By Anjali Nayak
Maria Edrisinghe is where kindness meets intellect—an extraordinarily hard find. Somehow, someway, she is able to balance celebrating others’ accomplishments with her persistently passionate drive to learn everything and anything. I’m proud to say that she has been one of my closest friends for most of my life.
If you have ever had a conversation with Maria, you are well aware of one thing: she is a very smart woman. So smart, she is well-versed in a wide variety of subjects. You can talk to her about anything, Axial age philosophy, the latest Kendrick Lamar record, the really awful day you have been having. Any conversation, big or small, shallow or deep, urgent or frivolous, will be met with endless empathy and understanding.
She knows a lot of things, but there are a few very important things that Maria has no idea about.
For one, Maria has no idea how heads turn the moment she walks into a room. Her presence is strong and lively, yet somehow still so affectionately warm. Kindness is a characteristic that often goes overlooked for more radical, nuanced traits. But kindness is simple and easy, Maria showcases how natural kindness can be.
Furthermore, Maria is completely unaware of the fact that she is quite literally on the verge of changing the world. I swear, she accidentally solves some of the largest problems that humanity is facing literally ALL THE TIME. Inflation? That’s a shower thought. Endangered species? Give her a battery, a nickel, and a post it note; she’ll probably figure it out in about five minutes. Redlining? That’s mere child’s play.
Oh, and she is also clueless as to how fantastic of a friend she is.
I specifically remember long FaceTimes in which Maria and I would stay on call for hours—sometimes days—at a time during quarantine. That was complete with a handful of attempts to break the world record for the longest FaceTime calls in history. My phone always ended up dying.
Anyways, though I was clearly not the best pianist, guitarist, or bassist (yet!) my amateur playing was always met with encouragement and support. She made sure that I kept at it, simply because it was something that brought me joy. Because that’s what she does best. Try as hard as she can to make sure that the people in her life are happy and well. And give them whatever they need in order to do so.
Maria Edrisinghe is constantly raising the bar for good people and everywhere, and half the time, she genuinely has no idea she’s doing so.