Hi again, tis me, Mehr

I'm a multi-disciplinary creative. You might be thinking, " What does that actually mean?" It means that my skills are as diverse as they are specialised. So let me walk you through them.

The beginning: 2011-2014

I started school with some difficulty. I was a dyslexic child. I didn't speak in a way anyone could understand till I was seven. In year three, my parents were called into the school by my class teacher, Mr J*****n, who insisted that I be taken out of school and put into vocational training because I had "no future in academia." My parents ignored him. I went into speech therapy and various other classes to support my dyslexia.

Once that was under control, I became a volunteer kid. At fourteen, I volunteered with Embark to help care for stray dogs in Colombo. From here, I moved on to volunteering with the warehouse project. Every month, we would run educational workshops to teach English and art to underprivileged children in the area. At sixteen, I founded a youth-run NGO, The Forgotten Children, that worked towards supporting victims of Child Sex Tourism and spreading awareness of the issue in Sri Lanka. Founding an NGO as a teenager was incredibly frustrating because it was my first time trying to build something within a larger system. I learned the first steps in navigating bureaucracy and how the real world actually works. I found that the frustration swelling inside me was motivation to find sneaky ways to function within the existing framework.

After completing my O-Levels, I received a scholarship to the Overseas School of Colombo (OSC). Whilst I was there, I integrated The Forgotten Children into the school as an official school activity. In addition, the International Baccalaureate (IB) system allowed me to excel and gave me the opportunity to expand my ways of knowing and expressing.

America: 2014-2019

In August of 2024, I left Sri Lanka for Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts (USA). I walked into University wanting to be a war correspondent. After my sophomore year at Clark University and a summer internship at Newsfirst in Sri Lanka, I realised that my idealism blinded me to the incredible strife and heartbreak of a job like that. I needed to keep my mind open to other options.

I chose to embrace Clark, a Liberal Arts University, and took the opportunity to learn everything I felt I could not learn elsewhere. For my English major, I focused my learning on mythology/folklore, and its positioning in fantasy and Science Fiction and how political messaging is layered subliminally into a story or plotline. As for my Political Science major, I was drawn to comparative politics and the cultural and societal influence war and conflict had on people.

Alongside my academics, I maintained my status as a volunteer kid. I started volunteering at Columbus Park as an assistant teacher. Not long after, I started teaching English to refugees and immigrants at the Worcester Islamic Centre (WIC). At WIC, I had the opportunity to participate in Trauma Support training through the Massachusetts Advocates for Children. During this training programme, I met an Imam who worked at various correctional facilities in MA. Curious and eager for new experiences and ways to help, I began volunteering at the Worcester House of Correction as a literacy teacher. At the same time, I became a Special Education Surrogate Parent (SESP) volunteer.

After graduating in May of 2018, I moved to the Big Apple, New York City. The first job I got was as a stage manager for The Secret Theatre during their UNFRINGED theatre Festival. That was an incredibly fun job as I had to both learn and do at the same time. I had to set up and control the lights and sound for the plays. Furthermore, I had to manage (fix and find) costumes and props for the productions, and occasionally I would act as a makeshift counsellor for the actors, writers and directors of each play. It was chaos that I was able to organise, and I loved it.

After this, I began working several part-time jobs. All writing, all exciting, but all completely different from each other. I was a staff writer for ALL ABOUT SOLO, a publication that critiques Broadway solo performances. I worked under Iman Oubou as an editorial intern for SWAAY Media. At SWAAY, I worked with female entrepreneurs and innovators, sharing their experiences and insights as they built something from the ground up. The third and final job I had that year in NYC was as a writer for COED Media's College Candy.

Back to Sri Lanka 2019-2024

I moved back to Sri Lanka in the middle of 2019. Moving back was hard, but it had to be done. I was buzzing from my experience and time in the US, and I was ready to take home by storm. I moved back and started writing for the Sunday Times. I mainly wrote art and culture pieces, trying to keep my time in New York alive. However, that soon disappeared as I had to diversify.

Within a few months, I secured a position as Deputy Editor at the Daily/Weekend Express Newspapers, a branch of Virakesari, the national Tamil newspaper. This position gave me the opportunity to work with experienced journalists, interview experts, and global changemakers from various fields (one of note is Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam). This position exposed me to the intricacies of news media and the role it plays in governance; it also brought me to platforms I didn't expect. For example, within my role, I was a copy editor for Turning Points and the New York Times syndicate.

During my time at the newspaper, COVID hit. The global situation forced me to reconsider my career. After a year at the paper, I decided it was time to experience something new. I got my CELTA qualification and left the paper in 2020. Not long after, I began teaching sixth grade at Alethea International School. I was the homeroom teacher as well as the English literature and Language teacher, following both the national and GCSE curricula.

A year passed at Alethea, and I was recruited to join the Asia Pacific Institution for Information Technology, Sri Lanka (APIIT) as an English lecturer. APIIT provided me with a lot of flexibility to grow and develop alongside the institution. I became fluent in Human-centred design and developed a new English syllabus that met all the University of Staffordshire's requirements while also developing creative strategies and programmes to help students from diverse educational backgrounds excel in the NCUK English courses. Soon, because my students consistently performed above expectations, my superiors made me head of NCUK English. At this point, I was consumed with how I could provide more exposure to the students at APIIT. It didn't take long because APIIT had no clubs or departments for the arts or other fields of expression. I started a Media club called the Catalyst and, by default, became the faculty advisor. Within this club, I facilitated and encouraged students to start small print publications and artistic practices, and exposed them to different types of storytelling around the world. This included, but was not limited to, Kagura. Sri Lanka's biggest inter-university film festival.

In 2024, I left APIIT to pursue my Master's Degree in Singapore.

Whats happening now? 2024-2026

In August 2024, I was in Singapore at Lasalle College of the Arts.

Concurrent to my studies, I did some freelancing. I created opportunities for myself by simply asking, and fortunately, it paid off. I worked as a Production assistant for programmes under Mediacorp: RenovAid and Channel News Asia.

Within the University, in my capacity as co-class representative, I served as co-curator for the Words on Walls exhibit in Singapore, and as illustrator, co-organiser, and co-editor for SHOPHOUSE and the launch of Lasalle's SHOPHOUSE chapbook.

Towards the end of my degree (at the end of 2025), I became a contributor and editor for SAMPAN vol. 4.

After graduating in November of 2025, I took on the position of Artist Liaison Officer for the Singapore Writers' Festival. This was an interesting experience because I was both working the event and A speaker as well. The release of the anthology I was contributing to, SAMPAN vol. 4, was happening, and a few of the authors presented the work. It was a valuable experience to meet so many creative individuals who had lived such unique and unexpected lives.

By 2026, I had moved back to Sri Lanka as a master of Creative Writing.

I am currently an independent writer, creative consultant, and workshop facilitator. Besides this, I have been developing several personal projects. One that I officially launched in June 2026 is a fantasy mail club.

Contact

I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.

hellomehrimaan@gmail.com