Yakada Yakā: The Continuing Saga of Sonnaby Von Bloss and the Burgher RailwaymenYakada Yaka is the second part of the Burgher trilogy that began with The Jam Fruit Tree When the conquering British roll out the first railway steam-driven locomotive in Sri Lanka, it causes quite a stir. The smoke-spewing, banshee-wailing, fearsome black thing hisses like a thousand cobras... and the villagers declare that this Thing is an Iron Demon-a yakada yaka. The Burghers who drive these Iron Demons have a penchant for challenging authority and courting trouble, sometimes just to liven things up in the railway outposts... and so it is that Sonnaboy and Meerwald chase a large group of villagers all across Anuradhapura, mother-naked but not much bothered by it, Ben Godlieb conjures up a corpse in his cowcatcher, Dickie Byrd single-handedly demolishes a Pentecostal Mission and is hailed as the messiah of the Railway fraternity, and Basil Van der Smaght filches a human heart and feeds it to the Nawalapitiya railway staff ...and to cap it all, Sonnaboy takes French Leave to act in The Bridge on the River Kwai! '(Muller) tells his tale with a gentle humour often bordering on tenderness, but couched in the vigorous rugged localese. Almost immediately we find ourselves empathizing with Muller's roistering band that sins and prays with equal zest.' -Business Standard '... The Burghers ...believed in living life to the hilt. Every situation occasioned wild revels, and there was nothing that could not be solved through a brawl.' -India Today. |
From inside the book
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Page 45
... eyes lived on either side of her , and her jaw dropped when she first saw Meerwald . Beryl was glad . The girl seemed a quiet thing with her big eyes and long , plaited hair and she did speak English in a soft , musical manner . John ...
... eyes lived on either side of her , and her jaw dropped when she first saw Meerwald . Beryl was glad . The girl seemed a quiet thing with her big eyes and long , plaited hair and she did speak English in a soft , musical manner . John ...
Page 110
... eyes . ' And now here was that drunkard Jackson , who never seemed to be going to work , taking her fowls . At first she had stared dumbly . She hadn't encountered this sort of thing in Anuradhapura where they had lived previously . She ...
... eyes . ' And now here was that drunkard Jackson , who never seemed to be going to work , taking her fowls . At first she had stared dumbly . She hadn't encountered this sort of thing in Anuradhapura where they had lived previously . She ...
Page 119
... eyes peeled for a signal that skulks against the bank and is mostly invisible . The heavy foliage of giant creepers rearing up the bank obliterate it . The lantern in the signal box flares against the red or green glass at night to ...
... eyes peeled for a signal that skulks against the bank and is mostly invisible . The heavy foliage of giant creepers rearing up the bank obliterate it . The lantern in the signal box flares against the red or green glass at night to ...
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Common terms and phrases
accepted Anuradhapura arrack asked baby began Beryl better bloody Bloss Board boys brake bridge bring British brother brought bugger bungalow Burgher called Carloboy Ceylon Colombo coming decided door drink driver elephant engine everything eyes face fellow fireman Gampola garden gave girls give guard hands happened head heart hell husband John keep Kinno Kirby knew later light lived look Meerwald mind morning mother moved needed never night Peebles Railway raised road scream seemed shouting side signal Sinhalese sleepers Sonnaboy Sonnaboy's sort station stationmaster stop sure talk Tamil tell thing thought told took track train tree turn wait waves whistle whole wife woman