Her father was the last Controller of Post and Telecoms of Malaya and her Sri Lankan heritage, where women since the 1900s had been in politics, was the initial catalyst.

The opportunity to meet illuminating figures such as India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who had visited Brickfields for a speech at the time, further inspired her will and desire to push for an independent Malaya free of the colonialists.