Three Days Business Trip to Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Last week, I went on a business trip to Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Jaffna is the cute capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Here are some of my observations and learnings from the trip.

Why did I travel to Jaffna?

Three months ago, I went on a one day trip to Colombo. This was my very first trip to Sri Lanka. Visiting Colombo was a great experience and also made some connections with folks from the Jaffna region during the previous trip. We began working with a few folks in the region who were from Jaffna on an exciting project in collaboration with the DCKAP Palli (School) initiative. I wanted to visit them. 

Incidentally, the Northern Province of Sri Lanka has a large Tamil speaking population. As you may know, Sri Lanka has experienced civil war and unrest in the past. You read about these cities in books and newspapers. Now that it has been over 14 years since the war ended and the country is opening up, it was a great opportunity for me to visit the region which has not got its due share. 

A big motivator for the trip was the non-stop flight from Chennai to Jaffna (Thanks Indigo). It took less than an hour to head to Jaffna from Chennai. Sunil Mithran, Srija Santhanam and I went on this trip together. 

Jaffna International Airport:

I had no idea what to expect and as soon as I landed in the airport, it was a different experience. Not like the airports you would see across the world. The Airport has not been functional for a while and it just started operations a few years ago. The Jaffna International Airport dates back to World War II. Post-independence, the airport had regular domestic and international flights until civil war engulfed the region. Today, the airport is just barren land and you have 2-3 flights in and out every day. There is just a lot of opportunity here which is exciting.

NextGen Innovations:

The company we are working with is NextGen Innovations, led by Pranavan Nadarajah. In a post about my previous Sri Lanka trip, I had written about a group of people who traveled over 8 hours from Jaffna to Colombo to attend the meet-up. We have been running some experiments with NextGen and it was great to meet with the team we have been working with. It was also nice to visit Rio Ice Cream and enjoy the local flavors.

Thanks to Pranavan and the Nextgen Team for the meticulous planning and keeping us engaged through the trip and making it memorable.  People like Pranavan choose to stay in their motherland and are trying to give back to their roots. Pranavan staying back in Jaffna and working on building a company there is truly remarkable.

Meeting with students from the University of Jaffna:

During the trip, I had an opportunity to interact with Professors and students at the University of Jaffna. We had a chit-chat and one thing that caught my attention is the reading habit of students. There is a lot of energy amongst students and they really want to do something for the city. I also met with Mary Delcia, a Professor at the University and we also had a brief chat with the Dean. I also met with S. Anurakavan and his optimism and aspirations for Jaffna and the Northern Province of Sri Lanka is infectious. He shared some great insights about the country.

Business Community Meet-up:

There was also an opportunity to meet with the local business community in the region. It was great to understand what was happening in the Northern Province first hand from local entrepreneurs and leaders. 

Historic Library Visit:

In addition to business, we also got to explore the city. We visited the historic Jaffna Public Library (which had been burnt down in 1981). It was a captivating experience. 

Prosperous Neighbor:

Sri Lanka recently elected their new President, Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The country’s Parliamentary Elections are due tomorrow, November 14, 2024. I am bullish and optimistic for Sri Lanka. If you have a prosperous and helpful neighbor next to your house, it helps us in many ways. It also helps our kids. As we know, this very much applies to countries as well. A prosperous Sri Lanka is good for India and the rest of the world.

Thank you for reading.

Karthik Chidambaram