Thank you so much for being here. We are really excited to share our family story with you.

Our family shares a deep and rich history, and we are very fortunate and lucky because our roots have been recorded and can be traced back to 1000 AD, to a time when missionaries were sent from Egypt to India during the rule of the Caliph Al Mustansir to convert people to the Shia strain of Islam. To appreciate how far back in history this is, it was also the time of the Viking raider Leif Eriksson discovered North America, Shikibu finishes The Tale of Genji, the world's first novel, Macbeth murders Duncan, king of Scotland and the Construction on the cathedral in Pisa, Italy, begins.

It has been a joy and honor to be entrusted with creating a book which captures our family's heritage, struggle and joy. This book is a testament to our family, our cooperation, love and respect for each other. We had a fabulous team who worked tirelessly to make this possible, but it is truly a testament to our family and everyone present in the room, that we have a story to tell.

I would like to recognize all the people we started this journey with but who are no longer with us today. My uncle Abbas Akbarally, who we have dedicated the book too, my uncle Abid, my grand uncle Hamzu, who's work on our family tree set the roadmap for this book, and Shk. Zainu Lukmanjee, whose son is here with us today, both of whom who helped us with the religious history and identifying some key images. We deeply miss you all and hope that in some small way this book celebrates your legacy and serves as a reminder of the amazing human beings we have lost.

We had a fabulous team of individuals who worked tirelessly on the book. But it all started with one lady who set the blueprint, created the framework and put words and ideas to paper - Michelle Gunawardana. It has been such a pleasure to have worked alongside you. We are so glad you decided to take this on.

When we started the project about 5 years ago, I remember meeting Michelle for the first time and sharing my idea for the book. She had already done a beautiful memoir of Abbas Akbarally, so she was familiar with our family story. I told Michelle, I want to tell our story of the family intertwined with the history of tea in Sri Lanka. With only that given to her as a brief she meticulously navigated a landscape of personalities, audio interviews, anecdotes, books and research. She took what seemed like thousands of little random stories, fractured memories, various anecdotes and pieced it together so beautifully to put a seamless and engaging narrative which captured us all.

Michelle has authored several books including What a Glass Ceiling? - The memoirs of Rohini Nanayakkara, Making the Connection - 150 Years if Telecommunication in Sri Lanka, The Adventures of Arrack and A Slice of History with a Sip of Tea - The Memoirs of Abbas Akbarally. I now invite her to say a few words on her latest release, the Akbarally Story “Of Tea Leaves and Family Trees”.