Sumi Moonesinghe shares her life’s journey via ‘Against the Tide’

Sumi Moonesinghe

‘Against the Tide’ Author Savithri Rodrigo

Anarkali Moonesinghe

Talia Meewella

Anushi Meewella

Minoli Rathnayake

First copy of ‘Against the Tide’ presented by Sumi Moonesinghe to Architect Navin Gooneratne  

Business and professional leader Sumi Moonesinghe recently launched her autobiography ‘Against the Tide – My life’s journey’, as recounted by Savithri Rodrigo with a simple ceremony with friends, family and well-wishers. 

Against the Tide, as narrated by Sumi to Savithri, is fascinating. It not being an autobiography, but a hybrid version, will leave more questions than answers to a reader who has not known her, says Prof. Willie Mendis in the Foreword. “Against the Tide is atypical to what life portends. This makes it a ‘must read’,” he adds.

The book identifies Sumi in many ways – audacious, undaunted, tenacious, impatient and generous.

Sumithra Moonesinghe is many things to many people, having led a diverse and storied life while blazing trails spanning multiple disciplines, continents, and chapters of Sri Lanka’s story. Sumi, as she is affectionately known by family, friends, and colleagues alike, has brought her unique brand of energy, tenacity, and courage to whoever she meets and whatever she touches. From entering and excelling in the field of engineering, a territory that no woman had been brave enough to venture into, to founding a dominant empire and carving new business prospects in the country, and building brands that beat well-established global competition on their own turf, her way of doing things is simply, “Get it done!”

Sumi carries her Kegalle roots with pride, while instilling deeply rooted Buddhist tenets and family values into her life. With these as her playbook, she marched into domains, built empires and shaped opportunities for Sri Lanka. From the 1960s when she entered the all-male territory of the faculty of engineering, to beating global competition to make Anchor a household name in Sri Lanka, to mentoring men and women to hold fast to their dreams, to collaborating with great men of business and adding perceptive counsel to the leaders of the land, Sumi has been integral to the shaping of people, business and nation. 

A hard-nosed businesswoman who took her engineering fundamentals into the complexity of business, she held fast to her femininity to be wife, mother, daughter, sister and grandmother and yet remains the Sumi who was, and is and will be – The woman who goes against the tide. This is her story.

Prof. Willie Mendis in the Foreword also says the readability of Against the Tide is in its content being narrated in three distinct parts intertwined with the essence of its entirety. It begins with the lucid explanation of Sumi’s days in the rural village of Aranayake, under the loving stewardship of her parents who were the leading lights in her early life. Her educational transformation to being an exceptionally bright Electrical Engineer graduating from the University of Ceylon became the hallmark that endowed her future. 

Its follow-up professionally at Radio Ceylon and at the prestigious BBC studios in London, is enmeshed with campus batchmate romance, and finally tying the knot with Susil whom she describes as “love at first sight”. Her subsequent meteoric rise in the world of corporate business was the ‘bright glow’ in the previously mentioned kaleidoscope-like Against the Tide. The affirmation of Sumi’s business acumen by a host of high-profile corporate giants has added a flavour that stories can rarely boast of.

Writer Savithri Rodrigo at the launch said in her line of work in the media for over three decades, she has been privileged to converse with a range of personalities – all of them have indelibly placed a stamp on my work life. “Retelling their stories therefore becomes a very enjoyable exercise. While my interviews have been extensive and articles and conversations wide-ranging, putting down my thoughts of each of these tales is a process that I love because it means giving life to something from the beginning,” Savithri said.

“Writing about people therefore is an adrenaline rush and more so, when I listen to the life stories of those like Sumi Moonesinghe who is truly ‘a force of nature’, as her daughter Anarkali aptly describes her,” added Savithri.

– Pix by Ruwan Walpola