About Me — Randima Thilakarathna. I was born in a small paradise called…
By: Randima Thilakarathna
Tags: My Story, About Me

Galle, Sri Lanka. Timo Gotz/Shutterstock

I was born in a small paradise called Sri Lanka, in a beautiful coastal city called Galle which is famous for the old dutch fort and beautiful beaches.

Let me start off with a small story. As a small girl, I always had wonderful memories of different cultural festivals we celebrated. Every year April 14th our family would celebrate Sinhala Hindu new year and this is one of the most happening days of my entire childhood.

On new year’s day, we perform all activities according to auspicious times, and exchanging money was one of the highlights of that day for me. Obviously, I had no money to give as I was just a kid. But I always had plans for every rupee and cent that I estimated that I’d receive on that day. Once I’ve received money from my parents, grandparents and other relatives I remember badgering my father to take me to the book store in Galle town.

But there was one problem. Most shops were closed on new year's day and the day after. But I’d not stop my nagging till my father would take me to the book store. I remember that the store was closed. I’d circle around a couple of times and come back home feeling distraught. This happened multiple times till I somehow managed to buy the books that I was eyeing.

This I think is how I fell in love with writing.

Reading different books by different authors, imagining how it would be there in that precise situation that the writer tried to explain, helped me travel far and wide even though I hadn’t set my foot outside Sri Lanka till my late twenties. The more I read, the more I fell in love with writing. I tried to reflect on what I’ve read in my own manner and improvise. The more I improvised, the more it enabled me to become better in writing. I would go on to win creative writing competitions at the national level multiple times.

Life was good, till I got caught in a rat race

During this part of my life, I fell out of love with both reading and writing. I was driven by the typical Sri Lanka career dream of becoming a doctor. so I started studying science, chemistry, and physics. Although I gave all that I had it always demanded more. I was spending so much time and effort on something, which at this point of life when I look back I think “what a waste”. I forgot about writing altogether.

And my love for writing was long lost….

I didn’t become a doctor. I didn’t become a writer also. Instead, I ended up studying management and Information Technology and became a Business Analyst working on information systems improving Supply Chains. I chose a career that was totally unexpected. My career choice was neither love at first sight or an arranged marriage. I’d say it’s something in between. I didn’t love it at first or didn’t hate it either. But as years passed it started growing on me (in a good way).

My job kept me and still keeps me excited every day with different problems to solve, different things to learn. But as I started exploring more into learning and improving career-wise, one thing that I noticed was very rarely people wrote about what they do and how they learn something (at least in my discipline). This lead me to try to combine writing with what I do, and what I learn. Then I moved to Singapore and the opportunities to learn and be a part of something interesting got even wider. So now I try to write about what I do.

I’m still on my path to rediscovering long lost love

In my spare time try to read as much as possible. Honestly, the habit of reading had totally disappeared from my life. But I’m still trying to get back in on that habit. I’m fortunate enough to meet lots of interesting people, explore different places outside of Sri Lanka. I try to hear what each person has to say and learn and grow as a person. I’m eternally grateful for all the opportunities that I’ve gotten along the way, every step which helped me reach where I am.

So yeah, this is me in 736 words.….