The State of Ren

This site is an attempt by me, Suren Gunatillake, to get bloggy. I have consolidated some posts from my old MSN blog, over here, and this site also streams my micro-rants from Twitter and other random places. 

My closest friends know I have a lot to say. This will hopefully be my central location to write about various passions including education, music, current affairs, single malt whisky, dark chocolate, Asia, my family and beloved better half… as well as my current business venture, Totuba. Yes, a lot remains to be said. 

Totuba is an education-related company that I co-founded with Frank Quosdorf towards the end of 2007, our mission being to build online services that make life easier for students. 

I was born in the delightfully liveable city of Melbourne, Australia, and have resided in the dynamically addictive city of Shanghai, China since late 2003.

And what’s with the name “The State of Ren?  Well, many of my friends abbreviate my name to “Ren”, and I was a big fan of the cartoon chihuahua from “Ren and Stimpy”. “Ren” also means “people” in Chinese, so I can loosely make a connection to my observations of life in general.

As it happens, there are other “states of Ren”, in Chemistry and Chinese dynastic history. So there you go.