Ilankai Tamil Sangam
Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA
Review of Sachi’s Autobiography
by Arul Pandian
The first volume of our regular correspondent Sachi Sri Kantha's autobiography Tears and Cheers has recently been released for limited circulation among friends in Japan.
Recently I had the opportunity to read the autobiography of Sachi Sri Kantha titled Tears and Cheers – Tale of a Tamil Scientist. (Publisher – Bose Design, London 2004) In this volume Sachi covers his life till his completion of a PhD in the University of Illinois. I am a regular reader of Sachi’s columns in the Sangam website and I found it quite interesting to read about his struggles early in his life in an environment where Tamils are denied academic opportunities in favor of Sinhalese. Since I am a Tamilian from Tamil Nadu, Sachi’s autobiography gave me a unique opportunity to understand the racist policies unleashed by the Sinhala state. Till then, most of my knowledge about the atrocities of the Sinhala state is through news reports only. Sachi has nicely balanced his story along with the major events in the suppression of Tamils by the Sinhala state.
The
description
of
many
of
Sachi's
childhood
events
made
me
relate
to
events
in
my
own
life.
In
particular,
I
enjoyed
the
description
of
his
eccentric
teacher
‘Suruttu
Kanagar,’
who
gave
permission
for
the
class
to
go
to
see
MGR
when
he
visited
Colombo.
Sachi
describes
his
teenage
pranks
in
a
very
funny
way.
It is interesting to know that many Sri Lankan Tamil elites were not objecting to the racist educational policies of the Sinhala state when it was introduced, just to save their positions. He exposes them in his article ‘Tamil Elites’ published by Tribune magazine. It is a pity that still such a group of self-promotors are selling the Tamils' future for their own benefit. It is easy to imagine the hostility encountered by Sachi when he published articles like ‘Plebiscite Verdict’ regarding the TULF victory in 1977. The advice given by the humanist James Rutnam to Sachi is very valuable, ‘Thamby, don’t expose yourself too much, you have to survive to fight for another day.’ Hope Sachi will continue to fight using his pen for a long time.
Sachi is totally unafraid to challenge authority. Even very early in his scientific career he was bold enough to break tradition and published scientific papers with himself as the sole author without adding higher-ups just to please them.
When Sachi gets rejected in the interview for a permanent faculty position in Peradeniya University and a Sinhalese candidate who is less competent than him is selected due to a pro-Sinhalese policy, he takes it as a challenge instead of getting dejected. In fact, all Eelam Tamils must have undergone this kind of discrimination at some point of their life. When they read Sachi’s story, they should be definitely able to identify themselves with him. The evil policies of the Sinhala state has one good impact…the formation of a global Eelam Tamil community, which supports the Tamil cause at home.
Sachi is quite open about his days at the University of Illinois. He casually mentions about porn films screened on the university campus. It is this openness that makes his autobiography relate to us.
In one of his letters to his sister, Sachi briefly narrates how the armed struggle of the Tamils resonates with Hindu Dharma. The Tamil God Murugan himself is our God of war. The Bagavad Gita advises us to kill our enemies even if they are one’s own relatives. I remember Pirapakaran quoted the Bagavad Gita when he ordered the elimination of Sri Sabaratnam. In war the goal only matters and all enemies have to be eliminated irrespective of who they are.
The
dedication
shown
by
Sachi
in
collecting
documentation
on
Eelam
history
is
amazing.
In
many
of
his
communications
to
his
friends
and
relatives
he
requests
news
articles
and
other
documents
relating
to
th
Eelam
freedom
struggle.
Even
though
he
lives
far
away
from
his
homeland,
he
has
managed
to
have
a
personal
collection
of
resources
on
the
Eelam
freedom
struggle.
In
the
pre-internet
and
pre-email
age,
it
is
a
true
achievement.
[We
have
always
wondered
where
he
keeps
that
treasure
trove
in
a
normal
Japanese
residence!
--
Editor]
The articles that Sachi produces based on those resources are a great service for the younger generation. To quote one example, he mentions a letter from an American (who lived in Sri Lanka) published in The Wall Street Journal on Sep. 27, 1983 which compares the Tamils' sufferings to that of Jews under Hitler.
Sachi is a prolific writer and it is interesting to note that he wrote so many letters to his Japanese friend Eri in the University of Illinois who was living just next door! His habit of letter writing fetched him his ultimate gift of life. He fell in love with his pen pal Saki who was living in Japan!
Sachi’s philosophical depth is evident from the poem written by him to be his epitaph. At the end of the autobiography, Sachi is very frank about assessing his achievements till the age of 32. He openly admits that his PhD research area is not in a cutting edge field. His real achievement is in building a successful scientific career after his PhD and at the same time emerging as one of the leading columnists on Eelam affairs.
###
Posted May 25, 2005