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Jaffna

About Me

I am Ratnavelupillai Mayooranathan, an Architect, from Jaffna, Srilanka. First 20 years all that shaped my life had been centered around Vannarponnai a division of Jaffna town, the birth place of my father.

I received my primary and secondary education from Jaffna Vaitheeswara Vidyalayam which was originally under the management of Ramakrishna Mission until the government took over all the schools in the island.

I pursued my higher education in Architecture in the University of Moratuwa, Srilanka and obtained my first degree in Built Environment and the masters degree in Architecture.

I had been working in Colombo and Jaffna for about 16 years for Design Consortium Ltd. since 1977. In 1993 I came to UAE and joined Arab and Turk international based in Sharjah. In 1999 I joined Sharfi - PHB in Dubai.

Other than architecture I have a host of interests, some of which have been developed from my child hood. These are ranging from stamp collecting to current affairs. Generally I am interested in reading on any topic. Specifically I like to read on topics related to the social, economic and political history of Jaffna and Srilanka. When I was a student of architecture I had an opportunity to study the Court yard houses of Vannarponnai, Jaffna. As an extension to this interest I continued to collect information on traditional buildings of Jaffna. In the process, realizing the importance of creating awareness among the public, I produced a document in Tamil for circulation among selected individuals. However as the situation in Jaffna at that time was not conducive for any serious work in this subject, I could not do any thing more. I still hope to continue this project in a better way when I return back home in a few years time. I have further ideas in my mind to extend the study to include the history of physical development of Jaffna.

During my stay abroad I am now planning to utilize the facilities available to us, specially internet, to identify sources of information outside Srilanka, Specially from Thamilnadu and Kerala in India and from the knowledgeable 'Jaffnese' who now live in other parts of the world. This web site is an attempt towards this aim.