Thisuri Wanniarachchi
Thisuri Wanniarachchi is one of the youngest authors in the world to write a local bestseller.
She is the youngest nominee to the prestigious International Writers Program of the University of Iowa and the the youngest State Literary Award winner in Sri Lanka.
Growing up in Sri Lanka during the Elam War and having a father in the military, inspired Thisuri to write about war. Thisuri began writing at the age of ten. The short story "The road to Horrowpathana" written by her at the age of 12 (inspired by the terrorist attack on a children's bus in Horrowpathana, Sri Lanka in 2007 killing 60 children) was talked about in many international writers forums.
Colombo Streets was her first attempt to write a novel. It was published when she was fourteen and went on to become a local bestseller. Colombo streets won the 2010 State Literary Award for the Best English Novel of the year in Sri lanka,.
In addition to her excellence in writing, Thisuri is a well-rounded student. She was a 100% academic scholarship recipient in her high school, The British School in Colombo. A lover of sports, Thisuri was also her school's Tennis Captain.
A recent research claims that her work, both online and print, has inspired millions of people all around the world. She has studied creative writing at many universities in the United States, The Kenyon Review of Kenyon College (2010), Amherst College (2013) University of Massachussetts, Amherst (2013), Mount Holyoke College (2013), Hampshire College (2013) and Smith College (2013)
She is currently a Political Economy undergraduate scholar at Bennington College.
Several of Wanniarachchi's recent reviews refers to her as "The voice of her generation in Sri Lanka."
Although She has not gone on record to say she will run for office, a few of her informal interviews in 2013 and 2014 suggest her passion for "creating a more politically sound Sri Lanka"
When she made her infamous speech on universality of terrorism in Amherst 2013 she was introduced by a member of the panel to the crowd as "a future president of Sri Lanka"
“Terrorism is an attention seeking crime.”
“War crimes, you say?No matter how many policies you put on paper, in reality, there are no rights and wrongs in war. War itself is a crime. War cannot be justified. I believe, the only people, in this world, whose opinions matter, are the ones who go the extra mile to help other people expecting nothing in return. Soldiers who fight fiercely for their country, the doctors in Sri Lanka's public hospitals attending to hundreds of patients at a time for no extra pay , the nuns who voluntarily teach English and math to children of refugee camps in the north, the monks who collect food to feed entire villages during crises, they are the people worth listening to, their opinion matters. So find me one of them who will say: they wish the war didn't end in 2009, that they wish Sri Lanka was divided into two parts. Find me one of them who agrees with the international war crime allegations against Sri Lanka, and I will listen. But I will not listen to the opinions of those who are paid to find faults in a war they were never a part of, a war they never experienced themselves. I will not listen to the opinions of those who watched the war on tv or read about it on the internet or were moved by a documentary on Al Jazeera. The war is over. The damage is done. Let Sri Lanka move on. So our children will never have to see what we've seen.”
“Today I prayed for Boston, for America, my home away from home. Today, I realized how lucky we Sri Lankans are to have peace in our country. How I feel today, hearing of the bombs going off in the city brings back memories of how I used to feel four years ago in Sri Lanka when the LTTE was setting off bombs all around Colombo. That feeling I used to get when I hear about a bomb blast, the goosebumps, the school evacuation drills, the breaking news footage, and most of all, that fear we Sri Lankans used to feel, every second of everyday, it all came back to me today. Thank you God for bringing peace to my country, look after America the way you did Sri Lanka.”
“Parents need to realize that the world is getting complicated every second. With new problems, new diseases, new habits. They have to realize the vast probability of their kids being victims of this age, this complicated era. Your kids could be exposed to problems that no kind of therapy can help. Your kids could be brainwashed by themselves to believe in insane theories that drive them crazy. Most kids will go through this stage. The lucky ones will understand. They will grow out of them. The most unlucky ones will live in these problems. Grow in them and never move forward. They will cut themselves, overdose on drugs, take up excessive drinking and smoking, for the slightest problems in their lives. You can't blame these kids for not being thankful or satisfied with what they have. Their mentality eludes them from the reality.”
“Most parents try really hard to give their kids the best possible life. They give them the best food and clothes they can afford, take their own kind of take on training kids to be honest and polite. But what they don't realize is no matter how much they try, their kids will get out there. Out to this complicated little world. If they are lucky they will survive, through backstabbers, broken hearts, failures and all the kinds of invisible insane pressures out there. But most kids get lost in them. They will get caught up in all kinds of bubbles. Trouble bubbles. Bubbles that continuously tell them that they are not good enough. Bubbles that get them carried away with what they think is love, give them broken hearts. Bubbles that will blur the rest of the world to them, make them feel like that is it, that they've reached the end. Sometimes, even the really smart kids, make stupid decisions. They lose control. Parents need to realize that the world is getting complicated every second of every day. With new problems, new diseases, new habits. They have to realize the vast probability of their kids being victims of this age, this complicated era. Your kids could be exposed to problems that no kind of therapy can help. Your kids could be brainwashed by themselves to believe in insane theories that drive them crazy. Most kids will go through this stage. The lucky ones will understand. They will grow out of them. The unlucky ones will live in these problems. Grow in them and never move forward. They will cut themselves, overdose on drugs, take up excessive drinking and smoking, for the slightest problems in their lives. You can't blame these kids for not being thankful or satisfied with what they have. Their mentality eludes them from the reality.”
“Who are you if nobody knows your story?”
“All is fair in fashion and war.”
“Life is at its best when everything has fallen out of place, and you decide that you're going to fight to get them right, not when everything is going your way and everyone is praising you.”
“I know money isn't everything. but it certainly is something.”
“Tennis taught me to take chances, to take life as it comes. To hit every ball that comes to me no matter how hard it looks, to give it my best shot.”
“I've lived through a war. I've seen burning corpses on the road side. And yes, I will tell you, peace is the only way out.”
“The thing about life is, you’ve got to somehow make it through the day. Don’t wait for the beautiful evening. Go on with your life. Of course, the beautiful evening will come. In fact, she’s on her way. And she’s coming to you as fast as she can. And dude, she’s beautiful.”
“Sometimes I wish life was written pencil so we could erase it and write it all over again.”
“I believe in god. I also believe that you should never ask god to make your dreams come true. You have to work for your dreams. And dream actually, with all your mind body and soul. I don’t believe luck is when a super power grants us what we wished for. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. So we need to be prepared all the time. Our dream awaits us. It’s already on its way. We just need to be prepared when it gets to us.”