When Guns Fall Silent by Punyakante Wijenaike

     When Guns Fall Silent by Punyakante Wijenaike relates the horrors of war and human suffering it brings. The first novella is about Suranga, a veteran, who has lost a leg in the war. He wonders if it were a punishment for the lives he had to take as a soldier (26). Traumatized by his experiences, Suranga asks, “How and when did this all start, this turning of human beings into tigers and lions mauling each other; hunting each other on both sides had forsaken the progress of civilization” (42). Still, he is proud of his part in ending the war:

Traveling back in the bus I felt pride that I was riding the A9 highway which the war had helped to clear for travel … To a war weary soldier it becomes a matter of great pride and solace that there was no fear of bombs exploding on our highway, no more baicades, no more fear. (39)

Suranga wants reconciliation with his Tamil neighbours and tells his mother, “The darkness of the past must not have a place in today’s world” (43).

     Suraj, an LTTE child soldier, finds himself at an IDP camp longing for his family and his former dream of becoming a cricketer. When he finally finds his family he realizes that they too have been savaged by the war: their house was destroyed, his mother had become mentally disturbed, his father was old beyond his age, and Nadiya, his sister had become pregnant to avoid conscription. However, Suraja’s father advises Suraj to become the engineer of their future so that they could “build a new world together” (130).