as an officer cadet. After being provided they agreed to change nothing in it. D sportsmen and sportswomen are a Sometimes I think the Ayatollah’s extreme reac- enlisted in the Army, he was sent to Supplementing this vision of the straitjacket in yards, Hop-step and rare breed. A versatile sportsman tion was entirely due to Sri Lanka. We were I think the Royal Military Academy which the British bound India through procedural can participate in many sports the first country to ban the book, along with the film Jump (Junior) Long Sandhurst, United Kingdom for rules is the account of how Americans contributed activities. To be a versatile sports- The Last Temptation of Christ, in what was clearly Military Training. During his stint to the language riots that nearly tore India apart in Jump and senior Hop- man is difficult, a challenge. an election measure in 1988 designed to attract at RMPS, United Kingdom, he took the fifties. The trope here, matching the much less step and jump events. Versatility is something you pos- Muslim and Christian votes. I was in Pakistan at the part in many co-curricular activi- formal way in which influence was exercised, takes sess as a born talent. time, and interviewed on the subject on Pakistan He was a member of ties. In the Sandhurst Military the form of a girl who happens to live there with her A couple of days ago, I met radio, when we were able to discuss the book freely. Academy, he excelled in athletics, family, and manages to create confusion that could the team when Ananda General Rohan Daluwatte an out- But then Pakistan had to go one step further, and not badminton and basketball. have been resolved easily without her. standing sports personality, who only ban the book, but I think burn copies of all College won the Participating in a Western Rushdie’s next novel, Shame, dealt with brought credit and honour to Sri Rushdie’s books in the country. This left Iran no European Military Cadets Athletics Pakistan, and specifically the rivalry between Ceylon Public Schools Lanka in his day, at his residence. option but to make its indignation even more dra- Meet (WEMCAM) as well as a meet Bhutto and General Zia, who overthrew and then He took part in many sports and matic, with unfortunate consequences for Rushdie. Athletics against Oxford, Cambridge, executed him. This time the technique involved performed at the highest level in One of these was that the danger to his life made Dartmouth and Cranwell. His characters who were very obviously based on the Championship and athletics, basketball, badminton, him dependent on the British government for pro- greatest achievement was winning two rivals, with clearly identifiable personal and claimed the prestigious tennis and cricket. He obtained tection, so in time the scourge of the British estab- the Hop Step and Jump, (his pet political traits, the sexual antics and volatility of school colours for these sports at lishment became a votary, being awarded a knight- Tarbet Challenge Cup. event throughout his athletics Bhutto, the puritanism and dogged determination of Ananda College Colombo. hood in fact in 2007. However, though Rushdie has career) at the British Army Zia. The novel, written in 1983, also introduces He was awarded the When Rohan Daluwatte the for- mellowed, he has still been critical when required, Championships. He was awarded Benazir Bhutto as the Virgin Ironpants, who inherits mer Commander of the Army opposing for instance the Anglo-American attack on College and public colours. the country in time, in a prophetic account that sug- retired, he was appointed as the Iraq, though to my mind rightly supporting the UN Daluwatte had the proud distinc- gests too that she might have been more successful schools colours in four Head of the newly formed Joint invasion of Afghanistan following the Al-Qaeda tion of representing the British had she not married. Operations Command and later as attack on the Twin Towers. events, namely, Hop Combined Services Team in Hop- These two brilliant books, that provided valuable Chief of Defence Staff with the His subsequent fiction, though always exciting step and Jump and was awarded insights into the contemporary politics and social step and Jump, long rank of General.