english meepura
He turned all the problems, difficulties and difficulties in his life into success. Through the tinkering and painting skills that he has practiced and mastered since his school days, he has now started his business not only in this country but also in Japan. He is the owner of Bandula Motors Car Center located in the Dalupatha area of Negombo. He is also the owner of the Bandula Motor Group, which was recently established in the Nagayo area of Japan. His name is Bandula Amarajeewa Navaratne. A special conversation with him about his technical knowledge and his business vision is published below.
You are currently a businessman running a service center that provides vehicle tinkering and painting services in this country. How did you come to this field?
I think I had to come to this field because of the economic situation at that time. My father worked in a private company in Colombo and my mother did not work. There were four boys in my family. I have three older brothers. I am the youngest in the family. So at that time, the family’s economic situation was a bit difficult. My father came home once a week or two weeks. He did not come and go often. So my mother somehow wanted to give us good food and drink. So when my mother and father worked so hard for us, we really felt it as children. So we also wanted to do something. I especially felt it very strongly. That’s why I tried to do something. Because I realized that my mother and father could not afford to pay for us to be educated well, so I firmly believed that if we wanted to get by, we had to learn some kind of manual trade. That’s why I tried to learn a trade..So with that in mind, I found a job at the “Tomsy” garage in our village, namely in Periyamulla, Negombo. At that time, I was in the 8th grade of school. After school, I would go to work at the Tomsy garage. I also wanted to learn something. So the owner of the Tomsy garage, Mr. Tomsy, gave me an opportunity for that. Your parents, especially your mother, were against going to the Tomsy garage, weren’t they?
No. My parents never opposed it. It was my mother who referred me there through an older brother we knew. Because I had a passion for vehicles since I was a child, and I had a dream of building a vehicle by adding wheels to a Land Master. So I had a passion for vehicles in my body. My mother knows that. Somehow, after I came to work at Tomsi’s garage, I got a good opportunity. I got used to tinkering with cars. So the school opens at 1.30 pm. At exactly 2.00 pm, I have lunch and go to work at the garage. Unlike today, those who learn to work were not paid a salary. Now, even children who learn to work have to be paid about 1000 rupees a day. At that time, we were paid about 50 rupees a week, just to buy soap. So, when I came home from school, worked there, and sometimes it was past 10 pm. So we made such a big sacrifice at that time. We learned the job by making such a sacrifice.
Why are you more inclined to learn tinkering with cars, especially at Tomsi’s garage?
I had a certain interest in tinkering since I was a child. There was a tinker boss named Upali who came from Kuliyapitiya in Tomsi Garage. He was my teacher. I was in the 8th grade of school, and I went to practice working in that garage. That is, after school hours. Then I took the Ordinary Level Examination and left school there. By the time I finished my Ordinary Level and left school, I had mastered the ability and skill to tinker with vehicles in a garage even by myself. On some holidays when I did not go to work in the garage, some customers would find me and come to our house to work. I would work at home on some days. Sometimes they would send me work from our garage. Since I work honestly, they even gave me the necessary tools and equipment separately. While I was doing this, Mr. Tomsi, the owner of Tomsi Garage, passed away. Then the managers of that company took over. Then my teacher, that tinker bass I mentioned earlier, Upali, my teacher, he started a separate garage in Kattuwa. I also went to work there. I worked there for about four years. Then suddenly my teacher, Upali, also died. Then I came back to work at Tomsi Garage. Then the manager of Tomsi Garage, he started a separate garage near Negombo Hospital. It was called Clinton Garage. I worked there for a while too.
There were several changes in your life during this time, right? Briefly describe it?
Now, by this time, I had the ability and talent to do any tinkering work on my own. At the same time, I had some fame. In the meantime, I got married after a romantic relationship. That was in the year 2000. After that, we moved to the Dalupatha area. After that, I started working at home. While I was there, a friend of mine arranged a job for me to go abroad. In 2003, I went to Qatar for a job and came back to Sri Lanka about a year later. I stayed there for a year.
