Title: ‘View at Dusk’
Author: Dr. Nandasiri Jasentuliyana,
Former Deputy Director General, United Nations
It’s amazing, but it’s true. One fine day, we are going to wake up and realize that our rosy childhood, turbulent teens, adventurous youth have all passed us by. All of a sudden, we are ‘Aunts,’ and ‘Uncles.’ The teller at the bank begins to call us ‘akka’ or ‘aiya’ not necessarily because we look old but because the year of birth on our ID tells him we should be treated with due respect. We are not grandparents yet, but truth be told the first half of our lives are behind us. Soon we will be reaching the age of retirement and the inevitability of death will no longer be as far off as the moon and stars.
As fate would have it, having reached the midway mark of my own life, it was when my thoughts began to dwell on the fact that my future is no longer as unlimited as it once seemed, that my own life will from now on be restricted to only another two or three decades that I came across the manuscript of Dr. Nandasiri Jasentuliyana’s memoir – The ‘View at Dusk’ when I met him at his home in Corona, Los Angeles, this August.
That night, as the stars kept vigil over the Los Angeles sky I read the manuscript Dr. Jasentuliyana gave me, (out today, on his eightieth birthday) demanding that I read it on the flight back home and not while I was on holiday. I confess, lured by the pages in front of me, this was one command I could not keep.
The ‘View at Dusk’ gives us a glimpse of old age – it is a painting of life created by the hand of an eighty-year-old artist. It possesses the kind of authority that can come only from a native.
Thus, in the opening pages called ‘The Ceylon I knew then, and Sri Lanka Now’ Dr. Jasentuliyana shares his private memories with us, offers us a backwards glance, takes us back to certain decades, to places, to people. “Life in the villages, towns and even in the metropolitan areas of Ceylon that I grew up in was quite different to what it is today in the buzzing cities of Sri Lanka,” he writes. “The front door of our houses were never locked except during the night...there were no double grills for doors and windows. Families were big and the joint family was the norm. There were guests to partake of food and there was readiness to share whatever one had. People knew everyone in town by nicknames, and only the postman knew the real name...”
In the chapter that follows, Dr. Jasentuliyana moves to the future. He prophesies a new world order which he says is woven from his dreams and imagination, but which hopefully one day will come true, for the sake of the generations to come, for the sake of planet earth.
From the past to the future to the present. What does it feel like to have all the time in the world to do nothing? What does it feel like to come home from office one day and say, ‘Honey I am home, forever?” Does your world fall apart after you retire? Could it be you will end up like so many old ladies and gentlemen on park benches staring vacantly ahead and patiently waiting for whatever that is in store for them in another world? If these thoughts ever kept you awake at night Dr. Jasentuliyana ‘s own experiences after retirement will make you realize your fears were unfounded.
To quote from the book, “retirement is not the end – it is the beginning of a new life” – a new life that is all yours, a life in which you can party all night, cruise down the Nile, meditate in Phnom Penh or simply sit at home and watch the clouds go by.
Retirement is not the end – but death is. In the most compelling chapters of this book, Dr. Jasentuliyana steps on no man’s land. He talks of a subject most of us would rather ignore, out of fear, or grief or in the misguided belief that our lives will last forever. Dr. Jasentuliyana quite courageously brings us face to face with death and shows us that accepting the inevitability of death means understanding the essence and meaning of life itself.
Whether you are in your twenties with old age, retirement, and death nowhere on your radar, or if you are in your forties, agonizing over the realization that one half of your life is already over, or if you have already reached four-score and five years or more, there is no doubt this book will prove to be a compelling read. By the time you reach the last page your perceptions of the outside world, of retirement, aging and death would have undergone a change. You would know not only how to make the best of your life, but also how to let go of your last breath when it’s time for “sunset and evening star, Twilight and evening bell,” – when it’s time to say goodbye.
Until then,in keeping with the spirit of this book, remember to live! Memento vivere!