The Road from Elephant Pass is based in the year 2000, when the country is ravaged by the civil war that lasted about three decades.....
Book: The Road from Elephant Pass
Author: Nihal De Silva
Reviewed by: Muhammad Asif Nawaz
When I went to Sri Lanka, I came to know about this book that is rated highly amongst the country’s novels. Back then, I was more occupied with surviving elephant attacks than reading about elephant passes. Months later, I ran through some reviews on this novel online, and people only had good things to say about it. To rekindle my nostalgia of the pretty little island, I decided to give it a go. That was the easy part. But the difficult part was that I couldn’t find it anywhere in Pakistan or the UK. God bless Amazon and the people who put up their used things there. I instantly ordered a copy from the website. That was the easy part. But now the difficult part is that I’m just done with the novel and boy, what a beautiful, classic piece! Next thing on my bucket list is learning the art of closures.
I’m probably biased in favour of this book (and also borderline elated as well) since it deals with a number of things that just are so important to me: the country of Sri Lanka and its amazing denizens, the power of beautiful words thrown around casually, detailed insight into wars and what it is that divides humans and pits them against each other, extensive musings over the country’s impressive flora and fauna, nature and wilderness and the art of surviving in the same, and reluctant relationships that magnificently spring into existence just by the order of nature and human psychophysiology. In the era of Fifty Shades and toxic television, it’s simply a treat to read something so mature and profound.
The Road from Elephant Pass is based in the year 2000, when the country is ravaged by the civil war that lasted about three decades; and it would be another nine years before (as we know now) the government would claim victory and the war would end. Since it was first published in 2003, it’s from the perspective of an ongoing war. This makes it substantially more important, as it’s far easier to make sense of things in retrospection. Even so, the author Nihal De Silva does an impressive job of bringing the war to the fore; and calls for understanding, reconciliation and some empathy between the warring groups; ignorant about the shape the future would take.
There’s Kamala Velaithan, a Tamil woman who’s a member of the LTTE (or Tamil Tigers as we know them) who has recently - and shadily - turned against the group. She offers herself as an informant to the Sri Lankan Army, owing to reasons of her own. There’s Wasantha Ratnayake, a Sinhalese Captain in the Sri Lankan Army who’s assigned the task of picking Kamala up and bringing her to the Army Headquarters. But an attack on Elephant Pass by the LTTE leaves the two stranded and struggling for life - and so starts their tale of hatred, contempt, blame, understanding, empathy and eventually, love. In order to reach the capital city of Colombo, they have to make way through the rebel held forest Wanni and the troubled Wilpattu National Park. They hate each other, but cannot survive without the other. If this isn’t the most perfect depiction of “cannot live with them, cannot live without them”, I don’t know what is.
During their week long journey of survival from the north of the country to the south; they have to protect themselves and each other against the forces of nature, the various reptiles and animals that dot the place, and the humans who are often more dangerous and vicious than the less evolved species. It is during these escapades that the novel unfolds via dialogue between the characters: the viewpoints of the Tamils and Sinhalese, the mutual disgust they have for each other and their forces, the claim on the land of Sri Lanka - historical and logical - by both the parties, and how the sociopolitical myopia has had them at daggers drawn. But then it’s Sri Lanka, and the characters do at times find mutual solace in the times of war: in the beautiful birds and creatures of the land that are given ample attention to in the novel, in the scenic forests of their homeland that are pillage by an unfortunate war; and more importantly, in the basic, fundamental and painful experience of being human. Both have suffered, both have their own demons to deal with, and this - of all things - ignites a spark of empathy and understanding between the characters that eventually evolves into a love that has no future. There are thrilling moments as well, but normally the novel takes its own pace and you’re left observing in awe.
The writer doesn’t take sides, and like a good novelist only presents the differing takes of Kamala and Wasu in their stark honesty. You’ll be hard pressed to side with one, and that again is the strength of the book. Tragedy looms large on the horizon, but humanity, albeit in a minute shell, claims its own legitimate position in the novel.
And then there’s this disclaimer that I enjoyed this book all the more because I could relate to it. To the city of Jaffna and my fascination for it, to the national parks of the country that I often think about, to the many Sinhalese and Tamil characters like Kamala and Wasu that I interacted with in Lanka - all this had me hopelessly addicted to the novel. I don’t normally finish books at all or in time. This one did a great job of beating my track record. I don’t know if those who have no interest or understanding of Sri Lankan Civil War or its ethnic divide will cherish this book as much as I did, but it’s a great piece of literature nevertheless. After all, how many of us have ever seen an Italian mafia in action, but we keep on quoting The Godfather as if the story unfolded in our backyards?
The Sri Lankan Civil War ended in 2009, after claiming more than fifteen million lives. The writer, through Kamala, in this novel says that there will be no end to the war unless the Tamils get their own state, “Eelam”, in the country. History proved him wrong even if many claim that the current peace in the country is still a bit unsteady (if not amongst the Tamils and Sinhalese then other communities like the Muslims recently). But history plays other cruel jokes as well. Not only was the novelist unable to see the end of the civil war, but was, in fact, killed in a mine explosion during the war in the very Willpattu National Park that he writes so endearingly about in this book.
