09/07/2026
1993.
The day our father taught himself how to build Nayana Optical, ten years after founding Nayana Jewellers.
He was a self-made man. He built everything from the ground up, but success never changed the way he saw people.
To him, the man who arrived on a bicycle and the man who stepped out of a Benz deserved the very same respect.
Growing up in Sri Lanka, we learned that jewellery wasn’t just about beauty or wealth. Sometimes, it was hope.
We watched parents walk through our doors with tears in their eyes, trying to afford medicine, school books, or simply a proper meal. Behind every piece of jewellery was someone’s story, and our father never forgot that. He treated every customer with kindness, dignity, and compassion.
His greatest investment wasn’t gold,it was knowledge.
He read every single day. He had a deep love for history and believed in speaking only about what he truly knew, never what he had merely heard.
After I finished my Grade 5 Scholarship Examination, he invited me to sit at the cashier and learn the family business. My “salary” wasn’t money,it was books. He would bribe me with novels, especially Aba Yaluwo by T. B. Ilangaratne. Looking back, those books were worth far more than the pocket money I thought I was earning. They gave me the same love for reading and learning that he carried throughout his life.
Jewellery was only one thing he taught us.
Integrity. Curiosity. Humility. Compassion.
Those are the values we’re honoured to carry forward every day at Nayana.
Today, We’re simply continuing the legacy he began over five decades ago. Every piece we create carries a little of the man who built this name with honesty, hard work, and the belief that a good reputation is worth more than gold.
Founder. Father. Forever the heart of Nayana.
Rest in peace, Thaththa. 🤍
May you attain Uthum Nirwana.
