Here I post my recent interview with the Asian Review Magazine
Writing and reading possess the power of healing. When writing comes out of a healer? It can be both for self-healing and healing others. The Asian Review presents today a medical doctor who embarked on a writing journey for both self-healing and healing others. Dr. Bodhini Samarathunga is a Sri Lankan writer who works across several genres. She writes in both Sinhala and English, and has been translated into third languages. She is currently based in Sweden.
“Writers are not born or made; they erupt accidentally like volcanos.” How did your writing life begin?
I was drawn to books from a young age and have been eager to write since school. During my medical student years, I started expressing my creativity through poems and short stories in web forums and personal blogs with the encouragement and guidance received from friends. The curiosity ignited by reading evolved into a fiery passion to create my own tales. My parents encouraged us to read and write from a young age. I remember them reciting poems and reading stories from famous poets and writers. My father encouraged me to write poems and sent my poems to newspapers back then when the internet was not a domestic tool. We even had a small bookshelf at home that we called a library. Early childhood exposure to literature influenced my passion for writing and creative expression. I remember winning essay and speech prizes every year until I left my alma mater, St. Bridget’s Convent. I am grateful for Mrs. Pathma Perera, my Sinhala language and literature teacher, who supported creative writing during my school days. As I said, I was an ardent reader from childhood. Books brought me to a world I had never seen, and this enthusiasm triggered me and drove me towards writing. I was exposed to various books with different writing styles, perspectives, and ideas from childhood. This exposure sparked my creativity and broadened my horizons, which helped me to understand effective storytelling techniques with character development, dialogues, and pacing.
When I started my medical career in North Sri Lanka, our VOG consultant (late) Dr. C. Kumarasiri asked me to write these stories only visible to healthcare workers as we served an immediate postwar area. I remember travelling to the North on dusty – uncarpeted, bumpy roads with checkpoints every few kilometres. Yellow tape tagged along the side of the roads, signalling us that there are live mine bombs that are yet to be explored. During this period, I saw and felt how being displaced in your motherland was to own nothing but a tent in the IDP(internally displaced people) camps like Manikfarm. I travelled to many areas for medical camps and saw the painful remnants of war and the beating hearts that were beyond repair. There was not a single day that I haven’t shed a tear or cried behind closed doors. I had never imagined this kind of catastrophe in my own country, and it was a story worth telling. So, I silently started penning these experiences via my blog anonymously.
That’s how my medical storytelling bloomed through a blog named Anith Kona (the other end). Even though I was writing poems and short stories, I never had the idea to write a journal; the situations we faced in the post-war North were beyond my imagination. Hence, I understood the importance of writing these stories of the people who were strangers to the other parts of the country.
Can you tell our readers about the work you have done so far?
As I mentioned earlier, the experiences of serving the immediate post-war areas in the North of Sri Lanka and the stories unveiled by the thousands of people I met were written via my blog, Anith Kona, which was initially written in my native language, ‘Sinhala’. Back then, a few newspapers showcased these stories from the other end of the country, the “north” estranged from the south. Later, some medical information embedded stories from post-war North were published as a book named Anith Kona (the other end) with encouragement and help from a fellow blog writer, Randika R. Fernando. I also got the privilege to write an English newspaper column, “Northern Log,” in the Nation newspaper. While working as a doctor in Sri Lanka but educated in Europe, I understood the communication and information gaps between the doctor and the patient. I could do a lot through my storytelling. So, I continued medical storytelling via blogs and newspaper columns amidst my routine work as a medical doctor. Apart from my experiences, these stories also carry knowledge on health, prevention of diseases, cures, or aetiology of diseases. When a person understands his or her illness, it helps their treatment and recovery. So, I have used medical storytelling to explain various health-related issues and preventable aspects in simple terms that the majority would understand. As a public health professional, I understood the importance of early prevention rather than treatment that could cause a fortune. We have experienced such prevention strategies saving us resources and funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, so I approach the area of preventive aspects through my writing.
I have written a weekly health column for the Lakehouse Resa newspaper Friday edition) for two years, which was later published as “Sayanika Satahan Nove (Non-Clinical Prescriptions). This book was translated into Tamil by M. Rishan Shareef, an award-winning translator and author. It was published in Chennai, India, in January 2023 by Mrs. Shylaja Vamsi of Vamsi Publishers and is now touring various book fairs and festivals in southern India. It was a massive accomplishment for me and a joy to see my experiences, thoughts, and medical information read by people on other continents. Even though we are geographically apart, South Asia shares similar health problems and societal disparities. When it comes to health, children’s health, lack of education, poverty, child abuse, and domestic violence, we encounter these issues worldwide in different intensities. My next ongoing project is the English translation of my post-war service memoir, which I hope to finish next year. Apart from medical storytelling, a fiction and a poetry book are being edited with the idea of publishing them in the future.
Though books do not carry a god-given power to transform societies overnight, they often transform writers’ lives. How has your writing transformed you so far?
Writing has transformed my life journey towards an unexpected fulfilment that was more of self-discovery, personal growth, and enhanced creativity. Firstly, medical storytelling has given me a platform to express my experience, feelings, and ideas creatively that would eventually carry a beneficial message to society. Secondly, my writing also served as a therapeutic outlet that allowed me to process my own experiences, emotions, and challenges. We live in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country with experiences of a decades-long war, many riots, battles, and losses. I was writing about sensitive, rare experiences that could negatively provoke society if not dealt with care. So, I could say that I’ve transformed into someone who can adapt, understand, and be empathetic.
When I recall my experiences through stories, there are certain instances where I dwell on my own thoughts, ethical guidelines, and social norms, which often lead me to think critically and analyse vivid aspects of health and social issues. Understanding various modes of expressing information that will not be offensive to the readers was a significant challenge that I could overcome with empathy and self-realisation, which at certain times challenged me to change my thinking patterns, cultural and religious beliefs, and social norms. Engaging in writing and entering the literature sphere created new ventures and many humane connections that have uplifted me into who I am today. One must always walk their talk; hence, this has always motivated me to write things that would bring harmony, peace, and help rather than destruction. Reading a variety of books also contributed to all those values seeded in me. In summary, writing allowed me to explore my identity, values, and beliefs and a deeper understanding of self.
You are a doctor, and your profession often allows you to witness loss and death; how does your writing address what you encounter in your professional life? How does your profession influence your writing?
Even though I was into various forms of creative writing in my younger years and medical student days, medical storytelling has been the main focus of my writing. So, my profession has influenced my writing immensely. Even though I do not regret being a medical storyteller, it limited my interest to practice other creative writing genres. Even the poems I scribble portray health issues, as there are many that I come across. In our profession, we meet people living in different strata of society, and they all tell us stories. Besides, we see the reality, the sorrows, troubles, daily struggles, and health problems.
Readers often send me feedback on social media on how these stories have impacted their lives. A father wrote to me that his teenage daughter said that this book showed her how challenging this life is but also the value of it and why we should cherish it. Another response was from a young mother who managed her toddler when he first had a febrile fit. She wrote, “I did not panic but managed the kid until I reached the hospital as I have read your chapter on febrile fits.” When I was a resident in paediatrics, I even distributed such basic information via printed leaflets to inward children’s parents with the help and supervision of the consultant. Such knowledge and information sharing are vital to educate the public on their health issues.
Giving them information via a story allows the audience to connect on a human level. The stories are created with personal experiences, emotions, and challenges, fostering empathy and understanding. This kind of understanding is necessary to lessen communication barriers. I have experienced that complex medical information can be told better via stories in simple layman’s terms. Therefore, my profession has fueled my writing and taken it to a new dimension: it also serves a social responsibility.
War literature is often influenced by the writers’ biases and seen as “partial and void of truth” by the opposite block. What is your opinion on war literature as a tool for sustainable peace-building? How is it relevant to the context of Sri Lanka?
Of course, writers’ biases can influence war literature like any form of literature. Writers themselves have their own perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. A writer may have his or her own political or ideological beliefs that can influence how they create the picture of the reasons for war, justifications, and the moral stance of the sides involved. I was raised in the heart of Colombo. When I travelled to North Sri Lanka during the postwar era, I understood what we have been hearing or believing since childhood was not the accurate picture of the North. This was when the internet, social media, and smartphones were unavailable for information sharing. We grew up in a war-torn society, with information fueled by political, cultural, or religious intentions and beliefs. Unlike modern days, the widely available media was television, radio, and printed papers. Hence, we heard what our “sides” wanted us to hear, and they (those who lived in LTTE-governed areas) heard what their side said.
We have witnessed the glorification of the winning sides and certain characters and the ramifications of different parties. I think this is a downfall in the Sri Lankan war or postwar literature. We often forget to understand the political or ideological biases, agendas, and intentions. I have shown this via a story from my first book when an ex-combatant, a doctor from the south (myself), and a minor staff worker discussed how empathy or sympathy was felt within their own perspectives and upbringing. Therefore, the readers should be aware of these biases and approach such literature considering the influences at play.
War literature can be a powerful tool for sustainable peacebuilding. During our medical education, we are taught empathy, humanity, and ethics. Genuine reconciliation occurs once we understand the other side of the story, the humane sides of the individuals affected by the conflict, their struggles, fears, and losses. One should provoke readers to understand the brutality of war rather than glorification. For this, the writers themselves should shed their biases. Communication is the key to resolving conflicts. That’s what I saw happening in the past decades when all we were counting was deaths and losses, and literature can act as a tool to promote nonviolence and healing.
As a Sri Lankan writer, what are the key challenges you encounter in terms of publishing, building a readership, and engaging with your readers?
The challenges differ from what I faced a decade ago when I published my first book. I initially wrote in Sinhala, my native language. Even though Sinhala and Tamil are official languages in Sri Lanka, we have a limited audience who reads Sinhala but a larger population who reads in English or Tamil. So, the language widens your reader base. We are slowly entering an era where social media and online platforms outrun print media. Engaging with readers is much more accessible via these online platforms as they open up to a larger crowd. Most of my readers are those who read my content via online platforms like Blogger and Facebook. I do not write for entertainment but for knowledge sharing. Hence, this stance makes it difficult to dispense such books to society. I think publishing such knowledge-sharing books is also a risk for the publishers. I felt that during my book journey. “Who will buy a book with medical stories?” was one of my queries, but my tremendous feedback and support have shown me that my prior fears were baseless.
For the past two years, we have witnessed how the unprecedented economic crisis has increased the prices of printing materials. This has also affected the reader base. Buying books has been a trend for some time, and we saw that the book industry harnessed publicity via social media. Nowadays, people think twice before buying a book as the prices have risen. As a medical storyteller and someone who has seen how difficult it is to survive with the current economy, I found it difficult to make up my mind to tell someone to buy a book for thousands, and I still struggle with this thought.
What is your opinion on “freedom to write” in Sri Lanka? And how should it improve to promote a culture of unrestricted literature and freedom of creative expression?
I believe in freedom of expression, which has always been a concern in Sri Lanka. Due to various political, religious, and cultural contexts, we often forget that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right embraced and agreed upon internationally. We live in an era where information is available at our fingertips, but the credibility or authenticity of this information is questionable at times. News and past incidents point to the history of censorship, especially during ethnic or religious conflicts and political unrest, where various forms of restrictions were seen. Then, there is another side where certain restrictions on freedom of speech are necessary to prevent misinformation and hate speech to maintain social harmony. As a government doctor, I am bound to a code of conduct and ethics. My area of reach is sometimes limited due to professional, cultural, or religious boundaries. My memoir from the post-war North was written with professional and ethical bound restrictions. Self-restrictions were in place when navigating such boundaries was hard. so I always focused on learned lessons and healing rather than reporting what went wrong, by whom, or where. The writers do have a social function, and such restrictions limit the outpour of truth when writing is censored if it is deemed offensive or contrary to cultural, religious, or political values. It is a pity that writers must avoid controversial topics to prevent societal backlash.
The global publishing landscape has changed drastically during the last few years; as a result, digitalisation has diluted the printed book market at a menacing pace. What are your thoughts about the dynamics of the modern publishing landscape?
We are the generation that witnessed the book format transition from traditional printed to digital. I have embraced this transition positively, as carrying heavy books in digital format rather than hard copies is highly convenient. This shift has been facilitated by the advancement of technology as well. Widespread use of tablets and smartphones has indeed aggravated this use. Regarding portability, accessibility, searchability, and annotation, I find digital books serve the needs better than printed versions. Digital platforms offer a global audience, reaching diverse markets to lessen the burden of book distribution. Having said that, I am concerned about its impact on the book market. I have seen that many publishers, libraries, and schools offer printed and digital formats to cater to the readers’ preferences. I feel that this digital transition has expanded how people access and consume literature. I started writing on online platforms like bloggers, web forums, and social media. The responses from readers were easily visible when writing online as they facilitated direct interactions with the audiences.
Printed books have their place for those who like the tactile experience of holding a book and flipping through pages. The new levels of convenience and flexibility open new ventures and innovations such as interactive novels, augmented reality storytelling, etc. We live in a work that is on a continuum of change. Both formats have their own conveniences and preferences. I am familiar with both and don’t have hard rules on which format to go with. I speak for myself here as a book author and a reader that preferences for printed or digital versions are highly subjective and vary on reading habits, lifestyle, available technology, and finances. So, having both kinds of formats is a win-win for all readers.
The translations are vital for literary exchange. What are the key challenges and gaps you have encountered while getting translations done?
Since I published my post-war journal, Anith Kona, there have been many requests for a Tamil or English translation of these stories as they carried unknown vital aspects of health and society. Still, I needed to find someone interested enough to translate these stories. Even though there are many books translated from English to Sinhala, translation of Sinhala books to Tamil does not happen often. Tamil is a widely spoken language; hence, finding a translator with interest and potential was challenging. Another challenge in getting medical or health-related translations is translating the technical or specialised terminology. Since I have written mainly in layman’s terms, this was not an issue. Along with linguistic proficiency, a translator should also understand the source of culture and societal contexts so that the translated version would preserve the author’s intentions.
The books focused on health and social issues. This genre is not everyone’s cup of tea, so I was both amazed and excited when Rishan M. Shareef (author/translator) wanted to translate my book into Tamil. Translating and publishing in another continent itself is a challenge, but Rishan M. Shareef was a widely read author in India, so it was solely his efforts to get this book published in India. This opened up the book to a larger audience than the Sri Lankan Tamil community.
Do you have any parting words for our readers around the world?
Medical storytelling has emerged over the years as a successful component in educating the public. Even though these stories bear true experiences, they always carry a powerful message.
When we are misinformed, we often fail to respond adequately. Health is an important aspect when it comes to quality of life. These books will aid in globally preventable health issues of both physical and psychosocial nature. I have often spread this message that storytelling and reading enhance imaginative thinking. Our younger generations are missing the enchanted world of books nowadays as they are attracted to screens. As medics, we often see the damage screen addiction is causing to the young mind. So, I wrote on these aspects to educate the parents to reduce their children’s screen time. Books are a powerful knowledge-sharing tool; they expand your horizons and enrich your knowledge. In fact, it transforms you into a more informed, empathetic, and understanding individual. So, my message is to read and let your children read, too. There is a saying from Albert Einstein that “If you want your children to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” and it sure does wonders for adults, too.
Link to the article
https://asian-reviews.com/2023/09/11/writing-and-reading-heal-dr-bodhini-samarathunga/
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