Transcript for the Piece Audio version of RN Documentary: Not Enough Tears
You're tuned to Radio Netherlands. Vox Humana presents Not Enough Tears produced and presented by Dheera Sujan
MUSIC CD prive: Invites Tr 9 Les Bles en feu Comp and performed by Rene Aubry. MPO 3070972 3?20
This is a story that is wrapped in many other stories ? stories about sisters, mothers and daughters, about armed revolutionaries and single dads, about the weight of memory and of grief and about a mother?s love that stretches beyond death.
Nar ? don?t tell people ?31
Usually when people ask ? ..related to her
Day ? allegiance ?21
At the very beginning.. ..days in the country
Narm ? sl tenderness 1
When they find out.. memory of her
Nirm ? teaser joy ?25
She was very joyeous.. shot dead
MUSIC + GUNSHOT
Nar ? SL tenderness ?46
My mother was a....talk about her publicly
INTERWEAVE LETTER AND SCRIPT
Some times tears flow uncontrollably and I cannot work anymore.
One day some gun will silence me. And it will not be held by an outsider, but by a son born in the womb of this very society ? from a woman with whom my history is shared.
MUSIC ENDS
Rajani Thiranagama ? a name instantly recognizable in Sri Lanka.
She lived in Jaffna. She was a doctor, an activist and a university teacher.
On 21st September 1989, Rajani Thiranagama was killed. She was 35 years old.
She left behind her parents, 3 sisters, a husband and two small daughters.
Nar ? Rajani physical ?57
In the mornings?that?s what she did
Day ? rajani ?6
No one will be able to forget her kindness..human qualities
Nirm ? Rajani ?35
She was a workaholic.. ??.its very sad - pause
Rajani Thiranagama the woman, the sister, the wife, the mother was unique. Her family?s grief a well that will never be filled. But such loss is not unique in Sri Lanka. Jaffna is the epicenter of one of the most vicious conflicts of post colonial times. For decades, it has witnessed an ethnic fratricide that has claimed 65,000 lives, and displaced nearly a million people from their homes.
This is a story of just one of the thousands of fractured families from the island that on a map looks like a beauty mark on the ankle of the Indian subcontinent.
MUSIC signes Tr 5 Aquarelle. Comp and Perf: Rene Aubry SACEM 3024002 2?00
Nirm ? hist bground 1?08
SL became independent.. ..began to support them
Nirmala Rajashingham ? Rajani?s sister.
Both women were politically active from a young age and in 1982 Nirmala was arrested and imprisoned for harbouring terrorists from the organization known as The Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam ? the LTTE.
Nirm ? tigers ?24
I used to go to her..closer to the Tigers
Day ? intro 2 ?41
In 1976 I met Rajani.. ..own plans
Dayapala Thirnagama. Rajani?s husband
Born to a poor Singhalese peasant family, he decided early to dedicate his life to left wing political activism by means of armed revolution and paid for that decision with a 5 year stint in prison where he was heavily tortured.
Rajani and Dayapala married and had two daughters, Narmada and Sharika
Day ? kids ?29
We both felt responsible for our children ..on the children
Nar ? hands on mother 1?05
She was a v hands on mum..thought about that
Narmada Thiranagama. Rajani?s daughter
Her father had been forced to go underground when the children were small so the girls lived in Jaffna with their mother and a close family of grandparents and aunts who are all actively involved in the arts - writing, music and theatre. At the time of her mother?s murder, she was 11 years old. Her sister was 9.
Nar ? jaffna home ?33
It?s a tragedy that the war.. it has died
Day ? relationship ?29
When I started drifting away..carried on life after that
Nirm - disillusionment 1?36
they managed to spring me out of jail?. ..left Tigers as well
Day ? armed struggle ?43
Rajani also thought human life....was wrong
In 1987 the government carpet bombed the Tamil strongholds in the north and east of the country and invited the intervention of the Indian Peace Keeping forces The IPKF.
Terrible human rights abuses were carried out by all sides ? the government, the IPKF, and the LTTE. Rajani, who had already returned to Jaffna with her children refusing several opportunities to leave the country wrote letters to her sister and to friends abroad
SFX ? war +
CD ?SIGNES? tr 5 Aquarelle. Comp and Perf: Rene Aubry SACEM 3024002 2?00
Layer the letter readings
Our university is rubble? I am living in the darkest days of my nation
There was a bloody massacre in the hospital. Two doctors known to me died. The Tigers only brought hell on us ? they went into the hospital and started to fight the Indian Army. There are dead bodies lying on our roadside ? men, women ? left to the elements and the scavengers of nature. Some women?s bodies, bloated, beaten, shot, raped.
Shells whizzing past you, over your head, your house ? as you sit under the table, sometimes day and night. When you barricades your windows against crossfire, shots, sit immobile crowded with your children under the table.
Listening to the tramp of the boots, so close. Not moving, not making a sound ? for a shadow or a sound can kill the whole household.
ID
You?re listening to the story of Rajani Thiranagama on Radio Netherlands?s Vox Humana (or maybe after next clip of Narmada)
Nar ? politics 1?09
I think I have a larger view of the pol process..imp choices of all
Rajani co authored a book documenting the human rights abuses being carried out on the people in Sri Lanka?s war zone. It was called The Broken Palmyra.
Day ? book ?14
She had shown me the script.. like me
1.6.87 (here or move??)
Those who can afford it are fleeing Jaffna. I want to stay with the people when they are in greatest trouble ? when they are going to be rendered down trodden slaves, worth only to be killed. I do not know whether I am doing the right thing by Narmi and Shari ? only that there are thousands like them in Jaffna.
Nir ? book ?35
She was with me 2 wks?murdered by the LTTE
MUSIC CD ? ?Signes? Tr 9 Trou Noir Comp and Perf by Rene Aubry SACEM 3024002 3?00 + SFX - shots
Nar ? day murder 4?03
I remember a great deal about the day.. of anyone in the family
This next sequence is split and cut together
Nar ? wanted to go
I asked father? go past that
Day ? single dad 1?10
After R died.. forward what we left over
Nar ? dad alive ?15
Nar ? single dad 1?29
My memories of my father.. what we left over
Ends with Dayapala
Nar ? mother destination ?42
I will never know the person I?d be?destination
Nirm ? cowards (earlier?) 1?28
So if you had a chance to meet her killer? ..left the community bereft
A community bereft. A sister, husband, daughter bereft.
Nar ? her loss ?23
I feel the loss so much .. grows stronger
MUSIC ? Tr 5 SIGNES (details as above) 1?00
One human being cannot be replaced.
The death of one human being changes forever the lives of those left behind
Day ? end teaser ?34
Life isn?t a straight line .. their mother?s work
Nar ? gd enough mum 1?22
Someone told me.. faith in me
MUSIC up
Nar ? end teaser ?31 (poss out)
She?d left? the life the way she lived her life
MUSIC FADE
Not enough tears, the story of Rajani Thiranagama was produced and presented by Dheera Sujan. Speakers were Nirmala Rajasingham, Dayapala Thiranagama and Narmada Thiranagama. This programme was a Vox Humana presentation for Radio Netherlands.
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