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COMMENTS on Untouchable Woman's Odyssey An extraordinary first novel by an accomplished poet, Untouch- able Woman’s Odyssey offers a deeply insightful narrative of postcolonial Sri Lanka. Beneath the placid surface lies a tale of the challenges of modernity, the deep divisions of class and caste, and the traces of the past in shaping the present. With re- markable skill, the author moves back and forth in time, linking the present to the past, demonstrating the multiple ways in which Buddhism has shaped the contours of Sri Lankan culture. An inclusive text in the best sense of the term, the novel draws to- gether multiple traditions to explore the pathos, paradoxes and richness of modern Sri Lanka. Suwanda Sugunasiri’s Untouch- able Woman’s Odyssey is a major contribution to both Cana- dian and Sri Lankan literature. - Prof. Chelva Kanaganayakam Professor of English, Univ. of Toronto, Canada "... a brilliant evocation of the ancient, mythic and religious past of a country in South Asia... The story comes alive within a whol- ly convincing fictional landscape that serves as the stage for a witty and informative dramatization of the country's modern, post-colonial struggle for freedom and independence." - Prof Birbalsingh, Professor Emeritus of English, York University, Toronto, Canada - “Untouchable woman's odyssey! Pulsating vibrantly underneath…”. - “Tangamma is the heroine, the true woman of Asia with a practical mind, adaptable to any situation, to face any hardship, deprivation and also with the strength and the willpower. …” - “…incredibly cinematic, camera panning from one image to another, then zooming in..” - “A beautifully written love story, the two protagonists, female and male, come from different ethnic / caste backgrounds. They both undergo transformation in relation to each other, their voices "flow- ing over one another like water…”” “… deft execution of conflict, intensifying action, crisis and climax… LITERARY WORKS of the author IN ENGLISH Poetry Waves of Cuba, 2110, Nalanda Publishing Canada. Obama-Ji, 2009, Nalanda Publishing Canada. Celestial Conversations, 2005, Nalanda Publishing Canada. Faces of Galle Face Green, 1996, Toronto: TSAR Publishing; 2nd ed., 2000, Colombo, Sri Lanka: Sarasavi. Critical Studies Step Down Shakespeare, the Stone Angel is Here, 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka: Godage. Editor Whistling Thorn: anthology of South Asian Canadian short fiction, 1994 Oakville, Ontario, Canada: Mosaic Press. The Literature of the Canadians of South Asian Origins, 1981 (1985), Ottawa: Secretary of State. Sri Lankan Literature (Sinhala, Tamil, English) (with Prof. A V Suraweera), special issue of Toronto South Asian Review, 1984. COMMENTS ON the author’s POETRY “What is exciting about the collection … is the imagination that transforms (the poet’s) varied interests into moments of revela- tion that in turn lead to holistic vision…. What permeates the entire book is a distinctly Buddhist sensibility.. the humor and the gentle irony … are distinguished aspects of his poetry.” Prof. Chelva Kanaganayakam Univ. of Toronto, Canada, Toronto South Asian Review “… The dominant themes of Suigunasiri’s verse: a strong politi- cal commitment alongside detached, pietic Buddhism. … There is much less of diasporic in his verse and much more of a straight out pleading for common sense and non-violence.” Prof. Vijay Mishra Murdoch University, Australia, Canadian Literature 2 UNTOUCHABLE WOMAN’S ODYSSEY A Novel Suwanda Sugunasiri 3 Copyright © Suwanda Sugunasiri, 2010; Kindle version, 2011 All Rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted, in any form or any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permis- sion of the publisher. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Sugunasiri, Suwanda H. J. Untouchable woman's odyssey / Suwanda Sugunasiri. ISBN 978-0-9867198-0-6 I. Title. PS8587.U38U68 2010 C813'.54 C2010-905792-9 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Nalanda Publishing Canada 3 Ardmore Rd Toronto, ON M5P 1V4, CANADA 416-487-2777 NOTE This is a work of fiction, with some historical characters and events as background. Just as the languages De-Leonese and De- Andhrese are, there is much else that is fictitious. 4 PREFACE In the making for 10 years, it is with a sense of contented humil- ity that I present my first novel as my 75th year gift to the world. Several people have helped me along, one of the first being Ste- ven Heighton, Writer-in-Residence at the University of Toronto, with his critical comments on sections of an earlier draft. I am grateful to Kelly Watt and Alana Wilcox for taking the time to go through the novel, and offering their critical comments. It is to Johnny Ossorio I offer my thanks for transforming my con- cepts into an attractive Book Cover. Swarna has gone through many a draft of this novel. Without her patience, and the constant encouragement, my work will not have seen the light of day. So my bow to her. Without the technical help of Anura Bellana, my novel may not have reached the Kindle audience. So I thank him for placing it in your hands. I also want to thank Amazon’s Kindle Team for its facilitation. May you enjoy reading this Untouchable Woman's Odyssey as much as I have writing it. May you be well! Suwanda Sugunasiri August 2011 Toronto, Canada 5 Dedication: To the oppressed women of the world; & To my Parents, Missinona Warnakulasuriya (mother) and Kalaguru S H Sauris Silva for whom social upliftment was a way of life. 6 Bio of Author Suwanda H J Sugunasiri Featured at the Harbourfront Reading Series, Suwanda Sugu- nasiri is a poet with three collections - The Faces of Galle Face Green (1995), Celestial Conversations (2007) and Obama-Ji (2009). The Waves of Cuba is a free-standing publication, excerpted from the third collection. The pioneering columnist on Multiculturalism at the Toronto Star, introducing multiculturalism to Canadians as it was taking its first halting steps, and a Book Reviewer, he was appointed by Order-in- Council to the Ontario Advisory Council on Multiculturalism and Citi- zenship. Later writing a column on Buddhism as well, he has been fea- tured on CBC, CTV, TVO, Vision TV, CTS, OMNI TV, CFRB, BBC (London), Radio Blue Danube (Denmark) and Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation (Sri Lanka), among others. He was a columnist in Sri Lan- ka, under the pseudonym, Madhupa. He has been a popular speaker on the Multiculturalism and Interfaith Relations Circuit in Canada, in aca- demic as well as non-academic settings – churches, synagogues, com- munity meetings, etc. Sugunasiri is the pioneering researcher on the Literature of the Canadians of South Asian Origins (for the Secretary of State). The Whistling Thorn: South Asian Canadian Fiction (Mosaic), one of the earliest anthologies of which he is Editor, features renowned authors such as Neil Bissoondath, Cyril Dabydeen, Rohinton Mistry and M G Vassanji, among others. He is also co-editor (with A V Suraweera) of a special issue of the Toronto South Asian Review, on Sri Lankan Litera- ture, bringing together for the first time writers in all three languages – Sinhala, Tamil and English. His critical studies on literature has appeared in Canadian Literature, World Literature Written in English and Canadian Ethnic Studies. He has also translated Bertrand Russell into Sinhala. A Sinhala popular play in Sri Lanka by Dayananda Gun- awaradhana, Nari Baena, directed by him in Toronto, was selected as one of the 10 best multicultural plays in Ontario. He has acted in plays and danced in ballets, and performed at the Harbourfront. Labeled ‘Renaissance Man’, Prof. Sugunasiri, a US Fulbright Scholar, has done studies in National Development (PhD), Bud- 7 dhism (MA), Moral Philosophy (MA) - all from University of Toronto, Linguistics (MA, University of Pennsylvania, USA) and Oriental Lan- guages (BA, University of London). He has taught in diverse areas such as Buddhism, Education, Linguistics, Multiculturalism, Psychol- ogy and Sociology at University of Toronto (Trinity College, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), Vidyodaya University in Sri Lan- ka and Nalanda College of Buddhist Studies (Toronto, Canada). Most recently, he gave four guest seminars on Buddhism at the University of Havana, Cuba. Featured in Canadian Who's Who, and on June Callwood’s National Treasures on Vision TV, and honoured by the Sri Lankan community with a Life-Time Award, he has been most recently fea- tured in Wild Geese: Buddhism in Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press), profiling his work in the field of Canadian Buddhism over the last three decades. He is Founder of the Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies, and Nalanda College of Buddhist Studies (Canada), and is pub- lished in, among others, Philosophy East and West. A Member of the Canada Day Committee, Sugunasiri has also written an alternative preamble to the Canadian Constitution that seeks to include both believers in God and those who don’t - atheists, secular- ists and Buddhists. His Toronto Star piece, “Who, then, is a Canadian? has entered several anthologies, including one on ‘precise writing in the essay’. With two publications of short fiction in Sinhala, a selected one or two translated into English and Bengali, Untouchable Woman's Odyssey is his first novel. Now retired, he lives with his wife Swarna in Toronto. 8 UNTOUCHABLE WOMAN’S ODYSSEY A Novel Few are they among humans, they who

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