Primani Wijeyesekera has fifteen years of writing experience. She wrote for media, press releases, magazines and newspapers. But they were all quite different from writing a book. However, today she is the author of her debut book, Faith, in the Pit, published by The Jam Fruit Tree Publications. She considers writing this book itself as a leap of faith.
“My roots are in reading. I have loved to read ever since I was a kid,” said Primani. “Even when my own children are hesitant to read, I tell them that I have gone on literal adventures simply through reading books like The Secret Seven and The Famous Five.” Primani was the only child of the family and had no one to play with when she was younger. Therefore, the books and the stories she indulged in were always her companions. All of this contributed to building up a solid foundation for her in the field of writing.
The author explained how people, especially children, assume reading books to be a very boring hobby when it is the exact opposite of it. “In this day and age, children are much more attracted to the screen, and I personally believe that screens are a dangerous trajectory for children to start with, especially because hobbies such as reading ignite so much imagination and knowledge in children that benefits a lifetime,” she said. Primani explained how she doesn’t have much time to herself now for reading, but the foundation that reading laid in her when she was younger can never be shaken, because she can always bounce back to it. It’s a habit that will never leave her.
This book is a result of Priamani’s own experiences with hardships and how she survived those dark moments through hope and faith. “From early to mid 20s, my life changed completely. My health became bad, my marriage broke down, and I was struggling to have children, which was something I personally really wanted. During this time period of my life, I changed as a person,” recalled the author. Normally 20s are the best part of a person’s life, but it was not the case for Primani. But in retrospect, during this time period, her faith in God started to shift.
“From my late 20s until my late 30s were gruesome ten years for me, especially with my struggle to have children. I got married very young at twenty-two. Seeing everyone who got married after me, having children was difficult for me,” said the author. But her faith made something very negative into a very positive story. When she shares these stories with others, even verbally, she observes that it sparks much-needed inspiration in them, especially in women. Therefore, she wanted this book to work as a tool to encourage hope and trigger hope in the readers as well.
“This book is quite raw and candid and talks about things that people usually don’t want to talk about,” said the author. It’s all about her pit experiences, which is why she named it ‘Faith, in the Pit’. Primani noted how we keep hope in everything in life. “Even if you buy a product from the market, you keep faith in the manufacturing/expiration date. We keep faith in our employer that they will pay our salary every month. Faith is present in every aspect of our lives, even though we choose not to see it. But when it comes to faith in God, people struggle with it,” she explained.
After all the turbulence in life that she went through, Primani matured a lot as a person. During some of the darkest moments in her life, she sometimes recalled having ‘crazy faith’ believing that God would definitely get her out of those difficult situations. She sometimes had no other option but to have this faith. But the reward that came thereafter was all worth it as Primani recalls the birth of her first child, which was once an impossibility, as one of the most memorable moments in her life. “Writing this book also validates all the pain that I went through,” she said.
For Primani, sitting and writing her book was a rebellious task with young children. But strangely, she recalls that her ideas were flowing easily without any struggle. “This is how I knew it didn’t exactly come from me, but from something more divine. And even though I was busy, I made sure to take at least around fifteen minutes out of my day to take out my laptop and write,” mentioned the author.
Primani started writing Faith, in the Pit in 2019 and was done with it by the end of that year. Within six to seven months, she was able to finish it. But Primani always had a strong urge, where she felt like God was telling her that this book should be out in 2024. However, when she was planning to publish it in 2020, the pandemic hit, and it became an impossibility. It was during this time that Primani fell back into a deep season of depression again. “I thought this book would never be able to see the light of day as well. However, in 2024, after nearly five years, I felt like there was an integral chapter that was missing in this book. It was then only that I decided to include all the experiences I went through during the pandemic, and it became the missing chapter that my book needed,” she said. “This chapter ended up becoming the absolute gist of my book and a pivotal part of it.”
It was this dark season of the author’s life that inspired this vital chapter of her book. Primani believes that she went through all of those dark moments for a purpose. The first 80% of the book flowed very easily for her. But completing the rest of it was a huge challenge. She believes that even God permitted her to keep that on the back burner until the right moment came. Because the author thoroughly believes that without that extra chapter she added later, the impact of the book would have become significantly less. Primani explains that the experiences she gained from writing this book are like two sides of the same coin. Challenges that she went through later became a testament.
“We live in a society where people are in a lot of desolation,” said the author. “I want this book, Faith, in the Pit to trigger faith and hope in a generation that’s lacking it. Hope actually comes before faith. It’s a tiny ripple effect.”
Words by Gayanga Dissanayake