- ABOUT -
Always Bring Value - My Words To Live By
Combining my vocation of being doctor with my creative side has helped me turn these three words into reality.
I am lucky to have had a wide range of experiences growing up where I have, and in the family that I was born into. I’m always willing to try new things, new foods, new books, new music. I have travelled all over the world, from all across Europe, America and Canada to my native Sri Lanka, Singapore and Australia. But
doing all these things and
travelling the world is nothing without being able to appreciate the people that populate it, their stories, their dreams, what makes them tick.
You have to understand people in medicine to give them the care that they need. You have to understand people to be able to communicate to them what matters. In large part, that’s why I started my Instagram poetry account. I had my feelings about what I was going through on the frontline but I needed to put them down on paper to truly understand what I myself was going through. Combining that with interests ranging from surgery to song, martial arts to wildlife photography, written prose to the spoken word have allowed me to write on a range of topics, allowing me to engage with my interests in a way I’d never previously imagined.
That’s the value of creativity. No matter what wild adventures you go on, we are all at the end of the day the same species, bound by the same spectrum of emotions. The possibility of healing is immense. If you can come to terms with how you feel by expressing yourself, you might just be able to help someone along the way.
Where I see myself going
My goal is blend my career ambitions with my creative ones, while trying to bring value to people in some meaningful way.
Professionally, I am an academic neurosurgical trainee. I have achieved several neurosurgical publications, my favourite of which was a study summarising the latest updates in the management of paediatric conus lipomas, a disorder of spinal development. I’ve taught surgical skills at national conferences and led research teams to international presentations numerous times. I am presently researching the mechanisms underlying Traumatic Brain Injury in partnership with the University of Birmingham and seek to use my position as Trustee and Events Coordinator at Brainbook to help improve neurological theory and practical skills amongst interested students and doctors.
Since 2017, when I really got my writing into gear, I have been published online as well as in print, and thanks to my lovely friend Nikita Gill, I am now in a published anthology of poetry too! I plan on using these opportunities as a springboard to expand my writing portfolio, writing more non-fiction blogs, screenplays and short stories, as well as the novel which I have dreamed about since I was a young lad.
I would also like to encourage more people - especially medics and scientists - to develop their creative side. I ran a creative writing group in my last years of Uni called All The King’s Quills - getting my friends and prolific creatives such as Ruby Dhal and Jeremiah Brown to share their work and encourage others to do the same.
Sharing creates community, and I think that’s the most important lesson I’ve learned over the past few years. Since getting into wildlife photography towards the end of 2023, I can honestly say my decision to pick up a camera and make friends with ecologists, gardeners, conservationists and people who share my love of nature was one of the best I have ever made.
Featured Work
Because life is too short not to bear witness to beauty.
Where it all began.
A girl finds herself at the mercy of a racist teacher after moving to a new country.