I was tapping my fingers rigorously against my steering wheel to the beat of my song of choice, a sense of trepidation had already started to consume me. Though it was relaxing, the music playing throughout my car was no match for the repetitive thoughts going through my mind thinking of what I was about to endure. That Monday afternoon's hectic drive was followed by a walk from the parking lot through the snowy streets of Toronto.

"In my thirties, perhaps around the age of 35 or 36, I knew that I would one day write a book. A book about being terrorized as a young boy who experienced a brutal civil war in Sri Lanka and then transformed in Canada in his late teens and early twenties. I wanted to tell the world this survival story. A Tamil boy’s survival story.”

“In 1948, when Sri Lanka got its independence, it was considered to be the post-colonial nation most likely to succeed economically and democratically. Unfortunately, since then, Sri Lanka has been governed by leaders with racial hatred for Tamils. Through their hatred, they have destroyed the country.”

“1987 rolled around and ‘Operation Liberation’ was activated — a military offensive carried out by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces to recapture part of the territory in the Jaffna peninsula from the Tamil Tigers — which included my ancestral town, Point Pedro. When the soldiers came to our town — I was arrested along with many of my friends for being 17, while being Tamil, and I was sent to prison.”

I passed THE BIG midpoint milestone age of 50 last year. It has already been a year since? How did this happen? As someone who is sliding into the back nine of my life, does this mean I am officially a ‘mature’ male? When I was in my 20s, I used to think by 50, I want to have achieved certain goals and now I’m saying - wait 51 isn’t really that old.

“Aim to teach our kids to strive for excellence.”

“Amid the brutality of a long civil war, I made my way to Canada, leaving behind the country of our birth, soaked with the blood of siblings, parents and large extended families.”

“As the video screen flickers to work life these days — so too does our human behaviour.”

“Let's help them fight their daily battles by conquering themselves.”

“Always play like an underdog.”

“A Reflection…”

“Don’t cry because it’s over…”

“That’s an interesting last name. Where is it from? Is it short for something? Tamil, eh? Where are you from? Like many, I have been at the receiving end of such torrent of curious, but seemingly normal questions on many occasions.”

“April 18, 1988 forever will be etched in my memory. It was the first time I’d ever seen my father cry. Like most Tamil men of his generation, my father mostly lived the stoic ideal. He was the bread-winner of our tiny family, the rock against which the family could lean.”