Summa Navaratnam
Longevity alone can make legends for people are made of stories and the years invariably produce voluminous content. Making it to 98 is itself legendary. People who live that long are libraries, for their lives are made of innumerable stories and they are veritable repositories of history.
Summa Navaratnam turned 98 recently. Survived only by a younger brother with most if not all contemporaries long gone into the mysterious hereafter, his friends and admirers are probably a generation or more younger to him. Unlike most others who lived as long as he has and touched a century and gone beyond, Summa is known. His stories are known. Well, in the very least his exploits as a sportsman are known and not only to those who were involved in athletics and rugby one way or another or the history buffs in his alma mater, Royal College.
He filled the sports pages of newspapers as a schoolboy and long after leaving school as well. From time to time, newspapers ran stories about him. He was recognized as an exceptional figure in the various spheres he inhabited. A national icon, most certainly.
I am aware that senior journalist Namini Wijedasa has almost completed a biography of this legend and that Hemantha ‘Jawa’ Jayawardena, the diminutive hooker of Royal’s rugby teams of the late seventies and early eighties, who adores Summa and associates him closely is planning to get it published. That’s as good a capture as any that can be drawn from a life lived to the fullest.
What prompted me to mention Summa is a photograph that Jawa posted. It is of a lone man in a wheelchair facing a pavilion that carries his name. It reminded me of a line from ‘The General in his Labyrinth’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The main protagonist, based on General Simon Jose Antonio de la Santisima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios or, simply, Simon Bolivar, who between 1811 and 1824 led revolutionary armies of South America to evict Spaniards from their former colonies, sails down the Magdalena River planning to reach Europe, sees a vessel named ‘The Liberator’ moving in the opposite direction and murmurs, ‘To think that I am that man!’
I don’t know what kind of thoughts passed through Summa’s mind when he saw the legend ‘Inspiration Unleashed’ under the name of the pavilion, ‘Summa Navaratnam Stand.’ Most people are honoured after they’ve passed on. Summa is an exception. He has lived long enough and has been showered with so many accolades over the years that while it may have made him feel good it is unlikely that he went overboard with joy. He’s lived a humble life and has been extremely generous in sharing his wisdom with young rugby players whenever called to do so. ‘Anything for Royal,’ has probably been like a motto.
Enough of Summa. My good friend Namini will tell you all about his trials and tribulations, regrets and how he exorcised them, the triumphs, the adoration and the years of quiet reflection. Soon, I hope.
Let’s think about inspiration and unleashing it. Does anyone plan to inspire? Do people unleash inspiration? There are countless moments of heroism and countless heroes. In sports, in times of war and resistance, in the long years of oppression and also everyday acts where the must-be-done is done regardless of costs. I pick, without any disrespect to heroes and their heroism, Ranathunga Karunananda.
This hero of the Tokyo Olympics finished last and long after several competitors had lapped him in the 10,000 m race. He was given a standing ovation. The winner of the race, Billy Mills of the United States would later applaud ‘Karu’ and state that he deserves a gold medal for upholding the Olympic Spirit. His story is in Japanese textbooks, ‘Uniform Number 67’ and ‘Bottom Ranked Hero.’
‘Karu’ never set out to be a legend. He just wanted his little girl to one day know that he completed a race. That’s it as far as ‘inspiration’ goes. But he has inspired countless young people. As has Summa.
Those who inspire never set out to do so. They just do the best they can. In the case of sports, on and off the field. They live exceptional lives, whether brief (Karu died under tragic circumstances at the age of 38) or long, like Summa’s. They may or may not receive hosannas. They may or may not be written about. Those moments have a way of being missed and are often only recollected with awe much later. This is not how it was with Summa but it was certainly how it was with Karu.
They live and in living they inspire. That is how inspiration is set free and having been unleashed it becomes public property. Anyone can access, anyone can incorporate it into their attitudes and approaches to matters at hand, sporting or otherwise.
Jawa too. What he saw that day inspired the capture and the capture in turn inspires. Summa probably has no clue about how and who his life has touched and empowered. Karu neither. Jawa, if he reads this, would know for sure that he too has unleashed inspiration. Again, without intending to do so!
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