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His passion was to become a journalist. He went to England to follow a one-year course and return to Sri Lanka. That was 40+ years ago. He was then a 25-year-old lad. By then he had written a book of poems in Sinhala which received favourable comments from critics.  He changed course and became a lawyer, not a journalist. Then moved to Australia.

Now a mature adult, Maitri Panagoda has been a practising lawyer, an academic in the School of Law in the University of Notre Dame, composing poems during his spare time and trying his hand in writing lyrics. The mild-mannered individual has been successful in his endeavours. He is a University Professor and recently he won recognition by the Australian Government when he was conferred the title ‘Order of Australia’ awarded to outstanding members of the community.

After being silent for some time in his creative efforts, he recently staged a comeback with the release of a book of poems titled ‘Hada Mumunana Handa’ – his second publication (the first was ‘Vasantha Udanayak Nova’ released in 1975), and a CD titled ‘Mahamera Se’. Prior to the recent launch of these in Sydney, he launched them in Sri Lanka.

The well-organised launch in Sydney had a good mix – recorded material from the Colombo launch, a few of the numbers sung by Sri Lankans domiciled in Australia and a talk on Maitri’s latest creative efforts. The presenter did a fine job with short introductions rather than lengthy ‘lectures’ which most presenters are fond of. 

The singers at this end showed that their talent is not second to most of the singers we are used to hear back in Sri Lanka. A batch of kids singing numbers specially composed by Maitri (he released a children’s songs CD a couple of year back), proved how Australia-born little ones pick up Sinhala. Parents obviously speak Sinhala at home and send them to Sinhala classes. 

The CD (really dual CDs with 25 of Maitri’s compositions) shows the acceptance of Maitri’s lyrics by the leading singers in Sri Lanka – a clear sign of their satisfaction on his ability to produce meaningful songs. Among the singers are Pandith Amaradeva, Nanda Malini, Victor Ratnayake, Sanath Nandasiri, Sunil Edirisinghe, Jagath Wickremasinghe, Rohana Siriwardena, Nelu Adikari, T.M. Jayaratne and Neela Wickemasinghe. 

Upul Mahen leads the list of singers here. Among others are Justin Gallage, Lalith Kalupahana, Duleep Jayakody, Aruna and Tamara Kannangara. Rohana Weerasinghe and Indrajith Mirihana (from Australia) have provided music for most of the songs. 

A Book Review of “Pursuing a Vision of Justice”

Essays in Honour of Maithri Panagoda

Editor: Senaka Weeraratna

Vijitha Yapa Publications

Photo – Left to Right

 Senaka Weeraratna, Maithri Panagoda, and Srilal Perera ( Circa 1971 – during their undergraduate days at the Colombo Law Faculty)

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Dr. Palitha Kohona, in the foreword to this voluminous, part biography, part autobiography of Maithri Panagoda edited by Senaka Weeraratna, sets quite the appropriate backdrop to assess the life and times of an extra-ordinary professional, outstanding human being, and a proud son of Sri Lanka.  It is indeed challenging, as Dr. Kohona states, to review objectively when the central figure of the review happens to be one’s lifelong friend and professional colleague. There is so much more to the individual than is revealed in the book. His humility, humble nature, caring for those that are underprivileged and poor, compassion, and kindness, despite all his astounding achievements both as a successful legal professional and outstanding literary genius remain to be told. That, of course, is self-evident from him knowing his own humble nature, that he only chose to write about his life’s experiences in only one chapter of a book that has 30 chapters. Maithri’s vision of justice must be gleaned from his family life, his early and advanced education, academic and professional institutions, and his teachers, colleagues, peers, and friends who have contributed to this exhaustive volume.

Much of our lives, our convictions, and belief systems about what is right and wrong are molded around individuals who have a profound impact on our lives, from the moment of our birth into our adult lives. The autobiographical chapter “Along the Dusty Road” in many fundamental ways reflects this universal truth about the major influences on Maithri’s life, growing up. His father, a renowned Ayurvedic Physician, with a generational legacy in that form of practice, was so well respected not only because of his formidable skills dedicated to the well-being of the larger community but also because of his enormous capacity for generosity, kindness, and compassion, and yet firm and strict when needed. He later collected funds of his own to travel to Vienna, Austria (leaving behind his wife and five children) to study western medicine. That synthesis of indigenous medicine with western forms was indeed special.  His mother was a simple enlightened teacher who epitomized kindness. These are quintessential qualities of parents of our generation, whose primary goal and objective were to ensure that their brood had the best education and instilled in them the value of achieving the highest academic goals, and social and survival skills in highly competitive environments. Everything was sacrificed towards enabling the children to achieve those ends. And it did not stop there. It must be passed on to the next generation and the next. That this is so evident can be concluded not only from his own description of family life so sensitively described in the book but also from the outstanding achievements of Maithri’s own children in Australia.

Clearly, in addition to the solid family foundations, educational institutions with their renowned teachers had an extraordinary impact in moulding the professional out of Maithri. Chapters 5 and 6 authored by the Editor (Senaka Weeraratna) and Chapter 7 authored by a famous son of Ananda College, Berty Wijesinghe, speak volumes about one of the finest and best Buddhist public schools in Sri Lanka and the influence that its famous teachers had not only on famous leaders of the land but on exceptionally talented students like Maithri. Ananda’s Buddhist creed devoted to the preservation of the Dhamma is well encapsulated by Sanjiva Senanayake, who cites Tarzie Vittachi, another famous product of Ananda, that “a school is part of a society’s progressive purpose…..”  Maithri, as we read about him in the book, has unquestionably contributed and dedicated his adult life to the progress of society.