Rainbows in Braille

Source:Island

During these days of negative feelings, with the pandemic looming at every corner, the recently retired, like myself, might find ourselves neither here nor there! Reading a lengthy novel, unless it captures your wholehearted interest, might be rather boring, bordering on laziness.

I was most fortunate to come across a book of short stories by Capt Elmo Jayawardene, called “Rainbows in Braille,” and now I am in the process of reading it, on the second run, to digest further!

Nineteen stories in all, the Author captures the Sri Lankan lifestyle, and pulse, from many stratas, in its truest sense, and  laid out to the reader in simple readable form with much flavoured idioms, too. With stories, ranging from the filthy rich elite to the hopelessly poor, comical and tragic as life maybe, the stories  keep changing the tempo to motivate the reader in the  inimitable style of the Author. 

Schoolboy antics in a classroom, imaginary fantasies of a would be lover, encounters of a school van driver, adventures of two female tourists, a soldier cook caught in the conflict, are some of the diverse situations of the contents. Essentiall, all these stories convey a powerful message to the Sri Lankan society at large.

Incidentally, this book has been shortlisted for the Singapore Literary Prize, whilst Capt Elmo Jayawardene is the winner of the Gratien award and State Literary award for his earlier work. I recommend this very interesting book of short stories to anyone who loves to read, as well as do some light reading as a past time in this sometimes nothing to do environment. More importantly, I believe, though I am no expert, that this book might be haven for the lover of Literature!

ROHAN BAMBARADENIYA.