• My guest this week, in Colombo’s presidential palace, is one of the most unassuming men to become a head of state. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, welcome to Walk the Talk. A wonderful setting, in the shade of a banyan tree that’s nearly 200 years old.

More than 200 years old. I think one of the governors in the British period planted it. It has become a beautiful tree now.

• It has become a whole neighbourhood by itself. And this is your home, and I know you also work from here a lot.

I work from here and from my office.

• You seem to have a partiality for this place. It’s a wonderful building with beautiful old ceilings.

Yes, it was all redone by former presidents.

• People tell me you are the one of the most informal presidents, and I know Sri Lankan culture.

That is the culture I have been practicing in Sri Lanka for a long time. I’m not from the city. I’m from a village.

• Even your name is informal. Nobody remembers your full name. In fact nobody calls you Mahindra.

Yes, because from childhood everybody calls me Mahinda. It was easy to pronounce (for people) in my village, so they called me Mahinda Matya. Even today people from my electorate call me Mahinda Matya. Even when I was a minister they used to call me Mahinda Matya. It’s in their minds.

• I believe you even sign your name as Mahinda now. It’s your nickname.

... contd.