After the online disasters, the internet lag, and my Daredevil addiction, the day finally arrived. The University of Moratuwa decided to open its doors physically. But not for everyone.
We, the Mechanical Engineering batch, were the “Chosen Ones.” We were the only department called back to campus while everyone else was still stuck on Zoom. It felt like being deployed on a secret mission. The campus was a ghost town. For me and my friends from Matugama, the mission wasn’t just academic. It was survival.
Specifically: Where are 8 grown men going to sleep?
Phase 1: The “Matugama 8” and the Jet Engine
I wasn’t alone. The “Matugama Gang” had arrived in force. There were 8 of us looking for a single boarding place. If you are a landlord in Katubedda, seeing 8 engineering students walking toward your house is a nightmare. We look like we are going to calculate the load-bearing capacity of your roof and then accidentally collapse it.
We spent 3 days walking the streets, sweating, and getting rejected. Finally, we found it. A house. It was old, dusty, and abandoned—but it was ours.
The “Engineer” Cleaning Method Normal people clean a house with brooms. We were Mechanical Engineers. We don’t do “manual labor” if we can use a machine. We brought in an Industrial Air Compressor.
I am not joking. We dragged a high-pressure compressor into the living room. Why sweep dust when you can blast it into the stratosphere? We unleashed a tornado inside that house. It was the first practical application of Fluid Dynamics in our degree, and we hadn’t even started lectures yet.
Phase 2: The Chaos (May 9th)
We moved in. We unpacked. We felt ready. And exactly one day later, the country exploded.
It was May 9th—the peak of the Aragalaya (the Sri Lankan political crisis). Protesters were attacked, and the country plunged into violence. Our parents called us in panic: “Come home. Now.”
We grabbed our bags and ran. The journey back to Matugama was like a scene from a dystopian movie. Mobs were stopping buses, checking for people involved in the attacks. We saw shattered glass and damaged buses on the roadside. We had lived in our “perfect” university house for exactly 24 hours before fleeing back to safety.
Phase 3: The Return (And Dr. Strange)
When the dust settled, we had to go back. I hired a van (thanks to an uncle of one of the “Matugama 8”) to move our stuff back. But I had a side mission.
I had won a free ticket from Vidusara magazine to see the premiere of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. There was just one problem: The premiere was in Colombo, and I was in Katubedda.
I did the math. A “Meter Taxi” (Tuk-Tuk) would cost more than the ticket itself. The irony of a “free” ticket. I refused to pay the surge price. I took a bus. By the time I ran into the theater, Doctor Strange was already talking to Wanda. I missed the intro, but I learned a valuable lesson in economics: Being cheap is expensive.
Phase 4: Orientation & The “Girl Ratio”
Back at the department, reality hit. The HOD (Head of Department) gave us the welcome speech, and we had to select our streams: Aeronautical (for the geniuses), Mechatronics (for the robot lovers), or General Mechanical (for the rest of us). Remembering my first semester GPA, I humbly accepted the General Stream.
Then, we looked around the room. In a batch of 100+ students, there were maybe 10 girls. That is not a “ratio.” That is a rounding error.
By some miracle, two of those rare girls sat right in front of us. My brain froze. I don’t think I said a word for two hours. But my friend (the troublemaker) insists to this day that we spent the whole orientation whispering about them. Friend: “You were totally gossiping!” Me: “I was discussing the syllabus!”
(Spoiler: We became great friends later. But that day? Pure awkwardness).
Phase 5: The Academic Comeback (3.72 GPA)
Despite the riots, the chaos, and the girls, I knew I couldn’t mess up again. The country was unstable, but my grades couldn’t be.
I threw myself into the work.
- Thermodynamics: I self-studied until I dreamt in entropy.
- Mechanics: This was a nightmare. I only survived because of “Kuppi” sessions (peer tutoring), where my genius friends explained complex physics at 2 AM in simple Sinhala.
The Result? I finished the semester with a 3.72 GPA. I joined the editorial board of SEDS Mora and the IESL Student Chapter. I survived the riots, the boarding life, and the exams.
Conclusion
My first year wasn’t just about engineering. It was about resilience. I learned that you can clean a house with a compressor. I learned that you can have a perfect plan, and a revolution might ruin it the next day. But most importantly, I learned that even when the world is burning, you can still build something for yourself—whether it’s a GPA, a friendship, or just a really clean living room.
Sasindu J. Mallawa Arachchi Mechanical Engineer (B.Sc. Hons, University of Moratuwa) | R&D Engineer
Sasindu is a Mechanical Engineer specializing in Energy Conservation and Thermal Systems. Currently working in R&D at Alta Vision Pvt Ltd, he writes about the gap between engineering theory and real-world application. In his free time, he writes fiction and shares his personal experiences to help others navigating similar paths.
