About
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a random photo of me from Flickr
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This is always out of date
My name is Indrajit Samarajiva. My Montreal friends call me Indi. My parents and people in Ohio call me Jit. People in Sri Lanka call me both, but I think I prefer Indi.
I was born in Vancouver in 1982, while my parents were in Grad School there. My family is Sri Lankan. My dad Rohan (who I call Tha Tha) and mom, Sujata (Amma), grew up in Sri Lanka. They worked really hard and got into University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser, and I got born with a Canadian passport.
We moved to Sri Lanka when I was 3. We lived with my Achi for a while, I forgot English and learned Sinhalese, ate some fruit, stepped on the dog’s tail. When I was 5 me (and me two new sisters, one in Amma’s tummy) moved to the USA – Columbus, Ohio. Thatha taught Communications at Ohio State University and Amma worked in the Chemistry Department for a while, then for the Ohio Board of Regents. I forgot Sinhalese and learned English again.
I grew up in a typical US suburb. Rich, white, and boring. but good schools and safe. As soon as I got the hell out of high school I came to McGill University in Montreal, Quebec – which is my favorite city ever. I still love America, especially the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. And the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Boston Red Sox (for Merit).
I graduated from McGill with a degree in Cognitive Science. I’ve studied Psych, Linguistics, Education, Philosophy, and Computer Science. In my last year I learned about DNA and Brains. I also worked full-time for the McGill Faculty of Education (and took breaks for class). I guess I’d describe that job as Office Geek.
I live in my Colombo. I can be contacted via indi@indi.ca
Today is Sri Lanka’s 64th Independence anniversary, which marks a milestone in computer if not human memory. Here’s an excerpt of something coming out in the Nation this Saturday. This is one of the first times that Sri Lanka is both independent of the British and not at war with itself. Which is nice. Happy Independence Day. I’m going out of town.
I spoke to a trishaw driver about expenses. He said a new trishaw cost about Rs. 389,000, and at the rate he goes he has to upgrade every few years. He said a meter costs about Rs. 9,000-11,000, petrol costs about Rs. 2,000 a day and I guess that’s about it. He said he did less trips before the meter (say about 10 a day) but he can’t get a hires without a meter these days. He said he does about 20 fares a day. He seems to be doing OK.
Happy birthday to the late Neelan Tiruchelvam, peacemaker, killed by the LTTE in 1999. He would have been 68 yesterday. His trust staged a performance of Ravanama by Maya Krishna Rao. It was… interesting?
I’m writing an article about Google’s new 
Navin Weeraratne posted the photo above yesterday, which is hilarious. The letter ‘r’ fell off and the ‘Shirtworks’ sign briefly read ‘Shitworks’. Good times. I thought it was the usual fail and thought little of it. This evening, however, I saw an actual response from Shirtworks, not defensive, but a promo saying ‘Shit Happens’ and offering a 25% discount (for HSBC cards).
