President’s daughter pens story of a long journey

‘Janadhipathi Thaththa’(my father, the President), a book authored by President Maithripala Sirisena’s daughter, Chathurika Sirisena, will be launched on September 15 (Today) at 7.30 am at the Colombo International Book Fair 2017, BMICH, in Colombo. President Maithripala Sirisena will be chief guest at the book launch. 

According to the author, the story is related from the point of view of the eldest daughter of a political leader. In the book she details her own experiences as well as the President Maithripala Sirisena’s journey from a regional politician to the highest office in the country.  

The narrative goes into detail about the numerous challenges and obstacles that the current President had to overcome throughout his political journey as well as the experiences that the whole family endured. Written in the style of a literary fiction, the book reveals true to life incidents such as terrorist attacks that President Maithripala Sirisena survived as well as hereto untold details about the 2015 Presidential Elections.   

Chathurika is a graduate in Information Technology and performs people-friendly activities as a social activist.  

The book will be launched Today at 7.30 am at the Colombo International Book Fair 2017, at the BMICH

In a brief interview with the Daily Mirror, she said that the book would reveal untold details about the 2015 Presidential Elections.  

I had have already collected many newspaper articles written about my father by then, but my desire to write the book was expedited with emergence of my father as the common candidate for the Presidency
-Chathurika Sirisena

 
Commenting on how she was inspired to pen a book about her father, she said, “I was inspired to write a book about my father when he was awarded with the honorary title for the best Minister of Health in the World by the Harvard University while he was the Minister of Health. The pride and esteem that were etched in my mind from this day onwards drove me to the task of writing about him. 
It was also my intention to teach my children about my proud father through my potential for writing.  
“I had have already collected many newspaper articles written about my father by then, but my desire to write the book was expedited with emergence of my father as the common candidate for the Presidency.  

“By this time many who were with us were deserting us. Those who helped us earlier ignored us. Instead many new friends gathered around us. During this short period of one and half months, my life presented me with different experiences. This new environment drove me fast to write the book that was already in my mind,” she said.  

“I had the practice of reading books in the shelves of my father’s room. He used to buy a book on most Fridays. Books on biographies, history and novels were among the various books on the shelves. I had the opportunity to read most of these books before by father read them. I also found diaries maintained by my father and I could collect more matters from these diaries too,” she said.   
‘Janadhipathi Thaththa’ consists of several chapters that are reserved to detail memories of his childhood, youth, political life and other important happenings.  

“My father Maithripala Sirisena joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party at the age of 16. Since then he has been involved in political activities under leaders like Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa.

 I have included my memories about my father, the president, from all these areas,” she said.  The book highlights the success of a positive thinker. Chathurika said that her father was born to a common farmer family. “My father gradually climbed the rungs of the social ladder. We never thought that our father would become the President of the country. There was no such environment to think on these lines. But his resolve and endurance drove him to shatter all the obstacles that scattered his path. My book is not a mere biography. I wrote it in a form of novel and I would prefer you to read it as a novel,” she concluded.