A Siddhartha from a parallel universe : Mansions of the Moon (MOTM) - Shyam Selvadurai

 

MOTM is a calming read just like Buddhism concepts.

The introduction by the author SS is very rich with information on Buddha and Buddhism-related literature.

The below images are the books I was able to find from our home library.

The books are as follows,

(01) Women under primitive Buddhism 

(02) Psalms of Buddhists 

(03) Theri gee - Martin Wickramasinghe

I bought the book from SLBOOKS.lk in 2023 but read it in 2024 due to a suggestion by a friend (Ms. Yasho Keerthisena) who suggested a book reading club called 'Tuesday Book Reading Club' located in Colombo under Lakmahal Community Library.

Though I watched SS's film of his debut novel 'Funny Boy' in 2021, I have never read any of his books. But I purchased most of his books due to his fame in Sri Lanka.

By depicting an honest Yasodara the book feels sad and heart-touching.

The novel references ''Theri gee'' old Buddhist texts and also there is a touch of feminism.

The novel feels a bit bland but the world-building is great

This book is mainly about rethinking Buddhism and an analysis of how to relate it to our personal lives in the contemporary context in my opinion by giving contemporary family dynamics to the story if you take it positively.

The primitive and primary nature of the story intertwined with contemporary family discussions gives the story a life that keeps moving.

With the rise of chat GPT since 2022 besides these new books, I'll stick to classics due to authenticity-related factors.

Films that came to my mind when reading this book

(01) Little Buddha (1993) - Siddhartha and Buddha: Keenue Reeves Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

(02) Siddhartha (1972) Directed by Conrad Rookes / Based on Herman Hesse's novel starring Shashi Kapoor as Siddhartha 

(03) Bimba dewi hewath Yasodara (2018) Directed by Sunil Ariyarathna / Yashodara played by Pallavi Subhash Shirke and Siddhartha by Arpit Chaudhary

(04) Avatar: The Last Airbender ( TV Series ) 

We are dealing with fiction authored by an independent non-Buddhist and non-sinhalese author who is trying to dissect Buddhism with a new perspective by combining myths and challenging the current Buddhist traditions which are in my opinion something good for Buddhist readers because it will unlock new paradigms of a religious leader who lived 2500 years ago. 

This is for me magical realism because this is not Siddhartha I knew as a Buddhist. But I read this with an open mind. This is like a Siddhartha from a parallel universe. 

This book in nature is controversial and revolutionary. My mind started exploding and exploring because of the conflict between the Non-fiction and fiction meta-awareness of Buddha's life created by SS. I used Google to find out about the past.

The book would have been banned in Sri Lanka for manipulating Siddhartha's story but due to being written in English, it might have gone under the supervision of Sri Lankan readers and critics. 

Highlighted mythical rituals of the story are as follows which makes the story colourful,

(01) Pamitha's funeral

(02) Yasodara and Siddhartha's wedding

(03) Birth of Rahula

Navigating life as imperfect humans in search of meaning is a counter-cultural point of view for the traditional Buddhist texts.

Caste and Social Dynamics in this novel is a fresh take for Sri Lankan and Buddhist following readers since it takes us to a bygone era.

'Mansions of the moon' or 'Lunar station' or 'Lunar house' or 'Lunar mansion' were a part of the calendrical system used by the ancients.

SS and his book is a long intimidating read but is worthwhile since I'm a very bad Buddhist but try to calm myself down by reading and the fact that I get to read about my religion's founder with a different narrative altogether is a very valuable reading experience.

With all these AI tools that produce literature and art, smartphones with games and Kindle, pornography and YouTube and tiktok and Instagram and endless internet and politicians and artists together betraying their value systems and all these Buddhist monks doing these betrayals related to literature this book going against the actual Siddhartha and Buddha story doesn't feel like a big error to me personally. It actually feels like a 1984-themed apple advert kind of vibe trying to take a shot at Buddhism by actually shaking its fundamentals in a different way.

MOTM does have superficiality in family dynamics and how it represents characters. But overall it's calming.

The use of Sinhalese, Pali, Hindu, and English altogether was a great move for the Sri Lankan English literature fans. But it does create a confusion.

When you are reading this novel you have to put yourself within certain ground rules which are that you are reading fiction and non-fiction both at the same time so it is built as a world within a world. The author has got out of the bounded rationality and created a world within Buddhists to question ancient Buddhist texts as well as literary traditions.

When you keep on reading the book with its length and its manipulation of information it feels like whether he is making fun of Buddha and Buddhism.

MOTM and TSMOMA (The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida) both published in 2022 are a counter-cultural attack on the Buddhist and the religious aspects of Sri Lanka by being manipulative and independent in both history and concepts.

One of the key highlighted aspects of this novel is it being having Exotic language and descriptions.

Some of the key takeaways during the book discussion that day of the book club.

According to the participants of the book reading event...

(01) This is a rare instance where Eastern philosophies and religions are fictionalized.

(02) Authors and thinkers who are not born Buddhists who are interested in the relevant philosophy are more unbiased and open-minded.

(03) Sometimes Buddhist concepts like "Dukkha" were not grasped fully with the actual depth Buddhism gives in ancient texts.

(04) The learnings of the philosophy of Buddhism are given as an experience, not through a solitary follow-up.

(05) Referencing 'Bridgerton' and social dynamics of the Regency era and the era of Siddhartha

(06) Compared to 'Funny Boy' this is very weak according to many.

(07) The confusion caused by mixing many languages in the novel's text was highlighted.

(08) If someone is not a Buddhist and has not studied original Buddhist history and texts this novel might be misleading making this novel very controversial in nature. 

------------------------------------------------------

Mansions of the moon - Shyam Selvadurai

Contents

Introduction

Dukkha 1

Froth on the river

1 Beginnings

2 Siddhartha and the Nigantha

3 Dark clouds

4 A woman's lot

5 The Acacia tree

6 Yama's Noose

7 Siddhartha and the truth of truths

8 The empire of faith

9 Gnats

10 The Python

Dukkha II

A woman eaten and eaten

1 In the realm of ghosts

2 Siddhartha and his mentors

3 The lotus

4 Netted Birds

5 Alara kalama

6 Siddhartha and the sage

7 Crocodiles in Puddles

8 Robe, Razor and Begging Bowl

Dukkha III : The three fires

1 Osprey

2 Changes

3 All is burning

4 Fathers and sons

5 The price of water

6 A handful of mustard seed

7 The women walk

8 Me-and-mine

9 Seedpods

10 Power and Possibility

Royal College Colombo - 100th Anniversary Magazine - A journey to my school days as a Royalist through memorabilia

 I was a proud royalist and it gave me great opportunities to build myself as a social citizen during my school years (1997 - 2010)

There were certain conflicts with my value systems and school's culture but they were inherent limitations of mine end of the day. (Elitist attitudes of the school)

From a mundane and a calm childhood my adulthood was a bit confusing and harsh dystopian like [Brave New World (1932) and 1984 (1949)]

My professional life since 2015 was filled with failure. I was shifting jobs and parallely lived a life of a blogger which was not lucrative at all.

My current job at Sampath Bank PLC is one of the most minor functions but with hard work of the bank and is actually life cycle management of documents stored at the bank of a certain category.

This job function and my love of book buying since 2017 has a link somehow and it lead me to go to my school days through this shared memorabilia.

Many of my batch mates and friends I did higher studies are migrated or gone abroad due to the current circumstances.

I avoided the biggest events of my school since a child.

The last time I went to a big match was 2015.

My Facebook page D Box contains my blogposts. It was a creative act of mine to show that mind and body is two things.

D box contains blog posts both from sinhalese and english language. There is a significant impact to this from my school life as well as my personal value systems.

Being a past royalist and if you study and follow the school's past you'll learn histories and cultural aspects related to colonial, post colonial and post modern aspects of the country as well.

After leaving the school in 2010 I was an underachiever and I was depressed most of the time.

Many of the value systems I respect have come from my school and mainly my love of the school's main building architecture. It's like in the film, Inception (2010).

I don't have the bragging rights of being a royalist since I'm not a colors man or a prize winner ever in my life. I was able to have minor extra curricular activity achievements which are shared in the below photographs.

But since present is a product of the past and future is a product of the present I must atleast pay my gratitude to the School this way.

Hence I purchased the 100th Anniversary Special Edition Coffee table book of the Royal College Magazine.

The social reality I'm living in today is part of my school days.

I was a very low profile past student but is a very active in 'Facebook' and other social media platforms.

If someone read my mind since my schooling my navigation of academics was based on 'idealism' not money minded. It lead to my downfall. And now I have learned my lesson.

I wanted to write a blog post about my school time in sinhala but it ended up as a note.

(51) මාගේ රාජකීය ගමන (පාසැල් සමය)

https://pwarrsl.blogspot.com/2023/01/paperwork.html

My idealism can be seen in the following blog post that reflects my stupidity.

https://usaphase.blogspot.com/

When I look at myself now I've never seen any idiotic book loving guys (Other than literature students and booktubers) who try to reflect it into the society like me. And specially among past royalist students.

I purchased the cult followed 'Forget Me Not', Sri Lankan book and read it in a day. Here's the link for that post.

https://bookerreadsdaily.blogspot.com/2024/04/forget-me-not-charitha-prawardhi.html

I think this will be my last book purchase since the economy is very hurtful.

100th Anniversary Coffee table book

2010 Batch Year Book

Poster 1

Poster 2

Bradby Ticket

Twenty Twenty 2010

Mustangs 2010

131st 2010

125th 2004

124th 2003

Big match Merchandise

First Day Cover 175th (2010)

Kirula

Sportsmeet Magazines

Art Circle

Blood Donation (Red Cross)

Vibhushana

Report of the Principle

Royal College Magazine

Millenium Directory

Malli's Work

The Royalist Magazine

Minikata

Bradby

BOTB

SAGA

Spark Notes / Rama Brothers / Coles Notes - Going beyond reading

 Book haul is the act of showing off books one just bought on the internet. This can be a video.

The science or an anatomy of a book haul is having old books with a specific crowd or an audience and sharing your ideas. This will even lead to paid sponsorships.

I as a lover of books follow 'Book leo', 'Emmie reads', 'Carolyn Marrie reads', 'Benjamin Macovoy' and other Sri Lankan booktubers as entertainment. 

There is a certain following to this dying hobby.

I am trying to control my book buying and my last book haul was from Sarasavi Bookshops - Online store. They were English literature study guides.

They were printed by 'Spark Notes', 'Rama brothers' and 'Coles Notes'.

I was exposed to Rama Brothers books through a 'Bargain Books Sale' in Gampaha Sarasavi Bookshop. 

After that I ordered all the Rama Brothers study guides from the Sarasavi online bookstore. 

Rama brothers are the publishers of the 'Coles Notes' as well.

I got hold of Spark Notes when I searched for 'Brave New World' book duology in Sarasavi online bookstore.

https://www.sarasavi.lk/

I was addicted to book buying since 2017 and this is how it ended with me a large pile of books and nothing to do.

I purchased a lot of Penguin classics as physical copies due to love of book collecting and unawareness caused by knowing that there are now free pdf's available in the internet.

Spark notes web is an interactive web site that contains most of the study guide materials online in the web for free which reflects my incapabilities in investment and my tendency to waste money, because the physical copies I purchased have the same content as the web for free. Though that's the case it supports literature and I'm okay with it.

https://www.sparknotes.com/

To be honest when I read the 1984 Spark Notes web and compare it with the book web provides additional information about movie adaptations etc.

Spark Notes was founded by a set of students at Harvard (1999). They earned an income through the number of visits to the site. From literature study guides to later expanded to other subjects as well.

I also read the 'Brave New World' and '1984' spark notes book which was a good addition to my collection.

The chapter "How to write literary analysis" is repeated in every book which is a bad sign for spark notes since it degrades the value.

And also one of the other aspects I found as misleading is the books having same number of pages despite there actual size in 'Spark Notes'. (Old man and the sea and Les Miserables)

Unlike spark notes Rama brothers is not available in the internet for free. We have to purchase them for money as physical copies. They are the ones who are publishing 'Coles Notes' as well.

https://ramabrothers.in/

They are written by Indian authors and are analysed well. These are tailor made for south asian region.

Rama brothers books, does not contain Russian literature like 'Spark Notes' but the books have more content and cheaper in value. Coles notes like Spark Notes are smaller in size and was founded in 1948. They are currently printed by Rama brothers. But on the negative side Rama brothers have a very bad cover design strategy.

When I searched for other websites related to Internet literature study guides following was able to be found.

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/

Only exposure I have of English literature as a student is doing English Literature for my G.C.E. O/L in 2007 and getting an 'A' for it. 

One of the main things I like about literature is there updated nature in providing religious and philosophical concepts to the contemporary readers.

When I asked 'Chat GPT' about these literature study guides following was the advantages and disadvantages it provided.

Advantages

(01) Accessibility

(02) Study aid

(03) Time-saving

Disadvantages

(01) Oversimplification

(02) Over-reliance

(03) Academic dishonesty

As a final note using English literature study guides expands your horizons in reading experience.

මල් කිණිත්තක පුරාවෘත්තය - Forget me not - මා අමතක කරන්න, එපා : Charitha Prawardhi Bandara / Chathuri Damayanthi : A public phenomenon

 

මා මෙම කෘතිය කියවුයේ නොවැම්බර් 12 වැනි දින 2023ය. එම සමයෙදී අතිශය ජනප්‍රිය වූ මෙම කෘතිය මා මිලදී ගත්තේ නැත. මාගේ කාර්යාලයේ ( බැංකුවේ ) සේවය කළ ලේකම්වරියකුගෙන් ඉල්ලගෙන කියෙව්වෙමි. එම මුද්‍රණයේ ඇතුළත වර්ණ මුද්‍රණ තිබුණු අතර පොතට සහයක් ලෙස 2024 අප්‍රේල් සරසවි වෙබ් අඩවියෙන් මෙය මිලදීගෙන ඇතුළත තිබුණේ කළු සුදු මුද්‍රණයක්ය. නමුත් Goodreads හි පැවති පිටු ගණන 224 නිසා මා එතරම් වෙනසක් නොවී ඇතැයි සිතමි.

මා වැනි මැදිවියට පාතබන අහුවෙන පොතක් කිසිදු ශානරිය වෙන්කිරිමකින් තොරව කියවන පොත් එකතුකරන පිස්සකුට මෙය නැවුම් කියවීම් අත්දැකීමක් විය. ( මාගේ වයස අවුරුදු තිස් තුනකි.) මා වැනි අධික ලෙස මානසික ආතතිය නිසා බැට කැමට ලක්ව වෘත්තීය ජීවිතය පවා අසාර්ථක කර ගත් පුද්ගලයකුට මෙය ඉතාමත් හොඳ කියවීම් අත්දැකීමක් විය.

මෙම බ්ලොග් පෝස්ටුව මෙම ග්‍රන්ථයට සහයෝගයක් ලෙස ලියා තබමි.

'Forget Me Not' was a public phenomenon in Sri Lanka. And it touches many modern trends in the world and analyses them in a simple manner which is a good thing for young readers.

I highly recommend this book for Sri Lankan Sinhalese book lovers. 

Elon Musk : How the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our future - Ashlee Vance : 'Muskology' for life

In 2022 Sri Lanka was suddenly declared as a default nation due to inability to fight through the post pandemic economic conditions and was facing dire economic conditions with long fuel queues due to insufficient dollar reserves and many more issues lead to cyclical power cuts and hyperinflation. People were angry and it lead to protests requesting the then president of the country to resign. Eventually it happened and the country with a new president but with the same parliament is on road to recovery but with many problems at hand. During the fuel crisis one of the leading English literature book sellers marketed 'Elon Musk', Ashlee Vance biography read in a car staying in a fuel queue triggered me negatively to avoid the book during that period. But later I purchased the book from a different seller out of curiosity which is a betrayal of my own conscience. I purchased the book from Sarasavi online bookstore. 

Elon is a fast runner to be the first in the number one billionaire list of the world and is also a news maker by doing weird things in public. These aspects lead me to read this biography of a leading business man in the modern world. 

I've read the biography of 'Warren Buffet', The Snow Ball and it reflects a complete different business man from the persona of Elon Musk. 

Elon is not the Sri Lankan style billionaire and as an introvert his hyperactive and eccentric behaviour is definitely not my style of living and leadership I like. But the curiosity to know what the world he is trying to change as the richest man alive lead me to read the book. Definitely this is a puff piece of a book but it did unlock me to understand the thinking of silicon valley billionaires and how they are jaded by the world around them. 

Under the post covid 19 economic conditions in Sri Lanka there are lot to learn from him. First thing is to leave third world and join first world if you can. And always take dangerous and fearless risks in business. 

As a person in his thirties who should stop reading and start exercising this book did showed me some of the things to learn about life and risk taking which clearly I missed in my life time. But I can at least read about Musk and learn from him. 

'Millennium Falcon' from the 'Star Wars' franchise was the inspiration for branding of 'Falcon 1'. 

The Sri Lankan sinhalese television series 'Koombiyo' comes to my mind when reading this biography since his style of management structures in his business organizations and leadership is quite actually the same. 

EM is Breaking the status quo by being a transformational leader in all round business decision making and leadership styles. 

Concept of reverse engineering is highly emphasised in this biography as a methodology of cost cutting techniques of 'SpaceX' and 'Tesla'. 

This biography is about unconventional businesses and how to achieve dreams through networking, modernising and hard work. Though EM and his personal and public life is a bit Paradoxical and weird the man can get things done. 

Zip2, PayPal, Tesla, Solar City, SpaceX are Musk's fruits of labour. 

By giving primary focus to cost reduction and lean management Musk was able to modernise the space exploration and global car industry. 

He is a rich snob and a very inhuman leader with tough traits. But he can get things achievable. 

Elon Musk's latest biography was released by Walter Isaacson revealing the weird and eccentric business leader's new facts which created kind of a buzz in the literature industry. 

Ashlee Vance's biography contains chunks of paragraphs with science and cost cutting techniques related to car and space exploration industry. But I rather give a summarised and superficial
Analysis of this rising business tycoon than a broader analysis. 

Most of the Sri Lankan businessmen are like Warren Buffet mildly, but actually worse. And Elon Musk is quite the strack contrast of the leadership style and public persona of Sri Lanka would love to see. But it is a much needed revelation to the Sri Lankan reader to understand the relevant leadership styles. 

EM was able to have a streak of biographies published with alot media backing since 2015 to 2023. That is a lot of publicity for a billionaire and it is changing the way how world perceive leadership and businessmen. 

EM is like the peak point of the capitalistic world. He has the best technology and he is transforming the world specially the western world in to a world like in the film 'Elysium' (2013). As a third world dweller that's how I feel. 

As a failure in both career wise and academically this biography is a real eye opener to understand how to motivate yourself and understand leadership. Many of the aspects are actually missed in my life time. 

Seeing around 5 Tesla cars in Sri Lanka, Colombo shows the impact of EM to the world. 

Ashlee Vance biography have different versions of the same book I guess since the title is different but the cover is the same. 

EM was awe inspired by 'Apple's' use of Business and technological methodologies and it lead him to use many of the aspects in 'Tesla' business model. He is an ardent follower of Steve Jobs. 

Table of contents of the book is as follows.

01. Elon's world

02. Africa

03. Canada

04. Elon's first start up

05. Paypal Mafia Boss

06. Mice in Space

07. All electric

08. Pain, suffering, and survival

09. Liftoff

10. The revenge of the electric car

11. The unified field theory of Elon Musk

Epilogue

Some of the positive aspects of EM's vision in business is as follows,

Unified theory - 323 to 324 PG.

"What's more, SolarCity is a key part of what can be thought of as the unified field theory of Musk. Each one of his businesses is interconnected in the short term and the long term. Tesla makes battery packs that SolarCity can then sell to end customers. SolarCity supplies Tesla's charging stations with solar panels, helping Tesla to provide free recharging to its drivers. Newly minted Model S owners regularly opt to begin living the Musk Lifestyle and outfit their homes with solar panels. Tesla and SpaceX help each other as well. They exchange knowledge around materials, manufacturing techniques, and the intricacies of operating factories that build so much stuff from the ground up." 

Elon Musk is personified like Iron Man and Howard Hughes. It is quite amazing living in the 21st Century to witness this via media and news. 

Mars colonisation and Hyperloop 332 - 336 pg 

"And then I think for each flight that departs to Mars you want to sort of launch the spacecraft into the orbit and then have it be in a parking orbit and refuel its tanks with propellant....... I think SpaceX will have developed a booster and spaceship in the 2025 time frame capable of taking large quantities of people and cargo to Mars."

How tech is impacting the ordinary, a perspective from Ashlee Vance referring to many newly published books. 347 - 348 PG. 

" In The Great Stagnation, Cowen bemoaned the lack of big technological advances and argued that the American economy has slowed and wages have been depressed as a result"

"In his next book, Average is Over, Cowen predicted an unromantic future in which a great divide had occurred between the Have and the Have Nots. In Cowen's future, huge gains in artificial intelligence will lead to the elimination of many of today's high-employment line of work."

Living in a Socialist Democracy and having partly a free education which is an aspect of socialism to see the new world thrive with such a personality and also as a person who (Myself obviously) respected socialism blindly as a child my curiosity to read and understand the front running billionaire of the capitalistic world did not disappoint. But EM is not a good person. 

There was a updated article of EM with a title 'Muskology' giving information related to Twitter take over and many crisises related to it. 

EM biography by Ashlee Vance is like an innovative text since the book has a new structure internally. There are footnotes, end notes and appendixes with alot of info. Of EM. It seems like the book is a living thing since to the last page EM is doing something new to earn profits and innovate any industry. 

Learnings for the personal life 

Stay occupied. 

Work hard. Play hard. 

Work hard. Work smart. 

Always be ahead in the game. Be the best negotiator.