Lighting a lamp
View(s):Walking into the shady house in the heart of Colombo, one is invariably greeted by Bailey, the friendliest dog you could ever come across. 
“He is a stray. My wife found him in Hanwella, by the side of the road,” the owner of this beautiful abode, Gamini Wickramasinghe says descending down the spiral stairway.
Everything in the house tells a story. A man who has travelled extensively since his younger days, Mr. Wickramasinghe, now Chairman of the Informatics Group and an engineer by profession, is truly a man of the world. He will tell you stories about the many countries he has visited – out of which Belgium seems to be his favourite.
This is partly because two of his children were born there and he set up family in Brussels, the capital city.
The Business Times team is warmly greeted, which is one of Mr. Wickramasinghe’s trademarks and sitting on the beautiful Rosewood couches in his living room overlooking an indoor pond where Wije, the Man Friday was feeding the fish, he proceeds to talk about his early days.
The fourth in a family of five – with two elder sisters, and an elder brother and a younger brother, his childhood was full of fun where he grew up in Narahenpita, Elvitigala Mawatha, he starts off.
“Ananda College, is my first and only school,” he said in a commanding voice which spells how attached he is to his alma mater. “School days were good. I remember that I did well in academics, sport and other school activities,” he smiles.
Mr. Wickramasinghe was the athletics captain and captained the first 15 in rugby. “I was also the Tent Secretary.” This is the person who controls the big match (between schools, Ananda and Nalanda) from the Ananda College side. This post is apparently a big deal. Not only because there is a lot of coordination between the prefects, security etc but also because he has to be alert all the time on the old boys who have a ‘bit too many (drinks)’ at the match.
London
Mr. Gamini Wickramasinghe
He was in the A-level class when he left for London. “This happened because of sports and I wanted to do Medicine, but because I had done a lot of sports I switched to Engineering as there was not much reading involved when compared to medicine subjects.”
He spent nine years in London which is when he started working at a large American oil company. “I was at the chemicals‘division of the company.”
He had visited Sri Lanka almost twice each year. The big match in his college had drawn him to the country in the month of March and later in the year he also made a trip to visit his family. At one such instance was when he met his future wife Janakie, whose family he had known for years. The parents egged them on and the rest is history.
His wife accompanied him to London and they had their first born, Hasith. “Then I had to move to Belgium as the particular division I was attached to, was moved to that country,” he reminisced.
For the next five years he was stationed in Brussels and his family expanded – Kishanie, the girl followed by son Hiran, were born in Brussels.
Home
However, his heart was in his motherland. He attributed this feeling to the strong foundation he got from Ananda College. Plus his mother was getting old. Then in 1983 he decided to return. “The American company that I was working for wanted to shift me to the United States – which was my next posting. I wanted a base in Asia where it was easier to come to Sri Lanka but they did not have an opening. This is when I seriously thought about returning,” he added.
Upon return, in February ’83 he started Informatics. “In February I registered the company and in July the infamous riots happened. This totally put a dent in my plans but I had given employment to two people – a classmate of mine and I hired my childhood domestic aide’s son as a peon. With all the negative things that was happening, I did not want to let them down,” he explained.
He batted on. Then the following year the company managed to secure its first customer – AMW. Informatics was the new kid on the block. The company was competing with the likes of IBM. But Mr. Wickramasinghe came with a new concept. “I had one telephone number for any issue that the customers had to face. We convinced the customer that we will not be passing the buck – which was the case then because the systems providers did not have a one-stop solution.” Mr. Wickremasinghe managed to secure Nixdorf, an agency in Germany which was very strong in their software development. “Sri Lanka lacked software at the time. With this agency, we became number two in the market in 1984.”
At this point, we are greeted by another member of the family. ‘Lady’ is her name. Another stray dog, she was secured from Embark, an organisation that works with abandoned dogs. “Now these two are the ones who keep us company,” Mr. Wickramasinghe pointed at the doggies saying that his kids have homes of their own now.
Mr. Wickramasinghe noted that his day starts very early – as much as 4 in the morning. “I read my emails and by about 7:30 am get on with the newspapers. After about half an hour the doggies come onto the bed and I have to divert my attention to them,” he smiled.
Mr. Wickramasinghe remembered his Principal at Ananda – former Colonel G. W. Rajapakse. “He was the warden and then the principal. He was one of the distinguished principals – one of the best we had. He was an immaculate person. His discipline was second to none. He was a stickler for working on time. He let the children build their own confidence,” Mr. Wickramasinghe recalled. Venerable Dr. Kotagama Wachissara who taught Buddhism in college as another one of his favourites.
Making a point during the interview Pix by indika Handuwala
Mr. Wickramasinghe has many friends from college and his knack for making friends has done him well in both his personal and business life, he said. From the kindergarten till today his best buddies are Sanjeewa Senanayake who was also his bestman, Chandragupta Wijetilleke and Laya Alles. “We still meet quite often at somebody‘s house. We also have an event called the ‘O/L year’ where the O/L class meets.”
Lamp
One of the things closest to his heart is the help that he renders to underprivileged children. He has helped so many children but one such instance that is etched in his mind was when he assisted a young man from the Ampara District – Dolakanda – which is in the Mahaweli System ‘C’. He had got through his fifth-grade scholarship. “This is an area where out of the 350 families, about 50 families were affected with the kidney disease. It was a very difficult life for this young boy. With his parents’ consent I brought him to my house to be admitted to Ananda College. I had already spoken to the principal at the time. I still remember when he arrived he was teary eyed but he was a brave chap. The next day he came with me to the school and was admitted to the hostel.”
Long story short, this boy had got through his O/Levels with flying colours – nine ‘A’s. Then he had chosen Bio Science for A/Levels and managed to get through to the Colombo Medical Faculty but at the time with the ‘Z’ score he was qualified to go to Sri Jayewardenepura Medical Faculty. Now he is a doctor.
“One advice that I gave him was that his parents should be number one,” Mr. Wickramasinghe said. Then he had advised the boy to pay it forward by assisting his other two siblings – brother and sister – to come up in life. “I am so happy to say that he got married to a doctor from his batch and on the day that he got married, his brother who was selected to the Moratuwa University had to quickly dash off to be registered at that university. The sister is also doing well, I heard. This is the best satisfaction I have. I am able to assist an entire family by helping one – who in turn helps to light the lamp not only for his family but his entire village,” Mr. Wickramasinghe said with emotion.
Mr. Wickramasinghe has high regard for his parents stressing, “Never forget where you come from. That is where your values are.”
However he is very firm when he said that he does not like people who take things for granted. He wants to mentor many other children and adults alike. “That is my life’s passion now.”
