RAMOSHAN CANAGASABY'S HUMBLE RIDE TO SUCCESS

Ramoshan Canagasaby's saga is a tale of tears, turbulence, travails, troubles, and triumph, ■Traversing through Jaffna, Moratuwa, Chennai and now in California. Born in Colombo, Ramoshan had his early education at Hindu College, Bambalapitiya. His father was attached to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, an average family-of-five, with limited resources. Came July 1983 riots, Ramoshan and family had to flee Colombo to Nallur. Jaffna. He continued his education at St John's College, Jaffna. With the escalation of war and the exodus from the North, he and his family had to cross the Kilali Lagoon, neck-deep in water and in catamarans, under the cover of darkness, a mission of life-and-death, holding on to dear life. Through Paranthan, they came back to Colombo by land. He rejoined his old school and came out with flying colours at the A/L exam to enter the Engineering Faculty of the University of Moratuwa. A two-year stop-start reign at Moratuwa made him join the prestigious IIT, Madras (now Chennai). His performance there, earned him a number of scholarships worldwide.

- BY PRANAVESH SIVAKUMAR

He is now serving Apple Inc as the Senior Manager, Chip Design Program for the last six-and-a-half years. Having served Intel at a high pedestal earlier, Ramoshan remains humble, not forgetting his family's trying times in Sri Lanka. He visits his homeland to render charitable services in the North-East. Among such roles are being the CTO for Information Technology Education and Entrepreneurship Foundation and a volunteer at Yarl IT Hub (Yarl - short name for Jaffna in Tamil). Mirror Life had a chat with him.

Q WHO IS RAMOSHAN CANAGASABY?

If I am standing in good stead, we need to rewind a lot for that. Born in Colombo, studied at Hindu College, Colombo, until 1983, as a refugee "on my birthday" relocated to Jaffna in a bid to revive life and that can be a watershed moment. Aged 9 my house was fully burnt and battered. A new lease of life was presented courtesy Jaffna. Then I got selected to St. John's College, Jaffna, and a senior sir, personally approached and wished me well saying I have got a rare seat. All these I considered as a good stepping stone. The war days left a lasting lesson in me. All those made a man of me too.

Q WE HAVE ONLY AROUND 15 LANKANS WORKING FOR APPLE IN THE ENTIRETY OF THE US. HOW DOES THAT FEEL?

Apple is a global company. True to Silicon Valley culture, we interact with and value the other person as a fellow engineer, not by race or culture. Having said that, the only time I identify myself as Sri Lankan is when a few of us meet for lunch as Lankans. Looking back, each person who gets the opportunity to work at a world-class company like Apple will have faced a lot of sweat and demanding work along the path to arrive here. In that sense, I feel we all should be proud of the Sri Lankan DNA, especially the values our parents instilled regarding education, integrity, and the belief that there is no substitute for hard work.