Reviews
Rohan de Soysa
Slow Cooked Thoughts
Rohan de Soysa reflects upon a lifetime of experience in a collection of talks, essays, and articles published under the title Slow-Cooked Thoughts: Articles, Talks, Essays, One Old Poem, and Two Tales. Originally intended as a letter across generations, this thought provoking book conveys respect for life and the natural world, and a firm commitment to conserve our environment through a shared reverence for natural processes.
This theme recurs throughout a lifetime of written articles and public presentations by de Soysa that express a profound friendship with life on earth in all of its forms. Many articles cover the current state of the environment and effective approaches to conservation practiced in different countries around the globe. He acknowledges the detrimental effects of colonization, extraction, and other forms of environmental exploitation by emphasizing the need to pass along a reverence for the natural world to all future generations.
Richly illustrated with 68 original photographs, Slow Cooked Thoughts also reflects de Soysa’s talents as a photographer and as an art conservator. Rohan’s former classmates will be delighted to read the chronicle in one article within Slow-Cooked Thoughts of his road trip by automobile from London to Colombo, crossing a very large number geographic, national, and cultural boundaries along the way.
Rohan de Soysa, current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sapumal Foundation, oversees the running of a charming old house which is home to an extensive collection of modern art. The house was originally the home of master portrait artist Harry Pieris who was the Secretary of the ’43 Group, the first modern art movement in Sri Lanka. Harry had studied art in London and Paris, where he became a close friend of Matisse. A core group of ten artists, headed by photographer Lionel Wendt, founded the Group in 1943. Examples of work by each of them are among the 300 or so works on display in the gallery. Pieris was the founder chairman of the Sapumal Foundation and bequeathed the house and its art collection to the foundation when he passed on in 1988.
Rohan de Soysa also established the first community-managed conservation project in Sri Lanka, a project that he has continued for nearly four decades, through the acquisition of a tract of secondary jungle that has recently been declared a national sanctuary.
In a sequel to his collection of thought-provoking articles, de Soysa continues a conversation with his grandchildren with Tao-Tossed Thoughts. Richly illustrated with original photographs of Sri Lanka and beyond, Rohan explores fundamental concepts of creation, life, and the balance of nature as expressed in a number of philosophical movements.
Through the voices of a tree and its three saplings, this new tale unfolds around the origins of the universe and the inherent intelligence expressed by a multitude of life forms, within the environments in which they have developed on Earth. During the course of this exploration of our environment, we contemplate the progression of life and the duality of its energy defined by opposite, yet complementary forces. We discover how the duality of these complementary forces were given meaning by ancient Chinese philosophers and Indian sages, and consider how the inherent spirituality represented by these complementary energies has coalesced over the aeons of time.
Tao-Tossed Thoughts, emphasizes the adoption of universal ideas to help make this planet a better place for generations to come. Spiritual and material evolution are portrayed as developing in concert with one another through each succeeding incarnation. As each new incarnation forms a bridge for evolutionary strategies to perpetuate and develop further, these strategies have in turn become the basis for spiritual development, development that finds common ground in disparate human philosophies ranging from the oral history of aboriginal tribes in Australia to the writings of the Gautama Buddha.
This spiral of energy and life follows us through our natural existence, through our material creations and arts, and through the environment on which we depend. Tao-Tossed Thoughts may be written for our descendents, yet it succeeds in reawakening our senses towards the world around.
Tao – TOSSED Thoughts
Articles, Speculations, A Talks and Photo Essays,
A book by Rohan de Soysa.
…a few tossed thoughts by Prasad Abu Bakr.
Rohan de Soysa, the ‘serial thinker’ strikes again with his second book, Tao-Tossed Thoughts, which is a sequel to his first book ‘Slow- Cooked Thoughts’ that was embraced by many readers, especially by the ones who seriously want our world to go back in time so that we can take in a breath of fresh air once again as we did in those good old days without giving it a second thought. This book too I would give it that same stamp as ‘a must read’ by all who specially read through its predecessor and who had the privilege of living through that glorious past which had quietly slipped out of our grasp and landed us in a series of devastating natural disasters plus man made life threatening health issues which have created a world with many uncertainties for the present generation.
We shall not cease from exploration – And the end of all our exploring – Will be to arrive where we started – And know the place for the first time states Jill Macdonald quoting T. S Elliot from ‘Little Gidding’ and aptly ends her foreword by capping it all with yet again Elliot’s When the last of Earth left to discover – Is that which was the beginning. Isn’t it so true that today our green environment is fast been replaced by blocks of concrete built in the name of development and how we humans travel miles away elsewhere, away from those very cities we built, searching for a breath of fresh air from far, far away?
‘I am not an academic or a scholar, just someone interested in exploring basic truths and explaining them in an uncomplicated way, guided by what I see, read and hear, filtered by my intuition’ states the author in his preface, further explaining how he has tried to “connect the dots” of what he found, and as mentioned in Slow Cooked Thoughts “I am more interested in general and universal ideas than in individual achievements, important though they be”
Rohn de Soysa is not merely a writer seated at his desk writing thought arresting books to fit in with these times when devastating events of a colossal magnitude are holding back or redirecting this planets evolution in more than one way. He has proven over the years that he cares for the subject he is writing about, trying his best to drive through an important message to society at large. As the current chairman of the Sapumal Foundation show casing works especially of the `43 Group, the first modern art movement in Sri Lanka, he has advanced the cause of art by giving presentations, talks and holding exhibitions. He bought a secondary scrub jungle in 1985 and inspired villagers in the area to be environmentally aware and manage it since 1995. It is the first community managed conservation project in Sri Lanka, declared a sanctuary in 2017 by government gazette.
Rohan de Soysa has operated, and is presently the chairman of a charitable trust, which has helped a large number of causes and individuals in need. So it is evident that he has walked more mileage than his talk and reading through his two books one doesn’t have to read in between the lines to know or understand what he means and his passion for the causes he is championing – to make this planet a better place for all beings globally and for generations to come. These books are beckoning for all to sit up and take notice, before the world falls apart and before it is too late when we try to put back the pieces together again.
Both Tao Tossed Thoughts and Slow Cooked Thoughts are currently available online and for sale at the Sapumal Foundation, 32/4, Barnes Place, Colombo 7. www.rohandesoysa.com
https://www.theusreview.com/reviews/Slow-Cooked-Thoughts-by-Rohan-de-Soysa.html#.XvRCbpkpDcs
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https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/slow-cooked-thoughts
I enjoyed reading your book.
My feedback as follow :
Slow-Cooked Thoughts by Rohan de Soysa is a reflective blend of history, art and nature seasoned thoroughly with experiences and evocative visuals. It is a reminder that powerful things in nature and man made begin as small ripples that we often do not take account of until it is too late; and that we are all more connected than we realise.
Mrs Manchula Sri Skandarajah of London is on Slow-Cooked Thoughts.