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MEERA SRINIVASAN-May 7, 2015

In an attempt to tell young adults the complex story of growing up in a war zone, Chennai-based Tara Publishing has recently launched ‘The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers’, a story set in Sri Lanka.
“The story was written at a time, when war was being considered not only inevitable but it was also being glorified. Anyone speaking against it was seen as unpatriotic and viewed with suspicion,” said Mike Masilamani, the first Sri Lankan Tamil author whose works were published by Tara.
The fact that war served as a larger agenda for both warring parties was not open to discussion, said Mr. Masilamani – currently living in Australia – in an email interview.
Pointing to the current challenges in post-war Sri Lanka – where the UN estimated at least 100,000 civilians were killed – he said innocent civilians’ appeal to find their missing child or spouse, to return to the land that was once home and the livelihood they had lost; their plea to provide some closure to the horrors they had experienced fell on deaf years.
“We were a nation goose-stepping towards progress, distance was measured in checkpoints, militarisation had come to stay and every one had to keep in line. ‘The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers’ [protagonist] became their spokesperson and champion.”
The story was staged as a play in Colombo and in Chennai before it was adapted into a book penned by him, with Matthew Frame’s illustrations.
Asked if he considered the story – a satirical account of life in the times of war – relevant five years after the country’s conflict ended, Mr. Masilamani said the problems faced by internally displaced persons persisted.
On the nearly one lakh Sri Lankan refugees “living in limbo” in Tamil Nadu, he said: they “are truly forgotten numbers.
“The war, for many victims struggling to put their lives back on track, is not over. “Presumptuous as it is, if my book reminds readers of their situation, I would consider it still relevant.”
The child protagonist, said Tara’s Editorial Director V. Geetha, presented a startling shift in the perspective of the war. “In the hectic politicking around a war, the horror of the war is often forgotten,” she said.
On the format of the book targeting readers aged 14 and above, Ms. Geetha said: “We can see that illustrations can suggest how menacing a war can be without necessarily being morbid.”
A satirical account of
life during the years of conflict is now a book