“I like to believe that I’m a very simple person, trying to make a tangible difference in a world that’s urgently in need of it,” said Hesara Punchihewa, author of Playing the Devil’s Hand which was recently published by the Jam Fruit Tree Publications. Professionally, he’s a 25- year- old medical student in his fifth year of his MBBS degree. Whilst being a writer of English fiction, Hesara also aspires to produce meaningful and eye-opening works of fiction that address the most pressing and dire issues affecting the present social sphere.
“My journey as a writer was sparked at a rather young age. As a little kid who was mesmerised and inspired by the likes of brilliant minds such as JK Rowling, Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott, it was my undying dream to one day bring my own novel out into the world,” he said. Hesara’s first attempt where he completed a manuscript was at the age of 12.
Since then he has had several failed attempts at getting his first novel published. “I was never much of a technologically advanced person – I suppose I’m still not – and hence, I found myself handwriting these manuscripts on single-ruled exercise books,” said Hesara. This process, of course, took so much more time than typing the manuscript with the relevant software. With time, after several attempts, his first novel ‘A LIE OF A LIFE’ was published in 2020, at the age of 21. This was his first real significant win, in terms of his career as an author.
Personal experience
Hesara believes his writing has definitely taken a turn since his first publication. With a lot of material from his own personal experience now being incorporated into his work, it has transcended on its own. “After all, I do believe that every character and every story, created by a writer is in fact put together with bits and pieces of the writer himself,” he said.
The inspiration for Playing the Devil’s Hand never came from one clear-cut source of inspiration, or from one particular incident or person. The core purpose of this creation was to address a collection of stigmatised notions and social gray-spots that had been crying out to be addressed for a long time now. This novel is an attempt at bringing to light a handful of less-spoken social and psychological issues that revolve around mental disease, intercultural interactions, Sri Lankan culture and the tourism culture in Sri Lanka.
Playing The Devil’s Hand mainly focuses on the significance of mental health, the silent struggle against mental disease and the utterly crucial brawl against social stigmatisation of mental disease.
Whilst these vital aspects remain the cornerstone of this work of fiction, the book addresses pressing current issues in the country such as the Easter Sunday Attack and its residual aftermath on the Lankan people. It bares evidence to conversations that people might sometimes not like to have – topics that might be deemed taboo for some.
The book also takes the reader on an entertaining deep dive into Sri Lankan culture from a foreigner’s perspective, while also taking the reader on a critical, satirical journey through both the good and bad aspects of the controversial, customary ways of the Lankan people.
Balanced writing and medical career
The author at no point of time says that writing the book ever came in a uniform flow. The process, at times was smooth and at other times it was sporadic and was constantly a testing time, he said. “I believe the biggest challenge for me to write is that it would allow me to balance my writing with my medical career, which is also demanding,” he said. “But as strenuous as it was, I believe I definitely enjoyed it,” Hesara said.
It was overwhelming at times for Hesara but he came up with a technique to maintain consistency in his work. Hesara has allocated a specific window of time each day, where he just sits in his writing corner. However, he admits that it doesn’t always work. In fact, while writing the first bits of the story, he said it rarely works. But the trick is to not get up until the allocated time has closed. There are days where he would just sit there, having nothing on his mind and nothing on his manuscript. “But I still don’t get up. And I’ve learned to practice this every day until the book that I’m working on is complete,” he said.
The main challenge for Hesara as mentioned before was definitely finding the right balance between his writing and medical career. Allocating the right amount of time for both was a challenge. Creating that sustainable symbiotic relationship between the two was certainly the toughest task for him.
Besides that, it was also quite challenging when he first started English fiction writing. When he started his first book, Hesara was around 17 years and for him to complete and get an English novel published in Sri Lanka was a far-fetched dream at that time. “Because for me personally, I never had anyone to really look up to as I began my foray into English writing. At the time, I personally never knew anyone who had done it before. It was much later, during my second publication, that I came across my wonderfully supportive publishing house – The Jam Fruit Tree Publications led by the brilliant Jeremy Muller,” he said.
“I would say that when I started off, I was pretty much in the dark,” Hesara said. So much so, that during his first novel many years ago he had no idea how the process of writing a book even works. “Being the 16-year old kid I was, I started off by handwriting the entire novel on three full notebooks. It was much later that I got accustomed to using computers and other devices to write”, he said.
“The most memorable moments were during the times when I would construct my characters while constantly going to my closest people for opinions,” Here, he mentions Anna Viktharovna, Nethma Wijayasiri and Dinangi De Silva who have been his constant pillars of support to get this book off the ground. Sharing, analysing, constructing and creating these wonderful characters are the most memorable moments of the book.
Another unforgettable memory was the final two nights of completing the manuscript. “I was on a strict deadline, since I was going to be in Sri Lanka for a limited time in the coming months and had to get the book ready to be launched by then. With this weighing heavily on my mind, it happened that my Neurology final examination was the next day”. That entire week Hesara had been writing while reading Neurology notes in fits and starts.
It was on the night before his final Neurology examination that he had to complete the manuscript and instead of preparing for one of the toughest examinations the next day, he opted to complete the novel and submit the manuscript. “My friends were with me throughout the night. I somehow ended up finishing the manuscript on time for my editor and also passing the Neurology final examination the next morning,” he recalled.
“I hope my story will help anyone who has a loved one, or a close member going through any form of mental tussle that they cannot put into words. Hopefully to understand them a bit better,” the author said. He hopes this story helps other people to see these silently suffering people in a different way and pushes the fight of shattering the chronic social stigmatisation of mental disease, at least by a small step.
Hesara said that mental disease is invisible. It has no colour, no smell and no texture. This allows it to easily seep into our day-to-day lives. It is, perhaps, a disease of camouflage. It’s up to us to make sure that the people we love do not have to suffer while sitting, smiling and living right next to us.
All in all, Hesara hopes that his story has left something out there, for someone to make their lives or the life of a loved one a little bit better.
