The Road From Elephant Pass is a novel by Nihal De Silva. It won the 2003 Gratiaen Prize for creative writing in English. The novel was also nominated as a selection for the Sri Lankan Advanced Level Literature examinations. It has been given the themes of war and survival. The book is a great resource for the learning of survival techniques and for handling situations in a complicated relationship. The characters Wasantha and Kamala fall in love even though they belong to completely different races and liberation organisations. The novel was subsequently made into a film with the same name.
The Sinhalese name for this novel is Alimankada. (Kada which means 'far-edge' or 'boundary;' and Mankada means 'checkpoint' or 'bottleneck pass'). Alimankada was recorded by the Dutch as the Northern border of the Kandyan Kingdom.[1]
Plot of the novel
This novel battles with diverse situations including ethnic conflicts and birds. Both of these issues are given equal importance and veracity by the writer. Reflecting the writer's activities as a keen bird watcher, the pied kingfishers, hawks, eagle-owls, blue-faced malkohas, paradise flycatchers, hornbills, brown-headed barbets, hanging parrots, rose-ringed parakeets, lapwings are among the many birds mentioned in this novel. The plot of the novel centers around Captain Wasantha Ratnayake and a woman named Kamala Velaithan, who is a member of the LTTE Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), venturing through a dense and luscious Wilpattu forest in northern Sri Lanka. Kamala Velaithan volunteers to offer help to the Sri Lanka Army regarding the provision of some useful information. Kemala is handed over to Wasantha, who picks her up to take her in for questioning. Meanwhile, on the way to their destination, an ambush by an LTTE gang results in their driver and an Army lady dying in a hail of bullets. The two survivors, Kamala and Wasantha are forced into a mutually co-operative situation which later broadens and deepens to the extent that they find it hard to operate without each other. The novel focuses on the relationship which grows between these two people, who, at their first encounter with one another, were enemies. Together, they survive poachers, elephants and the extreme dangers of the jungle. These intense experiences, which force them into mutual co-operation, eventually evolve into an unexpected love affair. The story depicts them spending about 12 days together, each chapter of the novel intertwining with the others in unique forms of complementarity which serve to provide the novel with a richness of style in the progress and development of its plot. After they reach Colombo Army Headquarters, Kamala reveals to Wasantha that she had lied to him and that they are, in fact heading into a trap. But it was too late. The ending is tragic and the lovers end up being separated one from another. However, the film, though based on the novel, has a different ending.[2]
Characters
Captain Wasantha Rathnayake - He is commanded by Major Kiriella to accompany a woman named Kamala because she claims she has useful information on a location where her Leader, Prabakaran will arrive.
Kamala Velaithan - She is a member of LTTE and volunteers to give important information about her leader's arrival but finally falls in love with Wasantha. But she is tagged as being treacherous because she conceals the secret that her information was fake till she reveals all to Wasantha. But then it is too late.
Major Kiriella - commander
Piyasena - The driver
Nihal De Silva (writer of the book)
Publication history
This book was first published in 2003 by Vijitha Yapa Publications Sri Lanka. The first reprinting was done in June 2004 and the second reprinting in October 2004. The rest of the list in order:
Third Reprint September (2005)
Fourth Reprint March (2006)
Fifth Reprint December (2006)
Sixth Reprint August (2007)
Seventh Reprint June (2008)
Eight Reprint April (2009)
Ninth Reprint October (2009)
Tenth Reprint June (2010)
Eleventh Reprint November (2010)
Twelfth Reprint June (2011)
Thirteenth Reprint November (2011)
Fourteenth Reprint December (2011)
Fifteenth Reprint September (2012)
Adaptations
The novel was adapted for film in 2008 as an action thriller film directed by Chandran Rutnam with same name, The Road From Elephant Pass (Alimankada in Sinhala). The main characters were acted by the following:
To make way for his two sons Nihal De Silva steps away from his water purification business. Sixty-three-year-old Nihal says that he began writing to while away the evenings of his retirement. His efforts were finally rewarded when, in 2003, he was awarded the Gratiaen Prize - Sri Lanka's top Literary Award.[3] The judges mentions this on the books back cover:
"For its moving story, its constant feel of real life, its consistency of narrative momentum, its descriptive power, its dramatic use of dialogue to define social context, capture psychology and trace the development of a relationship, its convincing demonstration that resolution of conflict and reconciliation of differences are feasible though mutual experience and regard, and last though not least, for its eminently civilized handling of the last degree of intimacy between a man and a woman, or choice for the 2003 Gratiaen Prize for the creative writing writing in English is, unquestionably, The Road From Elephant Pass by Nihal de Silva."[4]
Elephant Pass is located at the gateway of the Jaffna Peninsula in Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It lies about 340 km north of the capital. It has an important military base and used to be the island's largest salt field. It was regularly the site of battles during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
The Bandaranaike International Airport attack was a suicide raid Black Tigers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 24 July 2001 on the Sri Lanka Air Force base SLAF Katunayake and the adjoining Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake, Sri Lanka. The attack was one of the boldest the LTTE mounted during its war with the Sri Lankan government, and had a profound impact on the country's military, economy, and airline industry.
Vijita Fernando is a Sri Lankan journalist, translator and fiction writer. She was a winner of the Gratiaen Prize and has received Sri Lanka’s State Literary Award.
The Second Battle of Elephant Pass, was fought in April 2000 for the control of the Sri Lankan military base in Elephant Pass, Jaffna.
Operation Balavegaya was a combined military operation launched by the Sri Lankan military in Jaffna, the largest amphibious assault in its history. Operation Balavegaya was launched in response to the siege of Elephant Pass by the LTTE. It is believed that Operation Balavegaya was the largest and most successful military operation of the Sri Lankan military until Operation Riviresa in 1995.
Nihal De Silva was a Sri Lankan novelist. He won the Gratiaen Prize for his novel The Road From Elephant Pass which was later made into a film. He also published The Far Spent Day and The Ginirella Conspiracy.
The Gratiaen Prize is an annual literary prize for the best work of literary writing in English by a resident of Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1992 by the Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje with the money he received as joint-winner of the Booker Prize for his novel The English Patient. The prize is named after Ondaatje's mother, Doris Gratiaen.
Vivimarie VanderPoorten is a Sri Lankan poet. Her book Nothing Prepares You won the 2007 Gratiaen Prize. She was also awarded the 2009 SAARC Poetry Award in Delhi.
The Road from Elephant Pass is a 2008 Sri Lankan war film directed, written and produced by Chandran Rutnam based on the novel of the same name by Nihal De Silva about the Sri Lankan Civil War. It stars Suranga Ranawaka and Ashan Dias in lead roles along with Sanath Gunathilake and Joe Abeywickrama. The film's music was composed by Ajit Kumarasiri. It is the 1131st film in Sri Lankan cinema.
Lucky de Chickera is a Sri Lankan novelist and corporate executive. His novel Sarasu…amidst slums of terror was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2011. and was nominated for the best novel in English at the state literary awards 2011.
Madhubhashini Disanayaka Ratnayaka is a Sri Lankan academic and author. Her novel There is Something I Have to Tell You won the Gratiaen Prize in 2011. She is the Head of English Language at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
Major General Ananda Sri Sisira Kumara Hamangoda, RWP, RSP, USP was a senior Sri Lanka Army officer, who was the former brigade commander of the 51-2 Brigade based in Jaffna, when he was killed by a LTTE female suicide bomber.
Punyakante Wijenaike was a Sri Lankan writer. She has been described as "one of the most underestimated fiction writers currently at work in the English language."
Ashan Dias is an actor in Sri Lankan cinema. Started as a newscaster in MBC Networks, Dias turned to be a character actor with several critically acclaimed roles in films such as Alimankada, Sarigama and Vijayaba Kollaya.
Lakshmi de Silva is a translator, writer and critic from Sri Lanka. In 2000, her work was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize. She has also received the Sahithyarathna Award for lifetime achievement.
Operation Sath Jaya was the military offensive carried out by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in July to September 1996 to recapture the town of Kilinochchi from the LTTE. The army launched the offensive from its base in Elephant Pass in June in response to Battle of Mullaitivu in which the 25 Brigade of the army was overrun at its base in the town of Mullaitivu resulting in the deaths of over 2,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces personal. Units of the Sri Lanka Army fought its way south from Elephant Pass along the A9 highway to Kilinochchi which it was able to recapture in September. The LTTE recaptured Kilinochchi in late September 1998.
Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe is a Sri Lankan novelist and poet. She was shortlisted as one of the finalists of the 31st Gratiaen Prize nominations for the year 2023 which she eventually won.
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