GANA KIRITHARAN'S PERSONAL CORNER   [PHOTO GALLERY] Welcome to my personal corner of the site. I am glad to share the details of my personal life milestones. When I want to talk about myself the best place I can start is my university education, where I transformed myself from a young child in a family into a responsible person in the society. 1987 – 1995: FACULTY OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF JAFFNA, SRI LANKA: My selection for medical school was confirmed after I successfully got through my 12th grade exam in 1986. In my country - Sri Lanka - as most of you know there is a civil disturbance, as a result there was a big delay in university education, as a result our medical studies 5 years course with one year internship extended over 8 to 9 years. Because of this, during my university education, I could find time to join myself with non-governmental medical organizations and involve myself with social services. Our medical  course divided into three major parts. The first part consists first and second years (also called 2nd MBBS or pre clinical course), which I completed in 1991. The second part consists of third and fourth years (also called 3rd MBBS or para clinical course), that I completed in 1994. While continuing my 3rd MBBS studies, I was selected as the Secretary of Medical Student Union and also as Vice President of University Student Union. Also during my 3rd MBBS studies as a requirement for Community Medicine course, I conducted a research project about “Basic Administrative Knowledge of Medical Students”. My involvement in student union activity, the research program and the social and political problems existing in my country created a strong interest in me towards administrative and social sciences. We started the third and final part, our final year studies in 1995, but when waiting for my final year exam war broke out between Sri Lankan Armed Forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Unlike other battles this battle displaced almost all people from Jaffna peninsula (where our medical college and my home are situated) and I was forced to discontinue my studies and displaced to an area called Vanni main land, which is located across a lagoon from our area. This displacement brought several changes to my education and personal life. Ø     Even though I have not completed my MBBS studies, I appealed and got an intermediate degree, Bachelor of Medical Science (BMSc) from my medical school while I was in India. 1996 April - December: VANNI MAINLAND, SRI LANKA: I stayed in Vanni with my friends and helped doctors in managing patients in district hospitals there. During this time I got a full time job and was appointed as a medical officer in charge of a mobile health team run by Sri Lankan Red Cross Society. This job had given me a good chance to apply all my knowledge and experience to improve the health status of a given area. During my working days, I collected details about distances between villages, population, and disease patterns in the area and formulated and incorporated them into a map. Such idea was welcomed by Red Cross services and by other Non Governmental Organizations working in that area as a better way to represent data for administration of relief measures. During my period, I also made arrangements to train health volunteers and to establish health centers in that area. As I could not see any immediate solutions for the ethnic problem of my country, I decided to leave the country to continue my education. 1996 Dec – 1999 Feb: INDIA: I left my country for India as a refugee via a risky boat journey across park strait. After a nightlong risky journey I arrived on Indian shore on Dec 9, 1996. The next morning I registered myself as a refugee in Mandapam refugee camp situated in South India. This has been home to more than 1000 Sri Lankan refugee families from mid 1980s. It did not take a long time for me to realize, my relatives were not going to help me to move to western countries quickly, which was my initial plan. So I tried to find a job in India and tried to fulfill my educational needs there. Surprisingly, I got a job as an assistant administrator in a private hospital. While working there, I applied for medical schools in India to continue my studies. My application was rejected, as Indian Medical Council does not permit transfers during the course in medical studies. So I turned my interest towards Social Science studies. The Open University system in India allowed me to get an MA in Sociology, and I also followed several certificate courses in computer applications and business administration. 1999: CANADA: After much confusion, my relatives, with the help of some friends were able to do a refuge sponsorship for me to Canada and I arrived in Canada’s capital, Ottawa on Feb 18th 1999. Initially I tried to do some post graduate studies in Health Administration, but several personal challenges made me withdraw from such attempt. When my life came to juncture of choices between few alternative, I decided to write a book with my experience and education. 2000 – 2002: MY FIRST BOOK: 2000 March: Beginning: I determined to write a book and allocated enough time by reorganizing myself. First, I planned to write a book about “Total Quality Management for Services” and I wrote the first chapter in English and Tamil and sent it to my friend; Mr. Ganesalingan in India and asked his opinion and help on publishing. Mr. Ganesalingan is an author and self-publisher in Tamil fiction who helped me while I was in India. His friendship may be the factor, which put my long term writing dream to action. While waiting for his reply, I started reading the reference books. 2000 May – October: Writing: I received a letter from Mr. Ganesalingan, in which he appreciated my effort, but also informed me about the challenges in marketing. He also advised me, if I could write a book for students, there would always be a good chance of marketing. After analyzing his advice, I decided to change my book as an introductory textbook in TQM and first write only in English, and if it became successful, then translate it into Tamil. As I had gathered enough information for writing my book from my readings, I started to write my book. I utilized all the time available to write my book and completed a major potion of it. The next challenge I faced was editing and proofs reading, and I received help from my relatives and friends from the UK and India. 2000 November: Appreciation from Philip. B. Crosby: I completed a major portion of the work in November 2000 and sent it to my friends in India to start the printing work. As it was my first book, I tried to do a professional evaluation by a prominent person in Total Quality Management. I selected Philip B. Crosby as I had learned quality management from a branch of his quality college while I was in India. When I sent my book to him, I received a very good appreciation and a foreword for my book. It increased my confidence regarding my work. 2001 January: Publishing: As my friends in India could not finish the printing, I prepared a few hand-bound copies and published my book on January 14th, 2001 in a small ceremony in Ottawa.  2001 February – August: Challenges: Even though my friends in India printed and sent some books in February, several problems had happened in printing the book. As it was first the experience in printing an English book with figures, they failed to give a clear printing of figures. I also realized still there were several mistakes in grammar and spelling. So once again I had to pull all my resources and tried to correct the mistakes. I received help from friends in Ottawa to proof-read the materials, and I was able to draw and insert the figures by myself without problems. I was able to complete all the work and printed 100 books around June 2001 in photocopy binding. During this time I faced some unexpected disturbances and obstructions for my work from my maternal uncles and aunts. It leads to several changes in my personal relations. Around July 2001, I started to sent evaluation copies of my books to people in Canada and India, but failed to receive immediate expected response, it may be due to the economic slow down during that time. Around the end of August, I received some appreciation and small orders for my book. During this time, I also came to know about the loss of Philip B. Crosby on 18th of August, exactly 9 months after he had given me the foreword message for the book. When I was preparing myself to register for a business and planning to print the book on a large scale, September 11 terror attacks on America changed everything. 2001 September – 2002 February: Waiting Game: Without a choice I ended up in a waiting game. While waiting for the political and economical confusions in the market to settle down, so that I could try again to promote my book, I decided to try to find business publishers who may help me to promote my book. Proposal letters sent to publishers in Canada and America got returned with various explanations. So I sent the proposal letters to publishers in India. Out of three publishers I contacted, I received letter of interest from two publishers. 2002 February – 2003 July: Publishing with UBSPD: I selected UBS Publishers’ Distributors, as I was aware of their large distributing capacity in India and on the International level. I signed a contract with them in 2002 February and they started editing my book. After few correspondences delay and confusion everything finalized around April 2003. Book came to the market by May 2003 and I started promotion. 2003 October - 2004 February: Visiting India. I made a trip to India for my book promotion. I had delivered lectures and distributed review copies around the India. I also published my second book "Managing Information and the Future." Presently: Now I am writing my third book "Principles and Practice of Management". I am preparing it as a text book for students and useful guide for management people at worksites. "Also fighting against a organized conspiracy into my royalty payments". [PHOTO GALLERY]             [Home] [Books] [Articles] [Sales Books] [Contact] [Links]   Send mail to kirithara@yahoo.com with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2001 - 2023 Gana Kiritharan Last modified: 03/24/23