Abstract

This is an excerpt from the novel Unmada Mandira (Mansions of Insanity), ¹ which follows the fate of a family of traditional landowning class , with the old man used to power and obedience that had come with almost feudal respect, and one of the sons, a politician, using all the insidious mechanisms of the current political culture to get what he wants done for personal benefit. The Tamil plantation workers are insignificant for the new politics, but even as the old power fights for them, it doesn’t signify freedom from tyranny for them in any substantial way. This excerpt focusses on a very significant aspect of post-war Sri Lanka in another way, which doesn’t tie it up with ethnicity, per se – the destruction of the environment . ² The novel, written on the lines of popular literature, with its various configurations of power, money, and sexual desire, follows the story of three very different sons, their wives, and an old prophecy that had spoken about patricide in this family.