Best Selling Author

Ravi Prasad Herat

Ravi Prasad Herath is a journalist and an author in his professional life. The author was born and raised in the rural setting of Madampe, in the Puttlam district of the NWP. It has always been Ravi’s passion to write; he has been doing it since he was a teenager and has always enjoyed it.

 After developing a flair for writing, he was able to impress his friends and parents with his ability to write on a variety of topics. This inspired him to pursue a career in writing. One could confidently say that he had an inborn talent for writing, which he developed during the latter part of his school days. His creative way of expressing himself through writing has earned him recognition and accolades, both locally and internationally. His writing focuses on rural life, social issues, and local culture, and he is considered an authority on the subject of conflict resolution. His writings on the conflict areas of Sri Lanka’s North and East were enough fodder for book publishers to think twice about his adroit skills as an author.

 Following his primary education at village school in Madampe, he moved to one of the most sought-after schools in the city, St Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia, which happened to be his father’s alma mater too. His father was a medical practitioner attached to the Chilaw base hospital at the time he attended St. Thomas’ prep school, Colpetty, in Colombo. His mother, Donita Hearth of Ratnapura Win Castle, was well-known in and around Ratnapura and influenced Ravi’s writing skills greatly. This particular educational path allowed Ravi to gain exposure to a variety of cultural and intellectual pursuits. These pursuits influenced his writing and shaped it into the unique style it is today.

 Born in 1960, Ravi Prasad Herath’s affinity for the pen developed in leaps and bounds during his school days at St. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia. This was after a short stint at a prep school. There he had the fortunate opportunity to interact with people connected to the higher social strata, and among them was Manu Gunasena, the son of Percy Gunasena. This invaluable exposure gave Ravi the platform to explore his literary talents and opened the doors for him to pursue a career in writing. His aim was to become a fully-fledged journalist while staying on the cutting edge of society.

 He had the opportunity to meet with Rex De Silva of SUN/WEEKEND, a giant in the vernacular journalistic sphere at the time, and started a long journey as a novice in the field, putting forth his skills as a journalist at the “Rivirasa newspaper.”

In 1979 his initial task was to translate the Migara political column in the Weekend Sun newspaper into the vernacular Sinhala language for the benefit of the Sinhala reader.

 Sirikotha Garu Vesamuni, popularly known as ‘JR, the Mafia-type free thinker’ has captivated many since President J.R. Jayewardene, in his endurance, drafted a comprehensive republican constitution and laid the foundations for devolution of powers under the 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution to resolve the ethnic crisis. The book revolves around the psyche of President Jayewardene, who brought Ravi to fame. Vernacular media books on the political development of the North and East during a raging war between the Armed Forces and the LTTE (The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) named Uthure Chandi (The fierce belligerence of the North) are yet another book that carved a niche in the Sinhala literary world.

 He also has a penchant for wildflowers and wild animals. He often visited the Sinharaja rain forest in south Sri Lanka in search of new wildflowers and to study the nature of small animals in the wild. He had to spend days and nights researching the subjects that he liked most. He is passionate about preserving the environment and conserving wildlife. He believed that protecting nature was the greatest service one could ever do for humanity and future generations. Then he took to wildflower arrangements and studied Japanese horticulture (Ikebana) under the auspices of the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA).

Ravi used Japanese floral arrangement techniques to propagate Mahayana Buddhism, which is yet another philosophical segment of Buddhism. He also trekked on uncharted terrain, learning the principles of Moribana and Nageria.

He also trained over a thousand youths under the sponsorship of Mobitel in 1985, with the help of then Mobitel CEO W. Watson. The youths were trained to create greeting cards with revolutionary thinking depicting wildflowers.

He started printing greeting cards depicting wildflowers, which had a high demand among tourists. The goal of the training was to help the youths gain valuable job skills so they could support themselves and their families. The greeting cards were a way for the youths to put their newly acquired skills to use, and the popularity of the cards ensured that they would be able to make a living.

The year 1985 marked the International Year of Youth (IYY), where he had all his wildflower greeting cards in the main hotels in Colombo, including the Hilton,  Taj Samudra, Galaldri, Intercontinental (now Kingsbury), and Oberoi, which was renamed Cinnamon Grand Trans Asia and is now known as Cinnamon Lake Side. His wildflower greeting cards became a hot item in the kiosks of all these hotels and attracted the attention of many visitors. Ravi also had stalls at international exhibitions, which drew more enthusiasm among foreigners towards wildflower greeting cards, a novel concept that he devised as a wildflower lover.

  A national award SBYO was conferred upon Ravi for his services in propagating Mahayana Buddhism by the Buddhayana Organization of Singapore.

Ravi’s latest project is to set up a Mahayana Buddhism study centre in Sri Lanka where prospective travellers could relax and take a dip in Buddhist philosophical studies. Mahayana Buddhism is one of the two main existing schools of Buddhism and is widely practised in China, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other parts of East Asia.

 Ravi’s speciality is that he could work with any character. His exposure to former minister Ranjan Wijeratne was through his father, who happened to be a classmate at St. Thomas’ college in Mt. Lavinia. Ravi developed a close relationship with Minister Wijeratne and collaborated with him for the advancement of the Ranjan Wijeratne Foundation. After his demise in an LTTE bomb, Ravi tirelessly worked to propagate the cause of the Ranjan Wijeratne Foundation.

Ravi had the opportunity to become a director of the foundation after Ranjan Wijeratne’s son, who gave leadership to the foundation, invited him to be one of the directors.

The unexplored phase of his journey is his involvement in importing classic films and Western and Indian films with the sole intention of entertaining the Sri Lankan audience. Cine Vision is his company, through which he has imported many award-winning films for the entertainment of filmgoers.

His information technology project at the J.R. Jayewardene Center also had a positive impact on society. Consequently, he created an e-friends portal for those coming to India for philosophy studies. As a result, he made Sri Lanka a place for further philosophical learning through e-friends.

In his pursuit of book publishing, Ravi Prasad has created a publishing unit under E-Friends aimed at helping the upcoming authors, along with a public funding scheme for journalists and their innovative articles in any field under the “LEKAKA SESATHA FOUNDATION,” for which he has pooled a good amount of his personal finances.

 Furthermore, he turned benevolently toward religious training in order to gain discipline.

He trained nearly 200 Bhikkus from Myanmar who fled the wrath of the Myanmar military regime and settled here under the sponsorship of the Myanmar Student Monk Association. He taught them Buddhist scriptures, meditation, and rituals so that they could become accomplished monks in their home country. He also provided them with financial assistance, food, and clothing.

The Burmese monk Ven. Vasectha played a leading role in this endeavour.

Wonderful World of Wild Flowers