A Book and Two Songs

The main grounds of writing this post is a wonderful cause. "I just finished reading the 845 pages of රණ මඟ ඔස්සේ නන්දිකඩාල් (Road to Nandikadal #R2NK)". If you are asking, Ohoo Not!! I'm not came here to comment on the book. Here, I just want to highlight the 4 verses that appears on the beginning and the end of the book that really touched me most of all. It was so soothing feeling to listen to that four verses at the end of the last page, after struggling with other pages for some time; a week or two. And also I'm here to share with you a wonderful history of another song that I was direct into when listening to that 4 verses.

The four verses...

"අවසන් හුස්ම පොද නොබියව හෙළන්නට
සිවු රියනේ හිත සතුටින් නිදන්නට
මිනිසකු විලස ඉපදුණු පල දකින්නට
පුළුවනි මරණ මංචකයේ වුවද මට"

I never heard of this song in the time of my generation on TV or even on Radio. Seems like it was highly popularized on those days but not mine days. So I was curios to know what was that song which included this four gentle verses sung by Abeywardane Balasooriya and written by Sunil Ariyaratne. Luckily I was able to find it in the Internet sphere and here is the original with the old taste. Music by Victor Ratnayake.

"ජීවිතය දෙස ආපසු හැරී බලන ගොවියෙකුගේ ජීවන චාරිකාව සහ ඔහුගේ උදාර සිතුවිලි "

අවසන් හුස්ම පොද නොබියව හෙළන්නට

සිවු රියනේ හිත සතුටින් නිදන්නට
මිනිසකු විලස ඉපදුණු පල දකින්නට
පුළුවනි මරණ මංචකයේ වුවද මට

දහදිය දිය උනේ නෑ මාලිගාවල
කඳුළැලි වැටුනෙ නෑ නිවටුන් දෙපාමුල
ගත හැඩි දැඩි උනේ ළඳුවල කැලෑ වල
කරගැට මතු උණේ නගුලට උදැල්ලට

මහ කෙත් රණ බිමට වැද ගෙන උදලු කෙටී
මේ රළු පොළොව ජය ලැබුවෙමි වැතිර වැටී
ඒ ජය මට නොවෙයි නුඹටයි ඉපිද නැතී
අද මා මළත් හෙට මා උන් සුවඳ ඇතී

පද රචනය : සුනිල් ආරියරත්න
තනුව සහ සංගීතය : වික්ටර් රත්නායක
ගායනය : අබේවර්ධන බාලසූරිය

Well... Most of the verses are general in kind and can be applicable for each and every human being, but if you take the whole song, it was a song about noble thoughts of a upright farmer who lead a honorable life. Eventhough the book was about soldiers, war and the sacrifice they make; being a farmer and being a soldier, no big difference. There is a great saying as "If you ate today, thank a farmer. If you ate in peace, thank a soldier." (I have seen often, the Indian people are highly using this quote to build up that Indian attitude) So with a small little bit of modification for the two verses "කරගැට මතු උණේ නගුලට උදැල්ලට" and "මහ කෙත් රණ බිමට වැද ගෙන උදලු කෙටී" accordingly, this is a perfect one for them; the gallant soldiers who lead a noble life.

By the way, if you take a farmer in these days, I don't think that they could ever say "දහදිය දිය උනේ නෑ මාලිගාවල" or "කඳුළැලි වැටුනෙ නෑ නිවටුන් දෙපාමුල" in this economy. Because there is no Gamaraala (ගමරාළ) culture or Gama Gedara (ගම ගෙදර) culture nowadays, which maintained a respectable position among the community those days; the days we had an agricultural economy; the days we live as an agricultural society. Gamaraala (ගමරාළ) is just only in children's books I guess and I'm even doubt that too. Just think the perception of Gamaraala (ගමරාළ) and the perception of farmer (ගොවි මහතා) you have in your mind.

Before moving onto the next song, I want to say thank you for the author Major General Kamal Gunaratne thousand times for including those four verses of this song on the book, which I never heard before in my life, more than writing the book. It was deeply touched the depth.

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Okay, now for the next song. It was a somewhat popular one in our time too if you are a radio listener. But I don't think I had ever watched it in a TV channel, but there might be a possibility of playing it in ITN or SLRC in our time. Mahiyangane Rankotha Vaasanaawan. This one was appeared on YouTube along with our precious previously mentioned four verses.

මහියංගණේ රන් කොත වාසනාවන් 
මහවැලි ගඟේ දියවර වාසනාවන් තුන්යම දුටුව සිහිනය වාසනාවන් බාල නඟෝ නුඹ මට වාසනාවන් ඉර බාරයි ඉර වට යන ගිරවුන්ට  සඳ බාරයි සඳ වට යන සාවුන්ට  මල බාරයි මල වට යන බමරුන්ට  නුඹ බාරයි මතු මතුවත් නගෝ මට මහියංගණේ රන් කොත….. ඉරගල නුවර ඉරගල පවතිනා තුරු  සඳගල නුවර සඳගල පවතිනා තුරු අපහද බැඳුණු සෙනෙහස මල් පිපෙන තුරු  මේ ගඟ ගලනු ඇත දුක සැප දෙකම හුරු මහියංගණේ රන් කොත…..

පද රචනය : සුනිල් සරත් පෙරේරා
තනුව සහ සංගීතය : සරත් ප්‍රනාන්දු
ගායනය : පියසිරි විජේරත්න

Lyrics: Sunil Sarath Perera (Not Sure)

Music: Sarath Fernando (Not Sure)

Singer: Piyasiri Wijeratne

This one was the original with the old taste. I have seen another one with the year 1992 with somewhat quality music. But I think old one can touch your heart more than that 1992 one.

Piyasiri Wijeratne

I may have heard it few times on radio and it was always a loved and touched piece of music. I guess it was really because of the both music and Piyasiri Wijeratne's voice. As it was such a long time I was not heard of it, I just click for it to play and went to put a 'like' and accidentally saw a wonderful comment. The commentator was saying it was a song from a television drama during Mahaweli project time. It was like I was saying amazingly "What??" So there after I was in my mission of finding the history of the song and here is what I found from the Internet sphere.

It seems like this was a modified song. The verses were taken from our traditional poetry related with sacred tooth relic in Temple of Tooth, Kandy. Ref: http://www.lakehouse.lk/budusarana/2007/08/28/PrintPage.asp?REF=fea05

"ගද්‍ය පද්‍ය කලාව තුළ දළදා සාහිත්‍යයත් බිහිවිය. පාලි දාඨාවංශය, දළදා සිරිත, දළදා පූජාවලිය , දළදා කාව්‍යය, දළදා සතකය, දළදා චතුර, ඒ සඳහා නිදසුන් කීපයකි. කවියන් හා උගතුන්ගේ ගෞරවයට පාත‍්‍ර වූ වස්තුවක් වූවාසේම නූතන ගීතයට ද වස්තු බීජයක් බවට පත්ව තිබේ.

ඉරගල නුවර ඉරගල පවතිනා තුරු
සඳගල නුවර සඳගල පවතිනා තුරු
මැද මහනුවර රන්කොත පවතිනා තුරු
දින ලා යන්ට නොදෙනෙමි දිවි තිබෙන තුරු

ඉර බාරයි ඉර වට යන ගිරවුන්ට
සඳ බාරයි සඳ වට යන සාවුන්ට
මල බාරයි මල වට යන බඹරුන්ට
අපි බාරයි සිරි දළදා සමිඳුන්ට"

Commentators were not sure about the name of the television drama, So I came up with few names according to the clues I got.

Surely it should be a drama done by Tissa Abeysekara for Mahaweli Authority during the time Gamini Dissanayake was the Mahaweli Minister. Mahaweli was the largest project for the country those days and needed much campaigning and Tissa Abeysekara was commissioned to create dramas on this flavor to build up this Mahaweli culture. I guess he was never a political party praiser. Anyway in my time, I think I never saw a TV drama flavoring for a government project, even for the war. It was always just programs, clips, songs and rarely one or two one-act-plays (ඒකාංගික ටෙලි නාට්‍ය). When you look at the civilization perspective, there is a wonderful sensation when politics becomes a history; a lot to learn.

According to the following reference, name of this drama should be "Mahaweli Sihinaya" (මහවැලි සිහිනය).
Ref: http://archives.dinamina.lk/baddaramalla/?sid=article&dt=2013/09/17&id=2013/09/17/b1309175

But I was unable to find this type of a name in Tissa Abeysekara's teledrama list or anywhere else. But found these three saying that Tissa Abeysekara done them for Mahaweli Authority around 1985. "Dolos Mahe Gangaawa" (දොළොස්මහේ ගංගාව), "Gangawa Tharanaya" (ගංගාවතරණය), "Thunkal Sihinaya" (තුන්කල් සිහිනය). According to facts, all three of them written by Sugath Vatagedara and "Dolos Mahe Gangaawa" was a 12 episode teledrama series and "Thunkal Sihinaya" and "Gangawa Tharanaya" was one-act-plays. I'm not sure really because I have seen none of them or heard none of them before.
According to facts "Dolosmahe Gangawa" was a teledrama depicted the life of well reputed Dimbulagala Seelalankara Thera. "Thunkal Sihinaya" story was based on a conflict between the new settlers and original settlers of the Mahaweli Project.

And also a one commentator has saying the storyline was about a middle aged Mahaweli Officer who was secretly in love with a young village girl. He never expressed his love and she gets married to a another young man. According to another commentator the story was based on a 'Mahaweli Scholarship' and another one fadedly reminds that cast was Sanath Gunathilaka & Nadeeka Gunasekara. 

Well actually I have no idea of the name or the storyline of the drama this song "Mahiyangane Rankotha Vaasanaawan" contained. But one thing for sure, it was about Mahaweli, because likewise there were many teledramas televised those days based on this theme. Hope if you can help me.

A book and two Songs. The moment for the day.

Songs of SLRC teen life and Mohan Raj

In the 90s when we were kids, advertisements were not dominated the television like as today. I guess at that time license have to be get for having a TV and radio. Also I fadedly remember that day, the budget speech at parliament, president CBK cancelled it.

So as a result of advertisements not given the priority in national television channels, when there is a time gap remained, before starting the next program, usually they played a song to fill the gap. So most of the time, it becomes one of the songs from their musical programs; Ravindra Munsasinghe's Nadun Uyana and Manohari and Sinesh Bandara Disanayake's Yaathra. Here I'm talking about SLRC. Sri Lanka Rupavahini Cooperation. Couldn't remember how ITN handled it. They didn't had much creative musical stuff I guess those days.

Note: You can find the whole (maybe season 1) Nudun Uyana episodes in YouTube if searched a lil bit. Gosh!! Robinson's Emily Chang aka Himali Sayurangi!! Those days!!! 

And if searched, individual songs from other programs also could be found without the talking bit by announcers.

I have not watched any of those musical programs, and never had any interest to watch them as a kid. (But now it's totally different) Anyway as they were used as such gap fillers on frequent basis those days, the songs and their logos are much familiar to us. Later there were so many musical programs in SLRC, but the songs were never repeatedly played as these, so I do not remember their names which later came.

Following are some highly remembered ones for me played in SLRC. And for live audience type songs, Siha Shakthi people were there as well as Keerthi Pasquale with a guitar or Jagath Wickramasinghe or Athula Adhikari at the organ sometimes.

I guess Yaathra was targeted on creativity of University environment basically.  It was an earlier day's music video show that comes with the effect of Indian and American music video impact in 90s. 

Iman Perera's songs were often played from Yaathra. Here is the Wasanthaye Mal.

Ivan Paulusha was another hit from Yaathra. That was a highly rated one as the song had a Russian flavor which was uncommon those days.

Jackson Anthony's Dasa Piyagathkala from Manohari was another catcher. I perfectly remembered he had some smiley act in there, among the live audiences as well as with the players which was rare behavior for a show those days.

Sisira Senarathne's Maage Puthuta Mal was top of the most. It was highly in the memory because of the lil kid with him. It was from the Manohari, same live audience indoor show as the above.

And here is another one. I'm not sure whether this one is from a musical program above mentioned. But anyway it shown in 9.5 (namayai paha) presented by Hema Nalin Karunarathne. Japanese singers singing Sinhala Raja Kale. Just thought to share with you as it was a moment of a memory.

Krishantha Erandaka came later. But this song Vee Paduren was also repeatedly played in SLRC later part of our teen life. 

From later arrived Nadun Uyana show, this came as another hit. Karunarathne Diulagane's Gahaka mal pipila. Thereafter she was seen in many teledramas.

Okay!! enough of going off the track. Let's get back to the subject line.

So among those mentioned above, our subject topic was also put his mark. Mohan Raj. Until this year I didn't know he was the son of well heard name, Muthuswamy Master as most of the Sri Lankans known. Mohan Raj Muthuswamy. Never saw he used Muthuswamy part anywhere in TV those days. But did a great job taking his fathers songs for another generation like us.

Ref: http://archives.dailynews.lk/2004/11/24/artscop15.html

Madura Yaame and Maa Kaatada Meka Kiyanne was played high time those days. With the Tamil accent he got, it brought a nice flavor to the Sinhala pronunciation. (When talking about tamil singers who sings Sinhala songs, Sooriyakumar Muttalage was another name comes into mind. A familiar face on TV those days and still, and looks like never goes old. Wonder who is he? Unable to find anything about.)

Mage Dhasama piyawee enne, one of my favos. I now get into heard the Master's version, but I prefer Mohan Raj's this video version because of the memory taste is much stronger than the song taste.

Apart from highly peaked Madura Yaame, (it was tooooo much played by SLRC; or were we expected it too much) he and Nirosha Virajini together were did some Tamil flavors as I remembered. It included some covers of Rehman's Roja songs. 

Seems like he was not seen anywhere in the SL media nowadays. hmmm...  But looks like ApSaRasS, his orchestra is still in action in abroad,  Oh I remember as a kid, he was a man behind the keyboard. One of my admires who doesn't look at the keys while playing and also singing at the same time too. I guess it is the toughest job in a music band. Having hands on two levels different boards, switching on things here and there.

This was the only latest appearance I could find of him in the TV media that uploaded to the internet sphere. Oh! Look so different now, compared to the childhood memories. hmmm... we're getting old too. The program is Sanhinda, telecasted in ITN. Surely should be a remembering episode for R Muthuswamy. And if he is younger than Victor Rathnayake (must be), I guess he was the youngest music director I saw who uses a Serpina (Indian Harmonium) whenever for such kind of a instant singing program, 

It's so nice to digging up the memories and search through the internet. Cheers go for the people who recorded them those days and spend some time to digitized and upload. So here we are confirming our faded memories.