My occasional incursions into other people’s imaginations (a.k.a. written word), had the good fortune to cross paths with Kapila Kumara Kalinga’s short story called මා නමැති සංචාරකයා.
Obviously, our fellow travelers do not need any introduction of Kapila so let’s jump right into his latest literary expedition.
At first glance the writing appears quite consistent with his prior work having quite a few insights hidden under wisecracks, satire and also poetic yet simple language. But, digging deep, there is something profound that is kicking and screaming in this piece.
So, I couldn’t help it but opine.
First of all, this one is more ‘internal monolog’ of a guy who has experienced many journeys through time, space and life—some literally and some metaphorically—than a short story. At one point he describes his private library consisting of many collections from famed explorers indicating the many symbolic vehicles he traveled in.
Early on the narration he reveals about a girlfriend who has similar interests in traveling. But their compatibility ends there because when to go, where to go and how to go are more complicated than common desire for exploration.
He does most of his trips alone.
He senses emptiness when sedentary but feels fulfilled while moving about. He stops taking notes as time goes by because one’s memories cannot be swept away by a flood or burnt down by a wildfire (I assume that included taking selfies and frequent Facebook postings too). His early interests are to find the beginnings (and endings) of natural phenomena while attempting to be united with nature.
He feels…
“සොබාදහම තරම් හොඳ නවාතැන් සපයන්නකු මෙලොව නැත. පිරිසිදු වාතය, ජලය, එළවළු, පලතුරු, ගින්දර, සමතලා ගිරිමුදුනක්, හෝ තුරු මුදුනක්… මේ සියල්ල නොමිලයේය. අහස් වියන තරම් නෙක සනසන අලංකාර උඩුවියනක් මෙලොව තවත් නැත. පොළවේ වැතිර නිල් අහස් කුස පාවෙන සුදු වලාවක මනසින් එල්ලුණු කල වායු බැලුනයක නැගුණාක් මෙන් අපූරු ගුවන් චාරිකාවක යෙදිය හැක.”
The encounters with rich musicians from Great Britton living in an African jungle and spending time with Jain monks in Karnataka (attired in full birthday suits in both cases) must have been a blast as well as thought provoking.
He says…
“ශීලාචාරකම ඇත්තේ ඇඳුමේ පැලඳුමේ නොවන බව මම අත්දුටුවෙමි. අනෙක් පැත්තට අශීලාකාරකම ඇඳුමින් වසා ගැනීමටද නොහැක.”
Why does he happen to meet same people and same situations over and over again?
Although his early interests are for discovering the beginnings and endings of the physical phenomena, why does he later abandon or fails in that pursuit?
However strong is the sense of fulfilment of his travels (probably travails for some of us), why could he never complete his journeys and why the end of all the trips lead only to the beginning of a new one?
You may find some insights to those questions at the end. He had to make a last trip climbing a steep mountain and then begin a brand-new voyage to find answers to those queries. Kapila Kumara Kalinga has not only impressed us as he always does but may have surprised us by going full-philosophical too in this short tale.