A picture I have carried since 2007
When I came back to Sri Lanka from Dubai in 2007, I did not bring a business plan home with me. I brought a picture: a group of us who would work together, travel together and build together, our own infrastructure and our own future, in one way or another. I had seen what Dubai Internet City did for the people inside it, a place built so people could meet, work and grow together, and I wanted to build something like that here. I wanted to build it with the people closest to me: my friends and my family.
I also came back knowing I was going to be a trader. I had worked on a trading floor, and I could see a future where I would master the skills to be free.
In my mind, the city I would one day build was simple. It was about traveling, eating and working together, the way digital nomads live today, long before most people used that phrase. Life turned out to be more complicated than I expected, and I spent many years learning how society really works. But the picture never left me.
Now, as I start to put into practice everything I have carried in my mind through those years, I want to write down the dream itself. The longer version of my journey is on my founder page. This post is about why.
Back in Sri Lanka with an idea: a city built with friends and family, around traveling, eating and working together.
The name and the domain come first, as a marker of what I meant to build.
I start traveling around Sri Lanka more than ever, and meeting people I would never have met at home.
The pieces I carried for years start to become real on MyCity.lk.
// Why it had to be ours
Building our own cities, instead of waiting for others to
Through the 26 years I have lived in Sri Lanka, one question kept coming back to me. Why is it so much harder to travel and to earn when you grow up in a developing country? The restrictions are real, on where we can go and on how we can earn. We did not have that equality as children or as teenagers here, and I wanted it for us.
That is where the vision was born. I pictured a group of us building businesses together, and then building our own cities, where every business in the city is owned, controlled and worked by the people who live there.
"Instead of waiting for others to build our cities, we are building our own: our own facilities, our own infrastructure and our own future."
Some of what we are building is visible right now, and some of it is not yet. Eventually, every piece will be part of one decentralized infrastructure, the one we are building today. It starts in Sri Lanka, and it is meant for the whole world, as soon as people understand how we can build it together.
"It's very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it properly. I'm better with code than with words though."— Satoshi Nakamoto
// What I believe
A world filled with opportunities to enjoy life
I believe the world we live in should be filled with opportunities for everyone to enjoy life. Not only for a few people, and not only someday. Everyone should be able to enjoy good food, to travel, and to have companionship along the way.
Those three things sound simple. They are also exactly what MyCity is built around: places to stay and explore, places to eat, and places where people can work and meet.
// Travel
The road
For the last two years and more, I have been traveling around Sri Lanka more than at any time in my life: hill country roads, hikes that start before sunrise, long lunches with a view. Every trip put me next to people I would never have met if I had stayed in one place.
The table
Some of my best conversations started over a plate of rice and curry, a waffle in a café with a thatched roof, or a cup of coffee that turned into a whole afternoon. A table is the easiest place in the world to start a friendship.
// Companionship
Everyone we meet is one in a billion
There is a thought I keep coming back to. Every person we meet is one out of billions. Each of them is so unique that, while we are busy living our lives, we may not realize that the people we meet are the only people we will ever meet in this life. Some of them we may never see again.
"Every person I meet is one in a billion. I may never meet them again, so I treasure every one."
That is why I treasure every human being I have connected with throughout my life. The faces below are some of them: travelers, hosts, café owners and friends. Some I spent one conversation with, others many days.
Tap any photo to see it larger. Shared without names to respect everyone's privacy.
// What comes next
Getting to know you properly
Many of the people I met on these trips are still connected with me, even though I did not have the time to really talk with them or get to know them well. That is something I want to change. My plan is to reach out to each of them, one by one, to get to know them better and to share this vision with them.
If you are in one of these photos, or our paths crossed somewhere on the road, consider this my invitation. I would love to hear how you are, and to tell you what I am building.
Send me a message on WhatsApp at +94 71 303 1031. And if you appear in a photo here and would rather not, tell me and I will take it down.
A city built with the people we meet, one connection at a time.
MyCity started as a picture in my mind in 2007. Today it is becoming real, starting in Sri Lanka, with places to stay, eat and work for travelers, digital nomads and locals, and with the people I have met along the way. Read where it is going on our vision page.