Sri Lanka, April 21 -- Speaking of Sri Lanka's international relevance, I can't think of a more important moment than when Sri Lanka hosted the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Conference in August 1976. The excitement of so many Third World leaders arriving in Colombo are still etched as one of my early childhood memories. My father, a history lecturer and avid follower of international developments, would be glued to his shortwave radio late into the night, and narrated stories of faraway places and peoples. Palestine, Vietnam and Cuba suddenly became closer, and eclipsed my world in the weeks surrounding the NAM Conference.

We then lived in a flat in Colombo, where kids played all day on the friendly lane of mixed communities; I was nickna...