Serendipitous

Meet my grandmother: Mahanthamulla-Gamage Dayawathi Ramanayaka, or what I call her, 'Aththamma.' The English word 'serendipitous' comes from the name the ancients gave Sri Lanka, my home country. The word characterizes something that was discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way. Like so, it was very serendipitous for me when I discovered the amazing challenges and sacrifices she made during the time of the British rule in Sri Lanka, or 'Ceylon' at the time. She was born in 1931. During her youth, she spent the majority of it moving around school to school, village to village, trying to escape the hazardous effects of imperialism and World War II. At my age, she started a job working for a local newspaper company where she gained interest in politics and the country's dawn of independence. She later moved on to work at the Queen's House in Sri Lanka where she was a stenographer that translated secret codes to other codes. She soon realized that the information she was entrusted with could be beneficial for the Sri Lankan 'fight' for independence. Even though her modesty prevents her from saying she was, today, she would be considered an undercover agent-and quite the badass. Her efforts proved that she fought for what she believed in and kept compassion and truth as her guide to living in such a troubling time.