I Am Batticaloa

The Correspondent

Prince Casinader

Former parliamentarian and retired principal of Methodist Central, Prince Casinader is also a correspondent. He talks about his love for the singing fish of Batticaloa and the conflict between Muslim and Tamil communities.

Interview language: English

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In clear print it is stated ‘Land of the Singing Fish’

It is said to be heard the clearest on a full moon night when there must be absolute quiet. And one has to go by boat, plunge an oar into the water, keep the other end to the ear and listen.

You know, it’s a world respected book called The Encyclopaedia Britannica. And in that book, should you refer to the section on ‘B’, they say Batticoloa. And under Batticoloa in clear print it is stated ‘Land of the Singing Fish’. I did go when friends come. I take them with a boatman. And they heard it and I’ve heard it.

And that is how I arranged with the Radio Ceylon team and took them out. We went by boat. I said, you have to fulfil the following condition there will be absolute silence. Best time to hear it will be about 10:00p.m. Third, there should be absolute silence. And it should be a full moon night.

But when we went out, those fellows were drunk. They were making all the noise in creation and the fish refused to sing. So I had to tell them to come on another date fulfilling all these conditions. They came and they recorded it. And this Radio Ceylon should be having it in its headquarters or office.

It sounded like a man playing on the keys of a piano. Bass notes, treble notes and various things. Many people who heard it said it sounded like a Jewish harp. Some people said it was akin to somebody with a wet finger rubbing on the rim of a wine glass. But they said there was no harmony in that. It was isolated sounds.

And this is a…this should be almost an international phenomena. You know, people who have heard it include Lord Soulbury, the first governor general of Sri Lanka. There are many foreigners. Lord Holden. And then there are others who have said… When Father Lang, J.W. lang — L-A-N-G — went and taped the sounds, Father Lang gave it to this fellow Jesuit priest to send the tape to his mother in New York to put the…to play the tape and put it down in musical notation.

And that natural history book which should be in the library, states very clearly…it prints the musical sounds, the notes. Some Japanese ichthyologist came and they did some research, but they couldn’t identify and say that this is the creature that makes the sound. But I know that 90% of the Batticoloa people have not cared to go and listen to this.

About this portrait

Photographer: Kannan Arunasalam

Interviewer : Kannan Arunasalam

Assistant: Sakthiyalingam Thangavel

Editor: Kannan Arunasalam

Archive recording : Science Navigators

Recorded: July 10, 2012

First published: August 6, 2023

Last edited: November 7, 2023

Comments

Kannan Arunasalam

July 10, 2012 at 03:00 pm

Having met Prince Casinader several times over the last few months, I've learned that there are two things that he doesn't forgive too easily - mispronouncing his name or being late for an appointment. I had arrived early for our first meeting, but had messed up by getting his name wrong and Mr Casinader chastised me for it. But behind his sometimes stern face - Mr Casinader's sense of discipline at Methodist Central College in Batticaloa where he served as principal is legendary among his students - was an overwhelming gentleness. An emotional man in his eighties, his eyes often welled up with tears as we talked about his wife who died shortly after the tsunami, heartbroken after seeing the damage to their Dutch Bar cottage, or when I handed him copies of photographs I had taken on my visits. These days, ill health has meant that Mr Casinader rarely leaves his ancestral home, now crumbling but charming and filled with memories on the walls and the tables. Forced to sell the property to pay for his heart surgery, a Batticaloan boy had bought it from him only to give his former teacher the right to live in the house until his death. Inside, Mr Casinader's cherished blue typewriter sat on his desk. It was something he said he couldn't live without, vital for his work as the Batticaloan correspondent for Lake House and as a protector of human rights. He typed only with the index fingers of each hand, a look of determination on his face, to finish a piece or writing for the newspaper or a report on a matter of social justice. But in recent years the topic that Mr Casinader is most enthusiastic about and the very first thing he spoke about as soon as the tape started rolling was a story that took you across to other side of town and into the depths of the Batticaloa lagoon. Batticaloa is known as the Land of the Singing Fish, but Mr Casinader felt that many Batticaloans had forgotten about their importance as a cultural icon. Lately it seemed Prince Casinader's mission through both his writings and in the speeches that he gave at school prize givings or other local events was to draw people's attention to this unique attraction, something he had become so enamored with. Over the years, Prince Casinader had guided many visitors to Batticaloa to capture the sounds, including journalists from Radio Ceylon and Japanese scientists keen to take a recording back with them. Having failed to get a recording from Radio Ceylon's archives, I had given up hope of ever hearing the unusual sounds - described by others as "the sweetest treble mingling with the lowest bass" and "the twanging in thirds of the G string on the violin". Then last week to my utter joy I discovered that an enterprising group of Batticaloans, former students of Prince Casinader, had recorded the sounds of the singing fish on a full moon night. With their permission, I have included the sound of the singing fish on Mr Casinader's I Am portrait, in what I hope will be a fitting tribute to a greatly admired educator, parliamentarian and correspondent.
(@iam_project) (@iam_project)

September 7, 2012 at 03:39 pm

Listen to a special recording of the singing fish of Batticaloa, made possible by the work of the Science Navigators http://t.co/G84d6EDW
Lanka Solidarity (@lankasol)

September 7, 2012 at 08:40 pm

RT @Apelankawe: The correspondent | i am http://t.co/M56914Un via @iam_project
(@groundviews) (@groundviews)

September 8, 2012 at 06:32 am

RT @Apelankawe: The correspondent | i am http://t.co/M56914Un via @iam_project
Kannan Arunasalam

December 25, 2015 at 08:34 am

Listen to Prince Casinader in an ode to Batticaloa's watery wonder in our radio documentary for BBC Radio 4, 'The Singing Fish of Batticaloa'. Produced by Cicely Fell and Kannan Arunasalam http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04bn086