A Tribute To Carlo Fonseka
By Laksiri Fernando –March 22, 2016
Dr. Laksiri Fernando
I was delighted to know Professor Carlo Fonseka’s popular writings are now published in one volume under the title “Essays of a Lifetime” (Godage, 2016). I came to know it through Kumar David’s succinct and witty review in the ‘Sunday Island’ and ‘Colombo Telegraph.’ Although I have not seen the book yet, I believe I am familiar with many of the articles as they were published individually before. My purpose however is not exactly to review them but to reminisce my recollections and encounters with him for whatever they are worth.
Scientific Firewalker
It is true that Carlo didn’t walk on fire, except perhaps once or twice, but he had many volunteers to do so in refutation of the supernatural power behind ‘fire-walking.’ Many of us of the ‘generation of 1960s’ used to admire Carlo along with Dr Abraham T. Kovoor for their rationalist views on many matters, most popular being on religious superstitions. These were the influences, apart from my own ‘Mahappa,’ who became a Buddhist in 1955, that drew me away from the Church for good. Therefore, Carlo was one culprit for my deviations.
I vividly recollect the picture of a young man hanging on hooks with a microphone in hand flanked by Carlo and Kovoor. Carlo being young, handsome and charismatic looking at that time, caught our attention most. This must have been late 1960s or early ‘70s. They were proving there was nothing supernatural about ritualistic hanging from hooks or fire-walking in religious festivals, Hindu or quasi Buddhist.
Those days, I believe, he was not yet drawn to left politics or Sama Samaja Party. Otherwise I could have met him as a ‘comrade,’ yet on the opposite or ‘revolutionary’ side.
I first met Carlo ‘man to man’ a long time after, when he came for a public lecture on ‘the mind,’ at the University of Peradeniya, somewhere in late 1970s. It was held at the Science Faculty auditorium. He brought a person, Sarlis, if I remember correct, a school teacher, who had exceptional brain capacity, as a demonstration tool. His argument was that the ‘mind’ is nothing but a product or functioning of the brain.
Towards the end of his lecture, Carlo introduced Sarlis and showed that as soon as you give a date (month and year), he could reveal the day of the week, after a quick mental calculation. There were calendars available to verify. Sarlis was spot on. After several rounds of testing by the audience, Professor Maheswaran from Mathematics, who was my neighbour at Upper Hantana at that time gave the current date as the question. It was a Friday. But Sarlis was doing his mental calculation, and the audience started giggling. He gave a wrong answer and the audience was overwhelmed by the giggle. He failed again and again without even a probability luck.
Carlo quickly came to Sarlis’ rescue. Carlo also took the opportunity to deliver another discourse on the brain. Sometime thereafter, Carlo also came to our Faculty of Arts and delivered some useful lectures to the students on Science.
