The Awakening

Synopsis

‘The Awakening’ is based on facts and personal experiences with a personal history involving authentic observations. The novel is an episodic series of vignettes of actual life punctuated by seasonal festivals, and celebrations in the country of Sri Lanka. The novel uses many different strands of reality to weave texture, adventure, humour and philosophy into the story.

The story is based around a Sri Lankan girl, her close and distant family members, and their trials and tribulations interwoven into the history of the country and its independence struggles. She was born at a time when the country was in turmoil and many changes were taking place. There was a great divide in the country, as it was throwing away its old traditions and customs and adopting western standards. Support was given by the British to the Sinhalese & Burghers who had employment and educational opportunities, thus causing the minorities to rebel. There was a huge exodus of the Burghers to the West and the start of the subsequent internal fighting between the Sinhalese and the Tamils who wanted a Federal system. These internal problems still exist, but the recent war in 2008 has now brought a form of peace, with deep suspicions, human displacement and suffering by the Tamil war victims in the Northern Province. 

The novel commences in 1953 with the description of Marian, a Sri Lankan girl aged 13 years. She was born into dominant proud Dutch/Sinhalese aristocratic family of mixed cultures and mixed values. Her parents were first cousins and their marriage was an ill-fated one from the start, and they separated when she was 12 years of age.

She was very close to her maternal grandmother and influenced by her. Her death was a great blow. It was followed by her parents’ separation.

Her education was in a doctrinaire convent environment where she displayed contempt of penal injustice at the hands of religious superiors. The girl was handicapped with what was termed a glandular problem resulting in her being 5’6” at the age of seven years. The problem was not understood by consultants in the country and visiting ones, let alone her teachers, as she was able to excel in sports but was unable to stand for a long time without fainting – thus labelling it as psychosomatic, which needed to be addressed severely.

She was appalled at the treatment of the poor and underprivileged in her country, as caste systems, class struggles, corruption, and superstitions were the norm.

Circumstances and abandonment of her mother by her father due to a marital separation changed the personality of her mother inexorably, forcing the mother towards a downwards decline in morality.

Her mother was a very moral and faithful wife but after the departure of her husband, she began taking in lodgers, and she had a love affair with a Tamil man who jilted her for an arranged marriage on the excuse that she had a teenage daughter and his family objected.

After this episode she took in another lodger, a Tamil man twenty years younger than herself called Barlu who was engaged and had a fiancée in Jaffna. She had a sexual relationship with this man who was extremely cunning and manipulative and he raped the girl who was a minor. This was considered a heinous act in Eastern society. The girl found that she was unable to tell her mother as she felt that her mother was besotted with Barlu and had abandoned her. Despite what she had to endure, she was protective of her mother and did not inform her father or other members of her extended family circle.

Months later, Barlu’s parents asked him to return to Jaffna for his marriage and he gloated on the fact that he had a good time at their house. The girl then tells her mother about her rape. Her mother was angered and appalled about the rape of her daughter, informs his parents. When he returned to Jaffna he was beaten and murdered by his in-laws, as he had committed an unforgivable act.   The girl, raped as a minor, explains through sexual awakenings how Eastern society deals with the victim and the perpetrator.

In Eastern society, once a girl has lost her virginity she’s unmarriageable but unbelievably the girl finds true love with Anil who was joining her in England. She receives a cable on the seas, with tragic news of his death.

At the age of 16 years, accompanied by her mother, and grieving, deeply depressed and suicidal, she arrives in England to settle in the London suburbs.

The novel then describes the grim experiences of arriving in post war Britain. Although it makes harsh reading it reflects and interprets the drama of her existence. With strength of character and determination she strives to adjust and overcome the discomfort, ignorance and racial discrimination in England and how it nearly stops her from achieving her dreams.