Sri Lanka, Jan. 14 -- Some people and certain places take us back in time. They draw out things lodged so long in the back shelves of memory that we've almost forgotten they exist. Nalin Dharshana. Nedalagamuwa. A person and a place. In their 'togetherness' one can read economy, history, agriculture, entrepreneurship and much more.
First the place. Nedalagamuwa. That's coconut country. That's what kindled memory. Took me back to the fourth grade.
Geography back in the day was very different from what it is now. We had to know the names of the Great Lakes, had to mark on a world map the major mountain ranges, the major rivers, the Equator and the International Date Line and other things largely peripheral to the world of a 9-year old. An...