Something consciously chosen for something would better suit for something else...
When I first got my foot on the red soil in Africa, I thought of documenting my documenting my journey in the unknown continent. But I did not have an idea how and what to write. But there were some clues about potential titles that had crept into my mind from nowhere. It was late 2010; a thought was born. 'I better interview an ex-child soldier somewhere in Africa', I thought. I wanted to highlight the light in the darkness of a victim of forced recruitment in conflicts as I knew pretty well how many young lives were destroyed by LTTE, shattering thousands of dreams of young children in their own ethnicity in North and East of Sri Lanka.
'Let's start with the Democratic Republic of Congo or Liberia', it was my self-talk. However, I ended up conducting dozens of interviews of with ex-combatants tents from Liberia, DRC and Sierra-Leone which provided an in-depth idea about the civil conflicts in Africa as well as child soldiers in general. I discovered the pathetic reality of drugged child soldiers who shot at any moving thing. But that book was never materialised despite its title 'Behind the Eclipse' which I wrote down on the last page of my notebook. And I included some of the stories of combatants in my book 'Footprints in Obscurity.' —published in 2015; that covered 29 countries in the continent.
In 2015 I started my semi-fiction on a life of an Ebola survivor, and till I complete the manuscript, I did not have a title for it. I wanted to highlight human resilience that we are born with which we do not often realise. The story of Tamba was my struggle to find the positivity in life even when at the jaws of death.
The day I put the 'full-stop' to the last sentence of the Epilogue of the story of Tamba- the Ebola survivor in Liberia, I wanted to make a note in my notebook. 'Mission completed without a title'. There was only last page left. I started writing 'Mission com...' The at the left top corner of the book 'Behind the Eclipse' with the date 16th Nov 2010 was there. I simply could not take my eyes off.
'No doubt about this, this should be the title for Thamba`s story.'
'Let's start with the Democratic Republic of Congo or Liberia', it was my self-talk. However, I ended up conducting dozens of interviews of with ex-combatants tents from Liberia, DRC and Sierra-Leone which provided an in-depth idea about the civil conflicts in Africa as well as child soldiers in general. I discovered the pathetic reality of drugged child soldiers who shot at any moving thing. But that book was never materialised despite its title 'Behind the Eclipse' which I wrote down on the last page of my notebook. And I included some of the stories of combatants in my book 'Footprints in Obscurity.' —published in 2015; that covered 29 countries in the continent.
In 2015 I started my semi-fiction on a life of an Ebola survivor, and till I complete the manuscript, I did not have a title for it. I wanted to highlight human resilience that we are born with which we do not often realise. The story of Tamba was my struggle to find the positivity in life even when at the jaws of death.
The day I put the 'full-stop' to the last sentence of the Epilogue of the story of Tamba- the Ebola survivor in Liberia, I wanted to make a note in my notebook. 'Mission completed without a title'. There was only last page left. I started writing 'Mission com...' The at the left top corner of the book 'Behind the Eclipse' with the date 16th Nov 2010 was there. I simply could not take my eyes off.
'No doubt about this, this should be the title for Thamba`s story.'
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Pramudith D Rupasinghe
The Sri Lankan author PRAMUDITH D RUPASINGHE is considered one of the emerging authors of our times. His books have sold more than 300,000 copies worldwide, have been released in 170 countries and bee
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