Sri Lankan Ingenuity

One of my friends resident overseas sent me this story – which I enjoyed so much that I felt I must share it with my readers this Sunday morning.
The story goes that Bill Gates wanted to recruit a new CEO for his Microsoft subsidiary in Europe. He called for applications and invited all aspiring candidates to present themselves at his Headquarters in the US. On the appointed day, no less than five thousand hopefuls assembled in a large room.
One candidate was Gamage Somapala, a Sri Lankan domiciled in the USA.
Bill Gates courteously thanked all the candidates for coming and, wanting to narrow down the numbers, asked all those who did not know JAVA programming to leave the room.
At this point, two thousand of those who had come realised that they did not have the necessary qualifications, disappointedly left the room.
Somapala thought to himself, ‘I do not know JAVA programming – but I canalways pick it up. I have nothing to lose if I stay, so I’ll remain and give it a try.’
Next, Bill Gates asked all those candidates who had never had the experience of managing a team of more than one hundred people to leave the room.
With a groan of disappointment, another two thousand people got up and left the room.
Somapala quietly said to himself ‘I have never managed anybody by myself – but I have nothing to lose if I stay, and I can always give it a try – so I’ll stay”.

Then Bill Gates asked all the candidates who did not have a tertiary qualification in Management to leave – and five hundred of those who were left got up and walked out.
Somapala reassured himself, ‘I left school at 15 and never stepped into a university – but what have I got to lose?’
So he stayed in the room.
Finally, with only 500 of the original five thousand left, Bill Gates decided to shorten the list of candidates even further. He addressed the five hundred and said “I would like all those who do not speak Albanian fluently to leave the room”
At this point, 498 people sadly got up and left the room.
Somapala said to himself, ‘I do not speak one word of this Albanian language – but what do I have to lose?’ So he stayed put and found himself with just the one other candidate.
Everyone else had gone.
Bill Gates came down from the podium and joined the two of them. ‘Good,” he said, smiling “ you two appear to be the only two candidates who have all the required qualifications and experience that I am looking for – and you speak Albanian as well. I’d now like to hear you have a conversation with each other in that language.’
Calmly, without batting an eyelid, Somapala turned to the other candidate and confidently said ‘Kohomada Machang?”
The other candidate’s eyes opened as wide as saucers – and he answered ‘Ammata Siri ………. umbath Lankavenda?’

It just goes to show the ingenuity and resourcefulness of us Sri Lankans!