Militarisation, Nation building and Amnesia work in Romesh Gunesekera's story Fluke

Name- Mrinmoy Das 

Roll No. 95/ENG 200037 

University of Kalyani

Romesh Gunesekera's book Noontide Toll is written to depict the jeopardized situation of Sri Lanka and its inhabitants after the three decades long civil War between the Government of Lanka and LTTE. The novel is divided into 14 short stories and these stories are inter-linked with cach other by the affect of the war. These stories showcases the terror of war through the aid of memory. Vasantha the ubiquitous driver who is the binocular through which we the reader experience the violence at the moment of its occurence. 

“Fluke” takes place in the southern part of this novel where Gunesekera shows many Sri Lankan especially obsessed with the idea of marketing, entrepreneurship and using modern technology to promote them. In this answer we try to focus on the theme of amnesia, militarization, nation-building, and memory. Vasantha's every journey takes place with a passanger and in "Fluke" it did happen the same. The story begins with Mr Weerakoon who regurgitates a crash course in marketing. Mr Weerakoon is naive in technology as he can not fix the projector, even the technician who quitted his hand from that problem. Though Vasantha fixed the problem by jiggling the cables and by giving firm taps at the back of "Ouija board", it shows a great number of Sri Lankan population were naive in techno logy. For instance Vasantha have accessed with his native intelligence Weerakoon's information from his computer and also from his phone due to Weerakoon's nativity. Mr Weerakoon in “Fluke” is a representative of the economic upsurge who wants to erase the traces of the bitter past through development, through entrepreneurship. And the most important aspect of nation building is to trace the potent ial of its human resource, reducing the social and economic disparity that exists in the society. Nation Building is a "multidimensional concept", and it involves the active participation of its citizens in various works . Like Vasan tha, Mr Weerakoon, the Buddhist monk, the old and young men and the two women in "Fluke" who have participated in Mr Weerakoon's seminar.

Lucky's physical description is somehow important to notice, he is a man with a "sharp nose" "large startled eyes" who looked hardier than the others who have presented at this seminar. Noticeable fact here is to notice the phra se "shaking water off his hands". Vasantha has keenly observed Lucky's hands that were not dry. Vasantha says ." I glanced at his hands again. They still looked damp." This damp or wetness or the phrase "shaking water" may summon the image of bloodshed that was done by Sri Lankan Navy. We can compare this shaking water image with lady Macbeth's blooded hands. Lady Macbeth in her hallucination washes her hands to cleanse the blood. This hallucination symbolizes her tortured soul and the guilt she experiences over her role in the king's murder. Here Lady Macbeth's interest was self profitable but in Lucky's ease the matter is different. Lucky does not feel guilty of war crimes as he mentioned, " We all make mistakes , it is not always a war crimes...". Here Lucky is indifferent with his war crimes because he executed those orders as a soldier. He follows command or a chain of command that have the ability to dissipate someone's guilt. As a soldier he had a mindset to restore the stability in the region at any cost. Vasantha and Lucky engaged themselves in a conversation and interestingly in Noontide Toll the conversations are casual, urban, metropolis, nascent and ethereal. Lucky revealed to Vasantha that he is a Navy commander and now doing water transport business in Sri Lankan Navy's ship. Vasantha can't imagine this kind of involvement where the navy of his nation is using its assets for commercial purposes. Though it's a brilliant idea to start the whale watching cruises for tourists that can boost in Sri Lankan economy if they

human resource, reducing the social and economic disparity that exists in the society.Nation Building is a "multidimensional concept", and it involves the active participation of its citizens in various works. Like Vasantha, Mr Weerakoon, the Buddhist monk, the old and young men and the two women in "Fluke" who have participated in Mr Weerakoon's seminar. Lucky's physical description is somehow important to notice, he is a man with a "sharp nose" "large startled eyes" who looked hardier than the others who have presented at this seminar. Noticeable fact here is to notice the phrase "shaking water off his hands". Vasantha has keenly observed Lucky's hands that were not dry. Vasantha says ,"I glanced at his hands again. They still looked damp." This damp or wetness or the phrase "shaking water" may summon the image of bloodshed that was done by Sri Lankan Navy. We can compare this shaking water image with lady Macbeth's blooded hands. Lady Macbeth in her hallucination washes her hands to cleanse the blood. This hallucination symbolises her tortured soul and the guilt she experiences over her role in the king's murder. Here Lady Macbeth's interest was self profitable but in Lucky's case the matter is different. Lucky does not feel guilty of war crimes as he mentioned, "We all make mistakes , it is not always a war crimes...". Here Lucky is indifferent with his war crimes because whatever he did , he did as a soldier. He is following a command or a chain of command that have the ability to dissipate someone's guilt. As a soldier he had a mindset to restore the stability in the region at any cost. Vasantha and Lucky engaged themselves in a conversation and interestingly in Noontide Toll the conversations are casual, urban, metropolis, nascent and ethereal. Lucky revealed to Vasantha that he is a Navy commander and now doing water transport business in Sri Lankan Navy's ship. Vasantha can't imagine this kind of involvement where the navy of his nation is using its assets for commercial purposes. Though it's a brilliant idea to start the whale watching cruises for tourists that can boost in Sri Lankan economy if they would invest for public welfare. We will get more information about this involvement in the website of Sri Lankan Navy : "A-543 ( Princess of Lanka) is being scheduled for re- commencement of whale watching cruises from 12th November 2011 on.to meet necessities of new clientele in Galle/ Mirissa". It is an act of militarisation. Cynthia Enloe has defined militarisation as a step-by-step process through which a person or a thing gradually becomes controlled by the military or comes to depend for its well being on a militaristic idea. Sri Lankan army commander Lt Gen Shavendra Silva cleared the realm of army in his nation during an interview that "army is not only for war but also for nation building, nation supporting and to share the certain calamities here and there". The impact of militarization was visible on feminine for instance the suicide bombings of LTTE where the women were deployed as suicide bombers. Vasantha informed readers about the suicide bombings in "pink sari" for not doing another office job in Colombo. He remarked, "... buildings might explode any day with some suicide bomber in a pink sari". The women in the phrase "pink sari" can be referred not only as the victims of the war but as CADA( collectivo de acioês de arte) women who were sometimes called as "victim perpetrators" but now they are called as "ambivalent empowerment" ( Neloufer De Mel).

According to Mayo Clinic, amnesia "refers to the loss of memories, such as facts, informations and experiences.." At the end of the story Vasantha was getting tired or choose an isolated place to recapitulate the events which had already done to him but they are still traumatizing him in the present. He selects a place or an ideal place for him where he thinks he could forget his memories like the old people and this would bring the peace of his mind. An open area where the sea breeze was clashing/colliding with leaves and producing a soft music that helps to trigger Vasantha's memory. He started narrating back the past events that leads him to a "crisis of truth". This narrating back of the events have been seen by many critics like Soshana Felmen as underscoring a "crisis of truth". Crisis is the distinction between teller and listener across the truth of history comes to establish itself. As Cathy Caruth affirmed because of it unbearable violance the traumatic experience is missed at the moment of its occurance and therefore resist understanding and assimilation. Vasantha realises that riding in his second-hand Toyota and epitomizing his country's turmoil are mutually complementary and explanatory. His van is the microcosm of Sri Lanka. Although he earlier uses his second-hand Toyota as a camouflage that provides him invisibility, and enables him to maintain a safe distance from the outside world. But now in "Fluke" Vasantha stated the hurdles that are creating under his van. Our speaker is now desparete or needs a pill of oblivion to remove his past and present and sleep a comfortable sleep like the sailor. Now we as a reader try to scrutinize the facts, events that Vasantha wants to forget through the "sea of amnesia", one is Mrs Subramaniam's letter and another is his argument with his father The first question would arise in our mind, who is this lady Mrs Subramaniam?. During the war time in Sri Lanka Mrs. Subramaniam or also known as "sinnammah" was an incredible, unique, mother, sister, wife, aunt and a friend to many. Her nephew wrote on her memoir that "Her smile would light up an entire room. She will be missed by lots of people here!". His argument with his father is obscured to us but we can assume through the tone of our speaker that it was a bitter one. It derives the speaker's guilt, while experiencing such affect or emotional state that leads Vasantha to a consideration or adjudication of acts of reparation, compensation.

Works Cited :-

Mel, Neloufer De. Militarization Sri Lanka: Popular Culture, Memory and Narrative in the Armed Conflict. New Delhi: Sage, 2007.

Gunesekera, Romesh. Noontide Toll. Penguin Random House India Pvt. Ltd. 2014.