"Sri Lanka Entrepreneurship"

Well just few mins ago I was into my research work and as usual was looking for resources on Entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka. What would a guy do to find such resources online?

Yeah, you are right. I googled "Sri Lanka Entrepreneurship" as anybody else would do looking for some resources to further my knowledge.

The first link that came up was on "Sri Lanka Entrepreneur of the Year 2005" award and contained the application for this. That was not a surprice as I knew of it and would have expected to find this...

However the the big surprise was to find my own blog ( yeah, this one!!!) listed fourth on the list of links. :) This just shows me how small the e-world is and how much of a significance one individual plays in it.

An Entrepreneurship Panel Discussion

We had an entrepreneurship panel discussion on Saturday as part of the Project Seminar we organised for our new project teams. The Entrepreneurship panel discussion was my main responsibility at the seminar and I'm happy how it turned out.

What got me the most excited was the fact that I could get Mr. Patrick Amarasinghe and Mr. Rohantha Athukorala as two of the panelists along with the Director Training from Bank of Ceylon Mr. Kumara. To share whats exciting about these individuals let me share an intro of each the two ...

Mr. Patrick Amarasinghe is an etremely reputed individual in business circles having donned many reponsibilities over his illustrious career. He's President Emeritus and Founder President o f the National Chamber of Exporters (NCE) Sri Lanka, the former President of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Sri Lanka ( FCCISL). He is currently the President of Young Entrepreneurs Sri Lanka ( YESL) and President of Furniture Wooden Product Manufacturers & Exporters Association. Among all this he is the Managing Driector of Woodplex Ltd his own Entrepreneurial venture that's brought hims sucess internationally.

Rohanth Athukorala has a double degree in Marketing, MBA and currently reading for his Phd. He was awarded twice the Best Marketing Achiever award- Sri Lanka and and Business Achiever Award from PIM, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Rohantha was the 8th Chairman of the Sri Lanka Export Development Board and currently attached to the National Council For Economic Development whist working for Global Multinational Company Johnson Diversey as its country head.

I've been personally tracking Rohantha's activities over more than a year starting from the time he was heading EDB. I'm excited about having them involved with AIESEC in the log term and
working with them to enhance on the impact we make. The discussion did highlight for me key issues in the society in terms of Entrepreneurship that we could address through the projects.

Me, My Mentor and Sarvodaya

Today I finally got to meet up with Dr.Vinya Ariyaratne at Sarvodaya headquaters in Moratuwa. Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne is the Executive Director at Sarvodaya and the son of the founder of the Sarvodaya movement Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne.

My interest were two fold in one sense I was looking for an mentor and in another I was interested in Sarvodaya and it's work. I think I accomplished both expectations from this visit !!

Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne seemed a very pleasant individual, easy to talk to and an intellectual. I was impressed by how inviting he was and didn't hesitate to invite him to be my mentor. Though it wont be the easiest task to meet with his busy schedule and whats coming up for me in the next few months, I'm really looking forward to this.

I've also been a keen follower of Sarvodaya and its work, this is especially because Sarvodaya works with few key aspects I'm really interested in... Their holistic apporach to community development ( addressing spirituality, education, health, economy, etc.) , self sustainable community development ( gram swaraj programme) deeply interests me and I look forward to some practical exposure through their programmes. They did invite me to take part in some field visits etc. and I will make sure not to miss out on this oppertunity

Out with my cousins !!!

Well its very rarely that I'm at home never ming spending time with my relatives :) But last Saturday I got an invitation from one of my 26 first cousins on my fathers side ( yeah it not 2 or 6 its 26 since my father has 12 brothers and sisters) ahh infact I think he's the oldest of the lot at the age of 32.

Chaminda ayya was here from US ( he's got residence visa there) to meet up with his local girlfriend. This is a story initself I guess cause this he registered his marraige symbolically by exchanging rings and its only on this visit he first met the girl. But modern tech had played the role of the Kapuwa in this saga and theyed gotten to know each other online beforehand. Arrange marriages are still quite normal in Sri Lanka and is in my mind nothing to shun about it.

Anway now getting to the interesting part of the day...

So accepting the sudden invitation I decided to join the 'all cousins' outing at Excel World. It ended up that with the raing gushing down bad only myself, Chaminda Ayya, His fiancé Harshi, Nuwan, Malithi and Hemantha were the only ones who could make it there.

We started with a game of bowling with my personal goal being the top the 83 I scored on the 6th and to breat the 100 mark. Couldn;t get to that second part though after couple of mishaps I ended up with 96 which still was my all time best. :)

By the time we were finishing the game we were hungry and coz asked us to pick our own favs within Rs.300 per head.. I went for a Vege Sub which I had tried out before and liked. After chit chating for sometime it was next to the pool palour for us ( Hemantha had to go off to work by then) and I was to play pool for the first time in my life. This was one game I had no sense over at all not knowing any of the rules ( my only encounter with Pool was playing this old game on my fathers laptop when I was a kid ) but with help from pro Nuwan we started the game. When Malithi backed out choosing to do some shopping instead we ended up teaming with Nuwan and Me against the new couple Chaminda ayya and Harshi. As things went on I did pick up how to play but was not good at it enough to be of support to Nuwan for us to win. We ended up loosing the 2 or 3 games we played though it showed that Nuwan was a pro in pool. This was a small hit for my competitive spirit which does enjoy a good challange.

Finishing off pool we did entertain the idea of another round of bowling up finally decided on trying out the game Laser Runner insted. This was another first for me and I was pretty much looking forward to this as I've always wanted to this. ( acutally I wanted paint ball which is similar with paint bullets instead of lasers).

This we teamed up with Nuwan and myself on one side and Chaminda ayya, Harshi and Malithi on the other.

Its the most exciting 15 mins I've had in years and was a big adrenelene rush for me. Running around trying to protect our base, attack their base, attack them and protecting myself. We picked up points shoorting them and their base whilst loosing points when we or our base got hit.
I was running around like mad and this was like MAJOR!! for me being the couch potatoe I've been infront of a laptop over the last years.

Though out of breath it was a big celebration to know that the two of us ended up winning against the three of them. :) Nothing can beat the feeling of 0nes hard work paying off.

I recommend the Laser Runner to all of you also ( if you dont have chest probs ) and forsure will be going there once or twice in the coming months. I also negotiated a 20% ( probly might be able to get it up to 30% ) discount on the normal prices.

Thanks big time Chaminda ayya for inviting and sponsoring all this and best wishes in the new chapter in your life. Harshi akka welcome to the family it was really nice to get to know you and I found u really cool. Thanks Nuwan, Malithi and Hemantha for being fun to hang out with and lastly thnx Sudu nanda for backing things up.

National Leadership Development Seminar 2006 - A Dream! A Vision! A Reality!

NLDS was nothing short of amazing for me. It's really awesome to know that AIESEC in Sri Lanka's future is in very strong hands.

Though the faci and MCP roles pretty much kept me busy from reaching out to all the newies at a personal level I found the ones I did talk to be really, really cool !!! I enjoyed my self trying to guess who would be future EBs, LCPs and MCs among them.

Just to recap few of the moments that I found inspiring ...

The Global Village:

This was amazing for me especially since I never expected it to be so good. It ended up nothing short of international standards and loads of enjoyment...it gave me the feeling that I was in the middle of the Global Village at an IC or IPM. Each LC has put loads of effort in to preparation along with their interns and this paid off big time!!!

Connection Time on "Conflict in Sri Lanka":

This was really an inspirational point for me in several ways. One that there were so many who joined the topic even at the end of a very long day...this showed me that ppl do have the commitment needed if we are to look for solutions as a country. Secondly it was just the diverse set of ideas that came out, each person was passionate to share their view point whilst respecting others. I was just wandering whether a solution for the country would be more forthcoming if these leaders replaced ineffective politicians over generations.

AIESEC 2010 Everyday:

I was pleasantly surprised how quickly the new members caught on and how they were discussing the future of AIESEC like pros ...whether it be on expansion, positioning, etc.

Monday after the conference I was dead to the world, most of the day spent on catching up to the sleep lost over the last 5 days. Since then I'm back on the MC work but also spending sometime looking at all the pictures from NLDS and just smiling by myself. I've also begun uploading all the pictures I have access to so if you want to check them out or download follow the link below.

NLDS 2006 (NEW!)

Hugs !!!

Bowling on my 24th Birthday

Well cant believe I've been on this earth for 24 years already, time seems to fly by like nothing. It just reminds me that I've not got a min to loose if I want to work towards my dreams...

I wanted to share the day with people who've been around me over the last few years...in a way to refresh my relationships with them and to strengthen my network. Bowling seemed something fun to get in to though it's not the cheapest ;) so I invited ppl to join me without letting them in on that it was my birthday.

The last part didn't work out well as I hoped cause few ppl knew what day my birthday was. Ended up with ppl surprising me with a cake ( atleast me pretending I didn;t see them hiding in a corner with a cake lit up with candles) then draging me for a AP Conrner ( they did have to do with the chair since I would not let go) and finally ending with doing a Birthday Chair.

Then after taking up 3 lanes of bowling with the crowd we had we ended up sharing pizza !!! Bit of chit chat more and it was time to disperse.

I ended up laughing at one of the presents I got when I saw what it was later... a dvd "The Lover" a gift from the trainees.

thx for all who made it a special day !!! You ppl are the best !!!

Conflict Resolution Workshop and "Just like heaven"

Today I woke up a bit late to make it on time for the Conflict Resolution
workshop I signed up for. My interests in going there were simple and three
fold...

1. Build my knowledge and skills on conflict resolution

2. Get more experience on running forum theater

3. Meet some new ppl

Though the crowd was more on the teen scale it was a good experience.
Especially the experience on forum theatre got wheels in my head spinning on how I could use it in the community development activites I wanna get into
after AIESEC.

It seems that there is a common crowd at such events I'm always meeting ppl
like Hisham, Guru and Nurani at these kind of events. So having got the
learning part covered I felt like treating my self to a movie.
This is when I suddenly got off the bus after 2 stops ( though I paid to go
full distance) to run to a place to check out some DVDs. Well for those who
are not in Sri Lanka DVDs range 1.4 - 2.5 USD here in Sri Lanka ;) I ended
up buying two DVDs... "Something New"and "Just Like Heaven".

"Something New" was good but nothing exceptional but I liked "Just Like heaven" it did help that it was funny Ms. Reese Witherspoon ( I just made up my mind that I like her acting) taking the lead role. The old romatic in me was happy over this one thouhg the plot did seem to be bit over the head...yeah but that's the movies.

For those who want a quick wrap on it... workaholic Dr. ( Reese) gets hits
by Truck. The guy who takes up the apartment is surprised with the presence
of Reese suddenly walking in on him in the apartment claiming to be hers.
What they then discover together is that she's a spirit and after some
detective work they found out that her body is in hospital in a 3month long
coma. The romance builds up between the guy and the spirit whilst the
hospital is about to pull the plug on the body. The ending is "magical" ( in
a sense that's a tad bit unrealistic) with love ending up on top.

Funny thing that I just had to share was that by some "Miracle" it ended up that
both movies I got the leading male role was working as a " Landscape
Architect" ..what are the odds of that ??? By the way are those gardens
real? I just felt like moving to US just to have a garden like that.

The Trip to Wasgamuwa and Riversten

The trip up to Wasgamuwa Park and Riversten turned out to be amazing. I'm so
happy of I it turned up with just Daniel and I playing the Organising Role.
Though I organised it with the idea that atleast this would help to creat more
informal interaction between the younger AIESECers and with the interns none of
them came on it...;) but the the crowd seems to be just right and itwas just
awesome fun ..atleast for me it was. :D

Daniel thanks for being a great OCP and a Host by making us feel at home and
taking care of the details.

Then thanks to all those who joined for the exitement ... Daniel ( newly
christened as "Chicken Shit"), Sarka, Jacob, Sifaan, Gayathri, Ralph, Shek,
Sasha, Punyama and Waruna thanks for making it so enjoyable.

My best 5 moments in order...

1. Wild, Single, and Horny Elephant!!! ( Mada kipuna Thani Aliyek) just 10 feet
infront of the van looking to attack us before being scared off by the noise
made by the Safariguide at Wasgamuwa.( This was along with 2 other sitings
within 20feets)..."Exciting!!!"

2 The bathing in the cool water just before taking the road up to Riversten (
The place is next to a lodge called 'Dumbara Nivahana Lodge' )..."Soothing!!!"

3. The scenery at the Lake myself and Gayathri managed to find on our morning
stroll.( 2km through foot paths and bushes from the house we were staying
at)..."Serene!!!"

4. The hike to misty Riversten and the scenery around Riversten. ( While others
were wrapping themselves up in more cloaths... Sifaan, Waruna and I decided to
go shirtless ) ..."Adventurous!!!"

5. Dip in the waters at night on a (Amawaka) moonless night using candle light
at the end of all the travling on the first day ... "Romantic!!! "

6. Visit to the reclining Buddha statue, Alehera Ala and the Kovil in the name
of king Mahasen who is though to be a god after wards !!! ..."Humbling!!!"

These are the TOP 6 I recall...along with these I'm always inspired by the
SIMPLICITY of village life.




For more pictures just follow these links...

http://community.webshots.com/user/suchith

http://sifaan.almostunreal.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=552