French/Dutch | Sri Lankan
My Mother is from Sri Lanka and my Father is from France, with Dutch roots. They met at business school in New York in the 80s. Something about helping each other ‘write up a mid-term assignment’ they claim, and it all took off from there! My Father didn’t know much about Sri Lanka before he met my Mother but fell in love with the culture pretty quickly. They are both very open-minded people which is why I think the alliance worked out. My Dad is not usually the forgetful type, but he managed to forget his wallet on their first date (he must’ve been nervous), so my Mum had to pay for dinner and the cinema tickets. That didn’t seem to bother her though, as three years later they were engaged. They currently are happily residing in London and married for over 30 years now.
My parents wanted to give me and my three younger triplet siblings the best of their cultures. All four of us have a French first name, a Sri Lankan middle name and a Dutch surname. Our Mother and Grandmother have taught us everything about Sri Lankan Buddhist culture and meditation practice. We were all born and brought up in London with a mix of other cultures and people from different backgrounds.
I used to work in investment banking before I started as a freelancer in health and wellness. Finance is still a very traditional sector where being a bit ‘different’ is not fully accepted everywhere yet. I didn’t have any bad experiences per se, but I felt different and at times slightly out of place. I had a major burnout at the end of last year and a deep questioning of who I was as an individual and what my life purpose was. I decided to give up my job in finance to start exploring what has always been most important to me: health. It has been 4 months now since I made the transition and I absolutely love it! My aim is to help others to feel at their best: confident, fit, happy and fulfilled in their life.
I feel like things may finally be going in the right direction even though there is still so much to be done. Awareness about racism has spread further than it has ever spread before in my lifetime, so I am truly hopeful for the future.
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