The Life and Times of Saman Sandanayake, Nikeshi Sandanayake [best book clubs TXT] 📗

It was a late evening of summer, as the moon began to rise from the horizon, a baby boy’s little cry was heard throughout the Birth unit of Rathnems Hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Saman Sandanayake was born that evening of February, 6th in 1961. He was the first child of Kusuma and Sarath Sandanayake who were a school-teacher and a post master at the time.

For the first four years of his life, Saman received all the attention and love until his 2 brothers and sister were born. He grew up in small house, in the middle of a rubber plantation in a village called Thammita. He started going to school with his mum at the age of five to 'Thammita Maha Vidyalaya'. Although all the other children went to school at the age of six, he was able to start school early because he was a school teacher's son.

He played with the village kids in rubber plantations and Paddy fields. He played with mud and trees. He went swimming in the muddy river and went cycling. He got punished many times for jumping in the river from river-side trees. At the age of 7, his family moved to his grandparents' ancestral home. Isabella, his grandmother used to teach him the Buddhist religion. Sometimes, she took him to Buddhist temples with her. She also took him to far-away monasteries and famous temples. He used to sleep under trees in open-spaces during these long trips. William, his grandfather taught him lot about local plants and animals. His grandfather used to take him to the village and show him all the important places. He also introduced Saman to many villagers.

At the age of 10, his mum and dad decided to move him to a different school called Minuangoda Central College. It was about 15km from his home. He had to ride his bicycle for a couple of kilometres before he could take the bus to school. It was a boys’ school and he made many friends there. After joining this school, he had less time to play with his village mates.

At his new school, they started everyday with a prayer. He mainly studied math, science, English language, history, geography, arts, hand crafts, pottery, dancing or music and gardening. Students were disciplined by slap on the hand or were whipped on the back. The school provided a Bun or Biscuit and a glass of milk for morning break. Then at the 1:30pm, they had an assembly and a final prayer. At 2:00pm, the school children were sent home. During his teen years, Saman studies electronics as a hobby and opened a small radio repair workshop. He helped many villagers to repair their transistor radios, toys and other small electrical items

At the age of 17, he attended a big school in the city. He studied physics, chemistry and mathematics for his Colombo University entrance exam. He wanted to become a scientist in physics. However he ended up receiving a honours degree in chemistry. After teaching at Colombo University for one year he received a scholarship for further studies in England. After receiving his PhD from Queens University in England, he worked as a researcher in University of Liverpool for three years and then moved to Japan to work for the Japanese Government.


During a holiday trip to Sri Lanka, he met a beautiful woman named Thanuji and soon got married to her. He then took her back to Japan.
They lived in Japan for a further two years before they decided to immigrate to Australia. After moving to Sydney, Thanuji fell pregnant with a baby girl. On 22nd August 1996, their beautiful baby girl, Nikeshi was born. That was the most significant and happiest moment of his life!

Five years after Nikeshi was born, they moved to Melbourne. Saman currently lives in Melbourne with beautiful wife and loving daughter.

Publication Date: 02-05-2010

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