Seventy years on planet earth

Thank you for all those who sent birthday wishes.  For those who don't know, I turned 70. A long life. It is a good time to turn back and look at what I did with the life that was given to me. I lived my life.

I was born at Pimbura Government Hospital, Agalawatta. My father was the head master(that is what they were called those days) and mother was a school teacher. Both of them were teaching at a small Sinhala mixed school at Gomarankadawala  in Trincomalee  district. I started schooling at the age of 3. Those days there was no age limit. If you can walk, then you can go to school.

My parents used to get transfers to different schools in the island, mostly in rural areas. When they get a transfer, whole family moves and settled down in the new village. This resulted me to going to 14 schools in Sri Lanka. Shortest at Kalutara Holy cross one and half days and longest 5 years at Matale science college.    

I entered the engineering faculty from Matale science college. Science college had only five classes. One SSC prep two GCE (O/L) and two GCE(A/L). Prep class had only two subjects. Mathematics and English for the whole year. Those days there was only one engineering faculty. I wanted to follow electrical engineering degree, but my father wanted me to do civil engineers. I guess it were the civil engineers he saw roaming around expensive jeeps and attracting respect from the community.

After a short spell of instructorship at the Peradeniya university,  joined Mahaweli Project. Under detections from French consultants I specialised in explosives.  Naturally for construction. I worked as the senior project engineer of Bowatenna project.

After five years at Mahaveli I got a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to goto USA to study for my PhD. I joined the University of Texas at Austin. I choose hydropower engineering. My research committee had professors from electrical, civil and mechanical engineering department. My research project was sponsored by the United states army corp of engineers. Professor Leo R Beard, the author of HEC series of programmes was my supervisor. The topic I selected made me to follow several modules in the Electrical Engineering Department

After completing the PhD I worked as a consultant for USAID mission, American Embassy , Colombo.

After two years at USAID joined Moratuwa University as a senior lecturer in the Department of Civil engineering.  While at MOU I worked as a consultant for various public and private sector organizations in Sri Lanka and overseas.

In 1990 I took sabbatical leave and went to Saudi Arabia. There I worked as a mathematical modeller for King Abdul Aziz Air Base(KAAB) in Al Khobar. This airbase housed the command centre of the Gulf War' I got exposed to most modern military hardware at that time. Within the KAAB there were three American bases.

In 1995 migrated to Australia. In Australia I worked for Spatial Info, a private company developing GIS software. Subsequently at RMIT university. Worked part time at Victoria University, Melbourne.

In 2009 retired from RMIT university and joined University of Ruhuna, Galle Sri Lanka. At Ruhuna, I taught at Civil, Electrical and the IS departments.   Introduction to Astronomy was a popular module where the students were exposed to Vedic Astrology and astronomy. I retired from Ruuna in 2016. While at Ruhuna, I participated in some Radio and Television programs. Some of them created lot of discussion.

In the final analysis my  education was paid by poor people in Sri Lanka and (higher education) by poor people in USA. I paid my debt to Sri Lankan people. But will never get an opportunity to pay  back the debt I owe to poor people in USA.

 For those who do not know I have taught at four engineering Faculties in Sri Lanka. Don't forget Oluvi!

So now I am retired. A big thank you to all helped me to achieve my goals and beyond.