people Tell me about your first experiences of Sri Lanka Born in Essex, first went to Sri Lanka when I was seven. Hated it, stayed on my uncle’s plantation for a while, we moved around a bit, in Seyambalape. No electricity at that time, twenty-five years ago, just a generator, cockroaches, trips to the toilet at the three o’clock in the morning with my Mum shining a torch. All these smells that I found horrible…. I wanted hamburgers, I wanted cherry-ade, I wanted Mr Kipling’s cakes – I didn’t want guavas and mangoes. Then this realisation came that all these people looked like me – fantastic. I had never seen this before, because I grew up in a mainly white area in Essex. Bless my mom and dad, they made sure I went to Sri Lanka every three years when we were growing up, which was an amazing thing – we got to see the whole country. My first ever trip we went to Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Batticoloa, Kandy….we got this amazing tour.
“I think no one in the world can hang out like Asians, and particularly Sri Lankans.” 14
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Then the second time I went back, I was about eleven, I remember coming back to England and then just crying for two weeks. Couldn’t for the life of me imagine what I was doing back in London, and how much I missed Sri Lanka. And since 1999, I’ve been back every year and that will now be the case for the rest of my life. I have to go every year, it’s for my soul. And to this day, every time I go to Sri Lanka I feel like I’m home, which is a really weird feeling for someone who is born and brought up in the UK. My soul is in Sri Lanka I think, and half of my heart is in Sri Lanka. I wear the cricket shirt whenever I can, I tell people about it and where to go. But at the same time, I love the UK, especially London, I’m passionate about London Where do you like to stay when you are in Sri Lanka? I always used to stay in Colombo 10, in Maradana, just around the corner from my dad’s school Ananda College. That was the house my father was born in, that my ‘seeya’ (grandfather) designed and had built. My seeya educated himself, moved out of the village and became a
surveyor. And now we have a house in Rajagiriya by the river, beautiful, which my father designed - he’s passed away now. And that house is my birthright and my children’s birthright, which is great because I always have a base in Sri Lanka. But where I really like to stay ? I love the Galle Face Hotel – its just so charming, it’s just that old world glamour, that wooden ceiling fans, white walls, and looks out at the sea. Its where I’m getting married to Eesha (his fiancé) - it’s where our first date was. How did you two meet? The British Council actually brought me and my DJ partner Bobby Friction out to Sri Lanka to DJ while the English cricket team played Sri Lanka last November. And we gave a radio seminar, and Eesha Silva at the time was the breakfast DJ at TNL Radio in Colombo. So we met and she thought I was Indian, but when she found out I was Sri Lanka and Singhalese, we started talking, and flirting… You mentioned your parents earlier – what were they into musically? Oh God, everything…Ammi (Mum) was into C.T. Fernando, old school baila. Thaathi (Dad) was into Frank Sinatra and Classical music, and Lata Mangeshkar….so very diverse. Ammi listened to Radio Two all the time so I grew up on a diet of Barry Manilow and Dr Hooks, and Terry Wogan and Jimmy Young. Which was great – because unlike a lot of Western kids whose parents were into the Beatles or something, I was listening to music I couldn’t relate to at all – so I went into hip hop, the music that would annoy them the most. What are the things you miss when you leave Sri Lanka? I think no one in the world can hang out like Asians, and particularly Sri Lankans. I love everything, the most minute things… I love three-wheelers, I love seeing women in saris, the normal, everyday things that a Sri Lankan would take for granted. I love the food -egg godamba rottis (the unhealthiest thing in the whole world), kothu rotti from Pilawoos… I love the restaurants in Sri Lanka, the Gallery, Frangipani. >> serendipity
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