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| With her Tamil book and translation |
We spend our lives looking for the extraordinary to act, to react to or even participate in. For some reason we all want a part of the exceptional and extraordinary. However, just our daily lives which are ordinary in many ways can be transformed into the out-of-ordinary or extraordinary if we stay focused and look beyond our own benefit.
Bodhini Samaratunga's life would motivate you to believe that. Her life as far as I can see contains both the mundane and routine and the out-of-the-box or the 'extra' . I was lucky to meet her a couple of months back at a literary festival. Because yes, she is an author. But before that she is a doctor and interestingly, she was also a 'blogger' before she became a published author.
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| Bodhini's books |
Bodhini currently lives in Sweden, she's finished her MS and Public Health at university there. She's also busy studying Swedish for Medical professionals in order to attain the level required to be able to practice as a doctor in the country. Even though Sweden is her home from 2021, Bodhini has an earlier European connection as she studied to become a doctor in Latvia. After her studies there she returned to Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2009, the year in which the war had ended. A young Bodhini convinced her parents that she wanted to go and serve in the North. This region was the most highly affected region during the years of conflict. This region is also majoritarily Tamil and Bodhini being Sinhalese, she knew what she would experience could be very difficult for her. However, she really wanted to start serving in the area most highly affected and quickly did what was required to pass exams and register herself as a doctor in Srilanka. She applied to be sent to the North and waited.
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| taking the oath |
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| Latvia |
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| Presenting her writing work in Swedish |
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| presenting research in Sweden |
As Bodhini was born in the early eighties, her childhood and youth were spent hearing what was broadcasted on the Radio and the TV by the authorities. She, like many Sinhalese, was convinced that the Tamils were their arch rivals. That they could not be trusted. Throughout the war, the two major sections of the Srilankan society were at odds with each other. This is how Bodhini saw the situation too. That was until she went abroad and lived in Europe. There she became aware and open and started to think differently. It, of course, helped to be far from the actual situation as it helped her view everything from a distance. She started to want to see things with her own eyes and then believe rather than just accept the picture she was being shown. Studying medicine in Latvia gave her different exposure, taught her empathy and ethics. She started to want to take the middle path, a concept that is a strong part of Buddhism. This path leads to spiritual awakening by finding a balance between opposing viewpoints and experiences in life, such as suffering and pleasure or attachment and aversion.
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| speaker at different events |
Bodhini embarked on her new life and began her medical career when she was accepted to Vavuniya and Kilinochchi district in the heart of Vanni (or Wanni) region. She worked as an intern in Internal Medicine and Gynaecology and Obstetrics. She quickly started to see what was actually going on in the area. Most of her colleagues were Sinhalese and nearly all her patients were Tamil. She quickly started learning the language and used it to know them better. She says that the Tamil people she met soon couldn't say that she hadn't spoken Tamil most of her life. After her internship, Bodhini wanted to work in Psychiatry as she was in a post-war area. Most of her patients had some kind of trauma. She wanted to help these people. In the civil war, there were many children who had been recruited as child soldiers and now she and her colleagues met these children who were young men. She took on the opportunity presented to her for 9 months. She started being exposed to most of the stories that these men carried with them of the war and post war. She started seeing all the ways people learned to cope and survive.
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| vavuniya psychiatry unit |
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| at Kilinochchi |
As she was a government employee, Bodhini couldn’t really give her opinion publicly about what she was seeing and what truths she was discovering. One of her chiefs whom she discussed these with suggested that she document them by writing these different stories. So, Bodhini started an anonymous blog in which she portrayed through medical stories, poems and short stories what had occurred and was occurring in the region where she worked. Her goal was to narrate and educate society about things and never to create chaos. She never used names or places or glorified herself or her colleagues as heroes. The hospital where she worked was just called ‘The Other End’ and so was the blog itself. This name became her new identity. The real author behind the blog came to light after 4 years when Bodhini converted it into a book. Until then the public didn’t know who told them these stories. Bodhini knows that the authorities knew who was writing the blog, but ignored her as long as the stories and the patients stayed anonymous and she was only acting as an informer. The people who were reading these stories abroad and in other parts of SriLanka were following her and wanted to send help. They wanted to send things for the people who had severely lost everything. In 2013, some of the Sinhalese Buddhist temples in Australia got together and sent a whole container of aid and donation for the people at The Other End. It was posted to the Head of the area of the Army who then took charge to distribute these goods to the people. Bodhini smiles and proudly recollects how her simple act of writing helped to change the minds of people. Despite the long war, people’s minds can be changed to create peace in the country, she adds notwithstanding any political agenda. This writing brought people’s understanding to the fore rather than hatred and misinformation.
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This book on the Blog was translated to Tamil in 2023 and published in Chennai. The original ‘The Other End’ in Sinhalese was published in 2014.
She then wrote a poetry book named ‘manupura sakmana’. In 2023, her book containing 60 stories called ‘Sayanika Satahan nove’ about non clinical prescriptions and Health & Social issues was translated to Tamil and published by Vamsi Publishers, Chennai named as ‘Marittu wak Kurippugal allathavei’. This book focused on Mental Health of Women and children and her experiences with them were varied in the Pediatrics department she worked for.
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| Winning the award for the best educational blog post in 2017 |
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| Appreciation for my work in Colombo east base hospital |
In 2024, Bodhini wrote a novel called ‘Follow me!’. This is a story focusing on how the pharmaceutical mafia has destroyed society. The story gives us a glance at her youth as she grew up in an area in Colombo which was dominated by drug dealers in the slums that were very close to her residence. In the book, some university students and a doctor educate youngsters and try to get them out of the loopholes in a corrupted system. Bodhini remembers older people watching out for youngsters like her back then. She hopes that societies stay like that with a village-like attitude of caring for others, watching over youngsters, guiding and stepping in when needed despite all challenges that come our way. As a young girl, her neighbours, her parents and adults around her would watch out for her and her friends as they walked through streets that were used by prostitutes and drug dealers. Her generation in the buildings and housings near those slums saw teens getting addicted. According to Bodhini, the elders around tried their best to think of each child as their own and didn’t just look out for just their own children.
In 2019, she wrote a Health column in a local newspaper for two years.
Now in Sweden Bodhini sometimes gets requests to do interviews and talk shows. She says she can’t handle too much publicity. She says that the writer in her is lost when she gets pulled into the limelight. She says that once one becomes popular, it's very difficult to do what we want. She now focuses on her new life and hopes to start working as a doctor in Sweden soon. Bodhini recounts how a Srilankan lady she met recently in Sweden spoke to her about this doctor who is a famous author and compatriot and supposedly lives close to them. The lady was astounded when she figured out that this famous person was the person she was talking to. Simple and unassuming, Bodhini says that people who reach out to many, like writers, thinkers and media people should help the society by changing & challenging how people think. Writing for her, can help put feelings into words. It can help the writer find their true purpose too. She sees, hears & understands others as a writer. Her hope is that everyone gets to have better living conditions and thinks that unless we educate the younger generations, we can’t stop divisions. Bodhini points out that the Srilankan people have already suffered a lot through all these divisions. But she is hopeful for the future of her country. Having a Leftist President and a female Prime Minister since last year augurs well for her country.
Bodhini inspires me because all her writings are about actual social incidents and situations. Her focus remains the same over the years. When I ask her if she would envisage writing a lighter genre, she’s worried that her audience may not understand the switch, even though sometimes she probably would like to engage in imaginative & easy material. I remind her that life is long and she’s got a long way to go discovering her path. If she’s convinced of the subject, the audience will see the light, I think.
#bodhinisamaratunga #srilanka #medicaldoctor #blogger #thinker #servicetohumanity
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