Tamil Tigress by Niromi de Soyza

Tamil Tigress was published in 2011 and ever since I heard of it, I wanted to read it. Who wouldn't? The story of a female child soldier who joined the LTTE and fought in the civil conflict - it sounded a best seller even in the abstract. But for a long time, I was ambivalent on getting the book, finally, I managed to get my grubby hands on a copy and read it over three days.
It taught me a good lesson. When you sometimes hear of something over and over again, especially with regard to books and movies, you might either be put off or have really high expectations that are never fulfilled. It was the former for me, regarding this book. I was put off for many reasons: that she chose a Sinhala name to write the book, when she was clearly Tamil, I was put off by all the comments I heard from friends who read it, who said she trivialized the issue, it was not accurate, etc etc.
But now, here I am, one of those who read it and I am so glad I did. First the debate on the name. Apparently, she adopted the pseudonym in honour of Richard de Soyza. But I still can't think why she chose a Sinhala name. There are so many other Tamil's she could have honoured, if she didn't want to write under her own name. But pseudonyms for no reason are not new at all, even in Sri Lanka (refer Ashok Ferrey) and so I could not hold that against her for too long.
In reading the book, I forgot all the charges. I was totally into it from beginning to end.
The story, is of a young Tamil girl, who moves  from Kandy to Jaffna after the riots of 1977. Not many people know or remember that before 1983 there were other riots against the Tamils. Her father leaves her with her grandmother and goes to the Middle East to work, some months later, her mother and younger sister join her. In Jaffna, she witnesses the burning of the library in 1981, and then came the riots of 1983. The young girl, enamoured by the Tigers, romanticizes the notion of freedom fighters. She speaks of seeing young boys casually toting guns around the town, spoken off in hushed whispers with tinges of admiration and the young girl is hooked. It was a time when the Tigers were in charge unofficially. The Tigers would regularly speak to children in school and Niromi heard them speak. I am not sure if that had an impact or not but quite early on she wants to join the Tigers and together with her childhood school friend, off she goes.
At that time, the Tigers were not keen on having female cadres, and not keen on enlisting under age children. A far cry from what they became. But Niromi, speaks of a period, when the Tigers were still forming as the dominant group. There is an air of innocence, of hope in a strange way, of wanting things to be different and trying to find ways, albeit all the wrong ones, of righting wrongs.
Her book focuses on the time of the IPKF mainly and ends in 1988. It is important to remember that time frame, because her experience of the Tigers were completely different to what they later became.
Regardless if her facts are true or fabricated. Regardless if Tamils swear or don't swear accurately, if they had boyfriends or not, to me the story rang true. Her descriptions of the training, of jungle life, guerilla skirmishes and day to day life, reveal a side that we in the south had just no idea what was happening.
In segregated Sri Lanka today, we have no idea how the youth of other communities really live. We think we know, but we don't. And through the ethnic conflict, the complete separation of communities of North and South, made us have images and views of the other, that became embedded in stone.
To me, it was refreshing to read a book where boys and girls are interested in each other, have fun, even amidst the struggle for the rights of their people. Prabhakaran, Mahatthaya, Kittu, and Thileepan, familiar, even fearsome names, became human. Her distant love interest Roshan, seemed very real, even the emotions she captured are real in a Sri Lankan context, where the sexes are distant from each other.
The way she leaves the Tigers, shows that it was a time, when free will did play a part to some extent. There were many who resigned and many who were asked to leave, and also many executions and eliminations to those they perceived as not having behaved properly and who were traitors. 
Niromi, left the Tigers, finished her education in India and managed to emigrate to Australia, where she still lives. She has become a prominent literary figure, doing the circuits and speaking of her experience.
It is a good book, well written, and worth a read. If I have one criticism, it is that Niromi does not talk much about Tiger ideology. It is more a recounting of an experience than a philosophical reflection of the Tigers. It makes me wonder, if like in the army, there would have been recruits in the early days among the Tigers, who were all fired up to fight on behalf of their ethnic group but with very little understanding of what it entails.

The Whirlwind by Ayathurai Santhan

First I shall grouse about the Grataien. It is really irritating not to be able to read the shortlisted works and sometimes not even to be able to read the winning works until a year has passed. So this year there were three manuscripts and two books and of course last year's winner got published just in time as well. I have yet to pick up copies of the two winners - this year and last year, but my aunt who went for the Gratiaen picked this book up for me.

I didn't go for either the shortlisting or the award night but the literary chatter was that there was this interesting book written by a writer from Jaffna about the time the IPKF was stationed there. In fact, I thought at the time, that this might have been a sure winner. Then I read the book and straight off, I will tell you if it had won, I would have been dissapointed.

In my opinion a prize winning book has to stand out. While this book actually had what could have been a gripping story, the writing style left much to be desired and I was not even sure that it should have been shortlisted.

The story is set over a very short period of time. Perhaps over a few days. When the IPKF came as so called peace monitors to the North of the Island, they saw all the people there as Sri Lankans - an identity the Northerners had erased from their psyche and they saw all Tamils as potential LTTErs. Concentrating on one village that has all the people rounded up and housed in one compound that had one toilet for around 400 people, the people are confused if they are there for their safety or being detained. The depiction of the Indian army is sketchy and not drawn out yet it does not turn out to be a weakness of the book, for the slim novel in fact concentrates on the relationships, hardships and fears that the Northern Tamil families were going through during a period that they hoped would save them and yet became another kind of horror for them.

When you read this book, you feel for our people and what they have had to go through. They are mere pawns that are toyed with all players - the LTTE, the Sri Lankan army, the Indian army. Ayathurai Santhan is careful not to tread on the ideology of the average Northern Tamil person. He shows all these people as victims, being tossed from one side to the other at the whim of whoever rules. It might have been interesting if he had taken a stance, for after all the LTTE could not have existed and been successful for so long, without popular support in the area. The book ends without resolution.

The writing is replete with Sri Lankan English of the lesser kind: akward, clumsy and sometimes grammatically incorrect. Now, I hope I don't get flak for this comment. For example: "Though everyday, Sivan had passed by this house often, this was the second time he happened to be inside." Is a sentence written in the way Sri Lankan's typically speak. And there is nothing wrong with that if it was written as direct speech.

My final comments is that this is a book that I highly recommend only because there is a dearth of writing in English about the conflict from the Tamil perspective. I admit that it is written in a sometimes crude and akward manner, that the story could have been fleshed out better, that as it is, it is not a very strong book. But it is important that all Sri Lankans be able to read about our history, and what better way to do it, than through fiction, the different voices and perspectives of our history - be it good or evil. I applaud Ayathurai Santhan for taking the courage and writing such a book. I just wish it had been edited much more and we would have a stronger perhaps even a prize winning book. I look forward to more books written from varying perspectives, perhaps one that is sympathetic to the LTTE cause for we need to know how part of our own people wished to secede from the country in the hope for a life of equality, justice and peace.