MY STORY

My father came from a traditional Sri Lankan family (Ratnayake), who married my mother of Portuguese origins (Perera) against tradition. I grew up in an upper middle class setting that valued education and celebrated modesty. My mother taught me positive thinking and hope, and I inherited a knack for mathematics from my father. He never told me how to be, but rather tried to set an example. Perhaps the only direct life coaching I got from him is what he wrote in my little book of autographs when I was in the first grade. He wrote "Bow down to justice , never to injustice" after several days of contemplation. My kindergarten education started at the age of three when I followed my sister to her Montessori because I didn't want to be bored at home. I had to entertain myself -there was no television, and our play time was limited. I read everything I found. I wrote letters to my aunts and grand parents before I was four. My first impromptu stand-up was at the age of four to win the first price, a LEGO set that I engineered various things with. We had friends, but the times and the duration with them was strictly regimented and pre-planned, at best a few hours during weekends. My entertainment mostly was reading and making things with what was available. When I was about 16, I could not find a fiction that I hadn't read in the city library and I had invented "Surround sound reproduction" from scratch that I never knew existed until I came to the US in the summer of 1996.

Wars and Civil Unrest

I lived through three wars during my childhood and adolescence until I left my country of origin to the United States more than twenty years ago. As a two and half year old, I remember sleeping on the living room floor huddled with my family in a house sunk in darkness to avoid bullets that might be flying through windows. In my second war experience, I escaped imminent death the first time at the age of eighteen when a group of about 20 armed Marxist rebels abruptly changed their mind. My family immediately sent me to Colombo, the capital for safety; an unceremonious first separation from the family. Colombo was not immune to the siege of terror, and I attracted too much attention to be a visitor of my uncle's house who was a politician in the opposition. I was lucky to escape death a second time by a Sri Lankan paramilitary unit in the city of Colombo less than a year after the first close call. In an almost miraculous intervention, an old gentleman who happened to walk by claimed me as his grand son and took me to safety.

Education to fight boredom at three .

Noted literary work:

Most beloved line:

Nostalgia

After 20 years at Queen's Hotel, Kandy, Sri Lanka

Michelle and I, Sept. 2015

Michelle Hamilton

I met Michelle Hamilton in flight. I was going to Dallas with my badminton rackets. Ms. Hamilton was travelling to Salt Lake City to see her baby sister. We talked politics for 45 minutes in South West flight 8241 from Roanoke to Detroit. During the years that followed we worked together in home renovation projects in each other's houses, traveled the world together, celebrated Christmas and Birthdays, and I married this rebel from a traditional Christian family in a little church in Virginia in 2012 on one fine Wednesday morning. We jovially call ourselves "No-baby boomers" supporting "No child left behind" policy.

We spotted a neglected church like structure with a history in outskirts of Charlotte on a leisurely Saturday afternoon drive. We were not looking to buy a house, but decided to buy it within minutes of first sight. The structure and its original characters were painstakingly restored after purchase and the grounds were restored. We moved in to the house on the 22nd of November 2015 and started developing the grounds that include what we call a nano-vineyard. I love to cook and share, and recently learnt the art of sushi making. There is nothing like a fine Saturday evening to share culinary products with friends and enjoy good conversation and wine.

My road ahead

At times of change and uncertainty, I wonder "What would it be like this time the next year?" Sometimes I find pieces of paper or an electronic note where these projections are written. I often find them amusing, because the reality had almost always been not exactly what I had thought it would be. This makes me think that planning in broader context and retaining the flexibility of details perhaps is the wisest thing to do. I aspire to be "Here and Now" to make use of my past efforts. Turning around at any point in time of my journey of life, I would like to notice that I have brought hope and cheer to my surroundings. I hope to release the two fictional work that I have been working on within the next 8 years followed by a text book within the next five years. In the next 25 years of my career I will make contributions to the Energy and Data science that beats a new useful path -If I find somebody has already done it, i will be happy to widen it.

I worked as a clerk by the day and spent a lot of time in a private business school taking classes during evenings. I experienced the effects of the third, separatist war, that engulfed the country from 1983 to 2009 until I left to America for higher education. It is with a surreal appreciation for human life, human rights, and justice that I left to the United States to attend graduate school.

Followed education to America

I acted on stage, produced plays, organized art shows, and wrote furiously during my college years, perhaps because I saw humans transcending barriers through art. I find art to be liberating. I graduated at the top of my class and had two probationary junior faculty positions to choose from. The choice was the one where I expected to make a difference. During the two years I taught, I always had a group of students hanging about me -all the time. I teach well, perhaps because there is are elements of performance and entertainment in it. I find joy in teaching because there is collective awakening in it. We produced supersonic shocks in laboratories, took apart machinery in class, and designed energy efficient buildings that were actually built. Then there came a juncture: A much sought after junior production manager position at Ceylon Tobacco Corporation, a junior managerial position at Quarts International LTD that consulted me in machine design and procurement, and an opportunity for graduate studies in the United States. I chose the last. Who welcomed me at the Lubbock international airport was Prof. Wijesuriya Dayawansa (Daya) who in time to come showed me a whole new level of caring, compassion, and modesty. This self-downplaying genius abstract mathematician also humbled me. He would know all hands in a game of bridge at the end of bidding. He remembered every hand played, and could guess the shuffled order of cards in the next deal. He had several feet of stacked awards at a dusty corner of his office, which he one day discarded. He taught me that we individuals have our own combinations of shortcomings and inadequacies. He showed by example that "true" compassion and equality towards others and self has "no reward" when done right. He taught me that a person who told a lie is a person who told a lie -not a liar. A person who stole something is a person who stole something -not a thief. A person who took a life of another is one who killed -Not a murderer. Daya is no longer with us. But he left a little of him in me.

Another life and Jazz in America

I wrote, I liked to paint, and had trained on the violin. These tendencies continued in a whole new world full of discovery. Twain was right and so was Pat Conroy. I fell in love with Jazz, found Broadway fascinating, cameras and paint supplies affordable, and all this in a culture that celebrated freedom. I photographed weddings to earn travel money, enjoyed stage, had art on display in 2001, and my lyrics made its way to a major album for the first time in 2004. People read what I wrote, and I still have a lot to say. Similar to my decision to leave to the United States for graduate studies at a time life had presented other opportunities, there came another in year 2003. At the end of 2003 my education was complete. The natural choice was for me to return to Sri Lanka to assume my faculty position. I sold my possessions, toured the US one last time and I was ready to head back to the East -a proposition that my family in Los Angeles vehemently opposed. Then things changed when another learning opportunity came along. Suddenly, I was in the mid-west, teaching and researching in radiobiology and carcinogenics. Then there came another juncture -a research student career in Wisconsin Madison with the medical school in sight or an engineering career in the East. I chose the latter.

A Lesson Never Forgotten

I was doing my post doctoral optional practical training in Washington DC. My boss was a nice man who worked hard. I had my first assignment, and he left town on a business trip. I produced my work with pride when he returned with caution and anxiety. Sure enough, it missed the mark. I didn't understand. I tried harder, but missed my mark again. He said "You are a sharp guy, but... something... something is not working here." I left at the end of my training having not understood what I did wrong. During the time that followed I talked to people, read, and contemplated. Then I came up with a reasons for my failure and a protocol to avoid it.

I should have clarified expectations, understood, visualized, and verified the end goal. I should have done this again, again, and again, from the beginning to the very end of the project.
I should have asked for help. I should have known the point in diminishing return.
I should have looked what a winning product looked like. I should have asked for and read what the products of the star performer looked like. I needed to know where the bar was to be able to clear it.
The degrees one has don't always matter. I have met brilliant performers with no degrees behind them. I should have found a mentor, and he didn't have to be a Nobel laureate.
I shouldn't have waited to surprise my boss by unveiling a "brilliant result" at the end. I should have checked along the way: "Is this what you want? Is the timing right?"
I should have lowered expectations, tried harder, and delivered-over.

I Pledged never-never-ever to make this mistake again. I approached my next engineering job with this conviction. I read exemplary work of senior engineers to understand where the bar was set. I kept asking my supervisor Chris Allison "Does this look right? If I deliver this and this, by this day, would that meet the expectations?" I kept updating him "This is where I am, these are the problems I face..." Chris kept reminding me "Remember to relax a bit... make sure you walk around and get to know other people..." I worked harder than the hardest I could. I planned my work and I knew what I needed to accomplish on a given day. I had my thoughts organized before I sat down in the morning to work and I wouldn't go home until I completed what I planned for that day. Chris said "I don't know how you do it, but this is fantastic." The following year, I was nominated for the award "Engineer of the year". I ran against celebrated engineers with remarkable achievements who brought in millions of dollars to the company. I did not get the award that year. In 2012 I was nominated again, six years later, and this time I won my Engineering Grammy.

"Habit to me means predispositions and biases of all nature: culture, religion, race, creed and class, and beliefs. This notion of was later posed as a question by another, Ajahn Brahm: "Can you bend your faith to fit the facts -Not the other way around?"

"Rabindranath Thagor's Geethanjali"

"Let not the clear stream of reason disappear into the dreary sand of habit"

Hometown Kandy - Sri Lanka

I find cooking and wine making (which necessitates tasting it) to be relaxing, and sharing with others to be extremely enjoyable