From childhood, I have believed that there is nothing I cannot do. I was always inventing and experimenting—not content simply to follow the path everyone else did. As a boy at Ananda College, I wasn’t the highest performer in most subjects. I didn’t enjoy sitting still and memorising things. My mind wanted to ask why, how, what if. Then, when science entered the curriculum (around Grades 6–7), everything changed. Suddenly the world made sense: the logic, the investigation, the creation. I found that I could excel—not by rote learning—but by understanding and doing.

I built makeshift “drones” (attaching a small fan to a motor and cylinder) long before drones became common; I took on my tutor’s failed orchid-culture project and succeeded at age 18 by developing one acre of tissue-culture orchids on my father’s land in Mataramulle; I started that orchid business while still a teenager. This creative spirit carried me through my medical education and beyond.

Today, I serve as a Consultant Family Physician and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo in Sri Lanka’s premier medical training institution. I hold board-certification in Family Medicine and have been deeply involved in medical education and research for decades.