Sriyantha Mendis was born on October 25, 1957, in Ragama, Sri Lanka, as the eldest child of a family of three. His father, Hiddadura Lazarus Mendis, worked as a timekeeper for the Ceylon Transport Board and later became the director of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. His mother, Eliadura Karoline Soyza, is a teacher at the Convent of the Holy...