The first thing that strikes you when you see the book ‘Rage/Love’ on the shelf is the attention-grabbing cover; the couple in a warm and loving embrace yet with raging flames consuming their minds… an image that leaves a lot to the imagination and interpretation.
Flipping through the pages you understand just what the author means by a “micro tale”; 112 stories packed within 158 pages – stories that encompass horror, mystery, rage, love, hate, infidelity and magical surrealism.
Let’s have a look at a sampling of Rohitha’s writing under the horror genre in his micro tale ‘Home’:
“Once we got home, Dad said that we could choose any room we liked. So I beat Laura to the room at the corner of the north wing. We are decent kids, which is why we shook hands over it and moved towards the kitchen.
Imagine my surprise when the Hitachi six-door fridge had cans upon cans of ice-cold ‘Dr Pepper’. I helped myself to one and walked to the living room with Laura in tow.
‘Dad, I don’t want to move again; I like this house,’ I whined. Laura’s mouth was plastered with Butter Fingers, and she gurgled: Are we going to do to them what we did to the last family?
That’s when we all looked at the terrified family of five, bound and gagged in front of us, and Mum started handing over the tools. I had to pout. I always get the damn screwdriver. But that’s okay; I’ve got the best room in the house, and I had to smile at that.”
Like the best of the horror genre, the above starts off as an innocent tale, the setting of the scene, the commonplace emersed in happiness, the triumphant cheerfulness of a child that gets his way… and then the twist. Happiness comes at a price; luxury is not without cost. And like the best of the genre, the horrific act needs not to be stated, and the triumphant child pouts, not against the act of murder, but in the tool he is given to do so.
Rohitha has a knack for finding the mysterious in the mundane, for looking past the finely crafted façade of society and scraping at the scars beneath. Therein he finds rage and hate, but he also finds love and empathy for mankind. This is probably because Rohitha is an empath, finely tuned into the deeper emotional state of his surroundings and the people within them. Most of Rohitha’s stories are based on human emotions, but carry the veil of a tale to make it entertaining.
Interestingly, the entire book was written on an iPhone 7 and a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite, with some of his works written on his extended walks around Independence Square.
Rohitha Perera grew up in Colombo and schooled at the Colombo International School. He is a writer with over experience of over twenty years in the corporate field working at some of Sri Lanka’s most well-known companies. With experience in the domains of lifestyle journalism, copywriting, PR, corporate communications, digital media and SEO, he is a full-time writer.
“Publishing a book has been my dream since I was 18,” says Rohitha, “I think I always gravitated towards horror since I’m an 80s child when life was saturated with the LTTE and the JVP. Stories were a way to escape reality.”
“In my stories I have control,” explains Rohitha, “The things in my life were controlling me, but in my stories,I had the power and control. In my stories, I had the power to create my own narrative and was able to shift perceptions so that it benefitted me.”
When asked if the author had any stories in his collection that held any particular meaning, Rohitha spoke about ‘The Narcissistic and Empath’.
“It started with the love bombing. He saw me in ways I never saw myself. He introduced me to adjectives that I liked. He did the usual tricks — the hoovering, the gaslighting, and the use of flying monkeys. But I feel sorry for him. He needs a new supply. As I kiss his lips fervently, I promise him: “Relax. I’m working on it.” This is why I smile in the dark. So no one can see. No one can see how much I enjoy his suffering. But he knows as much as I do that no one will put up with his tantrums. I know the tricks people play and the things that they say. He always used to drive fast. It’s always as if he was running away from something. I think it is from me.”
“I’ve been a victim of narcissists; people with NPD, which is Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Empaths can be fodder for such people, and yet empaths can rise up against such abuse,” declares Rohitha.
His debut collection of short stories – or microtales – is a must-read, and the brilliant cover illustration by artist Dillai Joseph perfectly enraptures the spirit of the writing.
Written largely during the Covid-19 pandemic, the book, like all stories, is a way to escape the horrors of life.