Seshma’s Blog

The Heart of the Lion

It was truly serendipity that the LankaCorps Fellowship came at the most perfect time in my life when as a twenty something year old, with nothing tying me down, I most wanted to travel back and live in Sri Lanka so I could explore my roots and where I’ve come from. It is with this thought that I strode alongside the other four fellows down the long hallway towards the airport gate at which we would board our Sri Lankan airlines flight from Heathrow, England to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and I knew it was going to be a great experience. Before we could even come relatively close to the gate I could hear the noise there was already several decibel levels louder than anywhere else in the entire airport, and most probably all of England. As we walked up you could see little Sri Lankan children running all around, their parents yelling and threatening them with incentives of bodily harm or worse; but of course used to those things the children pretended selective hearing and continued their havoc.  Everyone appeared to be so full of energy and anticipation to arrive in Sri Lanka. It was a great indication of the next six months to come.

Upon arriving in Sri Lanka and getting settled in, we began to wander around the city. Of course the first thing all of us wanted to do was jump in a speedy trishaw with the wind blowing in our hair down Galle road and get dropped off at a vendor who served some delicious local foods. I’ve found that over the time I’ve spent here, I’ve come to really depend on trishaw drivers as my main mode of transportation.  I’ve learned what reasonable prices are for certain traveling distances, and to always take a metered trishaw if possible because those prices are always fair. It also took me a while to adjust to how close people drove to each other.  In the beginning I was sure I had a couple close brushes with death, as the trishaw I was in would get right up against a bus that was trying to pull to the side and I thought I would get crushed. Now having spent more time here, I realize that the trishaw drivers intentionally drove that way and I really wasn’t as close to death as it appeared to be, or I was but it was like a game of chicken and I would have to come to accept that this was how I was going to get to work every day.


As someone whose focus and aspirations lay in the international relations sphere, Sri Lanka is the best place to be to attain that essential work experience.  I currently have placements at both the Regional Center for Strategic Studies (RCSS) and the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS). At LKIIRSS I am involved in a proposal paper focused in diaspora engagement with two other interns and a research analyst. The Kadirgamar Institute has provided me the opportunity to not only be involved in a government proposal plan but also to really hone in on my skills of interviewing, research, as well as writing. Besides the paper we also simultaneously have to focus on the several other events that take place at LKI at any given time.  I’ve already attended and helped coordinate several lectures and conferences that have involved many high profile professionals as well as government officials from a multitude of countries.

In terms of my work at RCSS, it is very similar in nature as I am focused on writing a volume of RCSS over 20 years, which incorporates a large amount of interviews, research and writing as well. However this project I am solely embarking upon with only the Executive and Associate Directors overseeing my work.  I get to work in an awesome office I share with an amazing program officer, and although there is an A/C in the room we leave the window open because the room gets stuffy. This means that as I work I also get the lovely sounds of honking buses, clucking chickens, one particularly annoying rooster that crows every couple of minutes, and surprisingly a ice-cream truck that comes around everyday with a wonderful ice-cream song which it has on repeat for a good twenty minutes. I’ve learned to ignore these sounds, by means of headphones or just accepting the ambiance that is Sri Lanka. In fact, my first Saturday morning in Sri Lanka I woke up to sounds of drums only to look out my window and see a procession of Buddhist monks and drummers.  I’ve definitely come to accept and enjoy that Sri Lanka is a country full of personality by means of loud objects, loud animals, and louder people.

On a more serious topic, I have found it to be most surprising as well as interesting that my belief of what the common opinion was across the different ethnicities and strata’s of the local Sri Lankan population in regards to post-war progress and reconciliation was not accurate at all. Only after integrating myself by living and incorporating myself into the workforce have I discovered just how far off I actually was.  Working in the foreign relations sector, talking to various different people from all walks of life, I have come to realize that the diaspora’s beliefs and opinions are far more radicalized than those feelings within the country itself. Out in the rest of the world the sentiment in the wake of the conflict are still very compartmentalized and unchanging, which is just not the same response going around within Sri Lanka. It appears to be that as the country progresses so does the mindset of the people, whereas the diaspora remain in the same frame of mind because they are not exposed to the integration and development of the country. From my personal perspective and observations since being here it appears that attrition is what has allowed those in the North and the East to really move forward and away from a warzone lifestyle. The South in the meanwhile has begun to awaken to the difficulties of a militarized country. Now that the conflict is over there are is an excessive amount of police officers and military personnel who have been trained to operate during times of combat and who have now have nothing else to do but focus on the country and population itself and away from what was previously many years of warfare. Issues of politics in regards to journalism, education and economic factors have become a larger focus, and violations of civil rights that were sanctioned before through silence or vocal support in pursuit of a larger goal are now gaining the spotlight.

Though politics and reconciliation are at the forefront of any conversation those topics do not detract from the natural beauty and drastic changes towards progress that are apparent within the entirety of the country. It is with great pleasure that I get to participate in seminars at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Insitute where they can have topics such as Women In Reconciliation and have open forums of thought and discussion without repercussion. It is amazing the amount of locals and foreigners that now flock to various locations around the country that used to be inaccessible to the public.  The high level of passion and patriotism that I have always consistently found at Sri Lankan cricket matches is only stronger as I attend the current Twenty20 Cricket tournament hosted by Sri Lanka. As a member of the community of the younger generations living abroad I passionately feel that now is a key time for young professionals to engage in experiences like the LankaCorps Fellowship which really enables people to get a firm grasp on their roots through first-hand knowledge, while also providing us with relevant work experience. I feel like my skills and talents are valued as a Sri Lankan resident and that I can contribute and invest in this island for the long-term.

Seshma Kumararatne