The discussion at the Biochemistry Department on the top-most floor of the Sri Jayewardenepura University’s Library Building is on food and their link with diseases such as diabetes. A name which keeps cropping up, however, is of someone who no longer works there, but has been awarded Emeritus Professor status in 2008.

It’s not an ideal everyone will espouse in these material-minded days, but Jonathan Scott has walked the talk. These are words he often tells young people. “If your mother and father say to you don’t be a wildlife person, don’t be a photographer, don’t be an artist- be a lawyer, a doctor, have a proper career- if it’s your dream, if it’s your bliss, if it’s your passion, if it’s the essence of who you are - that is going to be the time, you have to say to your parents, this is my life. With all due respect, I need to live it for myself.