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SPORTS     Tennis I learned tennis around eighth grade, but was fortunate to be taught by my father, who played at the junior national level in Sri Lanka. I played on our high school team, and have an NTRP rating of about 4.0. I can pretend to be 4.5 for a few games, but after that the truth comes out. Golf Golf is more challenging than most people think, simply because the ball's small and the club's long. It's also good for cutting one's ego down to size. I go to the driving range once in a while, and play on the course maybe thrice a year. Basketball I enjoy shooting the basketball more than playing actual games. Seeing and hearing the ball go through the net is very satisfying. I can shoot about 50% from around 12 feet, but that percentage drops dramatically in a real game! Billiards Eight ball is a lot of fun to play, and something most people can play reasonable quite easily. I'm still trying to figure out how to compensate correctly for strange spins. I once had the privilege of playing Mike Massey, a 10-time trick shot World Champion. As you might guess, that one was not pretty - I literally got one shot before he ran the table. Badminton Badminton was my main sport in elementary and middle school, but I don't play it anymore. It's extremely underrated in the United States because people haven't seen it played properly. In reality it is quite a bit more explosive and fast-paced than tennis. The shuttle can travel at over 200 mph -- faster than any other sport! Table Tennis If you play tennis seriously, table tennis is pretty easy to pick up. It's great to be able to play a few games without getting tired or sweaty. Like badminton, table tennis is underrated in the United States, but look at this. I enjoy it very much, but a serious player will exploit the length of my tennis-derived strokes. Volleyball I'm an average volleyball player, but I do enjoy playing as long as the teams can rally for a while. I can receive, pass, and spike decently, but for some reason I never learned how to toss. The one contribution I can make is serving, which comes from tennis. Back in the day, I used to jump serve too, but hit the ball all over the place these days. Chess I played a lot of chess when I was in Middle School but dropped it after that because it seemed to involve too much memorizing. In college, I picked it up again and now play online with very short time controls (like 1 minute per game or 1 second per move), which is a lot more fun. Online, I even got the opportunity to lose twice to former World #7 Yasser Seirawan. The spectators were actually asking why I was giving away all my pieces! MUSIC I enjoy playing the piano and the guitar, which I think are two of the most versatile instruments. I find it quite a bit more relaxing to play my own stuff than memorized work because there isn't a clear set of "correct notes". Here are a few samples of mine that I felt were reasonable enough to post. They all need quite a bit of work, but that could take a long time! I did all of these over 10 years ago, so the odds aren't good. Please excuse the poor sample quality. These were all made with low-quality MIDI samples.  I'm hoping to get some good samples and redo the recordings... Some day... Sample 1 Sample 2 FOOD I enjoy eating virtually any type cuisine, but my favorites tend to be Thai, Indian, Sri Lankan, and Italian. I like Thai the most in general, because I find even mediocre Thai food to be pretty good. I also recently learned to cook a few authentic Sri Lankan dishes from my mother. It's a lot of fun, especially with friends. DRIVING I really enjoy driving, especially to new and random scenic spots (and no, that's not my Ferrari in the picture). I learned a lot about cars when I was shopping around for one, so now I follow the industry a little bit. Public service message: you can upgrade your car's handling dramatically by getting better tires. After all, it's the tires that connect your car to the road! PHILANTHROPY I believe that success is a mix of hard work and good luck. There are countless smart, hard-working people in the world who are simply lacking opportunity, and I think those of us who have been fortunate should try to help them. Here's a short essay I wrote on this topic. To that end, I'm interested in finding ways to give some of my time to help out needy people around the world. I think it makes much more sense to donate time here in the United States and donate money back home, where every dollar can provide so much more value. Over the years, I've done a wide range of activities, mainly in the area of education. BUDDHISM Among my various interests is Buddhist philosophy, particularly because I believe it has a lot to offer with respect to finding peace of mind and happiness. The only catch is that techniques like meditation don't come for free. So I'm slowly trying to practice for the day when I need it. It's hard to prioritize with a busy schedule, but I'm working on it. If you live in the Bay Area and are interested in this type of thing, there is a great place called IMC in Redwood City (www.insightmeditationcenter.org) that has nice talks on Sunday mornings (see www.audiodharma.org for samples). It is very well run by capable, organized, and thoughtful volunteers, and the speakers are excellent. These days I'm quietly studying the suttas: the original teachings of the Buddha. As one might expect, they are incredibly insightful, inspiring, and practical.